John Cole, Paging President Obama

Time to get this guy off the sidelines...

I supported most of the President's first two years agenda.  I understood that the Stimulus should have been bigger with fewer tax cuts, but he didn't have the votes.  I understood that most people would have liked a public option, but he didn't have the votes.  I understood that he wanted a stronger "Volcker Rule" but he didn't have the votes.  And I bet he would've liked to just GET a vote on tax cuts and cap-and-trade before the midterms skewed everything.  The assumption was that Obama spent two years acting against the wishes of the American people, so his party got trounced in 2010.

John Cole makes a really, really good point here.  You can actually ASK the American people what they want.  And anytime you get a result over 60% on something in this country, that's pretty rock solid.  Today we saw such a poll supporting collective bargaining for state employees.  There are similar polls showing support for the EPA, taxing the rich more and generally allowing reproductive choice.

But, as John notes, we don't hear about those on the TeeVee.  The wealthy Communications majors who make up our media have little real idea about what Americans think or feel.  Probably because most of the time, the American people don't know what they think or feel.  Take the 2010 midterms.  Almost 30% of those voting for the GOP wanted the government to do more about unemployment, yet they still voted for the party that has no desire in any way shape or form to do anything about alleviating unemployment.  Hey, "So be it!"

Americans are pretty anti-union, but they are also pretty pro-fairness.

The problem is that for years, to quote John: "we are constantly only given choices that range from center right to far right."  Part of it is the capture of the DC based media that has basically been the entire reason for the rise of the blogosphere.  So much of what people like Brooks and Broder and others write is so divorced from the reality of everyday life that you wonder what country they live in.  Whatever the country, you can be sure they live in a gated community.

I believe Obama does have a plan to be a transformative president.  I believe his plan is to demonstrate to people that government can work for them.  I think that's entirely his philosophy, or as he puts it: "Together we can do big things."

Today's decision to stop defending DOMA in court is remarkable, because I'm not sure it's a majoritarian position in the country right now, though it will be at some point in the next few years.

Obama COULD take the majoritarian positions on economic issues.  You can call them populist positions if that helps you feel better about associating with dirty, smelly, hippie ideas like progressive income taxes or social safety nets, but he can LEAD here.  There is so much misinformation about the economic state of equality in this country that a clear and compelling message, repeated ad nauseam, could tilt the country back in his direction.

That would indeed be transformational.