Obama: The Reagan of the Left?

[Bullet1987]

This was written on May 24...so I don't know how many people have already read this.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/the_reagan_of_t.html">The Daily Dish

I went to see Obama last night. He had a fundraiser at H20, a yuppie disco/restaurant in Southwest DC. I was curious about how he is in person. I'm still absorbing the many impressions I got. But one thing stays in my head. This guy is a liberal. Make no mistake about that. He may, in fact, be the most effective liberal advocate I've heard in my lifetime. As a conservative, I think he could be absolutely lethal to what's left of the tradition of individualism, self-reliance, and small government that I find myself quixotically attached to. And as a simple observer, I really don't see what's stopping him from becoming the next president. The overwhelming first impression that you get - from the exhausted but vibrant stump speech, the diverse nature of the crowd, the swell of the various applause lines - is that this is the candidate for real change. He has what Reagan had in 1980 and Clinton had in 1992: the wind at his back. Sometimes, elections really do come down to a simple choice: change or more of the same?

More...

From the content and structure of Obama's pitch to the base, it's also clear to me that whatever illusions I had about his small-c conservatism, he's a big government liberal with - for a liberal - the most attractive persona and best-developed arguments since JFK.

I fear he could do to conservatism what Reagan did to liberalism. And just as liberals deserved a shellacking in 1980, so do "conservatives" today. In the Bush era, they have shown their own contempt for their own tradition. Who can blame Obama for exploiting the big government arguments Bush has already conceded?

And just as Carter branded liberalism in a bad way for a generation, so Bush and his acolytes have poisoned the brand of conservatism for the foreseeable future. When you take a few steps back and look closely, you realize that Bush has managed both to betray conservatism and stigmatize it all at once. That's some achievement.

[pnwmom]

1. Interesting. Thank you! n/t

[AlCzervik]

2. would Obama reclassify ketchup as a vegetable, would he have sold his colleagues

down the river at HUAC? I don't think so. thats the real Reagan, the one no one talks about.

[mitchum]

3. No, g w bush is the Reagan of the Left

Reagan turned Democratic voters into republicans
bush is turning republican voters into Democrats

[UrbScotty]

4. The big difference: Obama has morals (nt)

[illinoisprogressive]

5. I had read that and it was fun to read. Captures his appeal across the spectrum.

[David__77]

6. I support him.

He's a good spokesperson for progressive politics and worldview.