This event provided group therapy for community organizers and Obama supporters looking for a way to reaffirm their dedication to hope and change. It was not only a chance to unify around the need for jobs, education, environmental protections and clean energy, immigrant rights, college affordability, etc. but also a chance to reclaim history and, one month later, send a message to Glenn Beck and the Tea Party that they would not be allowed to pick and choose who the real Americans are because America is a nation of immigrants and everyone who is in this country has a right to a pathway to citizenship.
Many of the speakers made sure they addressed this dominant media narrative that there is some kind of "enthusiasm gap" among liberals and Obama supporters. People are dissatisfied, but they do not want to make it harder for Obama to his job by offering up criticisms or demands. Liberal institutions and much of the grassroots present were there to raise doubts about the existence of any kind of "enthusiasm gap."
None of the speakers really bothered to address how Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Vice President Joe
Biden, President Barack Obama and others have been attacking progressives for
"whining" and being petulant and unrealistic, who have raised expectations for
the Obama Administration most of them helped elect in 2008. Few in the audience
bothered to address how they are victims being abused--that they are dealing
with a dilemma that battered wives often run into. Not much was said on how they were going to gain respect for the vision they have for America.
The prospect of this rally impacting "the game" now depends greatly on whether the people start to ask questions, whether they choose to make demands, whether they come here today and they hear about the issues that are being talked about and in the back of their head they start to think there is an issue with how the Democrats and President Obama have not been responsive to the people.
Unfortunately, an opportunity was likely squandered in
the same way the Obama Administration has squandered opportunities for
significant progress. It is hard to say what demands the organizers are going
to make on Obama. There was a vision, but what is a vision without a connection
to realities in Washington?
It seems like all this event did is give Democratic Party politicians and strategists a chance to see what principles and ideas are currently important to Democratic Party supporters. And, it is likely liberals and progressives find themselves at another rally like this in the future, re-affirming commitment to issues that do not have definitive specifics on how to get government to act, because demands with consequences attached were not issued for the Administration.
I very much wanted to walk away with a positive outlook. But, I am not one to delude myself when uncomfortable truths lie in plain sight. That's not a claim to be holier-than thou or an expression of purism. The event does not mean all is hopeless; many there clearly were looking for a way out and came dissatisfied and afraid. They need leadership from progressive or social movements in this country.
They're counting on bold people to step up and take the
lead. They want the progressive movement to step it up, be decisive, and be more organized.
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