The recent pivot from the official Clinton campaign and its grassroots supporters toward viewing any and all criticism of President Barack Obama as a fundamental negative is unsettling in many ways. The notion that our political representatives are to be merely venerated, and not consistently pressured, examined, critiqued, spurred and prodded is a recipe for political quietism, and is frankly a dangerous surrender of citizen agency.
If we are not encouraged to fight for what we want and need, what does it mean to be a “fighter” at all? If only political victories are meant to be spoken of and celebrated, what of those who suffer from the defeats? Which solitary and shadow-bound cells are they consigned to in deference to this enforced devotion?
What’s most concerning about this posture that conflates political criticism with betrayal is that it precisely prefigures the role the progressive left is expected to have relative to a future Hillary Clinton administration. We are to stay respectfully deferential and let the experts “get things done”. If what gets done does not meet your definition of “progressive”, well (cough) that’s because our definition is not theirs, and this is simply a matter of perspective. (And if you think this is not a new and very convenient form of triangulation, then you’ve probably forgotten your history.)
The problem is – when progressives lay down arms, things often don’t get done, or what gets done is not at all what you had hoped to see. This seems like such a fundamental of political advocacy, it’s remarkable that it’s lost sight of in the political piefights in primary season. But what’s most interesting, and not a little ironic, is that this is a lesson Bill Clinton absorbed head-to-toe during his presidency, and as President Obama was preparing to enter the office in late 2008, David Sirota and Chris Bowers reminded him (and progressives) of exactly the consequences of premature settling and polite demurral.
It’s really worth reading Chris’ short post “Three Principles for Dealing with a New Administration” all over again (and Sirota’s early 2009 follow-ups, here and here), but I think primary season warriors will find Bowers’ anecdote from the 1993 budget fight most interesting:
Can't stop pushing from the left: I recently heard an interesting anecdote about the 1993 budget fight. While it is probably the most progressive piece of sizable legislation to pass into law in two decades, it was a grueling fight--passing both branches of Congress by a single vote--and it still could have been better. At the signing ceremony, President Clinton found then Representative Bernie Sanders, and told Sanders that he, Sanders, should have made a much bigger public display of how he, Clinton, wasn't giving enough to liberals in the new budget. Such a public display would have provided Clinton more room to maneuver on the left.
The moral of the story is that if no one is criticizing a Democratic administration from the left, then there is no rationale or political space for that Democratic administration to operate on the left. Such criticism is thus even useful to, and desired by, a Democratic administration. If the left stays quiet, it will not be relevant.
The argument of “Make him/her do it” could not be more apt today. Do read the three links above – on some days, I feel like it’s all we should be talking about here.
If the left stays quiet, it will not be relevant.
Repeat that to yourself as koan day and night as folks LOL or STFU you when you point out that the ACA could have been much better, that Obama is deporting too many immigrants and it’s unconscionable there are tens of thousands of children in holding cells at the borders, or that the bankers were let off too easy after the Wall Street bailout, or that the American Syria strategy has been incoherent, US-Saudi relations too cozy, etc etc etc.
You are absolutely right to criticize – that’s exactly your job as a advocate. If the left stays quiet, it will not be relevant.
Campaigns prefigure administrations. That why folks rightly make a big deal about Team Sanders actually paying its interns. If you want an administration that will work to reform the “gig economy”, then it starts with the campaign. If a politician is telling you to be quiet, polite and respectfully deferential today, then don’t expect anything more when s/he is in the Oval Office next January.
Don’t stay quiet. Be loud, be brash, be heard. Be relevant, progressives!