OBAMA’S AGENDA….Matt Ygelsias thinks Barack Obama is more activist than some people give him credit for:
Every time I read Ezra Klein pooh-pooing Barack Obama’s domestic agenda, I feel a bit baffled. He’s running on a platform that promises universal preschool, dramatic cuts in carbon emissions and investments in clean energy infrastructure, health insurance that would be affordable for all, comprehensive immigration reform, substantial labor law reform, large new spending on K-12 initiatives, and tax reform to make the federal code much more progressive overall.
I think that’s a fair point. I’d say that his positions on tax reform (where the public face is primarily an endlessly repeated promise to cut taxes for almost everyone) and immigration reform (which hasn’t gotten much public play at all) have been decidedly understated, but Obama has pretty clearly put himself on the side of big, important reforms in the areas of energy, healthcare and union organizing. (I’m a little less sure about education, where I feel like I sometimes get mixed signals about how big a priority this is with him. But that might just be the luck of the draw in which ads and speeches I happen to have seen.) He’s also committed to withdrawal from Iraq, and so far at least, he hasn’t backed away from that.
No question then: if Obama manages to get out of Iraq and pass significant legislation in the areas of healthcare and energy, and nothing more, that would make his first term wildly successful. If he also adds some serious labor law reform and financial market regulation to the mix, progressives ought to be pretty delirious by 2012.
The only question is, will he do it? The foundations all seem to be there (majorities in Congress, a viable electoral coalition, and a public seemingly open to change), but Obama’s past history, both in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate, is clearly one of caution and tactical compromise. In my case, then, my doubts lie not in whether he has the right policy instincts, but in whether he’s got the temperament to seize the moment, stick to his guns, force recalcitrant committee heads to follow his lead, and get a big agenda passed. I sure hope so, but I think that’s the big question mark, not whether he’s campaigning on the right set of priorities.
