Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumObama as the anti-Reagan
The Morning Plum: Obama as the anti-Reagan
Posted by Greg Sargent on January 24, 2013 at 9:17 am
Little by little, its sinking in that Obamas inaugural speech has the potential to be a turning point in American history, one akin to Ronald Reagans inaugural address in 1981, in which he declared: Government is not the solution to our problem; it is the problem. That speech did more than articulate the conservative philosophy of governance; it was a declaration of ideological victory, a proclamation that the nation had opted for a new ideological direction.
Obamas speech was every bit as ambitious, recasting progressivism in the eyes of the nation, declaring that the country has opted for a fundamentally new philosophical and ideological course. In a must read, E.J. Dionne explains:
Like Reagan, Obama hopes to usher in a long-term electoral realignment in Obamas case toward the moderate left, thereby reversing the 40th presidents political legacy. The Reagan metaphor helps explain the tone of Obamas inaugural address, built not on a contrived call to an impossible bipartisanship but on a philosophical argument for a progressive vision of the country rooted in our history.
The key to Obamas argument, as Ed Kilgore points out, is that he made the long lost liberal case that collective action is necessary to the achievement of individual freedom, instead of implicitly conceding that social goals and individual interests are inherently at war. Indeed, Obama himself put it this way: Preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.
Crucially, Obama presented this idea as the philosophical underpinning that unified all of his specific policy proposals, from the vow to combat climate change, to the push for equal pay for women, to the fight for full equality for gay Americans, to the need for voting and immigration reform. He cast inequality and the unfairness of the unfettered free market as threats to freedom, i.e., the freedom to pursue happiness. And this goes beyond the Inaugural: Remember, in his speech laying out his proposal for action on guns, he cast gun violence as a threat to the freedom to pursue happiness within a civil society.
more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/24/the-morning-plum-obama-as-the-anti-reagan/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 895 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (7)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Obama as the anti-Reagan (Original Post)
babylonsister
Jan 2013
OP
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)1. One of my arguments for a single-payer healthcare system
was that it would free people up to leave jobs they disliked to start their own businesses and to take risks to create something new. In the past, a person with a family might just have to suck it up and endure a job they disliked because they feared losing their health insurance if they went out on their own. By removing that worry, you're increasing the freedom of a person to choose the path they want in life.
Cal33
(7,018 posts)2. Yes. It does make sense.