Frank Rich: What Happened To Change (Describes our "Enthusiasm Gap")

[Doctor_J]

The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are a catechism by now: the dark cloud cast by undiminished unemployment, the relentless disinformation campaign of his political opponents, and the White House’s surprising ineptitude at selling its own achievements. But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever.

No matter how much Obama talks about his “tough” new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change. That’s not just because so many have lost their jobs, their savings and their homes. It’s also because so many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer.

This intractable status quo is being rubbed in our faces daily during the pre-election sprint by revelations of the latest banking industry outrage, its disregard for the rule of law as it cut every corner to process an avalanche of foreclosures. Clearly, these financial institutions have learned nothing in the few years since their contempt for fiscal and legal niceties led them to peddle these predatory mortgages (and the reckless financial “products” concocted from them) in the first place. And why should they have learned anything? They’ve often been rewarded, not punished, for bad behavior.

....

We can blame much of this turn of events on the deep pockets of oil billionaires like the Koch brothers and on the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which freed corporations to try to buy any election they choose. But the Obama White House is hardly innocent. Its failure to hold the bust’s malefactors accountable has helped turn what should have been a clear-cut choice on Nov. 2 into a blurry contest between the party of big corporations and the party of business as usual.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/opinion/24rich.html?_r=1&ref=frankrich

[Skittles]

1. could you post the real link, Dr J?

come on now :D

[Doctor_J]

3. all better

[Skittles]

5. thanks!

Mr. Rich nails it :thumbsup:

[stray cat]

2. I don't have to be enthusiastic I just have to do the right thing!

[xchrom]

4. Yay! Not Advertising those neoliberal legislative

Victories is the problem!!

How about everyone KNOWS too many of the
Legislative accomplishments aren't really in the
Favor of the people?

[Skittles]

6. did you read the entire article?

"victories" aside, the BIG problem is the nagging knowledge people feel that not much has really changed

[Doctor_J]

9. RIch says that many Obama voters perceive no change

or not enough. Sounds like he agrees with you

[bertman]

7. That 'nagging feeling' is in the head of every Democrat I know EXCEPT the

party hacks who will never admit that the Democrats are scared to bite the corporate hands that feed them.

REC.

[beforeyoureyes]

13. All of the enthusiastic Obama supporters I know are disgusted by the whole administration

People believe it is pointless.

[OnyxCollie]

8. K&R. nt

[fasttense]

10. It was pretty obvious after President Obama re-appointed Bernanke.

When he did that, it became obvious he wasn't going to change anything. He was simply talking like he would change things.

But, the RepubliCONS are much much worse. So, what are we left with? We are left with having to change the Democratic party back into a liberal organization, not just one that talks like a liberal. We have a better chance at changing the Democratic party than changing the RepubliCON party.

[Demeter]

11. We Were Stiffed

Change? You want change? Well, the economic pirates want things the way they have been--profitable looting of everything that isn't nailed down.

Make the pirates want change....but they got it already, didin't they? Took out all the stops, all the laws, all the regulations and all the decent public servants in their way.

[girl gone mad]

12. k & r

[northernlights]

14. K and sadly R

"The real tragedy here, though, is not whatever happens in midterm elections. It’s the long-term prognosis for America....."

[Doctor_J]

15. Let me say a few words on my own enthusiasm gap

I actually believed, while writing checks, phoning, walking the neighborhoods in 2008, that this would be a transformative presidency. I really thought we had Boner, Limpballs, and Murdoch on the ropes. I thought we were electing an outsider who was going to take the country back from the gangsters who ran it into the ground since 2000.

I wanted Obama to pardon Don Siegleman and fire all of the Rove-appointed US attorneys during his first week in office, just to show the Repukes that their crimes had not gone unnoticed, and that this president was going to avenge their most hideous offenses out of hand, without waiting for permission. I wanted investigations opened up into the lies that Bush told to start the illegal invasion of Iraq. I wanted some sign that those of us who came to loathe Rove's version of the US were going to get our country back.

I thought that the election results made it quite clear that the country didn't want the Repukes running the economy or anything else any more. We rejected their economic theories, their corporatism, their opposition to civil rights, their corruption, terrorism and fear-mongering, their incompetence. It should have been quite clear to the president's team that they had the upper hand, that the electorate wanted them to run the country without any of the Repukes' failed ideas intruding. Instead, the president immediately "reached across the aisle" and "compromised" with people who America wanted shut out of the government - period. He (and the congressional Dems) conceded to all sorts of Repuke demands HCR, only to see them not vote for it anyway. He cozied up to Wall Street, and they proceeded to shit all over him after he'd given up his dignity and his mandate to appease them. Someone wrote here the other day that "He had to give on to the repukes otherwise he wouldn't have gotten their votes". So what? Stand your ground, and then go on TV and tell the people something like this:

"you voted me in to undo the disaster that Mr. Boner and Mr. McConnell laid on the country. Well, I can't, and I am not going to listen to the same failed ideas that got us here in the first place. They insist on staying on this same road - well, it's not going to happen while I am here. Their policies, tactics, media machine, and lies were rejected soundly, and I am here to make sure that that repudiation is enforced.

Since they won't let me undo their legislative disaster, we will do what we can without them. The DoJ will, within a year, find out who leaked Valerie Plame's identity and why, and the persons responsible will be prosecuted for treason. Governor Siegelman will be freed, and the DoJ will get to the bottom of the fraudulent election and malicious prosecution that led to his incarceration. Election tampering and political prosecutions are federal offenses, and so the AG will pursue them as such. The political firings in the US Attorney's office will be investigated in open court. David Iglesias will head a new corruption task force that will unearth and publicize every detail of this outrageous corruption of the high levels of law enforcement. Starting immediately the military brass will work with me to pursue the most aggressive withdrawal schedule feasible for President Bush's war that has destroyed our nation's treasury and morality. The AG will, within the month, research the legal minutiae that we need to take care of so that gay Americans can enjoy the same privileges as everyone else. Finally, Governor Howard Dean will convene a committee, working pro bono, to figure out how to get health care for everyone in this country. We are the only industrialized nation where people go without. By the time I leave office that won't be true any more."

Instead, he let the same people rejected convincingly by the voters tell him what to do. The implication was, time after time, that Boner and McConnell and Beck were more important to him than the people who elected him. Still a Dem, still a liberal, still a believer that the Republican party is a far more dangerous enemy that Al Qaeda, but just not as enthusiastic as I was 30 months ago. I also agree with Frank that this is a bad omen not for this election, but for the future of the US

[Skittles]

16. worthy of its own thread Dr J

yup

[Doctor_J]

17. Maybe. These sorts of sobbing laments don't accomplish much

but I'd like the true believers to know what we're thinking. And since Frank Rich brought up the topic today, I thought I would put my viewpoint out there.

Thanks.

[Dr.Phool]

18. I thought that's what I was buying.

I guess, fool me once, yada, yada, yada.

A historic moment in history turned into a rout...for the other side.

America is dead. Stick a fork in her.

[Blue_Tires]

20. +1

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. MANY of us are not as enthusiastic as 'back then' but I'll trudge to the polls

AND VOTE. I can go back to wallowing in malaise after I step out of the voting booth...

Besides, you get a cool "I Voted" sticker!!