Reply #28: DU was happier with itself as an opposition forum.

[smoogatz]

We don't quite know how to act now that Democrats are in power. Somehow we're surprised that at the national level, the Democratic party is a lot less progressive than we are. I would still argue that Obama is doing pretty nearly exactly what he said he'd do during the election. I'd also argue that there's nothing in his history that would indicate that he's anything other than the consummate political pragmatist: he'll take pretty much any victory he can get. The fact that so many of us are now expressing such bitter buyer's remorse doesn't surprise me--it's DU, after all--but it does irk me to the point that I have a hard time coming here now. Obama's never been a progressive, he didn't run as a progressive, and there's no reason to expect him to act like a progressive. He's also saddled with the crappiest Dem senate majority in memory--it's a cobbled together mess, and the way it's working now is that Republican unity of opposition is having the effect of empowering the most conservative and recalcitrant Dems (and Lieberman) in the caucus. It sucks, but that's how it is right now, and the only solution is to elect more progressive Democrats going forward. That seems obvious to me--but I'm not surprised that so many DUers don't get it, or want to pretend they don't get it.