Progressives: Fooled Again?

By Fuzzyone



President Obama has studiously ignored or directly attacked Progressives throughout his presidency. He stiffed them on the Bush tax cuts, the public option, closing Guantanamo, and reversing the Bush era anti civil liberties national security policies. While Obama was never a progressive he was elected with progressive votes yet he has made it clear that he has no interest in what they think, and feels free to insult them. Whether this will turn out to be an electoral problem for the President in 2012 remains to be seen, but it is pretty clear that the administration thinks it is good strategy.

What does seem clear is that the President feels free to ignore the Progressive Left (and the majority of Americans). I agree with Lovechilde that long term solution is to do a better job of making the Progressive case. But the only way for the Progressives in the House to be taken seriously in the near term is for them to vote against the disastrous debt ceiling deal. This is a Republican plan and they should have to put up the votes for it. While the failure to raise the debt ceiling would be bad the President has options to avoid it, if he has the courage, and the long term effect of total capitulation by the democrats would mean that every debt ceiling vote, as well as lots of other budget votes, would provide another opportunity for Republican extortion.

The right has made it clear that it is willing to fight for things. The question now is whether the left is too. If only one side will fight, it is not hard to figure out who is going to win.

Update

Oh good, the Democrats gave the Republicans the unemployed to hold hostage.