First Year Review: Effective Liberalism

After a year in office, Pres. Obama gives his administration a B+ but others are disappointed not to find much Change You Can Believe In or, conversely. too much change they don't believe in. The Right is painting the president as a dangerous and even demonic collectivist while the crusaders of the Left condemn him as compromising everything and lacking a liberal core. The supposedly neutral purveyors of the conventional wisdom are planting the idea that Pres. Obama is a growing disappointment.

These people base their judgment on a review of the big, life-and-death, unsolved crises that were inherited from the previous administration. Pres. Obama may have gotten his stimulus package, they say, but this did not cure the worsening unemployment of the Great Recession. The bankers who brought on the financial crisis have kept their billions and are even giving themselves bonuses. The watered down healthcare bill hangs by a thread on the Senate reconciliation process. The ramping up of the Afghan war is seen as a short-term fix that can only lead to a long-term disaster. This is bolstered by the accusations from the Right of socialism and the trash talk of the birthers and death panelists.

People, especially Democrats, are not paying attention. President Obama is within a yard of scoring the biggest piece of social legislation in 40 years. The New Yorker magazine reports that “the Senate bill would provide about $196 billion per year in subsidies to low-income and working Americans. That's more ... than the federal government spends on the earned income tax credit, Head Start, assistance to single mothers and their children, nutrition programs like food stamps, and the National Institute of Health combined.” That's more than a start and it can be built upon. The $700 billion stimulus package may not be big enough for Paul Krugman but it was big enough to keep the economy afloat and get past the threat a of depression level collapse.

America had to change direction. The presidency had become a fiasco of secrecy, torture, ideological science, kidnapping, busy-bribing lobbyists and paid-up polluters. Doesn't anybody remember how bad it was just one year ago! Eighty percent of the people knew we were going in the wrong direction.

Pres. Obama first addressed injustice and the government mess. The first bill that he signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Act. All secret documents are to be reviewed for declassification within five years. Requests under the Freedom of Information Act now face the presumption of compliance. The Army Field Manual will be used in all interrogations. Global warming and stem cells are again legitimate areas of research. Secret prisons are being exposed or closed. Lobbyists are no longer eligible for membership on advisory committees. Ex-lobbyists are not eligible for most federal jobs without a long waiting period. The coal industry has had to stop lopping off the tops of mountains in West Virginia. That is change anyone should be able to see and believe in.

If Pres. Obama has not gotten to Don't Ask Don't Tell and gay civil rights, he has been extraordinarily busy. During their first year, the percentage of enacted presidential legislation was: Eisenhower – 89, Johnson – 93, Reagan – 82, Clinton – 86 and Obama – 97! This president is effectively pushing through his agenda. Here we have to concede the tea baggers and conservatives a point: he is changing our government.

There is one serious justifiable complaint. The banks, particularly Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan, are still inexplicably at the controls of the economy in the person of Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, and Ben Bernanke.

Conservatives should really like these three guys. They are more concerned about the deficit than unemployment; more prone to raise interest rates and slow the economy than to stimulate it; and they are more likely than anyone else to bring the Obama presidency down. Progressives should hate them.

The Democrats have to tell Pres. Barack Obama that he's wrong. They should demand our government back from the bankers. Pres. George W. Bush had the problem that nobody told him he was wrong so the Republicans all marched in lockstep to perdition. The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are politically disciplined. You don't vote with the caucus; you lose your chairmanship or whatever counts to you. Sen. Lieberman wouldn't last for a moment as a Republican. Democrats consider dissenting part of their birthright.

It's a whole new political scene, folks. Appreciate this president for his liberalism and his effectiveness but let him know, loudly, that we will not put up with the bankers continuing to steal our money and foreclosing on our homes.

More than ever, progressive activists have no reason to sit this out.