Once the New Congress is Seated, Expectations By the Left from the WH Will Be Irrational.

[David Zephyr]

How far have we fallen from the Summer of 2008 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado.

You already know it in your gut: the next two years are going to be painful to watch if you are a progressive American. If your hopes and aspirations are now low, then you are probably already bracing yourself for what is to come. I am.

If President Obama could not or would not (that will be debated for eons now) push through a comprehensive, progressive political agenda during his first two years when he had the American People behind him, when the GOP was despised, when he had amazing majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives --- ones that most U.S. Presidents could only dream of --- then it is completely irrational to set up any expectations that the final two years of his first (and possibly last) term in office will be "better". It's just not going to happen.

Obama's first two years beg the simple question: Was it that he couldn't or wouldn't?

That question need not even be posed about Obama for next two years because he will now have both the excuse and the reality of the new math in the House and Senate stacked against him.

So what's a progressive to do? When you can't change your team or team players, you have to lower your expectations. If not, you will go crazy.

While I am never a fan of sports analogies, this one is healthy:

The team that so many of us bought a full season of tickets to root for just pissed away it's best opportunity ever in the first half of the game. And we got wiped from one end of the field to the other with all of our advantages. We blew it. And now we enter the last half with even a smaller team on the field than ever before and we are stuck with the same quarterback. I own up to it. He's the Quarterback I chose way back in the early drafts and the one I fought for so hard. And, yes, the one I still like.

We can't get our money back. Our season ticket seating is still there. The pompoms are still there and there's not a lot we can do except continue and watch the upcoming rout or decide to do something else for the rest of the season. It must run its course.

Believe me, no one needs to yell at the Quarterback. From his position on the field, he can see that the stadium, once packed, is emptying out and even many of his die-hard fans are now quietly leaving the stands. It is true that there is still small crowd of bench-warmers still cheering our Quarterback, and they are to be commended.

There is one benefit for the remaining fans, the stadium is so empty now that they can now sneak down and take the empty seats at the 50 yard line to see the rest of the game... which would be wonderful --- if one is prone to masochism. What a dilemna! 50 yard line seats, but your team gets slaughtered.

The game-changing rules for the last half now clearly favor our opposition. Anyone reading this already knows this. Expecting a better second half is simply irrational and will only set you up for a lot of grief and frustration.

If our team -- as it is constituted -- could not score with all the advantages we had during the first half...well, you already know how to finish that sentence.

We blew an opportunity that may never come again. Defeat is hard to swallow. The second half will be too painful to watch, and there are no new franchise options either.

All we can hope for is that the last half of this game passes mercifully at a quick pace and that our public stomping will have some limits.

To our Quarterback, you clearly appear exhausted, worn out and even your smile seems forced. Your face says it all: You know. We know. Our opponents know. You will have to play defense the rest of the game and the only "play" you really have now is the Veto. Here's hoping you use it.

What's done is done. Please try to limit our losses during the the rest of the game. I'm still rooting for you and now, all I ask is that you do your best because, for me, it was never a game, there was so much at stake. I don't have any unrealistic expectations of winning much of anything now, but please try to limit the losses of what precious little we still have left.

I'm still in the stadium. I'm still at my seat although it's lonely up here. I will now put my residual hope in that you can play defense because you won't have any opportunity offensively during the last half. But, for what it's worth: I'm still in the stadium, President Obama.

[truedelphi]

1. OP headlines state:

Once the New Congress is Seated, Expectations By the Left from the WH Will Be Irrational.

Of course, for those of us who saw where the puppet strings went by June of 2009, I can only say our expectations were pretty low by end of that summer.

And maybe the need for on going drama and kabuki theater will be lessened. Obama can just come out and say that he now understands the other side totally, and why fight what will be good for our nation? (Or the top two percent, anyway.)

[David Zephyr]

27. Your cynicism is not without cause.

It's just the way it is.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My heart is breaking over your beautiful prose...

I could not agree more...

Recommended.

[David Zephyr]

5. Wisdom recognizes limits.

Thanks CP.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Good essay--but--I disagree that he always had the people behind him

his first two years. Hell, everything from "Obama wants your grandma to die!" to the false belief that he's raised taxes or that he is Kenyan, to people acting like he's a fucking child molester for putting out a video telling kids to stay in school and study hard. Every trip he's taken gets way more questions about the expense and purpose than any President I can remember. There is nothing he's achieved that hasn't been a major, major struggle. It's been two solid years of unceasing beat-down. I hope he has the stamina and the will to serve for two more years.

[David Zephyr]

28. He had the people with him...albeit, it was fleeting.

He won with a 9 million vote margin. I've never seen anything like that. But that goodwill is gone.

