January 20, 2010--Massachusetts And Beyond
There is no way to spin this one.
One day short of the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration, the results in the Senate race in Massachusetts indicate that his presidency is more than foundering. It is in serious free fall.
Not only have the Democrats lost their super-majority in the Senate, which means that because of arcane rules Republicans in disciplined lockstep can block his entire legislative agenda, but it also means that he is in danger of becoming irrelevant.
Health care reform will be the first thing to be jettisoned but so will any real efforts to reform our corrupt financial system, our failing public schools, and our overheating environment.
We will now get a chance to test the hypothesis of the no-government crowd that has been gathering strength for at least a year. We will see if their version of a free market can solve our economic problems, if doing more of the same can fix our schools, and if concerns about global warming are part of a socialist conspiracy to expand government control over our lives.
This and more will be tested. And to this progressive, it is a good thing.
It is time to get it on.
To see if a year of governmental gridlock, the Republican agenda, can solve more of our problems than a year of federal activism. And if this fails, where will we be? We will have pushed the restart button and in November, during the mid-term election season, we can get serious about really cleaning house. The Tea Bag crowd will rule.
They just had their first clear victory and this will embolden them. It will also scare off many more Democrats and a few Republicans who are wavering about their own reelection prospects. Blue Dog Democrats in both houses of Congress will behave more and more like Republicans and craven folks such as Joe Lieberman will likely flirt with switching parties. We will see a lot more of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and Fox News.
This will lead to Rock Bottom. The place all addicts need to get to in order to have a chance to finally amend their ways. And, make no mistake about it, we as a country have been behaving like out-of-control addicts.
Spending money both personally and governmentally that we do not have in order to feed our various consumption habits. Some of us have already reached rock bottom thanks to the Great Recession. But most of us have not yet been brought low enough to shake us to the core.
It will be increasingly difficult with an economy in tatters, with us roaming the Far East with a begging cup in hand, and needing to confront the hard truth that our remarkable military is unable to win wars against insurgents and terrorists, in this condition it will become more and more difficult to get away with just blustering and swaggering. It will be harder to get away with chanting “USA. USA.” Or, “We’re number one. We’re number one.” This as a policy or course of action will no longer work. We will be forced to move beyond this and other forms of self-delusion. Distractions, gossip, and entertainments (including political entertainment) will lose their power. Hopefully they will.
This trumpeting and posturing can get us one so far. It’s getting to be time soon to press the restart button.
And if Barack Obama is not too isolated from the realities swirling around him to see this need, I am hoping he will begin the restarting process.
I have suggested for many months that his coolness at a time when things are heating up, when understandable anger is building, though it reveals remarkable restraint, is a ruinous political strategy and inappropriate for these times and our troubles. It smacks of disconnection, out-of-touchness, and, at its worst, arrogance.
He needs to get on TV as early as today, and without script or teleprompter, look Americans in the eye and say, “I hear you. During my first year in office I tried a lot of things that I felt were in the best interest of the country.”
If he needs to, though I recommend that he restrain himself from doing so, he can then make a list of what he sees to be his accomplishments. “But,” he should continue, “by various means, including yesterday in Massachusetts, you gave me a failing grade on that first year.
“I still have three years left in my term of office and I will not allow myself to slip into irrelevance. I will not turn into an overnight lame duck. We still have too many problems to solve.
“So I will again try to work with my Republican colleagues. I am asking Congress to take health care legislation off the table. It was not the right priority at this time of deep recession when people are still losing their jobs and homes. We need to focus all of our energy on the economy.
“We need to advance policies to create more economic vitality; we need to find additional ways to help small and mid-size businesses create jobs; we need to do everything we can to help people from losing their homes; and we need to be serious about restraining government spending.
“In regard to the latter, anything that comes to my desk with even one earmark in it I will veto. Even if it is for funding the military. This in itself will not cut deeply into the deficit but will send a message that this kind of business-as-usual is over. Over. At least while I am president.
“And I am reorganizing my economic team and White House staff. Late last night I asked Treasure Secretary Geithner to resign. He has done so. Paul Volker, who was a remarkably able Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has agreed to replace him for the next three years. Paul has been right all along as we were heading into this mess and he has the right ideas about what we should do going forward. I was wrong not to have listened to him enough during the past year. We need more experienced hands working for the American people to hold to account those who brought us to these unacceptable circumstances.
“I have spent too much time focused on Wall Street and not enough on Main Street. As of today, that too is over. Over. As long as I am president.
“Also, I have also asked Rahm Emanuel and my entire White House political team to resign. They are terrific, hard-working people but they have not given me the advice I needed to be effective and to respond to the real needs of the American people. I need fresh voices advising me. I need to break out of the Washington and Chicago cocoons.
“But ultimately what we have accomplished, but above all the failures that have occurred on my watch, have been my responsibility and my fault.
“I intend to be here for three more years; and with so much that requires urgent attention, I will recommit myself to bringing about change. The kind of change you sent me here to accomplish and that the American people still want and deserve.
