krebscycle

“Progressive” critics of President Obama have often complained about a perceived lack of passionate commitment. A common complaint goes something like this:

If he would only fight hard and draw a line in the sand, I don’t care if he wins

I guess I’m not progressive because I’m interested in the wins, not the emotional charge. If President Obama helps defeat the Republican effort to remake America into an ugly, poor, mean-spirited, debt ridden, Pinochetville, I won’t care if he appears nonchalant or even reluctant or depressed or anything. I just want a win. And no amount of furious speechifying, foot stamping, or podium pounding will replace wins. President Obama will end up being judged on his ability to take and keep power and to work with others to effect fundamental changes. He’s not supposed to either focus on making us feel good or win the whole war on his own. Obama is also not responsible for what we do or don’t do. We can’t fold up and blame the lack of sufficiently motivating bugle charges from the administration for our lack of effort.

Furthermore, it seems to me that given the dominant power of the far right in nearly every American institution, it would be entirely stupid of President Obama to lay his cards on the table and openly proclaim his do-or-die negotiating position. That would be a “charge of the light brigade” strategy.

The American Revolutionaries at Concord didn’t try to “draw a line in the sand” with the British Army. They shot at them from the trees. And retreated. It’s easy to imagine the “progressives” of Concord saying that they were going home because the Lexington militia had retreated and failed to make a do-or-die stand on the Lexington Village Green. “The Lexington Militia is letting down the base”, or something. Imagine today’s progressives in the long winter of the Revolutionary War, when Washington retreated and retreated and retreated. Where is our Tom Paine to tell us:

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Corporations, with an army of hacks and “think tanks” and MegaChurches and Media Conglomerates to enforce their tyranny, have declared that they have a right (not only to not pay TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

It’s not as if we have to pretend that President Obama is without flaws, or even that he shares all of our politics. For my part, the failures to cure our Gulag Archipelago of Immigrants in ICE, to recess appoint a labor relations board, or to fire John Dugan are all bad – and let’s not even bring up Afghanistan. But the need for “progressives” to emote about symbolic or image related issues seems to me to indicate a failure to keep eyes on the prize. For sure, the bad guys are keeping their eyes on the prize.