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One Foot In Front of the Other

by Scott H. Payne

There has been a strain of defeatism that seems to be running through the left side of the blogosphere following the Brown win in Massachusetts that is reasonably well captured by this Daily Dish reader who says, “I’m done.” To his credit, Andrew Sullivan himself is, despite some pretty persistent gloominess, telling people not to give up,

For what it’s worth, I’m not. And for what it’s worth, I beg you not to be.

With a couple days perspective under his belt, Andrew offers the following analysis (emphasis mine),

My sense is that Obama understands that his core responsibility as president is not being a partisan figure. That’s what he ran against in many ways. And I think he sees all this in terms of eight years. He is gambling on democracy working over time, on the president setting the general direction but allowing the Congress and the public to decide how fast and how specific they want to get. He always said he wanted to be the president of the red states and the blue states. His major problems right now are a) an apoplectic and incoherent opposition that feels it is doing something by randomly harnessing populist frustration in a recession and playing the Rovian politics which is all they know and b) a useless bunch of disorganized morons and cowards who make up the Congressional Democrats.

But he’s still by far the best thing we have going for us. And this struggle has just begun. Politics is not magic; it’s not a one-off event. It’s a process of grueling argument, tussling and debate. And the deeper truth is: many Independents who are ornery right now like Obama. His decency and civility and reason are plain to see. And so this is his moment as well. To be the anchor in a turbulent time and to keep making the arguments for necessary reform.

I’m with Andrew in terms of rejecting the notion of “politics as magic”, but I can’t help feeling like his own unwavering belief in Obama is, to some degree, underwriting the very, “I’m done” defeatism he begs his readers not to give in to.

Some folks might have seen my buyer’s remorse post of yesterday as just such defeatism in action. I disagree. It’s not so much that I don’t belief in Obama anymore, as much as it is that the past year has pretty strongly disabused me of the “politics as journey to the promised land” conception that catalyzed much of my belief in Obama.

Not only do I agree with Andrew that politics is a, “grueling argument, tussling and debate,” I’m of the opinion that this is all politics ever has been and all politics ever will be — and that is okay. In fact, it’s great.

The idea that Obama can somehow be a non-partisan President is to, in my mind, hold on to a back-door version of the promised land theory of politics. If only we elected the right person to be President. If only we elected a responsible Senate and Congress. If only we had politicians who saw politics as more than just fighting, we could get beyond all these intractable issues and figure out how to make this country work.

Except that, the practice of politics is that fighting. Politics is partisan insofar as you have different people with different perspectives engaging in debate about whose perspective makes the most sense in a passionate manner and trying to figure out what, amongst those various perspectives, to do about a variety of issues. If you take that away, I’m not sure what you’ve got left.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, politics is a messy affair. To pretend otherwise is to strategize and analyze on the plane of an imaginary tea party for you and your friends. So if you want to be engaged in politics — and I think there are many, many reasons to want that — then I think you need to have the courage to be honest with yourself about what it is that you’re choosing to engage in.

You need to reconcile yourself to the fact that as soon as you lift political discourse beyond the back and forth of post-Vietnam boomer culture wars, there will be a whole new set of dynamics, a whole new host of issues, and a whole new battlefield of wars to be fought. The process goes anon and either you accept that that is the process or you’re never really participating in the first place.

Which is not to suggest that things don’t get better and that progress isn’t achieved. Indeed, the entire point of the process is about achieving a certain modicum of progress. But it is to acknowledge that part of that process is a debate about precisely what constitutes progress, so our ability to track progress is under constant negotiation until such a time that, every once in a while, a consensus builds around a particular issue due to exhaustive debate — like, say, racism and civil rights, at least in most sane company.

And that process, messy as it is, is a worthwhile process in which to engage. We can do some good by it, even if it seems particularly hopeless at times. This is, I think, a mature understanding of politics. It seems to be what Andrew keeps reaching for through Obama and never quite grasping with both hands.

At the end of the day, we come to the realization — which, while not awe inspiring, is real and concrete and motivating — that while there is no path to the promised land, there is always more path.

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Tags | Andrew Sullivan, defeatism, obama, partisanship, promised land, really real realism

12 comments

1 North { 01.21.10 at 1:31 pm }: Exactly, and that means Obama needs to descend to earth and get his goddamn hands dirty. He needs to decide what he’s going to do and he needs to do a heck of a lot more than give an articulate interview where he appears to have all the attatchment to the issue of a political analyst. Maybe Obama doesn’t care if HCR passes, he claimed he did in his campaign but maybe he was lying, but if he wants to get it done he’s going to need to take a page from his primary opponents book and get to work. He needs to head for the house and knock some heads together until the peabrains rattle and push that wretched jalopy of a HCR bill they cobbled past the finish line. Pelosi, wonder of wonders, actually seems ready to back him up on this. If he puts a little of his Obama word magic into service of the cause his left wing will fall in line. He’s probably going to have to lay some severed heads on the doorsteps of some moderates but the legislation remains eminantly doable.
2 Joe { 01.21.10 at 2:34 pm }: Also, Andrew is in love with Obama and will rationalize anything he does.
3 Mark Thompson { 01.21.10 at 2:37 pm }: I’ve got nothing to add to this, Scott. Well done.
4 Jaybird { 01.21.10 at 3:27 pm }: Yes, compromise.

