Um … huh?
The latest thing-being-commented-on-that-was-never-actually-a-thing is the idea that liberals are disappointed by Obama’s centrism. There were two articles about it this weekend on Salon, the New York Times posted a thing about it, and all over the left-wing blogosphere, people are rushing to complain about how everyone else is complaining. I love Glenn Greenwald, but here’s what he had to say about it:
So many progressives were misled about what Obama is and what he believes. But it wasn’t Obama who misled them. It was their own desires, their eagerness to see what they wanted to see rather than what reality offered.
I have no idea who these “misled progressives” are. It seems to be one of those things where more people are talking about people talking about it than are actually talking about it, ya know what I mean? Most of the commentary I’ve seen is people rushing to remind everyone that Obama ran as a centrist. Even though I can’t figure out who’s really asking for this reminder.
Obama was pretty clearly a centrist from the beginning. I don’t know anyone who expected him to get into office and appoint Dennis Kucinich Secretary of State and Michael Moore Press Secretary. Didn’t we all just spend the last 2 years reading 12-15 articles per day about the candidates? He’s pretty much doing exactly what I assumed he would do, which is build a cabinet of people who have experience working in government who might actually be able to fix some of the messes we’ve gotten into over the last eight years. I support a lot of social changes that probably won’t happen over the next eight years, but right now, who cares? It’s gonna take a loooong time for the luster of having someone competent in charge of country to wear off. Also: he’s still sexy!
Popularity: 8% [?]
November 24th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Competence is a synonym for center-right, apparently. So of course we’re upset, ‘cuz he’s appointing competent people.
I have to say I’ve had to turn Rachel Maddow off a lot lately because she’s going on and on asking where the change is, with Obama appointing so many people who had associations of some sort with the Clinton administration. He was apparently supposed to appoint people who had never heard of politics before this year.
But dammit, don’t fall completely into the trap, Jeff. People right-of-center are pointing out that people left-of-center are upset about Obama’s centrism to sell the meme that Obama is centrist; his win isn’t a defeat of the right/victory of the left, it’s a victory of the middle (and maybe even the slightly right). They want that to become common knowledge.
In reality, Obama is slightly left of center, not center. No, he isn’t Kucinich, but I’m not even that far left in most regards (even if the Political Compass did put me somewhere left of Gandhi the last time I took it).
November 24th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I took it again. I’m now south of Gandhi, but not left:
Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.05
BTW, according to them, I’m left of Kucinich by quite a bit, roughly at the same spot as Nader on the left-right scale (although quite a bit south of any of them). They put Obama (and pretty much all Democrats at center-right, but that’s on a world scale; on a US scale, he’s definitely left. We do need to work to get some people outside of that quadrant into our politics, though…
November 24th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Oddly enough, last week Matt Rothschild at The Progressive wrote just that: “If Obama really wanted change, if he really wanted to honor progressives who backed him early on … he’d nominate Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of State.”
I concur, however, that this is an outlier, and most of us are fairly happy with the moderate liberal agenda being set forth (and looking forward to the second term when BO can get crazy legalizing drugs and gay marriage and 2-hour recess, etc.)
November 24th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
That’s totally fair. He’s definitely left of center … what’s the word I’m looking for? Populist? I just think he was pretty clear about where he stood politically and so far, I haven’t seen him betray any of his plans. (Although the latest news is that the Bush tax cuts might be back on the table … we’ll see what happens.)
And I think you’re right about this meme coming from the right, if for no other reason than to make it look like the left is a bunch of morons who misjudged our candidate. Which makes no sense, because it clearly wasn’t just the left who voted for Obama. So let me get this straight … we were idiots for voting for Obama because he was going to turn the country socialist, and now we’re idiots for voting for him because he isn’t? None of it makes any sense to me.
Here’s me:
Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.97
November 24th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Chaotic/Evil: +3.95
November 24th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Wow, you’re an authoritarian nutjob, Jeff! You’re practically a fascist!
November 24th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I’m watching George Snuffleupagus from Sunday, and George Will just said that we (Obama supporters) were hoping for “anti-capitalist” picks by Obama. Funny, I don’t remember hoping that we’d go completely socialist. I think it’s kinda what you were saying, but worse: they convinced themselves that Obama really was socialist, and figured his supporters must think that way, too. Now that he’s there and clearly not socialist, of course we must all be as surprised as they are.
Ah, chalk another one up to the great things about the incoming Obama administration: George Will sounds like an absolute moron again. The world is as it should be.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Harmon: I’m surprised that you’re even more of an authoritarian nutjob than I am. It must’ve been that question: “Do you think the essential components of people’s souls should be harvested and put to work by greedy robots who will use this energy to create a vast network of lifestyle malls filled with stores dedicated to selling gay sex drugs and robot prostitutes?” I said “agree” … you must’ve said “strongly agree”.
Shea: I’ve been meaning to get a D&D club going for awhile now … clearly you’re already well versed in the lingo. Any time you want to get together and roll the d20, you just say the word.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I think I changed my mind. I blogged about it: http://jonthegeek.blogspot.com/2008/11/barack-obama-is-center-right-nudge.html
BTW, I really am playing D&D again. So :P