Failure to launch

The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen (damn this guy is good) jaw dropped when he learned a recent Pew poll revealed that only one third of Democrats think this Congress has achieved more than other recent Congresses. A third. It almost makes one seriously ponder Seppuku. Benen wrote:

Norm Ornstein has characterized this Congress as being the most productive in 45 years. Rachel Maddow recently went further, observing, "The last time any president did this much in office, booze was illegal. If you believe in policy, if you believe in government that addresses problems, cheers to that."

Whether rank-and-file Democrats realize it or not, this is why the Republicans' right-wing base is as animated this year as is it -- it's not because Dems are pushing a lot of key progressive priorities that have languished for years; it's because Dems are passing a lot of key progressive priorities that have languished for years.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post concluded:

Maybe this speaks to an enormous Dem failure to communicate their successes. Or maybe it's another sign of how bloated expectations were amid the euphoria of Obama's win. Or perhaps the sense of just how monumental our problems are -- and the fact that Dems secured such large Congressional majorities -- led rank and file Dems to expect truly historic, paradigm shifting levels of leadership. Either way, these numbers shed fascinating new light on the enthusiasm gap problem. Just wow.

Just wow, indeed. I think the White House vastly underestimated the tsunami-sized groundswell for "change," a national longing they themselves tapped into to win the 2008 election. Dems can be partially forgiven for their naivety. In their minds, they won. So they blissfully went back to their lives and largely stopped paying attention as normal people are wont to do (the activists on the “whining” Left notwithstanding). To be sure, many Dems, too, are disgusted by the endless gridlock and game-playing in Washington. They have not given up on Obama, but his perceived inability to magically change the dynamic has led most Dems to shrug in confusion. And from there, it is a short road to apathy. But – for the reasons Benen and others have identified – the folks who remain “fired up and ready to go” are Republicans, a party effectively (but disastrously) being led by the Palinite, lunatic Right.

Americans have always had “daddy issues,” I think. Tocqueville sensed it centuries ago. Our Freudian acting out is simply more pronounced in times of economic uncertainty or societal upheaval. The question now is whether Obama, a brilliant politician with a visceral hate for politics (an irony for the ages), can overcome his loathing for the game and get back into the game. Of late, he has begun to. Yet he really has no choice but to role-play like Reagan, to be a daddy-like, feel-your-pain figure like Clinton, to find his inner FDR, in order to console and motivate the huddled but irrational masses. This on top of saving the world, his day job. But more than that, Barack Obama has to inspire again, audaciously. His presidency could depend on it. And maybe, just maybe, so does the destiny of the nation, too.

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Alexis de Tocqueville: “In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.” (Substitute “majority” with “charismatic demagogue,” then think of Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck. The potential was/is always there. Pretty good insight from a Frenchman who made it some 175 years ago.)