He will have a bruising two years if he has the will to fight or he can capitulate. We will see.

[truedelphi]

39. The types of things you cite are things that the Mainstream Press

focused on.

Anyone used to voting Democratic did not participate in that muck.

Even those of us very concerned about his early on appointments, we felt maybe he would straighten out and start to do what he needed to do.

If he had turned things around, by getting rid of Rahm and Geithner, by the end of summer 2009, by replacing his Monsanto Clone people who are basically destroying the ability of small American farmers to continue providing us with healthy foods, then he'd have our support.

He'd have our support even if he didn't win the battles. If he had just brought something to a fight, encourage those in Congress to put up with filibusters, and done something other than continually collude with the Back room dealsters, we would be willing to carry water for him.


Today I would cross the street if I saw him coming, just as voters in Chicago are doing today
whenever they see Rahm.

[David Zephyr]

45. Spot on.

"Even those of us very concerned about his early on appointments, we felt maybe he would straighten out and start to do what he needed to do." So true.

Regarding concern about his early appointments: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4699429

[TwilightGardener]

47. The American people pay attention largely to the mainstream press--

the OP referred to the American people being fully behind Obama. That is not entirely true. He never enjoyed quite the same benefit of the doubt the way most new Presidents do--hell, George Bush had a 90% approval rating for a deer in the headlights reaction on the biggest attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor. There was no question that he was somehow a hero even in the face of a dismal failure of intelligence--whereas Obama started with a cloud of suspicion that he wasn't even an actual American. I am not discounting Democratic disappointment in the President and his appointees, but I have to challenge the assertion that the wind was at his back and the sun shone on him from day one. The constant pounding from Republicans, and their effective labeling and messaging, certainly affected his Presidency. He received not one ounce of goodwill or good faith bargaining from fully half of Congress, and he gets blamed for that, fairly or unfairly. Anyone who insists that Obama had it easy, but blew it, is at this point not someone I can have a rational discourse with.

[truedelphi]

48. read the great articles that Matt Taibbi has written in the Rolling Stone

Over the last eighteen months.

Read the past eighteen months of autorank and octafish articles here on DU (just google their names and you'll get past articles.)

Then get back to me.

[yourout]

4. I expect nothing to get done and suspect if anything does it will probably not be good.

Kind of sad when we hope nothing gets done in place of everything Corporate America dreams up.

[David Zephyr]

32. Kind of sad indeed.

I don't see much of anything other than court appointments over the next two years that will be positive.

[gateley]

6. Boy, those pics bring back memories. nt

[JackRiddler]

7. "So what's a progressive to do?" Certainly not the docile nothing you suggest.

You say, "You have to lower your expectations."

I say, "You have to stop expecting the political class to do anything if you don't take to the streets in millions."

This is a start:



Now be a little more French. Ignore the holding pens.

Am I doin' it? Are you? Will it happen?

It's the only way that's ever worked -- capital and presidents didn't give you rights and an eight-hour day and pensions, your forerunners fought for those -- so the first step is to figure out that much.

.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

10. ^^^be a little more French. +1 x 1000

[David Zephyr]

12. Read the OP title, JackRiddler

There's a lot of things we on the Left can do, but my OP is clearly making the same point you are: expecting progressive change from the White House the next two years is irrational. I don't think that you disagree with that. :)

[JackRiddler]

25. It's rational if the people apply pressure (though that doesn't always work).

When we don't create large strong popular political movements, it's as irrational to expect change from the White House in the next two years as it was in the last two years.

The Obama administration's course so far was predictable. The only way it might have been different is if at the start the half of the inauguration crowd who had meant it had stayed in town another day to protest for single payer, justice against the banksters and an end to the wars. AND if that had set the tone for street actions that dwarfed the laughable Tea Party counter-populism.

Note the thread I wrote almost two years ago:

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5104307

[David Zephyr]

37. Not to one-up you, but check out the dates of these OP's, JR

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4699429

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4512032

[glitch]

31. THANK YOU. Stop watching the kabuki and start acting like citizens.

Lower expectations oh hell no.

JackRiddler: :applause:

[truedelphi]

35. + A great Big 1! n/t

[adamuu]

8. Into our caves we go, I guess n/t

[kentuck]

9. Thanks for the healthy advice, DZ

I was on my way to the exit. Perhaps I shall stay a while longer?

[David Zephyr]

14. I won't criticize anyone who exits the stadium,,,

Especially you, Kentuck. No one here is a more devoted Democrat than you.

We will have to work outside the box, work locally, and while we make it through the next two years, hopefully we will begin to figure out where to go from here. The DU's a great place for this.

Still, having expectations for progressive policy the next two years with the way the table will be stacked would be setting oneself up for a lot of disappointment.

It is what it is.

[kentuck]

19. I have no idea where to start...

I ran for Congress a few years ago but I don't think my health would hold up now. I ran against the Republican Chair of the Ethics Committee when Clinton was being impeached in '98. I did not have any money to speak of (and no experience) but still got about the same percentage of votes as everyone that has run since. It was an experience but I will have to hand off to younger and healthier folks.

I come to DU for the intelligence and the honesty. I love the writings of several folks and try to write interesting stuff but sometimes I go off the track and get my posts locked.

I guess it is important to be educated and to know the truth. I hope I can contribute. I will continue to read your fine posts.

It is what it is.

[BzaDem]

11. People's expectations of Obama have been irrational since day 1, so this won't be surprising. n/t

[nevergiveup]

13. Why do we keep saying Democrats control the Senate

when they don't. It takes 60 senators to pass a bill and one lone Republican senator can stop just about anything. Democrats may have a majority but with present senate rules "majority" doesn't mean crap. I am not defending Obama but just saying.

[David Zephyr]

17. We controlled the Congress.

George Bush didn't enjoyed the luxury of Congressional majorities that Obama had and, yet Bush got everything he wanted from Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt including two wars, the Patriot Act, "Partial Birth Abortion" federal ban, the Homeland Defense Department, the gifting 46% of all the tax breaks to the top 2% and more.

How could Bush do all of that without the Congress Obama had? Bush got his way.

[TwilightGardener]

18. Bush had willing Democrats, always eager to work with him.

[kentuck]

21. Who called that piano player a piccolo player?

:-) Were they really Democrats? How much should we expect from "Democrats"? Especially on very critical issues?

[kentuck]

20. David, that is a question for intelligent historians to answer...

therefore... :-)

[Kaleva]

46. How do you define 'we'?

If by 'we', you are referring to progressives, then no, progressives do not now nor ever had control of Congress. Your own statement, which I qoute in its entirety, tells you the politcal leanings of who controlled Congress:

"George Bush didn't enjoyed the luxury of Congressional majorities that Obama had and, yet Bush got everything he wanted from Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt including two wars, the Patriot Act, "Partial Birth Abortion" federal ban, the Homeland Defense Department, the gifting 46% of all the tax breaks to the top 2% and more.

How could Bush do all of that without the Congress Obama had? Bush got his way."

President Obama is dealing with a Congress that approved two wars, the Patriot Act, "Partial Birth Abortion" federal ban, the Homeland Defense Dept., and the tax breaks for the wealthy.

[JackRiddler]

43. The Democrats do control the Senate. And they will in January.

Historically it was not the case that 40 votes were sufficient to block legislation.

They actually had to filibuster, and keep filibustering against repeated cloture motions, and they almost always lost.

The Senate rules are not written into the Constitution. They are passed by the Senate at the start of each new Congress. The Democrats can push through new rules in January, if they wish.

This one-person blockage is also something only possible with the complicity of the majority in accepting it.

I remember so many times when a VP issued a tie-breaker! If only the losers of those votes had discovered the new filibuster magic of recent years, none of those votes would have even happened.

It's bullshit. The only rule remaining seems to be that the Republicans, in fact that ANY ONE Republican, always control the Senate, and the Democrats never do.

[struggle4progress]

15. Of course, if we regard politics as something we "watch," as a kind

of spectator-sport that we passively absorb, like a football game -- then, of course, we will lose

It is not simply a matter of evaluating how Obama plays on the current field: it is a matter of getting to work to change the dimensions of that field

[Hydra]

16. I have my popcorn

And a front-row seat. The front rowers are too busy trying to block the exits.

I'm expecting a different kind of game in the second half. The first half was a test- how far can we throw it without people leaving? Therefore, it was 3-49

The next half is going to be interesting- when was the last time you saw a team lose 2-157? When was the last time you saw the QB huddling with the other team giving them his plays?

Mark my words- the next Republican President will be our LAST. He(Or She) will have every power imaginable...and a "mandate" given to him by our party's hand.

:popcorn:

[kentuck]

22. Damn!

That's not a pretty vision. Is it really that bad?

[Hydra]

23. You're asking the resident Doomsayer how bad it is?

:evilgrin:

Here's my take on things: We had a historic opportunity to turn the last 30 years around. We had the mandate, the opposition party was 6 feet under, and President Obama spoke to us of the need for DEEP change.

I felt that. I saw that in people's eyes. Even though I'm probably the biggest doubter of anything that comes out of our system, I was in that moment too.

