On 2010-11-06, at 11:40 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
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> The issue here is whether the Democrats as the governing party could have taken steps to make things better - or to at least go less badly. That's the issue which liberals and those to their left have been addressing. Their argument is that the Obama administration could have confronted the Republicans and pursued policies which would have sustained its popularity. Their model is the Roosevelt administration, which immediately and effectively moved to restructure the banking industry, create jobs, and prevent foreclosures in open defiance of the "monied interests" Marv Gandall
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> There is a key significant difference between the Democratic administration of FDR and Obama. The former wanted to save the little guy from too much suffering and fix the economy, and the latter didn't.
That's not the key difference. Both administrations saw as their first priority as saving capitalism, not the "little guy". However, the Roosevelt administration more clearly recognized that this required confronting those forces most resistant to the changes which were required, and also had to take into account more serious pressures for change from below led by an organized socialist working class left.
> In fact the Obama administration wanted to save the monied interest and block any liberal or progressive pressure to change the system. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi conspired to frustrate any movement from the Progressive Caucus or outside liberal constituencies by pretending to be chained to a 2/3 majority on changing anything.
What you say here and below is essentially true, though it's unclear whether Obama and Pelosi "wanted" to pursue this course, or simply caved in to corporate and Republican pressures they were afraid to resist.
> Obama inherited a massive extension of executive power and could have made most of the important changes needed by executive fiat---changes FDR had to wrestle out of Congress and the courts. Notice almost none of JK Galbriath's suggested changes needed any congressional support. They were all internal changes to the executive branch.
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> Pelosi ruled with an iron hand on the Progressive Caucus throat, claiming the need to save the worthless Blue Dog House seats. She could have had the Blue Dogs by the short hairs and said, go along with us or die. Reid played possum with any rule or proceedure that would have marginalized the stupid Blue Dogs. What were those assholes doing with committee chairmenships in the first place? They should have been out in the wastelands of Interior and Agriculture oversight subcommittees dealing pork back home to earn their keep.
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> While most of the voting public probably didn't follow these details they certainly understood they were sold out. So they reacted in predictable directions: liberals stayed home and reactionaries froathed at the mouth.
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> Do the maps at PatchWork Nation and the correlation between foreclosure rates, Boomtown USA, which are mostly the exurbs---where the Tea Party drew much of its support (mapped as TP meets).
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> Now think about a national housing recovery act and the presence of Federal Housing Authority field offices, helping these Boomtown areas manage their shit mortages for reduced fair rates, some supplemental income help, and a big picture of Barack Obama above the information tables. Now when you went over to the fed civil service jobs center and it had the same picture, well...
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> I suppose some sickos would put a swatika on the picture of the guy who just saved their house from the bank and saved their ass, but at a guess those would be much fewer. FDR mounted a huge USA government propaganda campaign (by employing the art crowd) to sell his projects and never missed a chance to remind the public just who was saving their ass from the wasteland of capitalism.
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> Marv also posted something on the Enthusiasm Gap. This kind pollster name bothers me, because it says nothing. If a candidate is not in office, enthusiasum is driven by promises. If the candidate is in office like the Democrats were, the ethusiasum is driven by services delivered. All promise and no delivery. It really ain't that hard.
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> As for getting out the vote, I guess we forget the trashing of ACORN and the dismantling of federal funding support for voter registration---fucking duh. And then there are those voter tricky states like Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida...
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> Now for a music break from your great grandfather's generation, I Left My Baby, with Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie, originally LA 1938, but in my time also LA, your grandfather's time this is the late 50s tv version:
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> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_g78VXusH4
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> Mostly the same guys twenty years later. Retitled, Blues for Obama and the Democrats:
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> When I leave you baby
> Count the days I am gone.
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> When I leave you baby
> Count the days I am gone.
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> Where there ain't no love
> There ain't no getting along.
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> CG
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