OMG! They Say Obama Is Changing

Oh, really?  I do not see it exactly that way. Think back to how this began.  How delighted we were to hear our own muddled message expressed in such pellucid prose, almost like poetry.  How satisfying and endearing to realize that here was a real, honest to God leader with brains, will, and an ability to inspire not just the already faithful but many more of the generally apathetic and uninvolved, and bring the diversity that is America together for a common purpose.  The infatuation was too hot not to cool down at some point, but that does not mean the object of our admiration and love has betrayed us, not if we were really listening to him. This is what is happening:

The Movement is changing into a Campaign
When Obama brought us all together we joined a Movement in the classical sense. Then, amazingly, Obama actually won the right to run for President as a member of a specific political party, the Democrats. Now, canny politician that he is, he is running a campaign to become President, and running a remarkably well-organized and efficient campaign at that.  Is that not what we all earnestly desired from Day One (our Day One, I mean)?  Or, are we progressives so used to being beaten down that we simply cannot deal with the itty bitty grittiness of, well, campaigning to win, and are so astonished at being successful thus far that we are now doing everything we can to undermine our/his success because we, like, can't stand prosperity?

If you paid attention to what the Senator SAID you could figure out that he is not about ideology as such, he is all about intelligent, pragmatic process. He does not do stupid, he does not like stupid, he is about getting things done for the common good, and that means old-fashioned principled negotiation, i.e., compromise. Apparently each of us heard a reflection of our own particular interest in Obama (and those messages are also in there, to be fair), but missed the kernel of his own message.  As Gail Collins wrote in New York Times and OpEdNews.com on 10 July, Obama made it sound as if "getting rid of the 'old politics' involved driving out the oil and pharmaceutical lobbyists rather than splitting the difference on federal wiretapping legislation." The truth is, in the real world, you cannot make major changes at one fell swoop, it happens incrementally, and, if you are to make the changes stick, you lay careful groundwork and bring others along with you, often to their own surprise.  This is how a Movement eventually reaches the tipping point, changes the landscape forever, and eventually wins---- instead of resorting to primitive violence in the hope of instant, total change, thus destroying what it is you are trying to save.

As Collins says, "Most of the things Obama's taken heat for saying this summer fall into these two familiar patterns---- attempts to find a rational common ground on controversial issues and dumb-avoidance." Example of common-ground: more federal money for religious groups that run social programs, but only if the service they offer is secular. Example of dumb-avoidance: if he is going to Iraq to talk to the generals, "one should actually pay attention to what the generals say."  Bottom line: the man has a head on his shoulders, his heart is in the right place, and he has given every sign of having good judgment and self-control to go with his leadership skills. I think it would be wise to trust that judgment and not nit-pick and fine-tune him over whatever our personal special interest is.  That would be old Democratic politics-as-usual. This does not, of course, preclude letting Obama know how we feel about certain things like FISA, and, interestingly, that is exactly what has been happening unrestricted on the MyBarackObama.com website.  

Hear what Frank Schaeffer says, a self-described former Republican, a white middle-aged, middle-class man driven out of the GOP by Rove-Bush, whom Obama converted: "Having been raised in a fundamentalist evangelical home I know fundamentalism when I see it.  And the progressives carping about Obama becoming too centrist or too religion-friendly- whatever- reminds me of my mother complaining about this or that evangelical pastor or group who's (sic) theology wasn't 'pure' enough." (Http://www.opednews.com/articles/Progressives-Carping-About-by-Frank-Schaeffer-080703-369.html).

Needless to say, the Republicans are stoking the fires of the progressives' disappointments, continually treating everything Obama says, every incident they can dredge up, as a flip-flop, a politically motivated "move right," "a betrayal of his "base"... see, Obama is nothing more than your usual politician.  Remember, that is the Rovian technique of the old politics, hit your opponent on his strength and weaken him so he is more easily upended and defeated.  They helpfully tell us what to think, even how to phrase it, and unfortunately I hear their selected phrases repeated by supposedly good Democrats, perhaps unwittingly. Do we want to do the Republican's dirty work for them? Don't we all agree the absolute worst outcome of all this would be an affirmation and restoration of Republican Rule? (I do not say Republican leadership, because that has been non-existent).

It is worth quoting what Gregg Heacock wrote in The Movement that Drives this Campaign:  "As a community organizer, Obama has learned that, to make change, he must, first, acknowledge the value of the positions that people have taken.  It is only when people feel accepted that they see they don't need to defend themselves.  That is when they are able to look at a situation from a different perspective." (Reminds me a bit of Mark Warner's political expertise).  This does not mean, for example, that Obama renounces war; he simply is against dumb war.  He has made a conscious decision to turn his Movement into a campaign in order to get to the next level of creating and imposing change. That is something different from heading a movement, and he must now speak to Americans in the more familiar terms accepted by them of a campaign. This may not be easy for some participants in his movement to accept, but it is a very shrewd choice Obama has made.  We should protect his back in public, not snipe at him.    

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