On President Obama and the Oil Spill, Some Liberals Need to Grow Up

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On Obama and the Oil Spill, Liberals Need to Grow Up

By Theda
Skocpol 

Many liberal pundits are making absolute fools of themselves bashing Obama over the Gulf spill. They are just emoting and have no solutions anyone could try. There is no easy out on this, and the patience to build and support adequate government oversight of industries is the key here, as in many other areas.

In this case, it is simple. If liberals do not support Obama and the Democrats for the next two election cycles, a rabid Right will be back in control, and America will devolve further into ineffective gridlock and rising inequality. Even the gains that have been made so far, a pretty good health reform, student loan reforms, improved financial regulations, and so forth, will quickly be weakened and reversed if the Republicans regain Congress and the presidency. Liberals right now should not be joining in Obama bashing on the oil spill. They should be focused on Republican blame and hypocrisy — and should pressure the Senate to vote for good energy legislation.

There is nothing in this oil crisis in an already oil-soaked region that should prompt liberals to turn against Obama. This crisis was caused by the decades-old oil regime and the evisceration of government by “conservatives” and conservaDems.

Bashing a moderate liberal President who is trying to turn things around, but needs time and patient support, is just plain self-defeating for liberals. People seem to imagine that Obama could somehow “order” a new environmental/energy policy or wave a wand and clean up the already-dirty Gulf. They are dreaming — and their childish thrashing based on these dreams is undermining a valuable opening in U.S. politics.

As for last night's address, it was ok, not great, but there was little more to be said, and I am not sure it should even have been said from the Oval Office. Today's major victory — forcing BP to contribute $20B to an escrow fund — is a much more important step. (click here to read the entire article)

[Another note from the editor:  I agree with most everything she said here (my personal view and does not necessarily represent the views of Blog for Iowa).  I simply do not understand why anyone would waste precious time and blog space complaining about President Obama when the evil GOP is out there doing everything they can to ruin his presidency and are setting the stage through the courts, the media, the tea party and election shenanigans for permanent Republican rule.   As Howard Dean said in 2004, “If George W. Bush gets four more years, God help us.”   The same is true now. 

And
if you were about to lament that the President's speech wasn't as good
as Rachel Maddow's, well, I love Rach too, but let's get real – she's a
pundit; Obama is a president.  Presidents just can't go around saying
everything pundits say.

Here's a similar perspective from a blogger on Dailykos: 

Dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/17

Get Over Yourselves, and Let's Beat the GOP
by JBtakenote

You know what?  I'm astounded at the amount of cannibalizing going on right now.  I understand that we can't all march in lock-step 100% of the time… why, then we would be Republicans.

Democrats, progressives, all, we are intellectually honest.  So – disregarding the Republican trolls on the site causing trouble – why are we fighting over small things.  So what if Keith Obermann didn't like President Obama's BP Oil speech – he's one of the best national commentators on the left today.  And the right has triple the people with that sort of national platform. So what if we don't get everything we want all the time on every piece of legislation – government works because of some compromise.  The Republicans don't compromise – ever – and that brings me to my point.

The President doesn't need a lesson because he wasn't “left” enough.  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi don't deserve to lose control of the Congress because we don't like 100% of their decisions.  If the Republicans win the Congress, we are absolutely, completely screwed.  And they are so ridiculous, they shouldn't even be in a position to win.  Really.

The GOP can't win.  It's not just a bad idea – it's outright dangerous.  Especially now.  Especially in this midterm election.  And the killer is that we should be ahead, and if we unify around the idea of beating them – we just might win (or at least stave off the losses).

…you all complain about Keith Obermann's opinions…  He's part of the only hope we have for countering an amazingly effective and strong GOP propaganda machine!  What on earth are you all doing.

We need a unified message on about the GOP that we take virally out on the web.  We ALL need to be out there over the next 6 months repeating this. 

What's the message?  A nationalized one:

The Republicans are…

Idiots who don't know how to govern.  Remember 2008?

Liars who will do anything to win, and frequently do.

Crazies who see conspiracies in every corner.

Racists who don't like people who don't look like them (including our President).

Stooges who are owned by the oil companies and other big corporations.

This isn't just powerful messaging.  It's all true – and so obvious that the majority of the American public knows it.  They just need to be motivated to out-vote the GOP faithful. And the idea that we cannot let 19% of the voters be the ones who determine the majority of the next Congress should be enough to motivate all of us – all of you – to get over your ideology issues, and to be unified enough to beat the GOP in November.  

As a group, a party, or a movement (you pick) we are in the middle of making a huge mistake, but it's not too late.  Politics is not about how righteous you feel – it's about the need to move forward, about good governance, and above all about the rights and needs of ALL of the American people.  I implore you all to fix this right now, and not in October when it will be far too late.