What if Obama is right?
In the weeks leading up to Obama’s Iowa victory last night, many prominent bloggers on the left, including Jerome Armstrong, Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, Digby, Atrios, and Taylor Marsh, all openly questioned Obama’s seeming naivete when it came to how he could govern as a uniter. NY Times columnist Paul Krugman devoted several columns to Obama’s possibly unrealistic views of how things gets done in Washington.
Obama, ever since his famous speech in 2004, always has talked about bridging the red state and blue state divide. This past year he’s talked of being that President who could bring insurance companies to the table, negotiate in good faith, and actually get universal health care passed. He’s a progressive through and through (not a conservative like Stoller hilariously claimed), but he’s not a fighting progressive.
Obama is a conciliatory progressive, one who sometimes repeats right-wing frames (like saying there’s a Social Security Crisis, or that the Bhutto assassination was part of the War on Terror) precisely because he can’t help but use language that he thinks appeals to the broadest swath of Americans. Obama’s unwillingness to directly fight against such BS while trying instead to transcend it is maddening to those of us who are partisan, liberal Democrats.
Edwards had gained much traction in the Netroots precisely because he represents that fighting progressive among the Top 3. But what if Obama is right? What if he’s capable winning the nomination, the presidency, and then delivering the progressive change he promises without having to get down and dirty with his political adversaries?
What if Obama is gifted enough to actually convince well over half the country that his progressive stances are actually mainstream American stances? Isn’t that what we’ve been arguing all along? We finally have a candidate that can prove it.
What if Obama really is able to transcend the partisan fights of the past 20 years and usher in a new era of America politics, a markedly more progressive one? Wouldn’t that be better than our alternatives? Why pick a fight when with Obama we don’t have to?
Thankfully, the primary process will prove Obama’s mettle. Throughout the next few weeks, Team Hillary will throw everything they got at him. I think in the end that she’ll prevail. But here’s to hoping that I’m wrong.
