Decius wrote: flynn23 wrote: Bill Clinton also campaigned as a moderate, but in his first two years he was unable to govern as Congress pursued liberal priorities, including a big boost in taxes and spending. Recall Roberta Achtenberg as the scourge of the Boy Scouts and Joycelyn Elders calling for the legalization of drugs? Mr. Clinton chose -- or was forced -- to take up gun control and HillaryCare before welfare reform. Next came Newt Gingrich. Maybe Mr. Obama has absorbed these lessons, but even if he has he'll have to be tough. The Great Society liberals who dominate Congress are old men in a hurry, and they'll run over the 47-year-old neophyte if he lets them.
I've been saying that a win for Obama didn't mean squat, but I do think that a lot of this will be tempered. There's really big problems that need to be solved immediately, and moderation will be key in getting solutions that work. I think he can make a case for priorities. But I think the likelihood of a massive swing to the left is not impossible or even unprobable and will definitely be unfortunate.
Obama's win means a very great deal in many respects, I think, but it is no more a mandate for the liberal policies advocated by many who are celebrating this victory than the election of Bush in 2004 meant that the radical right was America's new majority. Unfortunately we're now immediately seeing the "elections have consequences" (and we're going to shove them right down your throat) rhetoric from the left that we were seeing from the right in 2004. The problem is that we have two radical political ideologies battling each other for power and America is caught in the middle, trying to keep a hand on both leashes... trying to keep either group from getting too far out of control. The only way to check one is to empower the other, and neither group seems to be capable of mustering any respect at all for anyone who doesn't accept their ideology wholeheartedly... in other words neither group really respects the political views of the majority of Americans. 8 years of holding back right wing excesses are now over. Welcome to 8 years of holding back left wing excesses. I suspect that in a few years everyone who now thinks I'm a liberal will think me a Conservative. Fortunately, they may have to boil the frogs a bit before they start cutting away at civil liberties, because they've made opposition to the Bush administration's cuts such a basic aspect of their politics. I'll bet they regret it already.
I agree that one of the fundamental root causes of our absolutely FUCKED situation is the political see-saw we've been on since about 1964. Not much has gotten done and what has been done has not been done in a sustainable or balanced fashion. It used to be that we just screwed the other side, but now that the other side doesn't have anything else to give, now we're just screwing our futures and our children's futures. To some degree, what I hope will happen, is that things are now so bad, that this brinksmanship will be forced to end and we can get on with rational, sensible, and sustainable strategy and policy. And as much as Obama's acceptance speech went the way that I was HOPING for (thanks America, but we're in real deep shit and it's going to take a whole lotta work to get this fixed!), the jury isn't even convened yet to determine whether we can truly make a go of it. Playing politics as usual will be a huge distraction and I'm hoping the current rhetoric will render it a huge stigma. We don't have time for this bullshit! Let's figure out a plan, make sure it makes sense and we're not just knee-jerk reacting, get the pork and SIGs out of it, and let's get to work. Period. There is no time for dessert, when our cupboards are bare. RE: Obama's Real Opposition |
