The "all hands on deck" moment for the Obama administration is emerging now. Ironically, as the president-elect and VP-elect "Amtrak Joe" begin their rail journey from Philadelphia to Washington, it's becoming clear that rail and mass transit will be the poor match girls of the giant Obama stimulus. According to the Wall Street Journal, only $10 billion out of $825 billion would go to rail and mass transit projects.
Meanwhile, most states will line up for their "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects building roads. For example, South Carolina wants more than $2 billion for an interstate through the most rural part of the state. There can be only one reason: to enable sprawl, enrich developers, house builders and land bankers, and hollow out existing urban areas.
Talking Points Memo provides some details on competing proposals, adding:
This is not a small matter. Offering Americans 21st century transportation options is essential not only to providing jobs but to creating the infrastructure to allow us to compete. It doesn't really matter if most Americans blithely motor about in a 1965 transport system, the reality is that we're decades behind most advanced nations, not only in passenger rail but in freight capacity. It is only through providing rail and transit in our congested urban areas and retrofitting some of suburbia that we will be positioned to weather the enormous shock of peak oil and ameliorate global warming (and simply live more civilized lives). These are foundational to a sustainable economy and society. Yet they lack the powerful constituency of big oil, bankers, sprawl barons, etc. that would have us to go bankrupt trying to save the unsustainable.
If Obama will fold on such a basic matter, what does it say about the next four years? He promised to listen. Let's see if he does, and to more than the entrenched interests.
I hope this all a kind of psychological jujitsu whereby Obama defangs the right by merely being nice. On the other hand, if he’s caving in because of his sense of the power fulcrum, then it’s going to be a rough four years.
Political capital is useless unless you spend it. We’re probably not going to transcend arguments and differences as it is even with the best of intentions. At some point, power necessarily trumps feel-good comity. Obama gets that the culture war is, essentially, a ginned-up argument right-wingers used to gain power. But there are some differences that can’t and shouldn’t be papered over.
Transportation is one of those differences. Obama knows our agenda because he’s from Chicago. What he doesn’t know – yet – is the political power of transit advocates. Is this our cue? Gays found out with the Rick Warren invitation that there’s no subsitute for screaming. Urbanists/environmentalists may discover that the hardest work lies ahead. We worked our asses off for Obama and expect some payback. Politics isn’t just lofty rhetoric and manufactured consensus. There are real issues, real differences, real winners and real losers.
I could be wrong, but I think it’s unlikely that Obama is the subtlest, wiliest, political strategist in recent history, amassing political capital and building alliances, all the while waiting patiently for the right moment to pull the rug out from under the political establishment before they have time to realize what hit them.
That would be some magic trick, but in all likelihood, creating expectations of himself as a political “centrist”, among friends and foes alike, would only make it easier to resist progressive political initiatives as an aberration. His opponents would point to all of their cooperation on these “centrist” efforts as evidence of their reasonableness and bipartisanship, coupled with the follow-up “…but I’m afraid I just can’t support this latest (progressive) proposal”.
Frankly, even talk of “caving in because of his sense of the power fulcrum” is a bit kind. In order to “cave in” as a realist you must first do your best as an idealist, right? Whereas it appears that from Day 1 he is going to be following the well-plowed path of Bill Clinton. Not that that’s such a bad thing, following the Bush administration, but it isn’t what was promised, either.
Also consider the fact that in order to implement progressive policies, he has to use cabinet members and advisers willing to carry out such policies. As Mr. Talton has pointed out, in a number of important administrative positions what we see instead are The Usual Suspects.
Personally, I think Obama is beginning to look like an Establishment ringer — a kind of shiny, new model in a bait & switch ad campaign. But hey, it’s a bit early to be so cynical, right? I mean, the guy hasn’t even taken office yet. I’m going to try to remain hopeful and wait and see what develops…
I think y’all have been listening to too much Neil Young. Okay, maybe too much Wagner. I for one intend to squeeze every ounce of joy out of tomorrow’s inauguration. Reality will set in and mistakes will be made soon enough.