This is a difference I’ve had with Chris Bowers and a lot of other progressives since the primaries. Now, the term Bowers is using here is ‘hippie-punching,’ which probably originated with Duncan who likes to simplify for effect. I can’t do an etymology of the term right now, but I believe it was originally used in the context of anti-war demonstrators. When Democrats engage in hippie-punching it is usually to distance themselves from pacifists. You know, Obama famously said he is not against all wars, just stupid wars. Depending on your point of view, he could have been dismissing sandal-wearing, give-peace-a-chance granola-chompers (I’m not like them), or he could have simply been stating his position clearly and concisely.
But both Chris and Duncan used the term today to refer to Obama’s announcement on offshore drilling. For Bowers, he specifically highlighted this segment of Obama’s statement:
Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place. Because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.
Chris hears this as an insult to the left:
Rather than trying to placate green groups, President Obama is playing up how he is charting a unifying course of moderation in opposition to those groups. Much like Blanche Lincoln, he protrays himself as an independent, nonpartisan voice standing up to environmental extremists on behalf of his constituents.
He didn’t literally call anyone an extremist…not business leaders and not environmentalists. He did call the old debate between those groups ‘tired,’ which I can certainly see as somewhat dismissive. But, my ears hear something completely different.
I hear a savvy politician explaining that he needs to cut a deal to get anything done, and that anyone who insists that drilling is a sufficient solution or who won’t allow for any drilling at all is taking a position that falls outside of the realm of what is politically possible. He’s trying to treat me like a grown-up, not pander to me. But he’s also making the best of a compromised situation by making a virtue out of it. Maybe it’s just that my feelings aren’t easily hurt, but I enjoy watching politicians at the top of their game. I used to love watching Bill Clinton do his State of the Union address because it drove the Republicans crazy and he was really effective at communicating with the middle. Sure, I cringed a lot when he “punched hippies,” but it was all for the greater good.
I guess this all comes back to the long-running debates over Lakoffian framing and moving the Overton Window. I always thought those were bullshit issues, and that actual organizing and party-building were what mattered. Every word out of the president’s mouth isn’t, and shouldn’t be, an effort to counter Republican messaging and move the national mood in a more progressive direction. Sometimes, the president just needs to make the best case for what he’s doing. It isn’t personal, and it shouldn’t be taken that way.
