Barack The Radical Moderate

Tom Tomorrow quiped:
" We had a centrist technocrat run as a centrist technocrat and win as a centrist technocrat, so we are we surprised he's governing as a centrist technocrat?"

While progressives have been generally supportive of Barack Obama as President, there appears to be alot of frustration on the Left about a whole range of issues from Obama's reversal of releasing further photos of detainee abuse, his continuation of defenses using state secrets act, his non-intervention over the single-payer health care option and the Employee Choice Act,to name a few. Even his selection of Sonia Sotomayor, while exciting in terms of a Latina judge, was essentially one of a moderate judge, with some doubts on whether she is liberal at all. Meanwhile,the Wall Street and bank bailouts generate populist resistance from all sides. Even still, Barack Obama still commands a 65% approval rating, putting him within distance of the champions in the pre-internet and YouTube age of Reagan, Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Despite the rhetoric coming from conservatives and Fox show business personalities that Barack Obama is a socialist or even more improbably a fascist,the first several months of his Administration show he is a radical moderate. He is the 21st century version of what Arthur Schlesinger called the "vital center", which was the dominant ideological stance of both parties during the 1950s and 1960s. Even at the personal level, he is a bit of a cornball and geek. In his addresses throughout the campaign and when introducing nominations for various posts, he constantly refers to people as living the "American Dream", overcoming the odds through hard work, education, and with a supportive family reaching their goals. His own programs look to be revitalizing those institutions which he believes made America Great. Whether it's bailing out the car industry or banks,his actions are aimed at restoring those elements of our political economy, which have been seen as making the development of a great middle class possible. Perhaps, these actions are wrong or the time is such that some of these institions literally can not be saved without enomous peripheral damage. But his solutions are appear anything but leftist.

On another front, he deliberately embraces the idea that America must maintain a global military presence and even has called for increases in defense spending, despite the propaganda to the contrary. And he continues to fight a war in Iraq and has chosen to pursue the war in Afghanistan, which had long been put on the backburner. Whether these can be maintained for the future is another question but his actions put him in a long line of moderate, pragmatic political leaders.

While the economic challenges facing us are almost equivalent and certainly as complex as those facing FDR, maybe progressives should remember that FDR was under assault from the Left for a good part of his presidency. In the end progressive change came through pragmatic rather than ideological acts. The New Deal, enshrined in our history and myths, was a hodgepodge of programs that were created on a adhoc basis. As Obama warns, some of our plans will work and others will not. This was how the New Deal proceeded.

What I suppose we miss is that Harry Truman style rhetoric of the 1948 campaign, when he accused the Republicans of being fascists or FDR's radio addresses condemning the bankers in biblical terms. Obama doesn't throw out the red meat like recent politicians. And I sort of miss that. But he also understands that the polarization of our political rhetoric contributed to getting us into this mess. Progressives should continue to put pressure on the Obama White House because Washington is a place of great, meaningless distractions. But at the end of the day, while it may not look beautiful, some basic changes for the better will be accomplished.