Barack Obama is not Bagger Vance 9

Things are pretty grim among progressives these days, what with health care bogging down and climate legislation on indefinite delay; right wing crazies everywhere and Blue Dogs intransigent; the organized coalition that brought Obama to office fractured and ineffective. Disillusionment is in the air.

In response, on listservs and private conversations, I’m hearing more and more people express some version of the following sentiment:  Barack Obama should save us. According to this line of thinking, if Obama really got serious, got his messaging right, did a really good speech, exercised his extraordinary popularity with the American people, he could right the ship for his two main domestic initiatives, both of which are drifting perilously close to the shoals.

It’s understandable. Everyone still remembers the extraordinary high of the campaign, the rare and almost forgotten feeling of being genuinely moved by a civic-minded politician. Everyone wants that high back, as an escape from the lies, bottlenecks, and general unpleasantness that now beset us.

But let me be blunt: Barack Obama is not our magic negro. He’s not Bagger Vance. He hasn’t come along to teach the ornery white folk the error of their ways. He’s just the president, a centrist Democrat embedded in a power structure replete with roadblocks and constraints. The president, even an extraordinarily popular president, can only do so much. Making one more speech won’t have any effect on Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) or Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). It won’t reduce the money pouring from dirty energy companies into congressional coffers. It won’t change anybody’s mind at a teabagging rally or a dirty energy astroturfing event. This notion that Obama trying harder is the key to progressive success is just a siren song; it delays getting serious.

Along these lines, read Mike Tomasky. It’s about health care, but it applies just as well to the climate/energy fight:

So now, liberals have to fight hard for something they’re not terribly excited about. A health bill will likely have a very weak public option or it won’t have one at all. But liberals will have to battle for that bill as if it’s life and death (which in fact it will be for thousands of Americans), because its defeat would constitute a historic victory for the birthers and the gun-toters and the Hitler analogists. In the coming weeks, building toward a possible congressional vote in November, progressives will have to get out in force to show middle America that there’s support for reform as well as opposition, even though they may find the final bill disappointing.

This is what movements do—they do the hard, slow work of winning political battles and changing public opinion over time. It isn’t fun. It isn’t something Will.i.am is going to make a clever and moving video about, and it offers precious few moments for YouTube. It takes years, which is a bummer, in a political culture that measures success and failure by the hour. The end of euphoria should lead not to disillusionment, but to seriousness of purpose.

Obama can’t save progressives. They’ll save their agenda, if at all, with persistence and organizing. As it always was.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. sunflower's avatar

    sunflower Posted 4:45 pm
    24 Aug 2009

    We need a hero with leverage. A leader. Too bad Barack Obama is just a politician.

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  2. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 11:32 pm
    24 Aug 2009

    He sold himself as Baggar Vance...but he's not even Marcus Burnett in Bad Boys II....because Burnett (Martin Lawrence) pulled his weight in that movie...Obama is a do nothing who sits around "opining".   He sees all sides and chooses none of them.The problem with Obama is he is not an executive.  He is not a doer.   He is an analyst.  A professor.   He pontificates.   Every time he opens his mouth at a podium they have to hold the doors tight or they'll blow off the hinges from all the hot air.Some of us could see the problem a mile away...and its bad enough that high expections are now crashing down, but people may soon find the person they put in the White House is not even capable on a good day.   

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  3. Jon Rynn's avatar

    Jon Rynn Posted 7:44 am
    25 Aug 2009

    Read Kuttner's "Obama's Challenge", written just before Obama was elected.  Some presidents do rise to the occassion, FDR and LBJ being the big examples, notwithstanding LBJ blowing it all on Vietnam.  But somehow, LBJ managed to pass both Medicare and the Civil Rights and Voting Acts, all with Southern Democratic senators.  Now, maybe he was a legislative genius, I hope that's not what it takes, but he did "knock some heads" and was very aggressive.  On the other hand, in the case of civil rights, there was a huge movement that was pushing very hard. On the other hand, as I said, I don't know how he got Medicare passed.The other problem is that, when you wind up with mushy bills, it's hard or impossible to get the base fired up.  Then the question is, can you go for a much better bill, on the assumption that the public will push recalcitrant Senators?  I don't know, but there is a reason that people are getting annoyed, particularly people with some historical perspective.

