Cenk Uygur on How Progressives Can Move Obama To The Left

Uygur’s piece is a pretty good follow-up to what I was talking about earlier in Obama: Powerful and Responsible:

I’m sure Obama is a progressive that would help the average American if he thought he could. But apparently he thinks he can’t. He can only bring them a small amount of change because of what he thinks the system will allow…

The core of Obama is a man who is a cautious politician. That is what he is at his center. He can’t help himself. Asking him to be something else is asking a rock to be a little less hard. He is what he is…

The next time Obama pushes a corporate agenda, progressives have to knock him upside the head. Deny him. Or as the kids would say, send his shit. And make a big stink out of it. Draw everyone’s attention to how far right Obama is and how out of whack he is with the American people.

If that scares you and you start to worry about damaging a Democratic president, you’re never going to win at this game. You’re never going to get the policies you want. They don’t listen to reason, they listen to power.”

I do think he was a little more manipulative than Uygur says, but at the end I know better than to take it personally (though my heart feels different).  And I also happen to agree with David’s assessment that the ‘candidate vs. President’ argument is frankly pretty un-democratic.  But for the most part, I agree with his point- we need to move the center.  I was hoping Obama would do that, but I guess it’s up to us.  More for me!

Peace,
Joel