"Squandered Opportunity"...William Greider

Squandered Opportunity
By William Greider

August 17, 2009


There is a more cynical interpretation of Obama's flexibility. He is coming out right about where he wanted to be. Forget the good talk, it is said, this president never really intended to do deep reform that truly alters the industrial power structure dominating our dysfunctional healthcare system. He just wanted minimalist reforms he could sell as "victory." Not until years later would people figure out that nothing fundamental had been changed.

In this scenario, Obama has always been more comfortable with the center-right forces within the Democratic party--Senator Max Baucus and the Blue Dogs--and the Clintonistas of DLC lineage who now fill his administration. His real political challenge was to string along the liberals with reassuring talk until they were stuck with lousy choices-- either go along with this popular president's pale version of reform or take him on and risk ruining his presidency. This sounds a lot like the choices Democrats faced during the Clinton years. Candidate Obama said it was "time to turn the page." We are still waiting to see what he meant.

I do not subscribe to the manipulative, deceptive portrait (not yet), but you can find lots of supporting evidence in Obama's behavior. His response to the financial crisis demonstrates a clear desire to restore Wall Street power, not to change it. His war strategy in Afghanistan looks like the familiar trap of open-ended counterinsurgency. The trap may soon close on him when the generals announce their need for more troops. Will this president dare to say no? Obama negotiated a truly ugly deal with the pharmaceutical industry--a promise not to use government bargaining power to bring down drug prices. His lieutenants still yearn to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility' by taxing the health-care benefits of union members or whacking Social Security.


In other words, this is really a decisive test for the Democratic party and its main constituencies. Will they go along with the president or push back and reject his misdirections? The burden will fall mainly on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House majority. They will be under intense pressure from the White House to stay "on message" with the president. Organized labor seems to be breaking out of the go-along passivity. Richard L. Trumka, soon to be president of the AFL-CIO, promises to blackball Blue Dogs or anyone else who double-crosses the working people who faithfully financed their election campaigns.

Taking the high road will be hard and divisive. But maybe this is at last the season when Democrats reveal which side they are on.


More at............
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/greider

and it just about breaks my heart to have to agree with them.

...at some point even the most of us who had so much hope (but were cautionary having seen bills we faxed,phoned and did activism against) voted through by our Democrats...Harry Reid being the the REAL EVIL.

But, it's better to know what one is up against...finally than sitting and figuring "The Dems Have a Plan...Keeping their Powder Dry" like we were told about Tom Daschle.

At least NOW...we truly KNOW what we are faced with...and it isn't a good thing.

We just have to work harder and harder...that's not a bad thing. Democracy as we thought it was to be what we were taught in school..doesn't come EASY... In fact it's SO HARD that Civilizations long before us have died under the JACKBOOTS because the people were too weak and beaten down to deal with working harder!

pretty much what I expected