Helping Obama Stand Up To Republcans

                President Obama is a smart guy who understands the issues and what needs to be done.  He might have become the greatest president ever, were it not for the viral condition that has plagued the Democratic Party for decades, but seems to have hit him more than anyone else:  his weakness is his weakness.   When you stop and think about what the Democrats and Republicans stand for, it’s amazing that there is such a thing as the Republican Party.   They want to deregulate the financial industry so that they can steal billions and wreck the economy again as they did under both Bush administrations.  They bust unions, not just now, but going back to the greatest Republican of all, Ronald Reagan, who started his presidency by busting the air traffic controllers union.  They are absolutely fine with allowing oil companies and mining companies to destroy the planet.  They balance budgets on the backs of the working class people, the sick, and college students while protecting tax loopholes for the wealthy.  Yet, they consistently beat up on Democrats, especially Obama; cheered on by the very people they are hurting.  Amazing!

                I don’t know why the Republicans are so strong, and the Democrats so weak.  I do know that the Republicans have proudly staked out their position on the political spectrum as conservatives.  They transmogrified the word “liberal” into something dirty, and the Democrats whimpered along with it.  While John Kerry was running for the presidency, he appeared on the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Stewart pitched him the biggest, slowest softball imaginable, “Are you the most liberal member of Congress?”   It was the perfect platform for Kerry to launch into a response that said, “If being liberal means that I care about the elderly, and the working class people, then, yes.  If it means making a tax code that finally gives a break to working class people, then, yes.  If it means that I want all Americans, and not just the wealthy to have an opportunity to get a great education, then yes.”  He could have said all those things and more and reclaimed the left from a position of strength.  Instead, Kerry’s response was?  Drum Roll please!  “No.”

                Obama elevated the Democratic practice of being weak and not fighting back to an art form. Democrat Joseph Lieberman  supported Obama’s Republican opponent, Jon McCain, and stood quietly with the Republicans while Obama’s character was being assassinated during the election.   When McCain lost, Lieberman crawled back to the Democratic Party.  The word from Obama was that there would be no retaliation for Lieberman’s defection.  First chance he got, Lieberman voted against  Obama’s health care bill.  The tone was set.  No matter what you do to this guy, there will be no repercussions.   

                I have to admit that as a staunch Obama supporter, I tried to rationalize his weakness when it first came out.  I claimed he was being metaphysical, citing Romans 12:20 "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."   Then I realized that scripture was intended for interpersonal relationships, not for the running of the government or of a business.

                There is no need to go on documenting Obama’s weakness against the Republicans.  A mention of the folding on the Public Option on the Health Care bill and the capitulation on increased revenues on the debt ceiling/ budget debate should more than suffice.  The only time Obama has shown any anger, was when he directed it against his own supporters.  For African Americans and other Progressives, this is a one Party system.  The only recourse we have is to either voter Democrat or sit the elections out.  So what can we do about our first African American President consistently wimping out on us?  How can we get him to effectively deal with those big bad Republicans?

                First he needs to establish a cabinet level position of liaison to the Republicans.  Of course he couldn’t call it that.  He could make up some name for it, like Department of Enterprise, Actualization, Taxation and Health, or DEATH!  Next he’d have to find the right person to chair that department.  He’d need someone with executive experience.  The person would have to be plain spoken, where the President is professorial.  Bold where the President is timid.  He’d inspire fear and respect instead of the insolence and impudence that is currently heaped on Obama.  It also would not hurt if he were an African American man.  After all, Obama is the only president in history who does not have a single senior advisor who matches him demographically.  There is one person, whom I know of, who would fit the bill: Suge Knight.

                Knight is known to be a violent thug who works through intimidation.  Normally, those qualities would disqualify him for most positions.  Yet for Obama’s purposes, these qualities are exactly what is needed.  There would obviously have to be some modifications in doing business as usual with Suge on board.  He would be the only cabinet member excused from all cabinet meetings and state dinners, and not charged with informing the president of his actions.  In fact, his job description would include NOT telling the president.  He also might have to be the first cabinet member listed as a foreign national for diplomatic immunity purposes.  Normally that might be difficult, but since they don’t want to believe Barak is an American citizen, it shouldn’t be too difficult to pass Suge off as a foreign diplomat/cabinet member.

Suge would have to be free to hire his own staff members, none of whom would be subject to background checks.  His sole purpose would be to persuade Republicans to be more reasonable in negotiating with the president.  This may all sound a bit farfetched.  But if Suge had been in this position during the debt ceiling/budget debate, I can guarantee that John Boehner would not have come out of it bragging, “I got 98% of what I wanted.”