So how did the White House make mistakes of this magnitude, which have breathed new life into Republicanism and made a Romney administration a possibility?
One factor is the tyranny of money in our nation’s politics. That two administrations — one Republican, one Democratic — bailed out the banks instead of the people on whom they were foreclosing is an outrage that reflects the legalized bribery we call campaign financing. The bottom line for corporate executives is “return on investment,” and the return on Wall Street’s bundling and lobbying has more than made up for the failures of its bundling of toxic assets.
But just as important is the tyranny of timidity. If self-interest and self-righteousness are at the heart of the Republican Party today, cowardice lies too close to the spine of the Democrats. While Republicans show extraordinary hubris by harnessing minority rule on virtually every issue with just the threat of a filibuster, Senate Democrats show extraordinary fearfulness in enabling them. In the past, Democrats spoke openly of poverty, a word seldom heard today even though Americans of every race and color are sharing a rapid descent down the economic ladder. While the president has begun to speak effectively in the past several months about the economic distress of working- and middle-class families, on the major issues he too often uses the bully pulpit to bully the truth.
That was most apparent in the first three years of his administration, but you don’t have to look further than the past three weeks. The nation has experienced climate change firsthand, with Americans witnessing extreme weather, drought, wildfires, floods and harvests destroyed by the scorched-earth policies of the oil and coal industries. But Obama, like his challenger, has simply turned up his air conditioner, refusing to connect the dots between the devastation people can see and the causes they are finally ready to accept.
And a week ago, the nation was in shock after yet another mass shooting, allegedly carried out by yet another troubled young man who had purchased weapons that should not be legal. The first day, Obama and Romney issued the usual comforting platitudes about how our prayers are with the victims’ families. But in its public statements, the White House seemed more concerned with reassuring the National Rifle Association than with giving voice to the desire of a bullet-ridden nation to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens — those who want guns to hunt or protect their families and homes, as well as those who want to go to the movies, church, school or a shopping mall without fear. To his credit, Obama gave a speech Wednesday before the Urban League calling for “common sense” steps to prevent gun violence, although it was long on hope and short on change.
Obama may be reelected by a public that has nowhere else to turn. Perhaps freed of the constraints imposed by having to raise a billion dollars to finance his campaign, he will reveal a true self of which we’ve seen glimmers. One who will speak forthrightly to the American public and be unafraid to take on the perpetrators of economic crimes that have devastated American families; the perpetrators of myths about “clean coal,” which the president instead repeats even as the industry rains fire on America’s breadbasket; or the perpetrators of the record foreclosures on longtime homeowners who have become collateral damage in the war on the middle class.
We can only hope that in his heart, Obama can truly feel the pain, sadness and fear of ordinary Americans, because it’s not hard to imagine that inside the chest of his opponent is a cavity waiting to be filled.
Drew Westen is a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.” He is the founder of Westen Strategies, a consulting firm.
Read more from Outlook:
Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem
Romney’s tax returns, Obama’s birth certificate and the death of trust
Five myths about Barack Obama
Still waiting for our first black president
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