gracchusdixit

Some Democrats are finally saying openly what many more are thinking down deep:  the President of the United States should step aside and make room for another, more effectual candidate to lead the country in a better direction.  Like it or not, it is time for all progressive Americans to face up to a bitter truth.  Barack Obama is a failure.

We’ve spent three years explaining and excusing the President’s lack of decisive action:  The financial collapse was not of his making.  The ensuing recession-depression was not his fault.  The intransigence of the tea party has been and continues to be an obstacle to constructive legislation, an obstacle that he is not responsible for.  All these things are true.  But they are the cards he was dealt, and he has played them miserably.

Instead of leading, he has chosen to stand aloof.  Instead of compromising, he has capitulated.  Instead of setting an active agenda which the country can follow, he has conceded to the Republicans the agenda they wish to impose upon us.

It would be foolish to attempt to psychoanalyze Barack Obama and, in the final analysis, a complete waste of time.  It doesn’t really matter what aspects of his personality and character have caused the failure.  The only thing that matters is that he has failed, and it is too late to turn back the clock.  This is regrettable.  But regret will not change reality.

For progressives to waste another four years trying to persuade the President to do the right thing would be a great tragedy for the nation.  Too much is at stake.  And there is no evidence that he can be persuaded.  Indeed, there is no evidence that he even knows what the “right thing” is.  Beyond the expedience of the moment and a desire to be reelected, it is hard to fathom what he actually stands for.

He is not even the great communicator that he is so often made out to be.  What has all the lofty rhetoric brought us?  What have the soothing, oh-so-reasonable words accomplished?  The sad answer is:  next to nothing.

This is not the kind of President we need in the midst of an unprecedented economic, social, and moral crisis.  We need a President who can rouse the nation.  We need a President who is prepared to fight for what he believes in.  We need a President who does, in fact, believe in something.

Barack Obama is a manifestly smart and decent man, with the best of intentions.  But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and we are well on our way down that road.  Somebody has to stand up and say “stop.”  Before it’s too late.

If the President had a level of courage that matched his intelligence, he would heed the call to step aside.  Since that, to say the least, is extremely unlikely, the next national election will confront us all with a bitter choice.  Do we vote for the lesser of two evils or withhold our votes altogether?

Every citizen must obviously answer this question for himself.  And there are those who, quite reasonably, argue that we have no choice, that we must vote for Barack Obama, because the alternatives are so dreadful.  I, for one, am not so sure.

If the President is reelected, what are we likely to get?  Four more years of indecision and capitulation.  Four more years for the right wing to impose its agenda on a fractured Democratic Party and a feckless Democratic President.  Four more years of drift.

Maybe we need a defeat, a complete and decisive defeat, to galvanize the nation into action.  Maybe it’s time for the Democratic Party to become a true opposition party.  Maybe then the Democratic Party will learn how to fight again.