Chief spokesman for the left?

Reader comment on: Podhoretz's Provocation

Submitted by Bill Peltz (United States), Sep 28, 2009 03:31

Judging from what I have read, Obama is not seen as any kind of spokesman by most of those who consider themselves to be of "the left". The general position could be phrased in many ways: he's alarmingly centrist; he maintains too much continuity with Bush's policies; he says that he needs to be pushed by "progressives" to make him do progressive things but then objects when he feels that he's being pressured from the left. Issues like Afghanistan, fuzziness on healthcare, and his ties to Wall Street keep coming up.

Note, however, that the words "left" and "right" are inadequate labels. A one-dimensional scale can't do justice to the multi-dimensional world of political opinion. It would be interesting if we could swear off labels for a full year. We'd have to look more closely at what people are actually doing. If we think Obama is really "a leftist", I think we're bound to analyze our situation incorrectly.

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