The Left Is Also Obama's Problem

Frank Schaeffer Editorial

Can the left learn to keep its mouth shut once in a while? Does the American left know how to win wars or just skirmishes? Does the left want change or does it demand perfection? You can't have both in this life.

No one has been a tougher critic of the Republican Party, the Religious Right and various wing nuts out to destroy the Obama presidency than me. Few ordinary Americans (that I know of) have taken more heat (and hate) for their support of the President than me either. Former right wing religious right leaders like me are never forgiven for joining the reality-based community!

Believe me, with my old "friends" on the right I don't need more enemies! (Just check out Fox News smearing of me last week with insanely out-of-context clips on the O'Reilly Factor lifted and edited from Maddow interviewing me.) So I'm hesitant to knock the left. I guess I don't like the idea of all sides pissed off with me at once. But in the light of how and why the debate over health care is being dominated by the loony right maybe the left is partly to blame for the stalemate on health care reform.

Last week the New York Times noted a lack of enthusiasm on the part of Obama's former foot soldiers when it comes to rising to the occasion and pouring on the support for health care reform. ("Health Debate Fails to Ignite Obama's Grass Roots," August 15.) Why the lack of enthusiasm?

It's because the left has made the classic mistake of going for a whole loaf and therefore risking getting nothing. The left has proved itself as impatient as the right and just as shortsighted, given that the lefty sniping at the Obama administration started almost from day one. And now after barely six months in office the people who worked so hard to get him elected have seemingly lost their enthusiasm for another fight on behalf of Obama.

huffingtonpost.com

I encourage you to read the whole op-ed.

Although I usually lean left politically, I think Frank Schaeffer's opinion piece is on target. I know I run the risk of being called an "Obamabot" by both the left and the right (or at least I would be if the new T&C weren't in place).

Obama doesn't live up to my wildest dreams in a lot of departments, but I believe he is the best we've got now and that's a whole lot better than what we could have. He is probably the best we'll ever have again if we on the left don't get behind him and support him when he is trying his best to make some changes in this country. No, they won't be the changes many of us would ideally dream of, but they are still changes in a positive direction, incremental as they might be.

Presidents cannot wave a magic wand and make every dream they have come true. They do not rule by royal decree. They have to work with Congress, big and small business, the military-industrial complex, etc. and ultimately the American people in order to achieve just a fraction of the programs they really want. That's the reality of American politics.

True, he disappoints some of us who would like him to be further left; but it's been a long time since any liberal-leaning politician (I don't count Clinton as a real liberal) has had any real power in this country at all. We have a golden chance to really make a difference, if we stop quibbling over his shortcomings and work behind the few reforms that can really be made in his brief (maybe one) term as president.





[edit on 17-8-2009 by Sestias]

An amendment to my OP above. . . .

I see tonight where Obama might take the public option out of health care reform.

That would disappoint me terribly.

I would probably support what Obama proposed, but I see anything less than a public option (I would prefer a single-payer plan myself) as a huge defeat. Health insurance reform would be so watered down it wouldn't be effective at all.

I will let my Senator and Congressman know my position.

So yes, my confidence in Obama has been shaken.

But I do still think the left should stick together more effectively.

reply to post by Sestias


Why should the Democratic party members stick together? They are elected to serve the people who elected them into office, not to serve the party.

If they do not agree with it because it won't help the people who elected them, then they need to oppose it. Regardless of which party is proposing the bill.

reply to post by Sestias

Presidents cannot wave a magic wand and make every dream they have come true. They do not rule by royal decree. They have to work with Congress, big and small business, the military-industrial complex, etc. and ultimately the American people in order to achieve just a fraction of the programs they really want. That's the reality of American politics.

Very true. But with an overwhelming Democrat led Congress, you would think the odds would be on Obama's side.

Obama is the leader of the Democrats and he couldn't unite them on this issue. Seems to me instead of blaming the Reps for his failure, he should practice running a tighter ship.

Remember, not too long ago the reps were considered a disorganized white boy only party with no leaders. Now, there considered a threat again.

reply to post by jd140

Actually I said the LEFT should stick together. That could include some or many Democrats, but it is not limited to them.

Certainly the right has experience in banding together on the issues they want.

If the left can't be cohesive it will fail in what it most wants to accomplish.

Granted, there are those like you who think their objectives deserve to fail, but I don't think I'd call them leftists.

reply to post by Sestias


The "left" is not Obama's problem. Obama's leftist ideology is his problem. He ran as a moderate and now is running hard left. Too bad for the left that the US is a center right country

Conservatives now outnumber Liberals in all 50 states, says Galup Poll

www.cnsnews.com...

I agree with you. Obama is the last leftist president you will see in the next 50 years. The left ran a stealth campaign and now the policys the administration is attempting to pass have been laid bare to the public and now they are reacting.

Today the administration pulled back from the government/single payer plan. They backed off of the "turn in your neighbor" website.

Cap & Trade is next on the dock to go down in flames. The administration can not have two major initiatives and campaign promises fail in the first year. My guess is that they pull that and indicate that they will bring it up later.

The war in Afganistan is going to hell quickly (remember, that was the "real war" that was mentioned so often during the campaign.

This administration is shaping up to be a lame duck within its first year. What is ironic is that the left realizes this and they will go ballistic.

We're about to enter a nasty period of politics at the end of which the hard left in the US will be dead and they know it.

reply to post by Sestias


My apologies.

I took it that you were talking about elected officials.

Why should the left stick together?

They could be left leaning and not agree with the way their party is doing things. They, along with the right, have the option to go against the grain if they feel that what is happening is not in their best interest.

Just because they lean left or right doesn't mean they have to go along with whatever their chosen party is doing.

edit to add-

If a politicion has a good idea or plan I don't want them to fail. I don't care what party they are affiliated with. So the people like you comment isn't warranted and an edit would be appropriate.

[edit on 18-8-2009 by jd140]

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by Sestias

 

Obama is the leader of the Democrats and he couldn't unite them on this issue. Seems to me instead of blaming the Reps for his failure, he should practice running a tighter ship.

You're right. And part of that tighter ship would be some support from leftists who really "want the whole loaf" as Schaeffer says.

Originally posted by jd140
reply to post by Sestias

 

If a politicion has a good idea or plan I don't want them to fail. I don't care what party they are affiliated with. So the people like you comment isn't warranted and an edit would be appropriate.

Objection taken. I was assuming you meant that there were some issues on which you believe the left should not support the president. I should have stated it that way.

reply to post by Sestias


I object to certain things the President is doing because I don't feel it is the best interest of the Country, that isn't to say in a year I won't agree with something he is doing though. I'm not going to assume to tell anyone else how they should act based on their political views.

We are all free to agree or object to the way politicion is running our government.