Steven C. Day

STEVEN C. DAY FOR BUZZFLASH

When thinking of Barack Obama these days, political progressives tend to find themselves haunted by a wide range of emotions, many quite negative. But one thing in particular, I think, predominates - utter and compete bewilderment. How, we keep asking ourselves, could the politically brilliant candidate we saw in 2008 have, so quickly, morphed into the politically tone deaf president who so often confounds us today? Yet, the evidence of his decline insults our senses every day.

Given the choice between bargaining toughly with a remorseless GOP as opposed to simply begging them for mercy, Obama seems always - yes, always - to choose the latter. Capitulation has become his preferred negotiating strategy; first he gives away the farm, and only then does he ask the other side for something in return. Thus, a few days ago, the Democratic base watched in disgust (again) as the president adopted (again) GOP talking points in calling for a wage freeze for federal employees, doing so without first asking for anything in return. And in response, the GOP kicked sand into his face.

But, hey, at least it made Michele Bachmann happy.

Here's a frightening thought: could it be that Obama's habitual refusal to fight back against the GOP isn't, as so many of us have been assuming, the result of a poor political calculation? That it is, instead, simply an expression of the man's character?

We've all known people like that, of course. They're often wonderful and gifted human beings, but folks who, for whatever reason, are constitutionally incapable of handling conflict. It is their nature to always seek consensus, to always give ground easily, even when dealing with people who refuse to play fair in return.

Looking back, the possible presence of this aspect of his character can be seen in his writings. Several years ago, back in the heart of the presidential campaign, I posted a piece titled, In Search of the Real Obama, giving my take on his book, The Audacity of Hope. I found it troubling:

There's just something far too convenient in where he draws the lines for his deeply felt beliefs.  He thinks (correctly) that the death penalty doesn't deter crime and is dangerously flawed . . . yet (there are an awful lot of yets with Obama) he still thinks it's appropriate for society to execute the really, really bad murderers as opposed, I guess, to the only sort of bad murderers.  Being the unquestionably brilliant man he is, Obama must know this is a distinction without meaning, and utterly beyond definition.

But given the public's view on capital punishment, it is a convenient one to draw.  This convenience of belief recurs often, troublingly so.

And no, of course, this makes him no worse than any other politician.  But you see, I was hoping for something better than no worse.

There is also an unmistakable element of intellectual dishonesty in how Obama tries to paint his self-portrait as the sensible man in the middle - as the one reasonable soul in an ocean of partisan fanatics.  He often commits the sin of false equivalency.  Yes, conservatives are bad about this, he will say, but then he will always quickly add that liberals are equally bad about that.  But the truth, of course, is that usually they aren't.  How could they be?  As of the time he wrote the book, liberalism had been all but politically powerless for over a decade.

As you can see, what troubled me most about Obama at the time was the political convenience of much of what he said. His words struck me as more as a reflection of a persona he wanted to sell, as opposed to the man himself. Now, two years into his presidency, I'm beginning to think I may have been wrong. That something far more troubling is actually at play.

It may just be that a tendency to embrace convenient centrism, while all the while refusing to fight for principle, or for that matter to fight for anything other than his own office, isn't just an unwise political gambit, but actually a true reflection of the man's character. When you think about it, this thought starts to makes a lot of sense. A man of Barack Obama's brilliance would surely have figured out by now that his strategy of chronic capitulation has been a political disaster and have changed course, if political calculation was all that's been involved. But a man's basic character is a harder thing to change.

So, contrary to the theme of my old essay, it may be that I did find the real Obama in his book after all. And, my God, what a bummer that would be. ...

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STEVEN C. DAY FOR BUZZFLASH

Speaking as a Democrat — though a fairly disgruntled one of late (okay, an extremely disgruntled one of late) — I find myself looking ahead to the inevitable GOP gains in the mid-term elections with surprising ambivalence. On the one hand, I’m still enough of a partisan to want my team to win just for the sake of winning — sort the same way that as a KC Chiefs fan I want the Chiefs to win (and, yes, my life is filled with disappointments). Then there’s the fact that to elect a large number of the current batch of nuttier-than-a-fruitcake-on-steroids Republican candidates could do irreparable harm to the nation.

Still, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that stupidity of this magnitude deserves to be punished: and as counterintuitive as it may seem, there is no surer way to see to it that the GOP is punished than by giving it a modicum of power.

