July 10, 2009--The Ladies of Forest Trace: Barack Obama & The Pollyannas
“I only have a few minutes,” it was my 101 year-old mother calling from Florida, “so just be still and listen.”
“I’m in no hurry. So take your time.” She sounded breathless and I worried that maybe she was having one of her fibrillations.
As always, she read my mind and said, “You don’t have to worry about me. Not yet at least. I’m still doing fine—my mind is good and I can get around without anyone helping. I just came up from downstairs and I’m a little breathless. That’s all.” She took great and understandable pride in her remarkable independence. And couldn’t resist poking at me, “You’re always rushing off, you’re so busy with whatever, but this time I have only a few minutes. It’s Thursday and you know I always go to the beauty parlor on Thursdays. That’s when Rita, the girl who does my hair, is there. She’s such a darling. I only let her touch my head. But what am I doing wasting my time with my hair? As I told you if you will sit still and listen there’s something the ladies and I have been talking about.”
“What is it mom?”
“Didn’t I tell you to just listen? I’ll get to it. Just give me a moment.” I could hear her pulling her chair closer to the telephone. Try as we might to help her get used to her cordless phone she prefers the one in the den—with it she could control the volume and hear without using her hearing aide, which always annoyed her with its feedback.
“First of all, you know that between the three girls and me we’ve lived almost 400 years. If I could only get Bertha and Anna to tell me the truth about how old they are I could be more precise.” My mother loved precision in everything. “But suffice it to say, as you would say, we’ve seen a few things in our lives.” Actually, I thought to myself, I would put it a little differently, but didn’t correct her—when the beauty parlor was waiting nothing, not even a trip to the emergency room, could interfere.
“So let me go back to Roosevelt.” I knew from this that politics, not health, was on her mind.
“Won’t that take forever?” I couldn’t restrain myself, “That’s ancient history.
“Maybe to you; but to the girls and me it’s only yesterday. And that’s the point. If our congressman today knew anything about that time do you think they would be doing what they’re doing?”
“I’m not quite following you.”
“So then listen for a few more minutes. And, I have to sadly add, our president. My president. Who I worked so hard for.”
This startled me. She had been such an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama’s from the time he first announced he was running for the presidency. “He, they should do what? Are you telling me that President Obama doesn’t know the history of the Depression and the New Deal?” I was trying to help her get to the point and make sure she wasn’t late for her appointment.
“Learn from the lessons of history, that’s what. Let me give you a few for-instances. Take the economy. He and everyone says that things have not been this bad since the Depression. Am I right?” Forewarned just to listen I mumbled my assent. “So what did Roosevelt do back then? A stimulus, no? I don’t think they called it that at the time but that’s what it was. He got Congress to pass all kinds of legislation to save the banks and people’s savings and put people to work. You told me once that you drove to Florida a few years ago on the Blue Parkway,” I didn’t correct her, “and couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful it was. And of course you know it was built by Roosevelt, I mean by the young men he hired to build it. Men who didn’t have jobs.
“But now I’m hearing that our stimulus is not working. He said it would create 600,00 jobs—I think that was the number—but then I read in the paper today that most of these jobs are small jobs in the country and not in the city where the needs are greater and that so far fewer than 200,000 men have been put to work. I know he hasn’t yet been in office for six months but I am hearing that even he is saying that things are going too slowly and we may need another stimulus. I can tell you there’s no chance of that ever being approved.
“I also read that people in Ohio who voted for him are no longer supporting him. There was a poll I heard about from Wolf, on CNN. This is not a good thing. Not that he is losing favor with the people but that it is looking like his programs are not working fast enough to help solve the problems or to keep people feeling that he knows what he is doing. Didn’t you yourself tell me the other day that when you drove to where you are from Virginia—thank God your brother-in-law is doing better—you didn’t see anybody working on the roads? And that a lot of the highways needed work? You don’t have to answer, I have to leave in a minute.”
I took the risk to ask, hoping it would expedite what she really wanted to tell me, “But what about Roosevelt?”
“That’s my point. When he was first elected he pushed all his programs through Congress. Programs that he and his Brain Trust came up with. He didn’t ask Congress to come up with the programs. He and his people came up with them. And pushed them through. And they began to work. You yourself told me, didn’t you, that in his first two years unemployment went down in half? Correct?” Again I mumbled. “But then what happened? He became worried about the debt and taxes, does this sound familiar, and as I heard someone say on Stephanopoulos on Sunday, he took his foot off the gas and cut back on the stimulating. And then what happened next? We had another Depression and . . .”
“Not exactly, mom, but you’re essentially right, things got worse. Unemployment shot up again and . . .”
