Among the exchanges in the final presidential debate on Wednesday was one that illuminates a recurring asymmetry in how people align within our two-party politics. McCain challenged Obama to describe an instance where he stood up to the Democratic leadership:
MCCAIN: You have to tell me one time when you have stood up with the leaders of your party on one single major issue.
OBAMA: First of all, in terms of standing up to the leaders of my party, the first major bill that I voted on in the Senate was in support of tort reform, which wasn't very popular with trial lawyers, a major constituency in the Democratic Party...I support charter schools and pay for performance for teachers. Doesn't make me popular with the teachers union. I support clean coal technology. Doesn't make me popular with environmentalists. So I've got a history of reaching across the aisle.
The list is not short for lack of further content. Obama was not popular with civil libertarians when he voted to legalize illegal wiretapping and give immunity to the enabling phone companies. His support for faith-based initiatives does not please secularists. His promise to violate Pakistani sovereignty under certain conditions does not encourage those who oppose invasions (though few such people seem to be around anymore).
In these cases Obama is not crossing the Democratic Party leadership. He's crossing major constituencies of his party's loyal base. That's the asymmetry. Over the summer, Republican social conservatives harangued the McCain campaign for not throwing meat to the bible-thumpers. And now the civilized wing of the Republican party is pushing back against McCain's new eclecticism and Palin's airheadedness. Conservative constituencies stay loud and make demands upon their leaders. The Democratic hordes stay complacent and docile, talking every four years about how this election, this time, is too important to demand more than a lesser evil. It's truly difficult to find mainstream critiques of Obama from his left.
This pattern has stayed true for at least the last 12 years. The long-term implications are difficult to foretell, but the short-term effects will start to take the shape of a string of disappointments, starting within Obama's first 100 days.
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I think this is an excellent time to voice critique from the left. Both personally, as you seem to do hear, but also at a time when the worst of the right is unloading associations of Obama with a mysterious far left.
The truth is that I think he will be far more centrist than he is predicted to be, very much in the same way as Justice Roberts has some what moderated in practice.
I hope what you listed is political gamesmanship rather than true policy offerings.
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