Four Ways Obama Can Win Back Liberals – Newsweek

In Newsweek Magazine online today Eleanor Clift has written an article entitled Four Ways Obama Can Win Back Liberals .  He better do something.  He has lost his glow among his staunchest followers and this was one very bad week for progressives in this country!

In another Newsweek article by Jonathan Alter entitled High-Court Hypocrisy we get an insight into what must be done now to move American law back into a position close to where it has been for over a hundred years; i.e. away from Big Money manipulation and back toward the people (voters).

In a CBS.online news piece entitled Obama: “I Won’t Stop Fighting For You” we learn that apparently the moderate Republican who has occupied the White House for the last year has been shaken to his core this week by the fruits of his labor and is coming back to the Democratic Party.  I am not real sure that left wing Democrats like me are happy, relieved or simply too cynical to care now.

You did a lot of damage Mr. President in the past year by refusing to be the Democrat that you told us you are in your campaign rhetoric.  You have a lot of work to do to redeem yourself with us.  You had better believe that!

It appears as if one consequence of the Right wing feasts on the spoils of victory this week that Ben Bernanke will not be confirmed by Democratic Senators to another term on the SEC.  In a CNN. News online article entitled Growing opposition puts Bernanke approval in question it looks as if Democrats are now putting their foot down and demanding that Democrats be placed in these key positions.

Bernanke had a lot to do with bank bailouts.  Democrats are not happy with how the banks have reacted since then, most especially with the huge bonuses being rewarded for “a job well done”  to key players in the Wall Street fiasco of last year.  Stay tuned for a very aggressive Democratic Party agenda to grow out of this week’s right wing victories, which by the way, were massive.

The Republican Party has a lot to be proud of relative to two incredibly massive victories this week.  But now the blowback comes into play.  This ain’t going to be pretty.

Right or wrong, this is how Washington works. 

Obama’s insistence on incredible bi-partisan efforts to work with the GOP has blown up in his face this week.  Well, more seasoned heads in the Democratic Party are now siezeing control of the agenda.  Fair or unfair, this is what is now happening.  And that means that people on the margins of the fight to make the government more progressive and less “business as usual” – people like Bernanke – will be pushed aside. 

It is just how the game is played.

Don’t look for any Democrat to play nice with the GOP in the rest of this election cycle or the rest of the Obama term, however long that may be.  This week was a clarion wake-up call to any progressive in American politics who thought he or she had it all wired.  They did not.  They were asleep at the wheel. 

Get ready for a major course change here very quickly.  I would not be surprised one bit if the Democrats refused outright in any and all fashion to fund any supplemental requests from the White House for these ridiculously expensive wars with no real purpose except to make the wealthy even wealthier.

Like so many things in Washington, the Law of Unintended Consequences comes into play in ways that are not always seen at first light.  Dawn has now broken and the wake-up call that the Democratic Party has so urgently needed has now come crashing into the reality of American life.

Stand by for heavy rolls.  Grab onto something and don’t let go.  The ship of state is going to be rocking and rolling for some time to come from now on.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)