“But that is still not my point. There’s something else I read. How this stimulus program was designed not to put that many to work this year. I heard that to get that senator from up where you are in Maine to vote for it, Susan something, Obama’s people had to agree to not include all the money they felt was needed to fix the economy and also to hold off spending most of the money until next year. Next year! Why not this year? Don’t they know we’re in a crisis? If we’re going to try to make things better shouldn’t we do it the right way?
“So now you know my point. When Roosevelt made his compromises is was after he was in office two or three years. Obama started compromising from his first day in office. Why didn’t he insist on the stimulus bill he really wanted? Why did he let that lady in Maine have so much say? What does she know about the economy or, for that matter, what happened back in the 30s? He was so popular those first few months that if he had gone to the public—in person and on TV—and fought for what he knew was necessary he would have gotten what he wanted and what we needed. Instead, he left it to Congress to work out the details and what did we get--a mishmash is what we got with all kinds of other things thrown in to get this one to vote this way and that one to vote that way. He should have said, ‘You elected me to stop doing business as usual and so if this bill comes to me in such a mess I will veto it in the name of the American people.’ They should all be ashamed of themselves. We’re in a crisis and the people in Congress are looking to build bridges to nowhere back in their districts.
“You remember how your father always accused me of being a pollyanna? Too willing to go along with what others wanted. Never standing up for what I wanted. Always trying to find something nice to say even if I didn’t mean it. Well, he was right about me. That’s what I did. And I fear Obama is a little bit like me. Of course he’s brilliant but he is too quick to compromise. To make nice. That’s what all the girls here are saying. We didn’t elect him to be nice, but to be a strong leader. To get things done.”
I wasn’t interrupting now, not because she would be late for the hairdresser, but because I agreed with her. I too was feeling disappointed in Obama.
“One more thing and then I have to run. Take healthcare and that cap and gown.”
“Cap and trade.”
“Yes, that too. Do you think either one of those will pass?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. “I don’t. And for the same reasons. Both will be difficult to get passed with Obama still playing such a passive role. Yes, he makes great speeches about why we need to reform healthcare and cover those who don’t have it and how we need to stop polluting the planet and use the wind and the sun. But without him taking command—isn’t he the Commander-in-Chief (yes I know of the army)—neither one of these will ever happen. Because, and listen to me now, the uninsured and the sun and the wind do not have a constituency in Congress. But coal and oil and gas and now corn to make gas do.”
Again I couldn’t disagree with much of that.
“So that’s why I called. I hope I didn’t keep you from something important. But now I have to go. The car service is waiting for me.”
And with that she ran off to make herself beautiful and I was left with a headache.
“I’m in no hurry. So take your time.” She sounded breathless and I worried that maybe she was having one of her fibrillations.
As always, she read my mind and said, “You don’t have to worry about me. Not yet at least. I’m still doing fine—my mind is good and I can get around without anyone helping. I just came up from downstairs and I’m a little breathless. That’s all.” She took great and understandable pride in her remarkable independence. And couldn’t resist poking at me, “You’re always rushing off, you’re so busy with whatever, but this time I have only a few minutes. It’s Thursday and you know I always go to the beauty parlor on Thursdays. That’s when Rita, the girl who does my hair, is there. She’s such a darling. I only let her touch my head. But what am I doing wasting my time with my hair? As I told you if you will sit still and listen there’s something the ladies and I have been talking about.”
“What is it mom?”
“Didn’t I tell you to just listen? I’ll get to it. Just give me a moment.” I could hear her pulling her chair closer to the telephone. Try as we might to help her get used to her cordless phone she prefers the one in the den—with it she could control the volume and hear without using her hearing aide, which always annoyed her with its feedback.
“First of all, you know that between the three girls and me we’ve lived almost 400 years. If I could only get Bertha and Anna to tell me the truth about how old they are I could be more precise.” My mother loved precision in everything. “But suffice it to say, as you would say, we’ve seen a few things in our lives.” Actually, I thought to myself, I would put it a little differently, but didn’t correct her—when the beauty parlor was waiting nothing, not even a trip to the emergency room, could interfere.
“So let me go back to Roosevelt.” I knew from this that politics, not health, was on her mind.
“Won’t that take forever?” I couldn’t restrain myself, “That’s ancient history.
“Maybe to you; but to the girls and me it’s only yesterday. And that’s the point. If our congressman today knew anything about that time do you think they would be doing what they’re doing?”
“I’m not quite following you.”
“So then listen for a few more minutes. And, I have to sadly add, our president. My president. Who I worked so hard for.”
This startled me. She had been such an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama’s from the time he first announced he was running for the presidency. “He, they should do what? Are you telling me that President Obama doesn’t know the history of the Depression and the New Deal?” I was trying to help her get to the point and make sure she wasn’t late for her appointment.
