“The chief characteristic and strength of the submarine is its invisibility due to its ability to submerge. As a consequence, the submarine is distinguished, at the same time, by another special feature, the advantage of surprise. ”
— THE SUBMARINE COMMANDER’S HANDBOOK, 1943 Edition
Andrew Sullivan has an interesting take on the Obama strategy:
Every single symbolic act has been inclusive and sober. From that speech in Grant Park to the eschewal of euphoria on Inauguration Day; from the George Will dinner invite to the Rick Warren invocation; from meeting the House Republicans on the Hill to convening a fiscal responsibility summit; from telegraphing to all of us Obamacons that he wasn’t a fiscal lunatic to … unveiling the most expansive, liberal, big government reversal of Reagan any traditional Democrat would die for.
(more after the jump)
Lets face it, Big O is playing the cognitive dissonance card, hard. He speaks enough like a centrist to garner a constant stream of criticism from the left, then BLAM, a budget Bernie Sanders would envy.
If his political camouflage weren’t confusing enough, he’s moving so fast that it’s difficult for his opponents to mount an effective opposition against any one thing, without letting something else go unchallenged.
Again from Sullivan:
He won the stimulus debate long before the Republicans realized it (they were busy doing tap-dances of victory on talk radio, while he was building a new coalition without them). And now, after presenting such a centrist, bi-partisan, moderate and personally trustworthy front, he gets to unveil a radical long-term agenda that really will soak the very rich and invest in the poor. Given the crisis, he has seized this moment for more radicalism than might have seemed possible only a couple of months ago.
I mean, the big debate is over the budget now – I’m sure the GOP wanted to dig in and undermine the stimulus, but that’s pretty much water under the bridge at this point. Now they have to push back against the budget while Health Care looms – THIS year. The promise of EFCA has inspired the unions, as evidenced in the the awesome “party of no” commercials. This is six weeks into his presidency.
I work with staunch conservatives, and what’s amazing is that I can see a sort of dazed resentment is setting in. They have begin to treat Obama less as an actual opponent, and more like some sort of liberal Hurricane Obama. No longer do they accost me with wingnut-skewed criticisms of this proposal or that, they simply send me charts of the budget deficit – mute symbols of resistance with no actual thrust or point.
If Joe Wingnut is adrift, his political apparatus fares no better. Steele is a caricature of himself. Jindal rendered an EPIC FAIL in front of 50 million people, then flew away to hide in the Magic Kingdom. An unlicensed plumber is a rock star at CPAC.
I suspect the worst thing, from their point of view, is exactly that cognitive dissonance Obama fosters, the jarring disconnect between as ambitious a social agenda as we’ve seen in a generation, and a foreign policy McCain praises. That this Djinn of the Left maintains 60%+ approval ratings must produce a deep bafflement on the Right, I’m sure if we could read wingnut thought balloons {“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?”} would be the predominant specimen.
Along with the obvious schadenfreude, I admit to some concern. I’ve seen my coworkers move from scorn, to anger, to actual fear in some cases. Organized protest assumes utterly ridiculous themes – hundreds turn out for anti-tax tea parties, when the vast majority of those people will be getting a tax cut (no refunds without representation?). Media personalities court sedition and worse. This is not the orchestrated irrationality of Rove and Atwater, this is actual hind-brain survival-mode batshit crazy. The culture war of the Right has turned on them, not in coded symbols and campaign slogans, but in a society that is being remade as they watch. Have the stresses on our idealogical faultlines been larger at any time since the 60’s?
Yeah, I’m worried – but I think Obama understands the tightrope he’s walking. He continues to defy definition – resisting nationalization (SOCIALISM!) until even republicans begin to agree. Oh, it’ll happen, but he’ll be “forced” into it. Cognitive dissonance. Camouflage. Keep up the moderate mask to placate the Center and near Right, while essentially overthrowing the past 40 years of republican influence.
We are up against an ideology that sees Obama – with perfect justification – as a threat to all they hold dear. Open political warfare is out of the question. This is not a battle we will win with battleships, the stakes are too high. We need a U-Boat, running silent and deep.
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