Story Time

Several polls quoted this weekend show strong evidence that Obama is losing the liberal wing of his own party and a large chunk of the independents who put him in office as well.

Some of the dissatisfaction has to do with the lame-ass, Clintonoid approach to reforming our absurd healthcare system; a lot is related to Obama’s complicity with the padding of bankers’ balance sheets after they drove the country into the dirt, wrecked home ownership for a generation and undermined the livelihood of half the workforce.

A bit of the slippage is caused by his continuation of Bushite policy in the realm of executive autocracy, warmaking, civil protections and the abuse of prisoners.

But beyond the twists and turns of this or that policy, I think Obama is also losing those of us who put our faith in him because he hasn’t given us a credible narrative to set against that of the wackosphere.

Sarah Palin’s troops and Rush Limbaugh’s listeners know what they’re about, and they’re not the least bit shy in expressing it. Down with government, down with taxes, up with their goofball, armed individualism. Away with all politicians and their lies—but make sure I’m taken care of by the state.

Boiled down to its essence, their picture of a perfect society is selfish, mean-spirited, hypercompetitive, punitive, clan-based and violent. Oh, and Christian.

What is our message? Who is articulating it?

Who is calling out the reactionaries’ discourse and vision and showing the brutality and indifference to human suffering embedded in it?

The healthcare fight provided vast opportunities to personalize the debate and show how the current system drives people to financial ruin when it doesn’t kill them outright. Instead, Obama and his star team have allowed seniors to seriously think reform will damage Medicare and promote euthanasia.

A half-dozen tales like those shown in Michael Moore’s film Sicko would have generated quite a different narrative. Why didn’t the Obama geniuses frame the healthcare fight around people like them?

The answer, I sadly admit, is that elm trees do not bear pears. To attack head-on the insurance companies that run and ruin our lives would bring Rahm Emmanuel into conflict with the guys he’s planning to have finance his next campaign. The financial sector is calling the shots, and the Obama Democrats are following the British Labor playbook.

That leaves us with zilch.

There is nothing quite as psychologically debilitating as betrayal, and I fear current trends because as Obama systematically ditches those of us who tried to generate a new national narrative with shared goals, there will be no social forces left to resist the loonies. Just like the Clintons, the current leadership thinks it no longer needs us and can horsetrade its way forward by deal-making with the elites.

They apparently think the revolt of the ultras is a mere nuisance that the big boys can handle. Good God, they don’t even mind that people bring guns to Obama’s public appearances! Who wants to defend people who aren’t interested in defending themselves?

After the November triumph, the Obama campaign convened us in conclaves around the country to articulate our goals and desires. It was potentially the beginning of a mass movement to bring about things like national healthcare reform.

We patiently sat and listened to each other, put our data on sign-up sheets and waited for the next call.

It never came.

Now, my e-mail inbox is full of exhortations to pour into the streets and support Obama’s legislation—although as his own cabinet continuously backpedals on its key components, I’m not exactly sure what that legislation contains at this point.

In any case, I don’t feel like it.

Obama’s enemies know what they think and shout it from the rooftops. They envision a society that they want to live in, and their loudmouth leaders spell it out. They have a horse in this race.

I’m not sure I do.