Long ago at Daily Kos, I diagnosed the basic divide in the Democratic Party in particular and on the left in general. It is not Liberal v. Moderate or Conservative. It is Purist v. the Pragmatist (or if your Dana Garrett or Mike Matthews, it is Principled v. Partisan Hacks). It is a divide that arises not from the What, but the How. It suffices to say that, at least among those who call themselves liberals and/or progressives here at Delaware Liberal, we all long for progressive change and liberal policies being advocated at every level of the executive. The Purists among us are alarmed and are critical at what they see as disappointing cabinet choices from President-elect Obama. The Pragmatic among us are either not alarmed at all, or are adopting a wait and see approach.
I think Booman bests describes my view on the cabinet appointments that are so disconcerting to Purists:
When I look at Barack Obama’s big appointments so far I see him making very practical decisions. In leaving Gates in charge of Defense he is covering his flank for a drawdown in Iraq. The decision will delay any major reforms at the Pentagon but the biggest job on his plate is extricating our forces from Iraq. Obama doesn’t want Republicans sniping at every turn as he makes the difficult decisions that will be required. Insofar as the Republicans snipe anyway, their criticism will be less effective and damaging.In putting Clinton in at State, Obama made peace with the strongest rival faction within the party. The foreign policy hawks within the Democratic Party now have a champion that is in charge of diplomacy, and that disarms them.In choosing Tom Dashle for Health & Human Services, he’s picked someone more suited to ushering legislation through the Senate than ideologically suited to fight for progressive change. Howard Dean would probably be a better Health Secretary after a bill is passed, but he would not be the best person to get a bill passed.
In selecting Tim Geithner for Treasury Secretary, Obama has acted to calm the markets and offer reassurance to jittery investors. It’s not clear that Geithner shares, or does not share, Obama’s vision for how to regulate the financial sector, but he is popular and trusted on Wall Street.
I don’t read these tea leaves as sending an ideological message one way or the other. Maybe the lack of an ideological message is a message in itself.
There’s an element of rewarding allies, as Daschle was instrumental in building his campaign and Govs. Napolitano and Richardson provided invaluable endorsements and campaigned hard for him. But all three choices make good, solid sense in their own right. Eric Holder was simply the most qualified Democrat for the job. The fact that he is an African-American is just icing on the cake. Eric Shinseki’s selection at Veteran’s Affairs sent a message about commitment to the well-being of our troops and a reminder about how wrong the Bush administration was in their assumptions about Iraq.
Barack Obama is perhaps the best politician to be elected President in my lifetime, and that includes both Reagan and Clinton, both of whom I would consider great politicians. He is being very Machiavellian in bringing together all the factions that could aid or derail his success as President. He also knows that he must have the backing of the center and the corporate media to have a successful Presidency. Thus in making these appointments he is silencing them as well. Obama is also moving the Overton Window as well in what is being defined as centrist or moderate, and, either knowing or not, the liberal purists who are complaining about his appointments are aiding in that. As Atrios said earlier:
I don’t especially like [Obama’s] people punching the dirty fucking hippies under the bed, but on the other hand if they manage to convince people that Obama is a sensible centrist who wants to do sensible centrist things like build SUPERTRAINS, get out of Iraq, not torture people or invade random countries, strengthen labor protections, reduce income inequality, improve education, provide health care for people, and reduce poverty, while those DAMNED DIRTY HIPPIES just won’t shut up about their magic ponies, it’s fine by me.