Why Obama “Doubles Down”

In response to 2009-10 Democratic defeats in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, Obama is asking Democrats to pull together on health care and pass a bill for the good of the party. In other words, faced with the seeming political reality that folks don’t like what he is doing, Obama gives us “double down.”

I believe Obama is being stubborn for five good reasons:

Reason #1: Obama was right in 2008. During the presidential campaign, people (including me) said Obama wouldn’t get away with running against Bush instead of real opponent McCain. But he did. And he won. Today, Obama’s straw opponent is (finally!) no longer Bush. It’s Wall Street, oil companies, and especially health insurers. Obama believes he can again successfully beat up a straw opponent in 2010.

Reason #2: civil rights history. Obama’s election brought to a successful conclusion the Democrats’ long (45 years: 1963-2008), difficult struggle to achieve equality for blacks, a struggle the party reasoned would eventually, sooner or later, “some day” reward Democrats at the polls because a) it was the right thing to do, b) blacks would overwhelmingly vote Democratic. Universal health care as a top Democrat concern dates back to Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, so the latest big struggle is only 18 years old. Democrats believe universal health care’s a) the right thing to do, and b) it will eventually reward Democrats at the polls.

Reason #3: it’s the Democrats’ moment. One way or another, in most every year since 1965, conservatives and Republicans have frustrated Democrats’ efforts to build the grand government superstructure they believe America needs. This time is different. Democrats’ goal is European social democracy, beautiful polities like those in Sweden, Holland, Germany, France, even Canada and the UK. Aren’t they such nice, civilized nations? With all power in their hands now—and perhaps not for long—Democrats are crazy not to create a gigantic welfare state, one where taxes will eventually provide the revenue needed to cover services people demand. Once mandated benefits are in place, voters will inevitably insist on retaining them, meaning taxes will have to rise.

Reason #4: Democrats control our culture, and know it. As the late, esteemed Harvard political philosopher Sam Huntington argued, America’s word for ideology is “culture.” Democrats believe they can get away with propaganda (lying) because they control the “culture”—our ideology. After all, Democrats won in 2006 with propaganda that: a) Bush “lied us into war” (no weapons of mass destruction), b) Republicans can’t govern (Katrina), and c), Republicans swim in a “culture of corruption” (Mark Foley). The proof of all this: Bush’s low poll ratings, which featured in most articles about Bush’s second term. And poll ratings do in fact reflect the effectiveness of one’s propaganda. Democrats did a good job in 2006-08, as the polls demonstrated.

Reason #5: protect the castle. At the subconscious level, it’s all about power. Obama is doing for Democrats what every privileged elite does for itself. He uses every advantage rank provides to keep illegitimate power seekers from seizing what rightfully belongs to the elite. Obama stands for the status quo, the power structure consolidated in the aftermath of Vietnam and civil rights turmoil, rule by the American meritocracy shaped at the nation’s best schools. This national elite faces a dangerous enemy: Republicans who constantly attempt to frustrate good government and try to grab power through market-tested appeals to people’s baser instincts. The enemy is financed by an evil capitalist remnant that never accepted defeat at the hands of Roosevelt’s New Deal, an era which gave birth to rule by the very meritocracy still striving to hold power today.