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Chris and Matt both have terrific posts up today about why Obama is doing what he's doing, and how it is really a reflection of both his own proclivities and the state of the progressive movement. I want to re-link to this post I did a few weeks ago taking a bite at the same apple, making the argument that Obama is actually EMPOWERED to do what he's doing because he took advantage of progressive movement weaknesses and used a vacuum to organize a movement around himself.
That's why he feels no hesitation in campaigning against the war, for Wall Street regulation, and against NAFTA, and then appoint a Cabinet filled with Iraq War supporters, free market fundamentalists who deregulated Wall Street, and a NAFTA-loving U.S. Trade Representative. It's why one of his top aides saw no risk in writing a screed using Fox News talking points to tell the "left wing" of the Democratic Party to STFU. Because Team Obama ate part of the left, and organized it around the celebrity, charisma and leadership of one man - and the progressive movement that is organized around issues like the war, the economy and trade is still too weak to change the dynamic. Put another way, the forces of money and power that want Obama to embrace militarism, free market fundamentalism, corporate-written trade deals and general bashing of the Dirty Fucking Hippie still have more structural influence than the forces that want the opposite.
Like Chris and Matt, I point this out not as a lamentation - but just as a reminder of what the reality is as we move forward into 2009. There's a real chance for "real change" - but that chance requires us to accept a daunting reality if we are to make something out of this moment. This isn't to say Obama's policies will be as conservative as his appointments. Not at all - as I've said ad nauseum, we should wait to withhold policy judgment until he makes explicit policy declarations (and the few that he's made are pretty progressive). But it is to say we have to appreciate the structural realities in front of us , and work from those realities, if we are to really achieve "change we can believe in."
Rather than treating Obama as a Dear Leader, insisting every move he makes - no matter how troubling - is Teh Awesome, and pretending all of his Cabinet appointments are ultra-progressive ponies with a Secret Plan, it's far more productive to simply acknowledge what's really going on, and work off it constructively - sometimes in opposition to Obama other times in tandem.
Bottom line: As Saul Alinsky told us decades ago, in order to be most effective, we have to start with where the world is - not where we want it to be.
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