SUNDAY, AUG 17, 2014 04:00 AM PDT
Congress is a mess, but that doesn't mean Obama is powerless. Now's the time for change — and here's how to make it
Ted Cruz, Barack Obama, Rand Paul (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson/Yuri Gripas/AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta/Photo montage by Salon)
President Obama is in the doldrums. He has run out of ideas, and out of gas. His strongest supporters are in the grip of a morbid fatalism. There is nothing the president can do any longer, they sigh, because of the intransigent Republicans in the House of Representatives. The great days of the Obama presidency are behind us, everyone seems to believe, and the most this once-promising president can do now are hold convenings and issue small-bore executive orders while awaiting a round of midterm elections that are likely to go against him. Oh, woe is he.
It’s time to snap out of it. Obama is still the most powerful man in the world. The nation still needs presidential action. And the Democrats need action too, if they’re going to avoid disaster this fall.
Last week, I asked around for suggestions, things the Obama administration could do, all on its own, that the Republicans in Congress would be powerless to stop. I heard countless good ideas: Obama could make it absolutely clear to his FCC chairman that net neutrality is the policy of his administration; he could reclassify marijuana so that it is no longer a Class 1 narcotic; he could reform the federal contracting system to discourage outsourcing and promote good labor practices; he could encourage whistleblowers rather than punishing them.
There is also still an opportunity for momentous, headline-making, consensus-shattering deeds. Each of the following three ideas would move the country in the direction Obama has always maintained he wanted to move us—toward accountability, away from inequality, toward a healthy middle class. And each of them is sufficiently big that it might make a difference this fall.
Yes, doing these things would require audacity, but that’s why we elected this guy in the first place. These days it’s either show some boldness—some confrontational cleverness—or resign yourself to killing time for the next two years and hoping President Hillary (or President Huckabee) gets better breaks.
1. President Obama should instruct his Attorney General to start enforcing the nation’s antitrust laws the way Democrats used to do.
Thomas Frank is a Salon politics and culture columnist. His many books include "What's The Matter With Kansas," "Pity the Billionaire" and "One Market Under God." He is the founding editor of The Baffler magazine.
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