Barack Obama and Party Politics
Back in December I voiced concern that Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric occasionally makes him sound like the ideal Unity08 candidate. I've made clear on this blog that I support and like Obama but I don't want him to fall for the bipartisanship ruse which leads to Washington centrist consensus, something Obama himself has criticized. Today Max Sawicky at TPM Cafe voices similar concerns about Obama's unity message:
Of course big changes tend to get done on a bipartisan basis, and broader support is always worth pursuing. But the changes we need are not all the rage of the political center. Aside from Iraq, the question is how much daylight is there on the substance of policy between Rep. Ford and Senator Obama?...
Too much pragmatism will keep the country stuck where it is now -- prone to precipitous military adventures, diddling with the health insurance industry, upholding homilies about personal responsibility in a labor market where work doesn't pay and individual financial risk worsens.
The feeling I get about Obama is that, free of ideological preconceptions, he thinks he can sit down with contending parties and make deals. When the desperately poor are on one side of the table, this is a praiseworthy endeavor. This is part of Obama's claim to fame, and deservedly so. The problem is that while most any deal you can get will make the poor better off, when it comes to the broad working class, or if you like, "middle class," this is an inadequate approach.
Now, I know that Barack Obama understands the dynamics at play here. He has remarked in the past that governing is easier for Republicans because they are not trying to create legislation that requires large, across-the-aisle coalition building, but rather just need that 51% to get their agenda across (can't find the link to this). I can only assume that he is frighteningly confident of his abilities to reach across party lines and build those coalitions on the basis of his own negotiating skills because the last feature I would ascribe to Republicans is compromise. Conservatism has become an ideology, and most Republicans are proud conservatives (i.e. identity politics). They will not willingly budge on any of their pet issues because they have already arrived at the solution for any given problem. I see no evidence that conservative Republicans possess the "prudence" and "prescription" that Burke spoke of, nor are they practical or pragmatic. They have their solutions, the conversation is over, and with power they will attempt to enact their solutions. How exactly Obama is to "reach out" to these people mystifies me.
It would be nice if we could just elect Republicans who were willing to listen and negotiate, but that's not who the GOP base elects. Democrats have a mirror-image problem: the party is catching up to the base. So while it seems inevitable that better Democrats (that is, more representative of their base) will be elected over the years, the GOP base will become more narrow and doctrinaire and orthodox which will, over time, cost them elections in all but the more gerrymandered districts. They will become, as Tom Schaller noted, a regional party.
I still think Obama has the right campaign style. After all, he is conspicuously trying to build a movement around him that creates the sense of "nonpartisanship" even though most of his ideas are clearly on the left/liberal/progressive side of the equation. I imagine that with the support a public majority Obama believes he will be able to put his ideas into action. And if 2008 is a landslide, he may just do that. But sooner or later he is going to have to clearly link his political successes with the Democratic party for only then will he be in a position to actually claim a popular mandate for the Party and put the opposition in the spotlight. I hope he realizes that negotiation is fine but if the GOP won't budge then they must be forced to accept the popular mandate. Obama's demonstrable political shrewdness to date suggests that he will be willing to take the gloves off if the occasion arises. Until then I think his message of unity is positive, good for the country and the prelude to a formidable primary battle for the Democratic nomination.