I heard you last night.”
One day short of the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration, the results in the Senate race in Massachusetts indicate that his presidency is more than foundering. It is in serious free fall.
Not only have the Democrats lost their super-majority in the Senate, which means that because of arcane rules Republicans in disciplined lockstep can block his entire legislative agenda, but it also means that he is in danger of becoming irrelevant.
Health care reform will be the first thing to be jettisoned but so will any real efforts to reform our corrupt financial system, our failing public schools, and our overheating environment.
We will now get a chance to test the hypothesis of the no-government crowd that has been gathering strength for at least a year. We will see if their version of a free market can solve our economic problems, if doing more of the same can fix our schools, and if concerns about global warming are part of a socialist conspiracy to expand government control over our lives.
This and more will be tested. And to this progressive, it is a good thing.
It is time to get it on.
To see if a year of governmental gridlock, the Republican agenda, can solve more of our problems than a year of federal activism. And if this fails, where will we be? We will have pushed the restart button and in November, during the mid-term election season, we can get serious about really cleaning house. The Tea Bag crowd will rule.
They just had their first clear victory and this will embolden them. It will also scare off many more Democrats and a few Republicans who are wavering about their own reelection prospects. Blue Dog Democrats in both houses of Congress will behave more and more like Republicans and craven folks such as Joe Lieberman will likely flirt with switching parties. We will see a lot more of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and Fox News.
This will lead to Rock Bottom. The place all addicts need to get to in order to have a chance to finally amend their ways. And, make no mistake about it, we as a country have been behaving like out-of-control addicts.
Spending money both personally and governmentally that we do not have in order to feed our various consumption habits. Some of us have already reached rock bottom thanks to the Great Recession. But most of us have not yet been brought low enough to shake us to the core.
It will be increasingly difficult with an economy in tatters, with us roaming the Far East with a begging cup in hand, and needing to confront the hard truth that our remarkable military is unable to win wars against insurgents and terrorists, in this condition it will become more and more difficult to get away with just blustering and swaggering. It will be harder to get away with chanting “USA. USA.” Or, “We’re number one. We’re number one.” This as a policy or course of action will no longer work. We will be forced to move beyond this and other forms of self-delusion. Distractions, gossip, and entertainments (including political entertainment) will lose their power. Hopefully they will.
This trumpeting and posturing can get us one so far. It’s getting to be time soon to press the restart button.
And if Barack Obama is not too isolated from the realities swirling around him to see this need, I am hoping he will begin the restarting process.
I have suggested for many months that his coolness at a time when things are heating up, when understandable anger is building, though it reveals remarkable restraint, is a ruinous political strategy and inappropriate for these times and our troubles. It smacks of disconnection, out-of-touchness, and, at its worst, arrogance.
He needs to get on TV as early as today, and without script or teleprompter, look Americans in the eye and say, “I hear you. During my first year in office I tried a lot of things that I felt were in the best interest of the country.”
If he needs to, though I recommend that he restrain himself from doing so, he can then make a list of what he sees to be his accomplishments. “But,” he should continue, “by various means, including yesterday in Massachusetts, you gave me a failing grade on that first year.
“I still have three years left in my term of office and I will not allow myself to slip into irrelevance. I will not turn into an overnight lame duck. We still have too many problems to solve.
“So I will again try to work with my Republican colleagues. I am asking Congress to take health care legislation off the table. It was not the right priority at this time of deep recession when people are still losing their jobs and homes. We need to focus all of our energy on the economy.
“We need to advance policies to create more economic vitality; we need to find additional ways to help small and mid-size businesses create jobs; we need to do everything we can to help people from losing their homes; and we need to be serious about restraining government spending.
“In regard to the latter, anything that comes to my desk with even one earmark in it I will veto. Even if it is for funding the military. This in itself will not cut deeply into the deficit but will send a message that this kind of business-as-usual is over. Over. At least while I am president.
“And I am reorganizing my economic team and White House staff. Late last night I asked Treasure Secretary Geithner to resign. He has done so. Paul Volker, who was a remarkably able Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has agreed to replace him for the next three years. Paul has been right all along as we were heading into this mess and he has the right ideas about what we should do going forward. I was wrong not to have listened to him enough during the past year. We need more experienced hands working for the American people to hold to account those who brought us to these unacceptable circumstances.
“I have spent too much time focused on Wall Street and not enough on Main Street. As of today, that too is over. Over. As long as I am president.
“Also, I have also asked Rahm Emanuel and my entire White House political team to resign. They are terrific, hard-working people but they have not given me the advice I needed to be effective and to respond to the real needs of the American people. I need fresh voices advising me. I need to break out of the Washington and Chicago cocoons.
“But ultimately what we have accomplished, but above all the failures that have occurred on my watch, have been my responsibility and my fault.
“I intend to be here for three more years; and with so much that requires urgent attention, I will recommit myself to bringing about change. The kind of change you sent me here to accomplish and that the American people still want and deserve.
I heard you last night.”
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:16 AM
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