President Obama's 2012 blandly populist but business friendly (lowering the corporate tax rate) State of the Union speech broke little new ground. As noted by many commentators, one of the chief drivers for the speech was to sharpen the contrast between his vision for America and that of the Republicans in preparation for the 2012 election cycle.
The President gave a summary of his administration's progress in moderating the recesssion handed us by the previous administration. He presented an optimistic assessment of the future and rehashed his now familiar vision of how America can create more jobs by concentrating on investment in new industries and education. He tapped into the currently popular themes of anger against risky bank investments, the US taxes paid by multinationals, and corporate tax loopholes and he built on the "fair deal" themes from his Kansas speech and the "Buffet rule".
About the only new ideas were the initiative for loosening the restrictions around refinancing home mortgages, his encouragement to states to make high school education mandatory until age 18 or graduation, and his request (to Harry Reid?) to scale back the Senate filibuster rule so that an up-or-down vote on judicial and other nominees would be required within 90 days.
All well and good but maybe the truest statement he made was one he clearly did not agree with. Paraphrasing the President: "I know many of you think that nothing will get done this year or maybe next year..." After 3 full years of Republican obstructionism, does he really think that anything will change? They are close to the finish line in their primary objective of making him a one-term president. Why should they do anything that will give him a "win"? With the voter suppression laws passed in Republican-controlled states, the redistricting that followed the 2010 census that has Boehner asserting that Republicans will control the House for the next decade, and the huge influx of corporate and anonymous funding made possible by SCOTUS' Citizens United decision - it's very possible that Obama will be ousted or if elected will be hamstrung by Republicans in Congress.
The only things that stand in the way of this rout are a massive turnout of the as-yet-unenergized Left and a clear strategy to counter the Republican alternative reality. Aided by unrestricted funding and the right-wing media echo machine, this view will be promoted constantly from now until election day.
There is a core of at least 30% of the electorate who will never vote for Obama or for any Democrat no matter what. There are another 5 million votes that will potentially not be cast because of the voter suppression laws currently on the books in the 14 or so states. Some independents may be wooed - especially if someone other than Romney is nominated and if Democrats can counter the distortions floating through the airwaves (see David Frum's critique) and the blog sphere - see factcheck.org's analysis of the alleged (and nonsensical) 150% increase in Medicare premiums due to "Obamacare". But in the end it will be the turnout of all of Obama's 2008 base that will be needed to secure the election. Let's do all we can and let's all show up at the polls November 6th.
No comments:
Post a Comment