If only we didn’t have that silly democracy thing to worry about
by digby
I give you the ultimate Villager — a columnist for the Washington Post:
It’s important for America’s global standing that Obama, having been reelected, achieve a successful second term in which he is seen to be solving the country’s major problems. He’s likely to have the advantage, these next four years, of an improving U.S. economy. But he has to avoid the mistakes that undermined his first term. Specifically:
●Obama must lead his own party, as a first step toward truly leading the country. The top Democrats in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, come across to much of the country as partisan, divisive figures. Yet too often, Obama defers to them. Using Biden as the political Mr. Fix-It only compounds this problem. Biden may be a dealmaker, but he’s hardly a visionary. It’s Obama’s job to lead the party toward entitlement reforms and other policies that will be painful but necessary.
●Obama should champion a clear plan for fiscal reform. Last month, he played “Let’s Make a Deal,” showing his cards only when the other side made concessions. He’s president, not Monty Hall.
●Obama should communicate his vision forcefully to the country, governing over Congress’s head as Ronald Reagan did, if necessary.
It’s depressing that after four years of gridlock, a president who won what was supposed to be a decisive election is back once again to the politics of gridlock. That’s bad for Obama but worse for the country. Obama can still be the strong, successful president the country needs — but not unless he lifts his game.
I don’t even know what some of that means. “Showing his cards only when the other side made concessions?” Huh?
But the rest of it is pure Village clap-trap, obviously written while hungover from a cocktail party at Ruth Marcus’s house. No, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are only seen as partisan divisive figures to Republicans. And guess what? John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are seen as even more divisive, partisan figures to the Democrats! What else is new?
But one thing the people who voted for Barack Obama do agree on is that they didn’t elect him twice to enact the Republican agenda. Why Villagers think that makes sense is beyond me. We have a democracy. I’m sorry that doesn’t translate into a consensus to do whatever the Very Serious (Rich) People say we must do, but it doesn’t.
Besides, it’s not as if Obama actually has been capitulating to Pelosi and Reid. In fact, it’s the opposite. But that is still the stale Village trope: the liberals are ruining everything with their hippy-dippy ways! It’s always 1980 in the Village.
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