“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
I won’t get all melodramatic on you right out of the gate. To be sure, we get enough melodrama and fake anger from that talking box. We have Barack Obama now insisting on the same spending freeze he criticized during the 2008 campaign, when McCain proposed the same policy. What he have here is, Mr. Obama’s first (poor) attempt at Triangulation – hey O, Clinton threw the conservatives some real bones in Welfare Reform, deficit reduction, and so on.
I guess, to Obama’s credit, he did try to satisfy deficit hawks with the current health bill before Congress – you know, the one that’s about to usher in the Brown Shirts, the Panzers, the Homosexuals, Barack Brezhnev Obama’s Six hundred Sixty Sixth International (reduce the deficit, cut health care costs, end hurtful insurance gimmicks like preexisting conditions, among other things less attractive). Since the Senate is now composed of only 59 spineless fuck-ups who wince at the word risk, instead of 60, I guess you can kiss all of that goodbye. Can you thank Scott Brown for saving America, or Lieberman, or is it the soft-spoken, dickless Reid, or is it Mr. Compromise himself?
Apparently when Obama talked change, change we could believe in, he was thinking in terms of pennies and nickels and not silver dollars – don’t end Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, or close Guantanamo, or muscle through much-needed Health Reform, just throw ‘em McCain’s spending freeze or money for jobless Tom, Dick, and Harry to pay for Mom and Pop’s nursing home stay. Maybe Obama really did think his election would usher in an era of kinder, gentler politics – maybe he really does believe in the unicorns and fairies, I don’t know. What’s clear is, now he’s given up on all that – which is good – but instead of putting on the gloves of FDR, or Lyndon Johnson, no, he’s ready to throw in the towel – which is bad. Okay, Mr. Freeze (clever, Huff Post), so you’ve saved us $250 billion dollars over 10 years. Way to go, I guess, except we’ve long begun to measure our problems in the trillions.
What do you want from me, you ask? I want you to get something done – some real, meaningful, lasting change. That’s what we put you there to do, remember? When Harry Reid goes down for the count later this year, you make sure Chuck Schumer gets in there and knocks some heads together in the Senate. Compromise is really nice, you know, but they’re not likely to compromise with you when their supporters think you’re the anti-Christ. You’re a regular Clintonite and they’re calling you a Socialist. Don’t you see? If you get nothing done, they win. Their mission is to ensure you get nothing done.
So maybe it’s year 2 or year 3 before Obama realizes all of this. What’s important is that he realizes it before it’s too late, or he’s Peanuts. What’s important is that, at some point, he understands the utter uselessness of scoring short-term political points with Republican-lite gimmickry (Mr. Freeze!). He needs to take the conversation back, and he has the power to do it himself. Close Guantanamo, end Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. Pass a smaller, leaner healthcare package – lick your wounds, learn from it, and get back out there circa December, 2012. Maybe that’s his plan already – the spending freeze isn’t going to kick in until 2011. Maybe you think you’ll look good waltzing around, talking about how you’ve cut spending – but it’s pennies, Obama, it’s just pennies and everyone will see right through it. Right now, you need to focus on one thing: Jobs. Jobs, Obama. I guess Tom, Dick, and Harry will appreciate your help paying their parents’ nursing home bill, but that does nothing to address the long-term problem – they don’t have a job to go to! How you’re going to do it, I don’t know. I’ve seen a few light infrastructure projects going on, but not of the sweeping nature I expected. I don’t mean to sound sexist, but I guess construction work is typically a male’s profession – more than a few have called this a mancession, right?
Look, it ain’t easy – I know. It isn’t simple, or quick. But at some point, you need to stop quoting Dr. King and start acting like him.
