******************

On this morning’s thread, mzilla posted this comment:

Well, maybe tonight’s speech will mark a turning point, and maybe it won’t.

But I’m curious, Andy – we’re spiraling the drain, and the hour is late. If Obama just can’t pull it together, what is Plan B?

That elicited from me the following response:

***********************

Good question, mczilla, about the Plan B.

On a recent thread, a comment was posted that denigrated the focus –here on NSB, and presumably elsewhere– on Obama. I recall there being some remark about “the great man theory of history” (or something like that), as if it were some childish notions or emotional needs that drive the concern about Obama and the kind of leadership he is providing and will provide the forces that brought him into office.

That critique I reject. It does not take some general “great man theory of history” to recognize that in SOME circumstances, much depends on single individuals. This seems like one of those circumstances.

If these were normal political circumstances in America, one could imagine a variety of means by which necessary poilitical goals could be reached. But with the darkness that possesses today’s Republican Party –and has done so for at least this past decade– there is a need to do battle and to prevail over those forces.

Given the nature of the battle –conducted through the framing of issues, the process of informing or misinforming the public, the constant attacks from the right and the counterpunching (or lack of it) from the object of the attacks– I can not see any effective way that the forces that SHOULD prevail CAN prevail in the absence of Obama’s leading and coordinating an effective battle plan.

I’d like our critic with the “great man theory of history” jibe to present us with some plausible alternative scenario about how THIS Democratic Party can conduct the present political battle with THIS Republican Party and can prevail. The minority party can have its powerful spokesmen, but everyone –the media, the people, the members of the party– looks to the White House to be the voice of the party, and to call the troops to battle.

THere are other ways –besides with Obama’s leadership, and within the next several years– in which the battle can ultimately be won. But for the next several years, the advance of truth over the Culture of the Lie, of decency over ruthlessness, of constructiveness over sheer power-grabbing depends on this president adopting and properly executing a suitable strategy for battle.

************

Added, starting 1:21 PM EST

It does not have to be in TODAY’s speech that Obama declares war in return for the dark war that’s being waged against him. But I will be very worried if there’s not even a shot across the bow, however subtle. He did that in his September speech about health care, and so he knows how to do it. So far, though, I’ve not heard any indication that he’s got some zingers hidden in his speech.

Actually, here’s how I’d advise him to do the zingers– the opposite of providing advance notice. In the morning, when the speech goes out, there is no great zinger. But while he is delivering the speech, he seems to improvise a line where he zings the Republicans for the kind of opposition they’ve been. “America needs a better opposition party than one that puts first priority on making the nation’s president fail, for political gain, rather than working together to meet the great challenges our nation now faces.”

That way, the Republican who responds will not have had a chance to prepare to respond to that, and will instead have composed a response which reflects the very negativity that Obama had zinged: the Republicans are sure to just shoot and attack and criticize, not talk about working together.

Let the nation here that “improvised” zinger, and then hear the Republicans demonstrate how true Obama’s charge is.

***************

This should follow an earlier part of the speech where the president reaches out to the Republicans in an inviting way, not only picturing but embodying the spirit of constructive collaboration. That can be REAL and can be conveyed to be real.

And then the zinger, which adds something absolutely vital to the picture: the president’s approach to bi-partisanship is going to have a stick to go with the carrot. He’s going to punish them for behaving badly, not just invite them to behave well. THere will be a price paid.

The president has now declared war back upon evil. That is precisely what Obama’s main job is: It is to make war against evil. Evil is of such a nature that there’s no other good way of dealing with it. There will be nothing good built together, not with what evil seeks. It does not value constructive achievement with the use of power; it values only power to get more power and wield it without regard.

If the president accepts that role, he will succeed as America’s leader. If he does not, he is crippling himself. He limps and staggers to his achievements, accomplishing far less than he’d hoped he would, and losing ground because evil is taking its toll. It must pay a price. It must be stopped.

Otherwise, the president isn’t really doing his job.

The fundamental thing that must be understood about what’s happening in America is that there is this enormously powerful evil force loose upon the land. It manifested in the Bushite presidency. It is manifesting now in the purely destructive approach of the Republicans. And perhaps the economic breakdown cannot be understood without understanding the influence of this powerful evil spirit powerfully molding America.

Our politics are now an arena in which pure evil is gaining considerable expression. That has not often been true in American history. Not like this. NOt a presidency so lawless nor an opposition so purely negative and obstructionist.

This is a major crisis in American history. ANd it is a crisis about evil. Take away that evil component –in the Bush regime, in today’s Republican opposition– and everything changes. It is completely different: we do not debase our democracy, and we do not act ugly in the world, and we play by the rules and moral customs of our system.

The battle against evil is the core thing about this moment in American history. Everything else is just a means to that end. We need good health care reform just as much as a way of demonstrating that we can create good things to meet our national challenges as we do for health care itself.

Worse than the sickness of the people, these days, is the sickness of the realm of power in America. That is the battle that must be fought. That’s what Obama has to understand –and to act as if he appreciated its importance– that beating that evil is the heart of his job as president at this time.

This crisis goes even deeper than the economic crisis those evil powers managed to leave the next administration with.

**************

4:42 PM

“This should not be about partisan politics,” Obama should say tonight, “this should be about how do we –together– work to meet the great challenges that America now faces.”

*********************

I do not expect Obama to go on the attack tonight anything like as boldly as my zinger gambit would have him do. That could be OK. I can be OK with some more subtle thrusts with the rapier without going for the coup de grace. Just SOME sign that he’s decided that fighting those who are making unrelenting war on him is what he plans henceforth.

*********************

The thing I like about that line I proposed for Obama, as a lesser zinger (“This should not be about partisan politics, this should be about how do we –together– work to meet the great challenges that America now faces”) is that the words do not constitute an accusation, but the accusation can be conveyed by tone, by a look in the eyes, and it becomes a more slippery thing for the opposition to complain about, and leads attention to the principle that’s pronounced (meet challenges yes, play politics no), which leads also to looking at that question regarding how the Republicans have been behaving themselves.

The more they make it an issue, with the subtle implication the act of criticizing does not become the center of attention so much as the question of whether the shoe fits, and the Republicans should wear it.

****************

10:50 PM

The president has given his State of the Union. It did touch on the issue of the nature of the opposition, albeit more gently and uncondemningly than I advised. (When he was even-handed in that wimpy liberal way, of talking like both parties are equally guilty of creating the division and acrimony, it really bugged me: this situation is very much NOT symmetrical.)

This speech may either lay a good groundwork for his doing what he needs to do –in revealing the evil of the spirit of the Republicans as they show it in the weeks to come– by dramatizing to the American people his readiness and desire to get both parties together to meet the nation’s challenges; or this speech could just be leading to a repeat of what happened last year, with a great reaching out by Obama, followed by Republican obstructive and destructive tactics from which they gain political power at Obama’s expense.

The key question remains unanswered: Has Obama learned anything from his mistakes of last year regarding how he let them get away with ill-gotten political gains, by failing to call out their dark doings when they do them? Time will tell. I still worry.