THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR: Obama's New Deal
Klein, Philip
THe caMPaIGn sPecTaToR Obama’s New Deal In Denver, progressives gathered to discuss what they expect from him. by Philip klein O n a hot august Day in Denver, just a few hours...
...40 THe aMeRIcan sPecTaToR ocTobeR 2008...
...Alan Charney, a program director for the same group, echoed the call, and described “The Next New Deal...
...Obama himself has given mixed signals throughout his career—and especially during the presidential campaign—as to whether he’s a principled liberal or a slick politician who would compromise progressive ideals for short-term political gain...
...A s the progressive Democrats of America gathered in the church for a five-day shadow convention, the popular blog DailyKos and several other liberal groups hosted progressive speakers in another venue blocks away from the convention, dubbed the Big Tent...
...We’re doing the same The biggest mistake progressives things as Democrats...
...Republican Party mean that the Also, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer paid a visit to Progressive Central during the convention...
...When the mass movement is there, that will be the time when the political leadership will be forced to act...
...activist groups will still be in a much stronger posi “We have no illusions...
...by contrast, the economy softened what was a firm 16-month timetable for with grew 3.3 percent in this year’s second quarter, while drawing troops from Iraq and backed away from his as of August the unemployment rate was 6.1...
...ed in 2004, is mostly focused on organizing at the That same year, Obama spoke at an AFL-CIO district-by-district level and electing progressive event and declared himself a “proponent of a single members of Congress, but would still work to get payer universal health care plan,” which is a techni- Obama elected...
...He also ployment rate was 23.6...
...These are big, big, things...
...Spectator...
...I think we can be on the edge of an era in this country of bold, dramatic change equal to the Great Society and the New Deal,” Rep...
...Con presidential campaign he has stated that he would servatives made a rational decision that they were only support such a system “if we were starting from going to stay within the party and they were not scratch...
...According to Kuttner’s account of history, the three transformational presidents—Abraham Lincoln, LBJ, and FDR—did not start out intending to make bold changes, but “became more radicalized in office” because of the existence of powerful “social movements...
...Republican Party this November mean that the con servative movement itself has been vanquished...
...Bill Clinton, despite his political success, ultimately put his short-term political goals ahead of any liberal agenda, and eventually universal health care gave way to welfare reform...
...Not little baby steps, but big, bold, dramatic change...
...They require big solutions...
...Ending poverty is not a tiny matter—it’s a big thing...
...Charney asserted that the prosperity Americans enjoyed in the aftermath of the New Deal was based on an economic “paradigm” that is now in crisis because of globalization, trade, corporate influence, and what he called new “social cleavages,” such as immigration...
...economic system and place government at the center of people’s lives...
...In Lincoln’s case, Kuttner argued, he started out wanting to save the Union but ended slavery under pressure from the abolitionists...
...ary Guard as a terrorist group], he was very slow coming out against the war, and though he spoke Philip Klein is a reporter for The American out against it, he voted for every appropriation...
...Making sure we eliminate hunger in this country is a big thing...
...A man strummed on an acoustic guitar inside the sanctuary, which was temporarily decorated with antiwar and pro-impeachment banners, all helping to make the facility live up to its name: Progressive Central...
...senator he would be “a champion for the progressive agenda” and boasted that he had “demonstrated the backbone and passion to really fight for progressive ocTobeR 2008 THe aMeRIcan sPecTaToR 39 THe caMPaIGn sPecTaToR causes, even when the political winds are blowing in Carpenter said that his group, which was found the other direction...
...Over the course of the 20th century, there have been a number of Democratic presidents, but they have met with varying degrees of success when it came to actually advancing liberalism...
...The same will be true for Obama...
...Senate, he was a proud progressive...
...Barack Obama the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, liberal activists gathered less than two miles away at the Central Presbyterian Church for a forum on economic justice and ending poverty...
...THe caMPaIGn sPecTaToR Obama’s New Deal In Denver, progressives gathered to discuss what they expect from him...
...Are we gonna get small change...
...But the time for giving him a pass is over,” Kuttner said of Obama...
...Are we gonna get real progressive change...
...If he doesn’t understand that everything that needs to be done for the economy is more radical than almost anything that can be debated in polite company, he will neither be elected, nor will he be a great president...
...Both LBJ and FDR assumed office that he hasn’t spoken about it much since the general during times when the climate was far more suited election started—a criticism that is sharpest among for sweeping changes...
...A long these lines, a number of issue-focused groups and coalitions have formed to push specific progressive causes, such as the Apollo Alliance for alternative energy and Health Care for America Now...
...William McNary, the president of US Action, who spoke at a panel later that afternoon, said the next 10 years would be the most critical period in the history of the progressive movement...
...FDR was initially opposed to deficits, public works, and deposit insurance, but was forced to embrace all three by the industrial labor movement...