Politics *IS* the art of the possible, after all. We need to be reasonable about what can, seriously, be accomplished. Certainly, there are things we all care about that need to be back burnered for a while. We need to focus on those that are quite achievable with a little bit of elbow grease. You have to learn to be somewhat more realistic with what you expect from the government. To be sure, the ship of state does not turn quickly.

Now just sign here, here, here, initial here, and sign here.
5 Roque Nuevo { 01.21.10 at 6:42 pm }: Sullivan engages in the most scurrilous name-calling against Obama’s political opponents and yet he’s supposed to be a Hope N’Change supporter? What’s this about “randomly harnessing frustration?” The frustration isn’t random at all. It’s just the opposite: it’s focused on the health care debacle and government spending, etc etc. What about the “Rovian politics?” What on Earth is that supposed to mean? Negative politics? That just won’t stick to Brown. Is it the politics of “divide and conquer? Well, as you say, that’s how politics is done, always and everywhere. Sullivan is beyond pathetic.

As for the Brown victory, I may just believe in god, or something like god, after this. First, in November, some unknown and heroic hacker publishes 61mb of information that discredits the global warming movement just in time to save us from the massive government intervention called “cap n’trade.” Then, in January, Scott Brown comes out of nowhere and defeats the health care debacle and in the process shows the world that the emperor has no clothes, i.e., shows that Hope N’Change is the mush that I always knew it to be.

How can this happen? What’s the explanation that two of the Obamamama’s so-called signature issues were cut down by lone cowboys riding in off the plains? The nation was saved, for now, by these lucky events. Or were they lucky? Maybe there’s a reason that so many people out there insist on “clinging” to their Bibles… maybe god exists and he’s pulling the strings for us somehow.

Trizzlor
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:04 am
Yes, it’s miraculous that the two issues of the day most fiercely opposed by mega-corporations are blocked just at the last minute by fresh-faced, well funded outsiders. In the immortal words of St. Collins, Get on your knees and start paying.
6 Kevin Carson { 01.21.10 at 9:20 pm }: My guess is that the liberal blogosphere’s defeatism is not of a piece with the Democratic caucus’s defeatism, but is sparked by disgust with the latter. A lot of the Democratic base are probably close to deciding that there’s no conceivable Democratic majority large enough to make the Democrats in Congress stop rolling over and showing their bellies like whipped dogs. Through most of the second half of 2009, Baucus and Reid delayed the process in hopes of getting Republican buyin, even when the latter said–in so many words–that they had no intention of voting for the bill no how many concessions the Democrats made. If the Dems had a 99-seat majority, their attitude would still be “Maybe if I keep giving him my lunch money he won’t hurt me.” They’re a bunch of pussies. There’s absolutely no point in Democrats even trying to work through the electoral process, because their “leaders” will always find some way to betray them and pull defeat from the jaws of victory, every single time.
7 Kevin Carson { 01.21.10 at 9:21 pm }: BTW, it could be that Obama is already thinking past a GOP sweep in November, and switching into full Clinton-Morris triangulation mode.
8 North { 01.22.10 at 5:45 am }: That seems within the realm of the possible Kevin, but if he does he’ll deserve it if his disillusioned base abandons him and hangs him out to dry in 2012.
9 John Henry { 01.22.10 at 8:15 am }: I suppose it’s a little easier for Andrew than other Democrats, though. Andrew is the rough political equivalent of a Bulls-Cowboys-Yankees Fan in the ’90’s. Unless the issue is SSM, he jumps on the bandwagon of whoever’s ahead (Bush in the early aughts, Obama in the late aughts) and declares that anyone who disagrees with him is immoral/cowardly/nihilistic. He’s more of an Obamacrat than a Democrat (despite Obama’s inexplicably cowardly refusal to get rid of DADT, but that’s another story).

Health care reform is hardly a core conviction of Andrew’s, whereas for most Democrats it’s basically the holy grail. For them, this is the equivalent of a coach down six in the Super Bowl inexplicably deciding to kick a field goal and try an onside kick rather than go for it on 4th and goal from the 1. For Andrew, it’s just another regular season game, and he finds the coach inspiring for some reason, so he’s not that disappointed. For the real fans, though, it’s devastating.
10 John Henry { 01.22.10 at 8:27 am }: Oh, btw, very nice post on how we should approach politics. To me, Sullivan is basically the antithesis of the approach you describe (in particular, he seems romantic, impatient, and prone to using name-calling as a substitute for argument), but I suppose reasonable people can differ about that.
11 JosephFM { 01.25.10 at 7:59 pm }: Damn right, Scott.

That’s why I keep at it no matter how crappy things get. I like the fight as much as the progress that may or may not come out of it depending whom you ask.

Meanwhile, though, it sucks for the losers.