Citizen Change

President-elect Obama has demonstrated that he is more than ready to hit the ground running. The first indicator of this was his selection of Rahm Emanuel as his chief-of-staff. Emanuel is a no-nonsense democrat who has a history of having a liberal approach to politics and hard line approach to bipartisanship. By most indications he is bipartisan as long as the other side agrees with him. Another former Clinton aide, John Podesta is co-chairing Obama’s transition team. Podesta has both White house and Washington experience. With this choice Obama is showing that he wants to hit the ground running and make as smooth a transition as possible in the early days of his presidency.

The real question becomes- for those on the left anyway- how progressive is Obama. Republicans cried all during the election season that this man had the most liberal voting record in all the Senate. Author John K. Wilson, a former law school student of Obama’s who wrote a book about Obama’s political rise, said that fact could be quite misleading. He argues that Obama in the United States Senate tended to vote along party lines a majority of the time, however as an executive Obama is more likely to govern center-left. This means Obama is more moderate than his voting record indicates. He is more a pragmatic thinker who will give earnest audience to both sides of the political discussion. Wilson however, thinks the unique thing about an Obama administration is that those on the left that espouse progressive views can finally be heard sincerely.

That is where the challenge is for progressives. President-elect Obama has not display any willingness to make any major moves to the left politically. However, judging by last week’s election that may just be what many of his supporters were asking for. All indicators suggest that Wilson was correct in his assessment that progressives can get the attention of Obama and move him in a way that they want him to go. Every president has particular interest groups that he responds to. This is not new to Washington. Andrew Johnson was influenced by former Confederate officials thus leading to him vetoing several Civil Rights bills and ignoring key phases of Reconstruction, Franklin Roosevelt was moved by progressives to enact the most expansive government programs in the nation’s history. Lyndon B. Johnson’s ear was had by many prominent Civil Rights leaders, and most recently George Bush has been ready, willing and able to give audience to “big business”.

What all this means is that progressives must be pro-active while they have a president who is willing to hear them out. An Obama administration seems the most likely to be attentive to progressives since Lyndon B. Johnson. The key is that progressives approach the administration with clear strategy and attainable goals. Groups with progressive causes need to be ready and able to articulate their needs to a listening Obama Administration and be prepared to show the administration where their help is needed. If they can do this, it seems likely the administration will be an asset to their cause. Evidence of this is when President-elect Obama met with NBA star Baron Davis. Davis who was troubled about the lack of educational opportunities and resources for inner-city kids asked the then Senator would an Obama administration do anything to give these kids a better opportunity. Obama’s told Davis to make sure the inner city children were prepared to take advantage of resources when they came the children’s way.

In all of Obama’s soaring rhetoric there was one phrase that was the key to his engine of change. He would say “we are the change we have been waiting for.” This was not merely a throw away line. Instead it was Obama tapping into his inner Kennedy for a modern day “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” With this line, Obama put the responsibility of change back on the citizens. For those progressives who campaigned relentlessly for Obama during the election season, he was talking to you. Obama knew his administration wouldn’t necessarily introduce sweeping legislation that would delight progressives everywhere, but what he would do is what founder of the Political Education and Action Committee Chigozie Onyema said and “get out of the way” of progressives who were seeking to make meaningful and significant change. That in and of itself is more than George Bush was willing to do in the last eight years. So the onus is on the citizens. Whatever change that does or does not come will be because either the common people of the nation got aggressive and made their demands a reality, or voted in record numbers and then lost interest in civic engagement. Allowing things to remain politics as usual.