FISTBUMPS for religious tolerance! But remember, it's still "the system, stupid."

nashville_brook

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Mon Aug-16-10 07:16 PM
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FISTBUMPS for religious tolerance! But remember, it's still "the system, stupid."

We can't afford to be so worried about losing the next election that we lose the battles we owe to the next generation. -- Barack Obama, 2008 stump speeches

Famously, a sign hung in Clinton's campaign war room, that supposedly read: "it's the economy, stupid." Well, it did kinda say that. But that wasn't the only reminder on the sign. Nor was it the first and foremost.

The actual sign read:

1. Change vs. more of the same
2. The economy, stupid
3. Don't forget health care.

The very first slot was "change vs more of the same," and this happens to be the message that Obama super charged and and drove into the White House with tires screeching.

"Change you can believe in" was Obama's winning message, and for those of us who believed, it was more than campaign speechifying. It was a solemn promise that we could expect changes in the system, because the "fierce urgency of now" demanded it. Because, "we can't afford to be so worried about losing the next election that we lose the battles we owe to the next generation."

Ironically, halfway into Obama's first term, too much "more of the same" is the number one criticism of the administration. And even though this is disputed territory, it's not like Obama was vague on this point:

If you believe, then we can tell the lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over.

If you believe, then we can stop making promises to America's workers and start delivering � jobs that pay, health care that's affordable, pensions you can count on, and a tax cut for working Americans instead of the companies who send their jobs overseas.

If you believe, we can end this war, close Guantanamo, restore our standing, renew our diplomacy, and once again respect the Constitution of the United States of America.

I was one of the masses who wept and cheered as Obama listed all the ways we've been betrayed by the professional politicians in Washington:

I've heard from seniors who were betrayed by CEOs who dumped their pensions while pocketing bonuses, and from those who still can't afford their prescriptions because Congress refused to negotiate with the drug companies for the cheapest available price.

I've met Maytag workers who labored all their lives only to see their jobs shipped overseas; who now compete with their teenagers for $7-an-hour jobs at Wal-Mart.

I've spoken with teachers who are working at donut shops after school just to make ends meet; who are still digging into their own pockets to pay for school supplies.

He asked me to believe, and I did. I believed that this new kind of politician might really be able to drive the lobbyists and corporations from the temple, and bring honor back to our foreign policy (by closing Gitmo, and ending the executive privilege excesses of the Cheney Administration). My excitement for Obama grew out of his insistence that meaningful change is systemic, and not incremental. It was as if his war room sign read: "It's the system, stupid."

It was a radical promise to level the playing field. And was risky business to invoke past betrayals in order to get our votes, because failure to follow through would compound that sense of betrayal and pose serious issues for "next elections."

Despite the risk, Team Obama deployed this radical rhetoric because they needed support of "new voters" -- first-timers and independent voters who after years of the betrayal of cynical triangulation, and seeing their issues horse-traded away, had concluded that voting was futile. First-time and independent voters don't connect with either party because they've been betrayed equally by both sides, and that's an especially hard perception to counter in campaign courtship.

The GOP tries to court independent voters by appealing to their "lesser angels" with fear ("terra," 9/11, xenophobia). It was a beautiful thing that Obama wooed them by invoking our "better angels" such as "hope." Obama promised *systemic change* -- "change we could believe in" -- and in unison, lefties, centrists and independents said "yes, we can" vote for you.

Given this spectacular promise, the last thing we expected was for Goldman-Sachs to be running the country's economic policy and looting the treasury. To counter our concerns we were told that putting insiders in charge of change was "pragmatic." This miscalculation and others like it have clearly taken a political toll, as illustrated in the 20-percent drop in independent voter support for Democrats in the midterm election. According to the AP it's not just independents who're skittish: "other groups that supported Obama but show less fervor include young whites, unmarried women, people who live in the West, people earning under $50,000 a year, college graduates and urban whites."

Is anyone left?

Oh yeah...the left. We're still here despite the White House's "we're really not that into you" campaign. Our war room signs never read "close the Pentagon!" They read "Change You Can Believe In" just like everyone else's. The left is actually very excited about quite a few members of Congress who've consistently fought the "battles owed to the next generation," by focusing on reforms that seek to level the playing field -- that put people before profits.

So, I'll give Obama props for his politically risky support of religious tolerance for muslims because this is a battle that we owe to the next generation. Fistbump!

But when I look at the Obama poster that "hopes" at me from over my desk, I remember that when I framed that sucker I did so because of "the system, stupid."

(..hello, from my living room.)