That moment is OVER. GONE FOREVER. It was not a miscalculation.

We had the chance to put the constitution back in place, bring the soldiers home, stop the torture, reign in the banks and the Fed, purge our corrupt justice system, destroy the health insurance racket and leave fossil fuels behind, while putting the nation back to work and re-establishing our priorities.

Instead, the very ideas Barak Obama campaigned against, the aims of the Bush Administration, have been strengthened, broadened, legalized.

We all know what Bushco wanted. A dictatorship. We're well on our way there.

[kentuck]

24. I think the entire summer of debating healthcare....

...gave the Republicans a chance to dig themselves out of the deep hole they were put in by George W Bush and to catch their breath. From that time forward, Obama and the Democrats lost the debate to the Repubs, as they kept compromising on the healthcare issue - from single payer to public option to whatever we got right now. I'm told it is one of his greatest accomplishments? I really don't know for sure.

[Hydra]

29. Oh, no

It started WAY before that. Remember Rick Warren? Remember offshore drilling and how we were told they had it all under control? Remember the Stimulus debacle?

Each step of the way, President Obama went out of his way to legitimize the discredited Republicans and their fail ideology. He claimed they had "good ideas," gave them prime seats at the table, and gave them the power to derail him.

Each step taken was an inadvertent or deliberate hand up from the 6 foot grave the Republican party was in.

Now they stand before us- revitalized, empowered, bloodthirsty and ready to take the Presidency back.

If it wasn't deliberate, it's the most amazing screwup I've EVER witnessed.

[knotwurstforware]

26. recommended

good OP

[Major Hogwash]

30. Shit, I'm getting out the razor blades already.

Making sure the wrists are washed first, and then WHACK, get it over with.

[JackRiddler]

33. ?

Why would washing the wrists be a concern?

[kentuck]

34. Would n't want it to get infected, I guess?

:-)

[David Zephyr]

36. Well, we are called "bleeding hearts" for a reason.

That said, there's something bigger than American politics that give me hope. The resistance to globalism around the world is encouraging. We are only 5% of the world's population and at some point, either from a right winger like Ron Paul or an uber-leftie, Americans will grow tired of militarism and pull back forcing changes here at home. The entire wikileaks episode proves how inept the "powers that be" are becoming.

Take heart, Major Hogwash.

I just don't have any expectations for the White House the next two years other than court appointments. It's the global community where justice is thriving.

[kentuck]

38. and Jesus was the first bleeding heart....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ1LC7AotNE

[Mira]

40. Damn - I had not planned to shed a tear tonight K&R

[PurityOfEssence]

41. They really are in the perfect position...

People don't understand how the government works and just how powerful the House of Representatives is. They can, and will, force through legislation that feathers their nests and drives the economy into a worse state, which also somewhat benefits the rich. As they do this, they will be able to blame the Democrats for everything they do because it's a Democratic President.

The only way to stanch the blood is to vigorously point them out as the monarchist thugs they are, but that simply doesn't fit with my observations of the actions and character of our President.

I'm not despairing right now; I'm supremely irritated and repeatedly reminded of my insignificance as I watch history play itself out with a well-worn script, and hold out confidence that someone, somehow will point out the obvious: if you're not a Multimillionaire or a Fundamentalist Christian, the Republican Party is your sworn enemy.

Global warming is what really has me tweaked right now, and there's not a damned thing this President is going to do about it.

If the Administration isn't going to fight back against this neo-feudal Class Warfare, then we on the outside have to. Specifics of personal gain like Grayson doled out about Fox Pundits will go a long way when people are clawing merely to survive, and people have a breaking point.

Huckster, Rube or both? It really doesn't much matter at this point; what matters is keeping the dissent against the reactionaries loud and personal.

[David Zephyr]

44. Well said.

I see things the same way, POE. I said up-thread that where I see hope is outside of our 5% of the global community where there is a rising going on, that our "local news" doesn't cover and where surprises like wikileaks keep pointing out the truth against the insanity. But, here's what I really liked what you wrote:

"People don't understand how the government works and just how powerful the House of Representatives is. They can, and will, force through legislation that feathers their nests and drives the economy into a worse state, which also somewhat benefits the rich. As they do this, they will be able to blame the Democrats for everything they do because it's a Democratic President."

You've got to give them credit, the GOP played their hand well. And now, they hold a far stronger hand than before. It's not going to be a pretty 2 years for progressives if they put all their stock in the WH delivering up much for the People.

[Greyhound]

42. Anybody want to buy some tickets? n/t

:rofl:

[democracy1st]

49. cheaper to take Amtrak LOL!