I think it is obvious that rank and file Democrats have no idea how much power they have. What’s less obvious is that the elected Democrats cannot yet fathom how much power they have. For at least 14 years Democrats have been toiling in the minority trying to come up with policy prescriptions that could pass in Tom DeLay’s House and Bill Frist’s Senate. They put in all this work and now we can pass the fruit of their labors. Too many progressives want to pass the legislation they came up with in a GOP-dominated era because that’s what they’ve been working on for a decade or more. This is totally understandable. But the problem is that we have the votes to pass much better stuff than any of these thinktanks ever dreamed of passing over the last decade-plus.
We’ve entered a progressive era but most of the hard work by wonks was thought through in a Republican era. Don’t worry. We’ll learn. But actual progress will be slower than it should be becauce we were not prepared.
I’ve learned that most politicians aren’t deep thinkers. And like people in any large organization they tend to go with the flow, follow their elders lead, not make waves, etc. This applies to Democrats as well as Republicans. You need visionary leadership to get your agenda passed. For all that I hated Newt Gingrich, he had a vision and he worked hard to convince his colleagues to buy into it. I don’t see his like on the Dem side right now.
I don’t see his like in Congress. But I do see his like in the White House.
I think we’re going to be surprised a bit by how much will get done without the usual dog and pony show. One thing Bush did was empower the executive. This will put the Congressional Dems in an odd position of recognizing now is a time for decisive action and Obama is ‘theirs’ and they’ll have to table their desires for the front page and a curtailment of Executive Power.
It was bad enough being ignored by a President of the other party.
However, having the occasional battle with congressional Dems will only help Obama’s image as an independent President.
Congress should play that game, but only to a point as protection of the Democratic brand against complete collapse in the Obama Presidency. But that’s not all.
I truly believe the best way that the Dems can hold power longest or even extend it is to have a ‘righteous’ cycle of an independent and powerful executive in polite combat with an ethical and active Congress that refuses to serve as a rubber stamp, and an opposition who feels they are ALWAYS at the table from the start. Obama is right on as usual.
The DURATION of Democratic rule is everything towards the ‘ultimate goal’: fix up the judicial branch and bend that long arc of history bend a little more towards Justice.
This is clearly true. But, we will do a lot of good passing the small-bore bills we wanted to pass last year, and then moving forward quickly with more comprehensive bills. What do you think we should pass that’s not currently on the agenda? I agree that we should think big, but I’m not sure how big we can think with the Senators that we currently have (note that the House is much more progressive). For example, I think that a big push might be able to pass something resembling single-payer health care in the House. But that would be pointless, because it would blow up in the Senate. Also, we may have enough votes in the House to pass national civil union legislation. But, we don’t have enough votes in the Senate for it.
The two biggest things I’d like to see is a HUGE buildout of high speed rail and the repeal of Taft-Hartley. We don’t have the votes to repeal Taft-Hartley; in fact we have just enough votes in the Senate to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. High speed rail is barely on the agenda, but maybe with a big push we could pass this – I just don’t know.
Booman, I’m not so sure that we’ve “entered a progressive era.” That’s a bit optimistic, IMHO. I think what the next few years are going to reveal is just how lame the Democratic Party really is. Sorry for the pessimism….
The one power that is absolutely necessary to any kind of success, is the power to “fix” the economic mess we’re in. He doesn’t have that kind of power. It doesn’t matter whether or not the so-called “solutions” are arrived at without public blood-letting. This mess is so deep and so toxic and so global that they’d better start thinking about something other than a “fix.” Obama’s economic team doesn’t inspire much hope for anything other than a “Hail Mary” pass in a desperate attempt to go back to the good old days of easy credit and mounting debt.