Reply #13: My problem isn't with the "agent of change" aspect [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

I know that "change" is a political value nuetral term, not always a progressive one (despite all the hoopla about Democrats being for "change" this year - with Obama positioning himself at the head of that pack). Once the dismantling of the social safety net got packaged as a series of "reforms", I knew enough to stop expecting words like that to convey any specific ideology.

Reagan did bring about a sea change in American politics, and to do so he needed to find some means to connect with deeply felt emotions in a lot of people. I have no problem with Obama pointing that out either.

But this sentance contains the seeds of my unease:

"I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating."

I lived through the white backlash. I lived through the religious right backlash. I lived through the Right wing blaming Benjamine Spock for mentoring a generation of "permissive parents" who were to blame for the loss of respect felt for traditional convbentions in America, like "States Rights" and "Male bread winners" and "chastity" and "subservance" to church leaders. I remember when the Supreme Court ordering police to respect the constitutional rights of those being arrested was called "coddling criminals". I remember the backlash against affirmative action. I remember when O.S.H.A. and E.P.A. regulations to protect workers and the environment all got trashed as "unecessary government red tape". I remember when Unions were attacked for exploiting workers and taking away their freedom, and I watched good paying jobs get lost as Unions got broken. I rmember the bitterness being fanned about how anti-war peacenics hobbled America's proud military and caused us to lose a war for the first time in American history.

All of those charges were made by the Right to undermine progress made by the left in America. Those were the "excesses" that got attacked. The same type of progress that ended slavery, ended child labor, gave workers the right to organize and women the right to vote. It was a counter revolution. That was when Liberal was redefined to be a curse word. The right attacks everything positive done to promote social equity as "Big government", "socialism", and class warfare, and that is exactly what they did in the late 70's about what was accomplished in the 60's and early 70's, and Ronald Reagan rode that to power.

Obama did not challenge the Reagan framing of the 60's and 70's being predominantly a time of excesses, he reenforced it. That is my problem, not the fact that Obama correctly saw the role Reagan played in creating wide ranging changes in America, or Reagan's ability in winning support for them. Yes Obama may be right that many Americans bought into the backlash by the 80's. Many Americans bought into the endless war on terror last election also. That doesn't mean it can't be challenged.