Gary Kamiya: Obama's Reagan problem
... Obama was widely, and legitimately, criticized on the left for saying during the campaign that Reagan "changed the direction of America" in a way that Bill Clinton did not. But that statement was gauzy and vague compared to what he wrote about Reagan in his second book, "The Audacity of Hope." "[T]he conservative revolution that Reagan helped usher in gained traction because Reagan's central insight -- that the liberal welfare state had grown complacent and overly bureaucratic, with Democratic policy makers more obsessed with slicing the economic pie than with growing the pie -- contained a good deal of truth," Obama wrote.
This is a classic piece of Obama rhetoric: generous, inclusive, slightly vague, staking out a both-sides-are-right position that appeals to the maximum number of voters. There's just one problem: It's totally false.
Just how did "the liberal welfare state" grow "complacent" under Democratic leadership? Which social entitlement programs would Obama single out as mismanaged or ill-conceived? How, specifically, did the alleged Democratic obsession with "slicing the economic pie" prevent them from "growing the pie?" And, above all, even if some entitlement programs were flawed, as no doubt some were, how could a liberal argue in good faith that those flaws justified Reagan's wholesale assault on the very idea of the safety net and on the progressive social agenda set in motion by FDR?
Obama does not say. And the reason he does not say, it seems clear, is that he doesn't really believe that "Reagan's central insight" was an insight at all, let alone that it "contained a good deal of truth."
No one argues that self-discipline, entrepreneurship, a vigorous free market, and the other virtues extolled by the Great Communicator are not good things. But Obama, like every liberal, surely believes that Reagan's adherence to trickle-down economics and other right-wing dogmas was disastrous (which Reagan himself implicitly acknowledged when, facing fiscal disaster, he raised taxes and greatly expanded the deficit and the size of the federal government) and that the Conservative Revolution he spearheaded sent America in the wrong direction. By vaguely claiming that Reagan's inspiring, morning-in-America message is synonymous with his deeply flawed presidency, Obama is obfuscating the crucial distinction between Reagan's ideals and his practices. He is scoring political points at the cost of intellectual coherence.
By praising Reagan, Obama was trying to present himself as a reassuring, all-American-like figure, a believer in hard work and personal responsibility, not just another orthodox liberal demanding more rights and entitlements. He was trying have it both ways: be a little bit of a free-market, anti-bureaucracy populist and a little bit of a big-government liberal. In other words, he was pandering to the swing voters, moderates and independents who decide elections.
Obama's all-things-to-all-people image worked well as a campaign tactic, but it is untenable when it comes to governance. You can't be a little bit liberal any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. At a certain point, you have to declare -- or decide -- who you are....
Read entire article at Salon
This is a classic piece of Obama rhetoric: generous, inclusive, slightly vague, staking out a both-sides-are-right position that appeals to the maximum number of voters. There's just one problem: It's totally false.
Just how did "the liberal welfare state" grow "complacent" under Democratic leadership? Which social entitlement programs would Obama single out as mismanaged or ill-conceived? How, specifically, did the alleged Democratic obsession with "slicing the economic pie" prevent them from "growing the pie?" And, above all, even if some entitlement programs were flawed, as no doubt some were, how could a liberal argue in good faith that those flaws justified Reagan's wholesale assault on the very idea of the safety net and on the progressive social agenda set in motion by FDR?
Obama does not say. And the reason he does not say, it seems clear, is that he doesn't really believe that "Reagan's central insight" was an insight at all, let alone that it "contained a good deal of truth."
No one argues that self-discipline, entrepreneurship, a vigorous free market, and the other virtues extolled by the Great Communicator are not good things. But Obama, like every liberal, surely believes that Reagan's adherence to trickle-down economics and other right-wing dogmas was disastrous (which Reagan himself implicitly acknowledged when, facing fiscal disaster, he raised taxes and greatly expanded the deficit and the size of the federal government) and that the Conservative Revolution he spearheaded sent America in the wrong direction. By vaguely claiming that Reagan's inspiring, morning-in-America message is synonymous with his deeply flawed presidency, Obama is obfuscating the crucial distinction between Reagan's ideals and his practices. He is scoring political points at the cost of intellectual coherence.
By praising Reagan, Obama was trying to present himself as a reassuring, all-American-like figure, a believer in hard work and personal responsibility, not just another orthodox liberal demanding more rights and entitlements. He was trying have it both ways: be a little bit of a free-market, anti-bureaucracy populist and a little bit of a big-government liberal. In other words, he was pandering to the swing voters, moderates and independents who decide elections.
Obama's all-things-to-all-people image worked well as a campaign tactic, but it is untenable when it comes to governance. You can't be a little bit liberal any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. At a certain point, you have to declare -- or decide -- who you are....