I’m a liberal. I think that’s been made pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain who’s read this blog, but I wanted to put that out there before I get into the meat of this entry. Additionally, it should be equally obvious to anyone who reads this blog that I voted for Barack Obama for president.
Having said that, I just don’t understand what seems to be a growing outcry among liberals that President-elect Obama simply isn’t as liberal as they’d like. There’s a small but vocal group of liberals who seem to have become increasingly nervous and in some cases angry that President-elect Obama hasn’t appointed a Cabinet full of flaming liberals (think Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel). Here’s the “nervous” liberal:
“He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it’s all over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment,” said Tim Carpenter, national director of the Progressive Democrats of America.
And here’s the “plaintive” liberal:
OpenLeft blogger Chris Bowers went so far as to issue this plaintive plea: “Isn’t there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration?”
To be honest, I never bought into the notion that president-elect Obama was or is as liberal as he was made out to be, simply because he strikes me as being too smart to be so inflexible in his beliefs. Is Barack Obama a liberal? Yes. Does that mean he has to be as far to the left as possible? No. The trick to effectively governing a nation like the United States is learning that you simply cannot be rigid and inflexible when it comes to your beliefs. Personally, I like the idea of a Cabinet full of people who may not exactly share Obama’s beliefs on every issue, because I believe dissent – and the discussion that should inevitably follow it – are both healthy and productive.
H/T to Kay over at Blue Racine.
OMG
IF ONLY I’D LISTENED TO P.U.M.A.
Jason, you’re out of luck now. I guess you’re stuck with Barack “Second Coming of GWB” Obama.
I think those PUMA gals are on way too much anti-depressants. I just checked them and No Quarter out today. They scare me. I’ll be surprised if they don’t end up with Ann Coulter as their spokeswoman.
B-b-b-b-but I remember Charlie Sykes and all those conservatives tell me that Obama was the most liberal person. Ever! That he was the second coming of Lenin or something.
Are you saying that the righties lied to us? Gasp!
capper, the righties didn’t lie to you; they just repeated the talking points they were told to share!