Earlier today, Matt discussed a Politico article that asserted the Obama cabinet is a "middle-of-the-roaders dream." Like Matt, I agree quibbles can be made with a couple of the particulars, but in general the centrist wing of the party is ascendant. Or, rather than ascendant, I also agree with Glenn Greenwald that this is basically what we have been seeing from Democrats for two decades now.
If you are a progressive Democrat who feels frustrated by this situation, let me make one thing clear: don't blame Obama for this state of affairs, Barack Obama appears to have stocked his cabinet is exactly the same way he promised to stock his cabinet: with lots of centrism and "bi-partisanship." If you are looking for someone to blame for this state of affairs, then really you should be blaming people like me. The reason Obama's cabinet isn't more progressive is because people like me who write fairly well read blogs like Open Left and manage new progressive organizations like BlogPac failed to build enough power to forge a progressive cabinet. There isn't enough progressive institutional power at this point to make such a cabinet a requirement for a Democratic President.
More in the extended entry. |
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Now, not all members of Obama's cabinet are moderates. In fact, one can point to Labor and Environmental picks as being stocked fairly well with progressives. In the same vein as the previous paragraph, the reason this happened is probably because Labor and Environmental groups have done a better job of building power bases than the newer, more netroots focused progressive organizations. People like Rahm Emanuel may think it is a political benefit to create left-wing outrage over issues like FISA, but you don't see many Democrats who are willing to cross unions. Increasingly, much of the same can be said about Green organizations. They got better picks than, say, we got in national security or the economy because they are more powerful than progressive Defense and Business groups.
No one just gives you anything in politics. Put your faith not in princes, as the canonical texts say. Rather, you have to build for it yourself. If there aren't enough progressives in Obama's cabinet, then it isn't because Obama lied or we were somehow hoodwinked. Rather, it is largely the fault of progressives themselves.
I have been in a couple of meetings and interviews recently where I thought to myself "what am I doing here?" That is not something you should be thinking if you are supposed to be a leader, or making an actual difference. As I wrote after I appeared on Hardball:
Second, if I have become one of the go-to interviews for progressive dissatisfaction with Obama's transition, then either there isn't much progressive dissatisfaction with Obama's transition, or I am in a more prominent leadership position for the ideological left than I realized.
On the one hand, it probably isn't a good thing to be asking yourself whether or not you are in a leadership position. On the other hand, if there isn't enough pressure from progressives to improve Obama's cabinet, then it is up to people like me to make sure that there is. And I simply failed to do it.
I know it isn't just me, and I don't want to come off as either self-loathing or egotistical with this post. Instead, I simply want to point out that if there aren't more progressive in government, then it is the fault of progressives themselves, including me. We weren't lied to, and no one is going to change this situation, except for us. We have to look to ourselves, and not put our faith in princes to be nice to us. |
