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Edited on Thu Sep-10-09 02:17 PM by FrenchieCat
The President's job is to communicate his vision to all of the American people and then do what he can to make it happen.
What this President is not, is the overseer of a plantation. Some will say that this is the way that George Bush worked (how did you like that?). Part of the reason that Bush was forced to steal 2 elections is because he could have never won them outright. But yet he was still there for 8 years running rough shots over every single one of us. Was that because he was a strong and principled man? Or was it because he is a bankrupt human being who didn't give a shit about America and Americans and had a whole bunch of power on his side? (see SCOTUS)
You see, the harsh reality is that the rules are different for Democrats than they are for Republicans. That's just a fact that we have to work with. We do not control the conversation, the media does....and they get their talking points from the GOP, not from any of us. When we assail this President on a daily basis, we on our side are simply doing the job that gives the media that much less to do.
Why do you think the President had to call a Joint Session? Because although his microphone is big, the media's is bigger. That's why we don't really get to see any of the Cabinet members making any speeches or propose their programs. It is why when the President does town-halls, we don't get to hear the speakers before him; the average men and women who agree with his views and have a story to tell. It is why we don't really get to hear about any of the programs that the President has put into play in any details. It is why his comments about a professor being arrested in his home become the topic of conversation from our news agencies for like....two weeks!
As the temperature is taken of last night speech; a speech that has been said by many to be the one that could make or break health care reform and Barack Obama's presidency, those of us who yell the loudest now about how the speech really isn't getting the job done, are assisting in the nailing down of the coffin of not only Health Care reform, but in reference to other progressive programs in the wings.
I understand that quite a few of us have problems with some of this President's agenda,
and wished he was just like us; a true left liberal.....but he just isn't; he's a true pragmatist, and he has said so many times. Pragmatists are those who believe in getting things done, but take into consideration the current circumstances as they are (and understanding that changing the circumstances will be a lengthy slow endeavor all on its own), rather than trying to imagine that if things were different, then it would all work out much better.
It is an easy exercise to imagine a media that would actually report our side fairly; an opposition that would actually just shut the fuck up; and enough well informed rational Americans in every state that would see things exactly as we see them....but that is not how things are.
The grown ups here knew a long time ago that we weren't going to get everything we wanted,
because if it was that easy, there would have been no impeachment of Bill Clinton, no stolen elections, no Iraq War, no 90% approval for a leader who allowed us to be attacked, no financial meltdown, and Health Care reform would have been done in 1993. These are the folks who understand this and also understand clearly that incremental progress is what we can work toward because that is real, not imagined. You see, the bottom-line is not what we believe, but what we can realistically achieve....and largely due to the current corporate media, as well as the corporate interests that will not be taken down in one fell swoop, no matter what...there is no other answer. No, we cannot cuss our way to a progressive state; this President cannot trash talk our way into reform; there will be no one major figure that will say what will be, and then it just happens; so why would folks now believe that it is a possibility? It just ain't.
Oftentimes I think that perhaps if more of us actually backed this President a bit more by putting real pressure on not just our Democratic congress-folks, but the Republican ones as well, as opposed to keeping busy finding fault in everything this President says and does..... and allowing the media to play us against this President (while the Right does the same thing from their side) perhaps then, we could actually help Health Care reform get done, and we could move on to other reforms, that yes....no matter what you say, do make a difference.
It is one thing to criticize this President's policy, it is quite another to expect him to do it all exactly the way that we'd want it, while we just sit there as critics.
So Many of us ain't really making shit happen with our cynical negative outlook of this administration....not even the bare minimum. In fact, We, in our own way have made this President weaker than he could be otherwise, because many of us are the weakest link. We know what we want, we just don't truly understand the method, based on where we are, of how to get us there based on how things are.
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