Successful passage of the stimulus bill—check. Passage of the housing bill—check. High approval ratings across the board—check. Bipartisan consensus—still working on that. Despite his early legislative accomplishments, President Obama is still in pursuit of Republican support. Although his conservative colleagues don’t appear to be rallying behind him anytime soon, average citizens are.
As a candidate, Barack Obama preached a great deal about the importance of Democrats and Republicans putting aside their ideologies and settling on a common goal. But how can the President convince those whose views are diametrically opposed to his own? There is no hope of consensus on matters relating to the economy, health care, or the environment when the (predominantly Southern) Republican Party insulates itself with an ultra-conservatism mandate, leaving a handful of relatively open-minded politicians to fend for themselves.
While assembling the largest stimulus package in the nation’s history, the President stuck to his campaign rhetoric and consulted numerous members of the Republican caucus. They proposed a lone measure that was tried, tested, but wholly untrue: tax cuts. Granted, President Obama did include this measure in his economic platform during his campaign, but his capitulation to the Right’s demands during the crafting of this bill produced a final sum that, according to some economists, may not be sufficient to lift the economy out of the dumpster.
Despite a few setbacks, the President’s drive to win over the opposition was apparent last night when he made a televised formal address to Congress outlining his domestic policies. Injecting some much-needed confidence into the American psyche, he drew enormous applause from Democrats. But when the stimulus bill was mentioned, only three Republicans stood up to cheer—the three that voted in favour of the bill. The remainder of the caucus was noticeably stoic and unresponsive. Instant public surveys concluded that the President’s approval ratings had increased, and that the public’s reception to the speech was positive. On the other hand, the Republican rebuttal, presented by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, called for no interventionist policies, but rather—you guessed it—more tax cuts. This oft-recycled counterargument is weak, and according to the American citizenry, fully repudiated.
The President has made his case to the public. He’s taken his stimulus tour on the road to some of the most affected cities in the country, and like a good salesman dressed in a spiffy suit, pitched his plan to those who would listen. They liked what they heard, and thanked him with impressive performance ratings. The philosophical divide in Washington is too great for any elected official to abolish overnight, but with the numbers on his side, President Obama can use popular support as a launching pad for more progressive policies, with or without the Republican thumbs up.
