E.J. Dionne Jr.: Obama Finds a New Angle to Reach Old Goals
[E.J. Dionne Jr. is a columnist for the WaPo.]
...What Americans must be ready for now is the paradoxical phase of Barack Obama's presidency. Many things will not be exactly as they appear.
Paradox No. 1: Because over the next two years he can't get far-reaching, progressive legislation through the Republican-led House, Obama will be doing far more to make the core progressive case that energetic government is essential to prosperity, growth and equity.
Paradox No. 2: His talk about the new, the bold and the innovative is in the oldest of political traditions. The Obama of Tuesday night represented not the rambunctious liberalism of the late 1960s but the unifying, John Kennedy-style liberalism of that decade's beginning - with a dash of Dwight Eisenhower moderation. Obama also sounded like a Whig, the insufficiently appreciated 19th-century American political party that proudly included Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln....
This speaks to the paradox of Mr. Innovation operating in a very old tradition. When they want to look modern and moderate, progressive political parties always talk about technology. Seeking to become Britain's first Labor Party prime minister after years of Conservative rule, Harold Wilson spoke in 1963 of the "white heat" of a technological "revolution." Kennedy pledged to "get the country moving again" and sent us to the moon....
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...What Americans must be ready for now is the paradoxical phase of Barack Obama's presidency. Many things will not be exactly as they appear.
Paradox No. 1: Because over the next two years he can't get far-reaching, progressive legislation through the Republican-led House, Obama will be doing far more to make the core progressive case that energetic government is essential to prosperity, growth and equity.
Paradox No. 2: His talk about the new, the bold and the innovative is in the oldest of political traditions. The Obama of Tuesday night represented not the rambunctious liberalism of the late 1960s but the unifying, John Kennedy-style liberalism of that decade's beginning - with a dash of Dwight Eisenhower moderation. Obama also sounded like a Whig, the insufficiently appreciated 19th-century American political party that proudly included Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln....
This speaks to the paradox of Mr. Innovation operating in a very old tradition. When they want to look modern and moderate, progressive political parties always talk about technology. Seeking to become Britain's first Labor Party prime minister after years of Conservative rule, Harold Wilson spoke in 1963 of the "white heat" of a technological "revolution." Kennedy pledged to "get the country moving again" and sent us to the moon....