“Learn from the lessons of history, that’s what. Let me give you a few for-instances. Take the economy. He and everyone says that things have not been this bad since the Depression. Am I right?” Forewarned just to listen I mumbled my assent. “So what did Roosevelt do back then? A stimulus, no? I don’t think they called it that at the time but that’s what it was. He got Congress to pass all kinds of legislation to save the banks and people’s savings and put people to work. You told me once that you drove to Florida a few years ago on the Blue Parkway,” I didn’t correct her, “and couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful it was. And of course you know it was built by Roosevelt, I mean by the young men he hired to build it. Men who didn’t have jobs.
“But now I’m hearing that our stimulus is not working. He said it would create 600,00 jobs—I think that was the number—but then I read in the paper today that most of these jobs are small jobs in the country and not in the city where the needs are greater and that so far fewer than 200,000 men have been put to work. I know he hasn’t yet been in office for six months but I am hearing that even he is saying that things are going too slowly and we may need another stimulus. I can tell you there’s no chance of that ever being approved.
“I also read that people in Ohio who voted for him are no longer supporting him. There was a poll I heard about from Wolf, on CNN. This is not a good thing. Not that he is losing favor with the people but that it is looking like his programs are not working fast enough to help solve the problems or to keep people feeling that he knows what he is doing. Didn’t you yourself tell me the other day that when you drove to where you are from Virginia—thank God your brother-in-law is doing better—you didn’t see anybody working on the roads? And that a lot of the highways needed work? You don’t have to answer, I have to leave in a minute.”
I took the risk to ask, hoping it would expedite what she really wanted to tell me, “But what about Roosevelt?”
“That’s my point. When he was first elected he pushed all his programs through Congress. Programs that he and his Brain Trust came up with. He didn’t ask Congress to come up with the programs. He and his people came up with them. And pushed them through. And they began to work. You yourself told me, didn’t you, that in his first two years unemployment went down in half? Correct?” Again I mumbled. “But then what happened? He became worried about the debt and taxes, does this sound familiar, and as I heard someone say on Stephanopoulos on Sunday, he took his foot off the gas and cut back on the stimulating. And then what happened next? We had another Depression and . . .”
“Not exactly, mom, but you’re essentially right, things got worse. Unemployment shot up again and . . .”
“But that is still not my point. There’s something else I read. How this stimulus program was designed not to put that many to work this year. I heard that to get that senator from up where you are in Maine to vote for it, Susan something, Obama’s people had to agree to not include all the money they felt was needed to fix the economy and also to hold off spending most of the money until next year. Next year! Why not this year? Don’t they know we’re in a crisis? If we’re going to try to make things better shouldn’t we do it the right way?
“So now you know my point. When Roosevelt made his compromises is was after he was in office two or three years. Obama started compromising from his first day in office. Why didn’t he insist on the stimulus bill he really wanted? Why did he let that lady in Maine have so much say? What does she know about the economy or, for that matter, what happened back in the 30s? He was so popular those first few months that if he had gone to the public—in person and on TV—and fought for what he knew was necessary he would have gotten what he wanted and what we needed. Instead, he left it to Congress to work out the details and what did we get--a mishmash is what we got with all kinds of other things thrown in to get this one to vote this way and that one to vote that way. He should have said, ‘You elected me to stop doing business as usual and so if this bill comes to me in such a mess I will veto it in the name of the American people.’ They should all be ashamed of themselves. We’re in a crisis and the people in Congress are looking to build bridges to nowhere back in their districts.
“You remember how your father always accused me of being a pollyanna? Too willing to go along with what others wanted. Never standing up for what I wanted. Always trying to find something nice to say even if I didn’t mean it. Well, he was right about me. That’s what I did. And I fear Obama is a little bit like me. Of course he’s brilliant but he is too quick to compromise. To make nice. That’s what all the girls here are saying. We didn’t elect him to be nice, but to be a strong leader. To get things done.”
I wasn’t interrupting now, not because she would be late for the hairdresser, but because I agreed with her. I too was feeling disappointed in Obama.
“One more thing and then I have to run. Take healthcare and that cap and gown.”
“Cap and trade.”
“Yes, that too. Do you think either one of those will pass?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. “I don’t. And for the same reasons. Both will be difficult to get passed with Obama still playing such a passive role. Yes, he makes great speeches about why we need to reform healthcare and cover those who don’t have it and how we need to stop polluting the planet and use the wind and the sun. But without him taking command—isn’t he the Commander-in-Chief (yes I know of the army)—neither one of these will ever happen. Because, and listen to me now, the uninsured and the sun and the wind do not have a constituency in Congress. But coal and oil and gas and now corn to make gas do.”
Again I couldn’t disagree with much of that.
“So that’s why I called. I hope I didn’t keep you from something important. But now I have to go. The car service is waiting for me.”
And with that she ran off to make herself beautiful and I was left with a headache.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:03 AM
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