I was really irritated by this post by Yglesias yesterday, taking a rather sanguine view of the possibility of the Republicans recapturing the House of Representatives. Basically, he characterizes it as an almost inevitable return to normality after the 2008 election, and a development that will not result in earth shattering change, i.e. the Republicans will not be able to dismantle the social welfare state, such as it is in the United States.
I was struck by the mechanistic and passive view of politics that this represents -- the notion that things will inexorably return to some sort of equilibrium in the political system and that a roughly 50-50 gridlock inducing split is inevitable. Of course Yglesias has also expressed satisfaction that the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is essentially the end of the project of creating the American welfare state. I guess if one has such a constrained view of what our ambitions should be then maybe it isn't such a big deal.
I would beg to differ in a pretty big way, both from a policy and historical/political perspective. First, from a policy perspective, the welfare state in America is pretty threadbare. Although PPACA is a substantial legislative accomplishment, it has not brought about universal coverage, it does not have a truly effective cost containment scheme, and it perpetuates our vastly inefficient, mind-bogglingly complex health insurance system. Moreover, it is likely to come under fierce attack by the GOP in any congress in which they control one or both chambers. But putting aside PPACA's flaws, the list of basic social welfare benefits that Americans do not enjoy in contrast to their European counterparts remains pretty staggering, from paid maternity/paternity leave to mandatory leave for illness to mandated vacation time to a meaningful right to belong to a union to government provided day care/pre-school. This doesn't even touch upon having sane energy/environmental/transportation policies or a political landscape where civil and reproductive rights aren't under constant attack. Lastly, it completely ignores the desperate need to find a different paradigm for the conduct of foreign policy and the societal resources devoted to war-making as the default mechanism of pursuing U.S. interests in the world.
In short, anyone devoted to a liberal/left vision of the U.S. would necessarily see the Obama Administration as a starting point for realizing that vision, not the culmination of it. The 2010 elections should have been an opportunity, like 1934 (where the Republicans lost seats despite having sustained devastating losses in 1930 and 1932 -- they lost an additional ten Senate seats and had their caucus reduced to 25, and they lost an additional fourteen seats in the House binging their number to a stunning 103), where the gains of 2006 and 2008 were built upon, not one where devastating losses were incurred.
Most of all, following the unalloyed debacle of the Bush years, the opportunity was present to begin shifting the Overton Window to the left, laying the groundwork for a meaningful move away from the reflexive worship of both free markets and the use of force as cornerstones of American politics.
As I have noted before repeatedly, progressive epochs in the U.S. have been difficult to sustain. But the New Deal consensus basically maintained its sway in this country for forty-eight years. We should be looking to fuel a movement of significant political and social change over the next decade, one which can then be consolidated and maintained for a generation. Instead, we find ourselves battling the most reactionary slate of candidates assembled on the national scene in my lifetime, many of whom have a decent chance of becoming members of the "world's greatest deliberative body." This should not be met with a shrug, when it fact it is a calamity.
Again, I waited for my entire adult life for an election like 2008. To see its possibilities squandered and prematurely quashed is a pretty devastating thing to contemplate. We cannot passively accept such things as inevitable and we sure as shit need to have a more compelling vision of the future than seeing PPACA as the culmination of our collective ambitions.
