To Curry Favor with Independents, is Obama Willing to
Jeopardize His Relationship with the Liberal/Progressive Base?


Upon first glance, the Democrats erratic behavior seems incomprehensible.
And from an historical perspective, this iteration of a party that's been out in the cold as long as this one has, quite extraordinary in the way it acts first one way and then another, resulting in the feeling that it had operated all along in a vacuum that owes no allegiance to its base.

Does the left, the progressives, the liberals seem so out of touch that even the so-called “mainstream” avoids the "left" as if it were the verifax appendage of a party that ostensibly does not need its base, nor does it hold possible that the base even has anything to contribute to the dialogue.

Odd as that all appears, what could it mean?

Those who are good at reading the ciphers seem to voice mixed views.

As for myself, an involved onlooker who had responded to the Obama call early on, I find it mystifying. I’ve been mulling this inescapable observation over for some time now, thinking that it must be a misperception on my part, but it continues with no attempt by the president to try to explain it away; thusly, I have come to the point of view, that I really no longer believe that the Chief of Staff when he insulted “the left” did so without the imprimatur of the president.

Now, that's hard for me to say knowing that Obama went out of his way to recruit and encourage we members of the left early on.

And that is a sad commentary because it is only we of the "left" who remain committed to liberal and progressive causes while the rest seem willing to “negotiate” away everything that seems to separate us as parties.

The danger of course being that it seems there is only a mild veneer of feeling separating us at this point and for many, the perceived willingness of democrats to sacrifice their young for the harmony of the group is less than satisfying and tends to leave the rest of us feeling cheated and ignored.

And while the Media continues to call Obama everything from Socialist to “leftist,” the reality is that he identifies more with the right wing of the other party than he does with his own party.

This suggests that he intentionally avoided clearing his true allegiances up long before the election but it was not in his best interests to do so…. Thus, it becomes easy to let the misconception stand with the result that the rest of us no longer seem to have influence in the new White HOuse of Obama's making. I really don’t think that any careful observer would argue with that assessment.

And the proof is reinforced every day.

And while he may not have had an ostensible reason for “dissing” the left before, the midterm seems to have given him all the justification he needs, his misreading of the results, has only reinforced his antipathy towards the left and exacerbated our relationship with a president who doesn’t seem to have the gumption to stand tall for his own party, blaming his fall in the election results on his failure to compromise enough with the right; not on his willingness to fight for what he believes.

The right of course has been quick to acknowledge that Obama has come around to seeing the light faster than Clinton and they see Obama as being born again into the role of someone who has re-discovered the lessons of Jesus, implying that the rest of us are unholy and unfit to hold views of our own that could possibly contribute to the betterment of the democratic purpose of our society, to look out for the majority. MOreover, it seems that in this the majority has received short-shrift as the two warring and not so warring parties haggle over the finer points while fundamentally lining up on the major issues. Of course, this comment does not apply to the only hold-outs, the liberal and progressive wing of the party, that has stood tall despite the White House's rush to surrender. And kudos to them for their courage!

But the unholy alliance the president has struck with the Right may come back to haunt him. It is clear, that if a sacrificial goat is needed to win over Independents, it is the left wing of the democratic party; only, what Obama fails to integrate into his thinking is the fact that the so-called Independents were Bush hold-outs who hated how recklessly he spent but are now ready and willing to return to the party. Only Obama doesn’t understand that aspect of the Election.

Obama’s original strategy was to get all of us lined up and supportive before the campaign reached a take-off point. If you were on the list, you were cajoled every day with messages to get on board, do this, do that. And part of that message was to volunteer your time and effort to the cause.

After the election, the entire army of free-lance volunteers was forgotten in about as long a time as it takes to say “thank you for the win,” which they didn’t say.

The fact remains, that a lot of people feel as if they are strung out there, ignored and abandoned, as they watch the democratic party morph gradually into the other party as if in reality they are all partners in some exclusive insider’s club who never bothered to tell the rank and file what was really going on.

Only, that cuts both ways. It is the estimate of those who know, who tell us that the poll numbers of lately which look good for Obama now, could change in a hurry if the economic picture does not improve; nor do the figures account for the fact that many democrats feel disenchanted and ignored and are seeing their simplest goals transmuted in tangible ways. The prospect of losing that which separates us from the other party is real and it could mark a gap between elements of the party that may not be bridged.

We do not know where this is going, except from where I sit, there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies with this government and utterances and decisions that hardly seem compatible with a democratic party trying to right the wrongs of eight long years. This is most evident in the fact that there have been few changes in the Bush government of the past and that the Attorney General, at the behest of the president, has shown little interest in restoring traditional notions of justice to these hallowed halls, which I would think would be an essential step in restoring faith and confidence in our government.