It's the Process, Stupid!

It's the process, stupid! Obama is well on his way to a transformational presidency because he is changing the process by which we govern ourselves. He is trying to put an end to government by confrontation. He does not pretend that the government can legislate solutions. Rather he is setting up a process by which we as a community can work our way to solutions. That is the change he would have you believe in.

Obama is not “politics as usual.” This community organizer recognizes that what is broken about our political system is the process. We have lost our sense of common rights and obligations, the respect for each other that comes with community. Our Community-Organizer-in-Chief is putting in place a political system that works on the basis of consensus and community.

When Pres. Obama was inaugurated I wrote that he is “a community organizer, a conciliator and a mediator and not a power broker.” I said: “Obama is the furthest thing from a bleeding-heart liberal or an ideological neo-con. ... Paying the price to stand on principle is not part of Obama's makeup. This will put off the crusaders on the Left.” And, I should have added, it will frustrate the entrenched Right. This does not fit anyone's conventional wisdom.

Nobody gets it. When the New York Times asks 16 know-it-all pundits and political operatives “How Can Obama Rebound?”, they publish conventional drivel about spin and moving to the center. In Obama's new politics, the old left-center-right spectrum is no longer a relevant paradigm. No one among these political types seems to understand that Obama is right on schedule with the process-oriented change he promised in the campaign.

Pres. Obama has achieved a great deal during the first 18 months of his presidency. He passed a stimulus bill, achieved major healthcare reform and an extension of health insurance. And now he has passed a financial reform package of historic dimensions. An energy bill is waiting in the wings. The president gets little credit for all this because he has done it without going on the political attack. In the process, he may have castigated the Republicans as the “party of no,” that is, for their refusal to participate in the process, but not for their specific values or principles. Nor has he matched the personal vindictiveness and political condemnation thrown at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate majority leader Harry Reid and personally at himself.

The financial overhaul legislation best exemplifies Obama's long-run game plan. The legislation does not attempt to remedy all the flaws that brought our financial system close to collapse. Nor does it attack the firms whose reckless and sometimes illegal behavior cost the public treasury hundreds of billions. There simply is not enough political consensus to achieve that. More important, the Obama system would not try to shove something like that down the Republican gullet.

What the legislation did do was set up the means or process by which financial stability can be achieved. The legislation sets up a multi-agency council that will be responsible for detecting and avoiding systemic risk. It does not break up the mega-companies but provides for constraining or dismantling large companies that are in trouble. In the same mode, it establishes a financial consumer protection agency rather than legislating protective devices. The purpose of these agencies and their administrative flexibility is to permit us to enjoy the benefits of innovative progress while guarding against the costs.

Sen. Dodd, the Senate leader in this financial reform, describes it best: “We can't legislate wisdom or passion. We can't legislate competency. All we can do is create the structure and hope that good people will be appointed who will attract other good people.” In this process oriented system, politics is an ongoing process where rule-making and regulation depend upon the goodwill and participation of all of us all the time.

The “unfinished” healthcare reform, the “unfinished” financial reform and other such efforts will demand the participation of all of the stakeholders for their political implementation. The administration of the programs become part of the political process.

Obama is well launched on a transformation of our politics and economics. One of these days the country is going to wake up to the fact that he is giving the government back to the people.