Imagine a different world. One where, when Obama came into office he:
- Filled his cabinet with a true mix of respected leaders from Universities, NGOs, Groundbreaking Political leaders, and visionary business leadership.
- Placed strong principled leadership in the Department of Justice and told them that investigating Fraud in the lead to the banking crises is a priority as was moving forward indictments, so that the public would clearly understand the theft that occurred.
- Placed a moderate but principled leader in charge of forming Bank Regulations, and creating regulations to not only decrease this kind of fraud, keep the meltdown from happening again, but to restrict the ability of corporate heads to reward it.
- Released to the public all information about 9/11, and only withheld information that was truly national security related, not public image related, and allow the people to decide how they felt about it.
- Promoted a strengthening of the Military and the economy, by pledging to reduce the Military budget by removing innefficient programs and cutting waste, and including it in the proposals to move the budget back to stability.
- Create a 60 Billion $$ investment in alternative energy projects, with a third going directly to university research in US universities (instead of the 60 Billion $$ to the nuclear industry).
- Proposed and actively **advocated** for expanding medicare and/or the public option, and place someone like Howard Dean who's entire job would be to Champion it. And if things still went the way they are today, split out the regulatory components, and then continue the fight for further progress separately, by building a Health Care Coalition and engaging health care advocates to help.
- Engage the "Bully Pulpit" in the same way he did during the elections, to rally support and outline the real threats.
Imagine..____________________________________________________________________
Alternatively -And Imagine, alternatively, if "Candidate" Obama had not delivered a forceful message of hope and change, and instead had delivered a message of BIPARTISANSHIP and compromise? He would have lost the election, just like he is losing the energy and commitment of his base.
Why do we now deny the power of that approach, and discard it for a new approach based on "pragmatism" and "Bi-partisan" hopes?
____________________________________________________________________
I know there will be strong arguments against such an approach. But I believe that if he had come out this way he would have captured and energized the base which would have had his back. And even if we suffered a setback, and he was defeated in the election cycle, he could have masterfully countered the corporate propaganda and forced the Genie out of the bottle in a way that would engage the public to fight harder, which we do indeed need to happen.
I believe this can still be achieved even now. Because Obama's "Yes We Can" message was a good one, but somehow he stopped saying it, and we need to proclaim it again.