When George Bush said something conservative. (How our left pundits are failing us) [View All]

When George Bush said something conservative he had an echo chamber. Fox and talk radio would celebrate it. They'd frame the debate and push it into the corporate press. That was a good thing for conservative ideas because they were lent the credibility of the Presidency and received wider exposure.

What happens when Obama says something progressive? It's ignored. The corporate press won't talk about it because that would be "liberal media bias". Fox might mention it to criticize. And even progressive pundits and the netroots ignore it because we're not supposed to do anything but hold his feet to the fire.

Let's take the BP oil disaster speech as an example. Obama made a powerful statement for a strong climate change bill and moving America off fossil fuels. He also made a direct assault on the Reagan/Bush anti-government philosophy that allowed the disaster to happen. What happened next?

The progressives statements in his speech were ignored. Fossil fuel industry employee Keith Olbermann panned it. The corporate press, that's so closely tied to the fossil fuel industry, certainly wasn't going to highlight the better parts of his speech for us. There was frivolous commentary about his style not being strong enough, as if they never heard what Obama said.

So, this is when the netroots steps in to pressure the corporate press to acknowledge our issues, right? Nope. Most bloggers were content to follow the lead of our corporate approved spokespersons who told us that he wasn't feisty enough and then add the complaint that (ZOMG!) he dared to suggest we pray about it.

The result? We missed an opportunity to improve the chances for passing a strong climate change bill. We missed the chance to have a week of conversation about Obama's comments rejecting the conservative agenda against government regulation. We missed the chance for a national discussion about the many ways in which the conservative anti-government-regulation philosophy threatens our environment and human life. We missed the chance to make it impossible for the corporate press to avoid discussing our issues. We missed the chance to advance progressive ideals about the proper role of government.

Obama opened the door for us and we blew it. All because too many left pundits and bloggers are pathologically incapable of praising Obama or admitting that he might be a progressive ally.

This doesn't just hurt Obama. It hurts the entire progressive movement and the issues we fight for. This is why we just had a national election in which most of the public had no knowledge of anything positive or progressive Obama has done. We didn't force the press to cover it.

We need to keep holding Obama's feet to the fire. But failing to also praise the positive isn't working for us. We need a different strategy for the next two years.