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  4. Sean Casten's avatar

    Sean Casten Posted 9:25 am
    25 Aug 2009

    I'm inclined to agree with both David and John.  Given our system of checks and balances, it's presumptive to put all the blame (or all the credit) on the President.  On that front, I'm with David.That said, Obama was elected on a center-left mandate.  Congress, by contrast is ever-more "hollowed out", dominated by its extremes.  The fact that the Congress has more Democrats than Republicans is (to my way of thinking, at least), vastly less important than the fact that there are steadily fewer centrists from either party willing to cross the aisle.  And so Congress becomes ever more driven by  the politics of opposition.  As such, I think it is ever-harder to make the case that the Congress is capable of producing precisely the kind of carefully crafted, centrist legislation upon which our expectations for Obama were set.  And Obama does deserve criticism for his continued deference to Congress to craft same. The comparison with LBJ may be apt.  Like Obama, he came from the Senate with an intuitive respect for Congressional power.  Perhaps unlike Obama (time will tell) he didn't let that respect get in the way of his own personal agenda.  The famous photo of him with Senator Green comes to mind...

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  5. randino Posted 9:27 am
    25 Aug 2009

    The progressive community is like an abused child.  Obama rescued us from the mean foster parents who used to lock us in the closet.  As a result we are obsequious in our gratitude, and terrified that we will be sent back to where we came from.  So we don't want to make our new Daddy angry at us.We really need to put some distance between ourselves and the O man.  For both our sakes.We have also forgotten how to organize.  But if you want us to put something on You Tube, Twitter, or show our proficiency at being internet whiz kids, we can do that.  But unfortunately that is not what gets the job done.  The only people who still know how to do that are the conservatives, who are organizing circles around us.  We have not even left the locker room.  We are on our knees praying to the O man to save us.   Randy Cunningham

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  6. Baby Boomer Posted 10:24 am
    25 Aug 2009

    I'm with you David.  No President is magic.  There's 3 branches of government, and there is an entrenched power structure in Washington that has brainwashed lots of citizens.  Marginalized people use to vote for Democrats because the Democratic Party was the party of the people.  Now the Republicans and radio hosts energize this group by appealing to their victimology.  I know people on Food Stamps and Medicaid who rail against the government and paying taxes when they get Earned Income Credit back from the government.  It seems insane to vote against your own interest, but people have developed an irrational hatred of any government  and any taxes whether it means good transportation, fire protection, etc.  I don't really get hatred, and the violent language abroad is scary to me.  There may be reaping what you sow, but I'd rather us learn to all get along.  But, that's fairy dust.

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  7. Chris Pratt Posted 12:13 pm
    25 Aug 2009

    I worked hard to get Obama elected and a democratic house and senate.  Now I am told that I have to organize and fight the special interest groups too.  I work full time job, a family and community that takes time, I was hoping that Obama would show some leadership on the issues I care about, but he shows an ability to mediate between the powers that be and none of them have the peoples interest in mind.  A mediator in chief is not going to cut it in these times.  I am going to start sympathizing with the non-voters unless we get someone who knows how to make change happen.

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  8. Surfing Nutritionist Posted 4:19 pm
    25 Aug 2009

    Obama's a red herring in the healthcare debate. The real issue is us, the people. Nearly every single one of us has more power than Obama to make a difference in our own health (I say "nearly" because I do recognize that a large number of people simply don't have the means for a number of reasons).  The science is quite clear, and has been for a long time, that the majority of chronic diseases that cause the morbidity and associated costs...get ready for this... ARE PREVENTABLE.Whatever healthcare bill passes, it's still not going to comprehensively address prevention. It's still going to be sickness care. Yes, of course we all need some of that from time to time but I wish our president and the media would challenge us to eat much better and move much more so we could prevent obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Ask Americans to step up, big time. And I don't mean polite little suggestions like, "next time you're at a salad bar, go for the low fat version of salad dressing." For example, what if Obama in his next speech said something like "My fellow Americans, a large part of health is in your hands through the foods you eat everyday and the exercise you get, I urge you to avoid eating any food made with high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil, cut your CAFO produced meat consumption by half and you should get at least an hour of physical activity every single day." Radical? Yes, but we need meaningful change in this area.

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  9. flyfisherman Posted 3:00 pm
    27 Aug 2009

    If the government wants to reduce health care costs, they should provide meaningful incentives to individuals to lead more healthy life styles.... areas of focus might be 1) weight control, 2) blood sugar control for diabetics or 3) cardio-vascular health in several areas. Tight lines,

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