Progressives see President's flaws but overlook his achievements.
by Gary Dorrien
Every week on the lecture trail, I meet progressives who are demoralized and/or infuriated by Barack Obama's performance as president. They insist that they will not work for him again or even vote for him. Many have signed petitions saying as much. They are finished with Obama.
Often they assume that I agree, since I have criticized many of Obama's policies throughout his presidency. But my progressive friends and allies are overlooking three things:
- Many of them played a disastrous role in the 2000 election, preventing the Gore Administration that should have been.
- Their charge of betrayal is exaggerated.
- Obama, for all his temporizing and capitulation, is America's most progressive president since FDR, and electing a more compelling human being to the White House is probably impossible in this country.
America and the world would be better off today had there been a Gore Administration. President Gore would not have invaded Iraq, showered the rich with tax cuts, doubled the federal debt, or let corporate lobbyists devise America's energy policies. The left-liberals who sat out the 2000 election or that supported Ralph Nader had cause to be frustrated with Bill Clinton's legacy and put off by Gore's candidacy. But the differences between the Gore Administration that should have been, and the Bush administration that occurred, were enormous, vastly outstripping the reasons that progressives gave for spurning Gore.