Without a doubt, the current GOP embrace of (or hostile takeover by) the Tea Party is the single most self-destructive action taken by a major political party in my memory — and I was around for the McGovern campaign in 1972. Hell, Ozzy Osbourne represents a paragon of virtuous self-restraint in comparison to the GOP’s headlong dive into disaster. Attacking Social Security? All but advocating armed insurrection? Calling for the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency? Defending BP? That’s one hell of an agenda to take to Middle America. ...

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by Steven C. Day

Trying to pick the single most troubling aspect to our current toxic — downright spooky, actually — political environment is sort of like trying to pick the most obnoxious feature of Dick Cheney’s persona: there’s just way too much material out there to choose from. Still, if forced to pick the single scariest thing about today’s politics, I’d probably bypass the usual suspects, such as right wing teabaggers and gutless Democrats.

No, at the end of the day, the scariest thing about our politics today has to be the state of the Republican Party itself.

This nation has just two major political parties. That’s it — no cornucopia of choices, just two. And all talk of third parties notwithstanding, it’s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. So it is a cause for some alarm that one of those two parties, the Republicans, seems to have lost all interest in serious governance. Republicans don’t even pretend anymore. ...

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BUZZFLASH'S LAST CHANCE DEMOCRACY CAFE

By Steven C. Day

Well, I guess it’s official. Meaningful climate change legislation — and with it, quite possibly, the last real hope for humanity’s future — is dead in Congress for the foreseeable future: killed, at least in part, incredibly enough, by the current blizzards on the East Coast. You see, if it snows a lot in Washington, D.C. in February this proves that the scientific consensus on global warming is wrong, or so the talking points go. And this is true even though extreme winter weather, just like that reflected in these storms, is predicted to occur under climate change models.

But then why should we care about all that pointed-headed intellectual scientific stuff anyway? After all, we always have Sen. James Inhofe to set us straight.

...

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BuzzFlash's Last Chance Democracy Cafe

By Steven C. Day

God love him, Joe Lieberman always manages to find a way to change my focus when I’m feeling down. ...

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BUZZFLASH'S LAST CHANCE DEMOCRACY CAFE

BY Steven C. Day

This is clearly not the time to mince words. So let’s say it out loud. The Supreme Court’s holding in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, handed down yesterday, wasn’t just a bad decision. ...

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Last Chance Democracy Cafe
by Steven C. Day

4 June, 1940: The Phony War was over. Germany, having easily occupied much of France, was on the march. As Winston Churchill rose to speak, the situation seemed hopeless. Yet, with just this one speech, often referred to as Churchill’s finest hour, he rallied England and the rest of the free world and defined the war to come. ...

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by Steven C. Day

I know there's a lot of concern out there that Judge Wilbert, a judge who sits right here in my home town of Wichita, Kansas, will send the case against George Tiller's killer to the jury with manslaughter as a possible verdict. Speaking as a lawyer in Kansas (though not a criminal lawyer), let me give you my take.

People in Kansas don't like it when lunatics kill people: go figure.

My guess is that the judge won't ultimately instruct on manslaughter. Even if he does, however, Roeder will be convicted of first degree murder by the jury. There's always the small possibility of a holdout juror (a stealth fanatic who manages to sneak onto the jury), which might necessitate a second trial. The chances of even that happening, however, are extremely low. And that's about as bad as things could realistically go for the prosecution. Manslaughter isn't even a remotely likely verdict. ...

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by Steven C. Day

Assume that a huge "planet killer" asteroid on a direct collision course with the earth has been spotted – nine months before its projected impact. President Barack Obama proposes an emergency program, in conjunction with the Russians, to knock the asteroid off course before it destroys our planet.

The Republicans in the Senate promptly mount a filibuster against the enabling legislation, thereby delaying action, leading to the destruction of the planet and to the end of all human life.

Now for the top 10 reasons why the GOP let the world be destroyed:

10. Didn't want to offend teabaggers who believed Obama was an alien born on the asteroid.

9. Furious over Obama's refusal to declare the asteroid's approach an act of terrorism and then bomb Iran in response.

8. Believed tax cuts for the rich would be a more effective response. ...

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Post your progressive New Year’s resolutions here

My family is making a New Year’s resolution to be more “green friendly” next year. To be honest, while I’m a big one for ranting about global warming, I’m not always as good when it comes to watching my own carbon footprint. This year my family is going to try to do better: goodbye, for example, little plastic water bottles: hello, faucet and glass. ...

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