Barack Obama Needs to Be Careful of Liberal Tendencies
Lib-err-al! Lib-err-al!
It's been 20 years since Republican crowds mocked Michael Dukakis with that chant. Some vacuous conservative commentators have had whole careers blaming everything that is wrong in America on leftist conspirators.
But today, it's maybe not so bad to be a liberal once again.
The masters of Wall Street, and the average American's 401(k) account, are being rescued by classically liberal economics.
The best and most honorable of liberal causes—civil rights for African-Americans—may be nearing fulfillment, with a black presidential candidate leading in the polls in mid-October.
Mercy! A liberal columnist for the New York Times just won the Nobel Prize for economics.
As the biographer of two great liberal icons—Clarence Darrow and Tip O'Neill—I might, you suspect, be happy that the pendulum has swung back toward the left.
But my work on Darrow and Tip, and my experience as a White House reporter during the Clinton and Bush years, fill me with foreboding. The more I study American history, the more I am firmly convinced that the American ideal is, at its core, libertarian.
The American people will turn to collective action when necessary—usually in the face of a foreign threat or a natural or economic disaster. But the essence of America is individual liberty and opportunity—not collectivization or engineered results.
And liberals, from Darrow's day down to our own, tend to forget that.
So here are a few words of warning to the liberal Democrats who, even if they don't seize the White House in November, seem destined to be setting the tone in Washington and the statehouses for the next couple of years.
1. Prioritize. After so many years in the wild, liberals are likely, as in the Carter and Clinton years, to be a little punch drunk when compiling an agenda. They need to forgo social engineering and focus on lunch-bucket economics and a revived energy industry. Or, as Barack Obama puts it: "J-O-B-S." Prosperity is the prerequisite of all liberal ambition.
2. Reform. It is time for the Democrats to revive Al Gore's program for "reinventing government" to cut waste and to convince a cynical electorate that government can perform honestly and efficiently. Only then should they tackle Olympian tasks like universal healthcare.
3. Defend. If I need to explain the importance of national defense to liberals, then the Democrats are as hopeless as their foes claim.
4. Compromise. There are certain blood-and-bone issues—restoring a progressive tax system and appointing Supreme Court judges—for which liberals may need to go to the mattresses. But they need to remember, as conservatives initially recognized but then forgot, that they are governing for all Americans—not just their political base.
Pragmatic solutions that attract bipartisan support are the order of the day. Leave gay marriage to the states. Let guns alone. Join with willing Republicans to reduce the number of abortions. Honor family, the flag, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
It's good politics. If the Democrats are serious about their 50-state strategy and want to maintain their majorities in Congress, they need to listen to the citizens of Texas and Indiana and Montana and Georgia, not just California and New Jersey.
But it is also good governing. We are in one of those periods when we Americans need to recall what unites us and come together. And if the other guy's beliefs don't fit our own, agree to disagree and celebrate the blessings we have in common.
The overriding theme of the 2008 election was stated not this year, nor last, but by Obama in his speech at the Democratic convention in the summer of 2004. There are no red states. There are no blue states. There are only the United States.
That should be the liberals' chant.
Or the voters will be chanting lib-err-al! once more.
Tags: presidential election 2008 | Barack Obama
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Reader Comments
The "One Drop" Plilosophy
Hi Mary,
You are so right. Calling Obama "black" reminds us of the days of Slavery when if a person had One Drop of African heritage, it tainted the rest of his heritage. I find that offensive. I'm very tired of Republican Racists.
Liberals --- Restraining Themselves???
Wishful thinking.
Obama's empty suit is fleshed out by Soros, Moveon.org, et al.; Pelosi and Reid are certainly not the moderates that made Clinton (at times, at least) palatable. We're going to have at least two years of far left agenda. Just look at the so-called "tax plan" (actually a welfare plan).
My guess is that we'll be in Jimmy Carter land malaise and inflation at the two year point; Obama will then have an epiphany, and the centrist DLC will be reborn with Obama as its patron saint (the bloom having gone off the messiah rose).
We need to hope that he listens to people like Summers and doesn't send us into a depression. There will be no brakes in Congress for any of his wacky, Marx-like ideas on the economy.
This may not be a popular opinion
As a multi-racial AMERICAN I consider myself to be just that. AMERICAN. I realize that some % of my ancestry is represented by a man or woman who was wronged and brought to this country against their will, however I thank GOD and that ancestor everyday for the struggle they endured so that I might be born here in this great country as an American citizen. I am equally grateful to the 100,000 of WHITE Americans that fought and died for the freedoms of the African people. Everyone seems to be so quick to want to point the finger of blame and at WHO??? White people? My friends how do you know which white people to be angry with?? Can you readily tell who's ancestors died to free slaves?? I can't. I notice you want people to see all parts of you and all parts of your son - I'm sorry but I just don't feel I need that sort of validation about me as a person from strangers. People who glance at me and see me as Black, or Asian, or White ~ the only way that their assessment/opinion... the only way that WHAT THEY SEE can ever become a part of my reality is if I choose to see myself through their eyes. But I don't. I know who I am, not because I have traced every ancestors line... No because I am American, my parents are American, this is me. If I did trace each ancestor; what to do if I find many different men and women there... Am I supposed to let each of these distant people I will never meet, never know, never understand... I'm to take my feelings of worth and identity from them?? So what happens if 1 woman in my line was an African slave, and if 1 man from my line was an African Slave Trader (the man who took that woman from her family and sold her), and 1 man in my line was a white slave owner, and yet another man in my line was a white man American that fought and died so that my enslaved ancestors would know freedom. Am I to spend the rest of my days hating myself, and loving myself, and blaming myself, and feeling guilt and pride... Won't I experience all those feelings if I never know my past and just move forward from today - as a proud American who refuses to see myself as less than every other mans equal... not because anyone "gave" me this and certainly not because some self important liberals want to credit themselves with my good fortune and that of my people... But just because we were all equally blessed to be born in this country where we can create whatever success and reality we decide for ourselves.
I may be saying this wrong? Maybe no one will understand? I don't care how anyone sees me, because I am secure in myself. People judge white men as oppressors (I know this because am so ashamed each time I hear men and women that are supposed to be on some deeper level "my people" making the same ruthless and cruel generalizations of White Mans souls and anoint themselves judge and jury in deciding their worth) People judge... it's in our nature - none of us are innocent
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