...It is increasingly clear to me that there are moments in American history where the crisis is so PHIlIP KleIn severe, that only radical change can achieve moderate ends…” Kuttner told the crowd assembled within the tent...
...That year, the nation’s econ prior anti-trade rhetoric was just an example of how omy shrank by more than 13 percent and the unem political campaigns could get “overheated...
...But during his tives were in ’64 with Goldwater,” he said...
...In 2003, when Obama was still an obscure state legislator making a long-shot bid for the U.S...
...Kuttner called for “bolder, gutsier programs,” including a “Roosevelt scale” re-regulation of financial markets...
...declared during the session that followed, as the scraggly bearded actor and activist Sean Penn listened from one of the pews toward the back...
...Everybody’s talking about change,” McNary mused...
...This is one of those moments...
...cal term for a socialized system in which government “I think it’s safe to say we’re where conserva is the sole purchaser of health care...
...We’re going to need people with the mindset to do big things...
...Among the changes he advocated were more investment in college education, health care for all, “green” jobs, and an end to America’s dependence on fossil fuels...
...What we need is a new, a Next New Deal to rebuild our economy on a different foundation,” Charney said...
...Jim McGovern (D-Mass...
...Progressives can do all the talkHillary Clinton loyalists...
...The conservative movement itself Democratic leadership is becoming quite aware of has been vanquished...
...He missed the decessors in the earlier eras of transformational Kyl-Lieberman vote [designating Iran’s Revolution progressive change...
...ing they want about how the economy is in a state of During the Democratic primaries, Obama railed severe crisis, but empirically, our current economic against the North America Free Trade Agreement, problems pale in comparison to what they were when but in the general election, he cooled off, and said his FDR was elected in 1932...
...While prominent Democrats took to the airwaves to explain to the American people why they needed to elect Obama president, members of the party’s progressive wing were gathering throughout the Mile High City and discussing how to make sure that once elected, Obama governs as a liberal...
...On the other hand, Obama has conceded going to be afraid to lose based on the issues that united them as conservatives...
...Universal health care is a big thing...
...LBJ pledge to meet unconditionally with the leaders of hos assumed office in the wake of the tragic assassination tile regimes within the first year of his administration of the beloved John F. Kennedy, and the outpouring of (now he tends to talk in vague terms of “tough direct sympathy made it a lot easier for his successor to push diplomacy...
...Many progressives were reluctant to get behind Obama during the primary because he was seen as more moderate on some domestic policy issues than his rivals, Kuttner explained, but the existence of his massive movement and his potential to transcend party with moderate-sounding rhetoric made them give him a pass on the issues...
...With the Republican brand name badly damaged and Democrats expected to make further gains 38 THe aMeRIcan sPecTaToR ocTobeR 2008 in Congress, progressives see this as a moment when the country is turning against conservatism, giving them a rare opportunity to make the case for a radical set of changes that would uproot the U.S...
...by Philip klein O n a hot august Day in Denver, just a few hours before a vote at the Pepsi Center made Sen...
...In a panel organized by Campaign for America’s Future, Robert Kuttner, co-founder of the American Prospect, spoke about his new book: Obama’s Challenge: America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency...
...While Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson greatly expanded the role of government in the economy, with a permanent legacy that includes Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Jimmy Carter proved too inept to enact such major changes...
...what we’re up to,” Carpenter said...
...Whether we get a progressive president, and whether that president governs as a progressive, is up to us,” Kuttner said...
...Barack obama is not a progressive by any But regardless of who wins this election, the network means,” said Tim Carpenter, the national of conservative media, policy organizations, and director of Progressive Democrats of America...
...and other activists...
...Or are we gonna get chump change...
...In a lengthy questionnaire filled out that December for the staunch liberal Independent Voters of Illinois—Independent Precinct Organization, Obama vowed that as U.S...
...are making is to believe that the Among the successes they already claim is that, for the first time, the Democratic Party’s platform diminished prospects for the adopted in Denver calls for guaranteed health care...
...They come along once in a generation, once in a lifetime,” he beamed...
...For all their optimism, it’s worth pointing out that that his health care plan could incrementally lead to there are substantial differences between now and the a single-payer system...
...A common complaint among other periods of transformational change in American progressives about Obama’s handling of the issue is political history...
...He also reversed himself by supporting legislation through Congress—and it didn’t hurt that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation that at one point Democrats had 68 senators...
...This is a guy who missed a key tion to resist radical liberal reforms than their pre vote when it came to no strike on Iran...
...This is a transformational moment...
...LBJ was a Southern moderate who signed the Civil Rights Act because of Martin Luther King, Jr...
...granted immunity to telecommunications companies The biggest mistake progressives are making is that cooperated with the government even after vow to believe that the diminished prospects for the ing to filibuster any bill that included such a provision...
Vol. 41 • October 2008 • No. 8
