On 2010-11-05, at 5:08 PM, Somebody Somebody wrote:
> Marvin: What about the administration's escalation of the war in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan? What about its education policy with respect to charter schools and teachers' pay?
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> Somebody: The war in Afghanistan is completely off the radar of most Americans today. According to a NY Times/CBS poll only 3% of Americans rated it as the most important issue. Americans may not be enthusiastically supportive of Obama's counter-insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but they don't especially care either. This is in sharp contrast to the last mid-term elections in 2006, when the Iraq War was at it's peak.
I don't dispute Afghanistan is not a priority issue for Americans confronting their own personal economic crises, except to note that, when surveyed, most Americans have favoured withdrawal rather than an escalation of US involvement in Afghanistan.
I raised the issue only because Charles believes Obama should have come out for withdrawal rather than capitulated to the generals' request for more troops. Heretofore, Charles has strenuously argued that the administration has justifiably balked at taking the bolder measures demanded of it by the party's liberal wing because of the opposition of conservative Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans. He sees the election results as confirmation that the right is more in touch with the political mood of the country, rather than as an anti-incumbent protest vote against a governing party which is widely perceived as having favoured Wall Street while responding weakly and ineffectively to the jobs and housing crises.
I don't think I'm misinterpreting Charles' views - he can correct me if I am - but they're why I questioned why he is ok with Obama withdrawing from Afghanistan, and the resulting firestorm it would unleash from the generals and the right, when his whole thesis is that Obama shouldn't or can't undertake any bold departures from previous administration policy because the US population is too reactionary. I have the same question in response to Charles criticism of Obama for not siding with the teachers' unions on education policy: it doesn't jibe with his overall view that Obama is himself a "centrist" or has necessarily had to trim his policies to adapt to "centrist" views on education and the entire gamut of policy choices he was faced with.
To me, it's evident that if Obama could have swung the country behind an Afghan withdrawal and in support of the teachers' unions, as Charles supposes, he could have swung it behind a stimulus program directly targeted at job creation; tighter regulation of the banks; single payer healthcare or, as a mimimum, a public option; mortgage relief; stricter curbs on carbon emissions, and so on.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Charles squares the circle.