The Quiet Revolution-Obama has reinvented the state in more ways than you can imagine.

[babylonsister]

The Quiet Revolution
Obama has reinvented the state in more ways than you can imagine.

John B. Judis


These days, liberals don’t know whether to feel betrayed by or merely disappointed with Barack Obama. They have gone from decrying his willingness to remove the public option from his health care plan to worrying that, in the wake of Democrat Martha Coakley’s defeat in Massachusetts, he won’t get any plan through Congress. On other subjects, too, from Afghanistan to Wall Street, Obama has thoroughly let down his party’s left flank.

Yet there is one extremely consequential area where Obama has done just about everything a liberal could ask for--but done it so quietly that almost no one, including most liberals, has noticed. Obama’s three Republican predecessors were all committed to weakening or even destroying the country’s regulatory apparatus: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the other agencies that are supposed to protect workers and consumers by regulating business practices. Now Obama is seeking to rebuild these battered institutions. In doing so, he isn’t simply improving the effectiveness of various government offices or making scattered progress on a few issues; he is resuscitating an entire philosophy of government with roots in the Progressive era of the early twentieth century. Taken as a whole, Obama’s revival of these agencies is arguably the most significant accomplishment of his first year in office.

lots more...

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/the-quiet-revolution

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[Beetwasher]

2. There's A Reason He's Doing This Quietly

But yes, thankfully, it's getting done.

[vaberella]

3. Thanks Babylonsister. I saw O at the Republican Caucus thing. I felt bad for the EPA.

Repubs really hate that organization. And they are there for function and can do some good---but good for the US means bad for Repubs. I like the fact O is improving the SEC---they are a mess and deregulation and egos fucked up that entire organization. I don't know much about OSHA except from what I've heard through the grapevine. Good stuff.

All in all, O has done a lot for liberals---quite a bit and but liberals suffer from selective amnesia. The Obameter is testament to how much he's done so far his year in office.

[watrwefitinfor]

4. Selective amnesia is aided and abetted by the media.

During the recent brouhaha over the cadmium in jewelry, I watched a morning show (no, no link - they're all the same anyway) where the wily witch and her guest pinned it all on Obama and his cabinet. In outraged tones they carried on about how "You'd think they would have caught this," and not one word about how Bush had destroyed the EPA and all the rest.

Wonder how hard it has been to dislodge the moles...

Wat

[EmeraldCityGrl]

5. A very important article..

that documents the kind of important change we've been expecting. Hope this article and the points it makes gets
more exposure. Staffing these agencies with scientists will promote a better quality of life for all of us.

Have to add I'm not impressed with Cass Sunstein head of OIRA, who has been criticized recently for advocating
the use of paid trolls to monitor the internet and promote the governments agenda. Ironically his agency is also criticized
at the end of the article for the agencies handling of the Tennessee Valley Authority spill.

[zipplewrath]

6. This is the one area

When folks want to do the whole "just as bad as Bush" complaint, this is the kind of area where they are wrong. It is the small little issues that come around daily, and get no press. They are in every department. The Bush administration especially politicized all of this stuff. It is strangely what has made many of us so mad about his protection of the tortures. I'd rather they be going after the "big fish". But at the very least there are alot of folks that are deserving of some "administrative reprimands" or something.

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. Why is it these things don't make the 6 o'clock news? Kick.....(nt)

[tilsammans]

8. Yay!

:kick:

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[johnaries]

11. I strongly disagree, All of those agencies are extremely relevent

and have already made some major impacts that, again, the M$M hasn't reported (but NPR has). And I strongly believe they will be even more relevent in the next 3 years.

[Hekate]

15. All of these agencies are highly relevant to our health, quality of life, and even life itself....

They all functioned so well before Ronald Reagan, Bush the Elder and Bush the Lesser got their hands on them that we took them entirely for granted. They functioned so well we thought that was simply how things were supposed to be done.

FEMA, to use the best-known example, was a professionally-run organization before Bush got his hands on it. Californians know this by our major earthquakes. But by the time NOLA drowned, it was demonstrably not. When interviews were conducted later with current and former long-time FEMA employees, some of them wept openly at what had been done to their agency.

Don't even get me started on Mad Cow Disease and the various Ag-related departments and agencies.

The Repubs deliberately dismantled everything they could, starved the rest for funds, distorted and warped their various missions, installed political ideologues with few or no professional qualifications everywhere, or sometimes, as with Heckuvajob Brownie, simple incompetents -- and voila! A self-fulfilling prophecy comes to life: "Government doesn't work."

Take it from me -- government that doesn't work can kill you by its neglect. Government CAN work if the right people are in charge setting policy and making hiring those who will carry out the mission.

Hekate

[HopeOverFear]

10. This begs the question, why doesn't Obama toot his own horn?

Why is he being modest about the things he's doing?

[babylonsister]

13. Maybe he doesn't want to call attention to any of this,

knowing the rethugs would fight tooth and nail. That IS what they do...

[HopeOverFear]

14. Good point. nm

[silverweb]

12. K&R

:kick: