Audacity at last

By Max J. Castro

MIAMI – During the first four years of his presidency, progressives who formed the backbone of the president’s 2008 victory asked themselves whether the real Barack Obama, the fellow with a nearly impeccable liberal track record on issues ranging from torture to the embargo on Cuba, would ever show up.

Fresh from an impressive second win despite very adverse circumstances – four years of high unemployment, a broad, cynical campaign to suppress the votes of likely Obama supporters, and vast expenditures of campaign funds by rich right-wing individuals and groups – in the last few weeks Obama has been giving clear signals that he is through playing the game of the GOP and the right.

The latest evidence of the new approach came last week when the president unveiled an ambitious proposal for reducing gun violence. The breadth of the proposal, which includes among other measures a ban on the sale of military-style assault rifles and ammunition clips holding more than ten bullets as well as universal background checks of all gun buyers, stunned everyone from the elite media to the gun lobby and gun control advocates.

The best sign that the administration is moving in the right direction on this one is the reaction of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the gun lobby’s lead organization, which was apoplectic. The organization’s predictable answer to the latest in a long series of school massacres, which resulted in 26 fatalities, is to install armed guards at every school.

Aside from being an awful commentary on the current state of affairs in the United States, such a policy would contribute much to the bottom line of gun manufacturers, the NRA’s sugar daddies, but would not bolster school safety. A case in point: The most notorious homicidal rampage at a school before the Newtown tragedy, the killings at the Columbine school in Colorado more than a decade ago, took place despite the presence of armed guards.

In Newtown, the murders took place with such speed and precision that armed guards would not have had time to intervene. Even if they had, they would have been badly outgunned by the perpetrator, who managed to pump an average of 13 bullets into each victim.

The NRA’s rage at Obama was evidenced in a new attack ad which accuses the president of hypocrisy for being skeptical about armed guards at schools while his own children are protected by armed guards. It failed to mention that it has been standard operating procedure for more than 50 years for the U.S. Secret Service to provide protection to all members of the first family. Julie Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, recalled receiving such protection while attending school in the 1950s, long before the prospect of terrorists a member of the president’s family hostage could have crossed anyone’s mind.

The NRA’s misfire is understandable when you consider that the organization opposes virtually all gun controls measures while the American public overwhelmingly favors the kinds of measures outlined by Obama. The fly in the ointment is that president can enact through executive order only a few of the items he is pushing for while many of the most significant require Congressional approval. And, to date, most members of Congress have lived in total fear of the NRA. Why? Skittish gun control supporters in Congress believe voters will forgive and forget a vote on guns they disagree with among the thousands of votes cast in Congress but the NRA never forgives or forgets. Its vicious vindictiveness is its ace in the hole.

Obama is also standing up to the Republicans on another key battleground, the fiscal front. In 2011, the GOP blackmailed Obama into cutting popular and vital domestic programs by threatening to allow the U.S. government to default on its debt, which would have caused global financial chaos and plunged the U.S. into a deep recession that would have doomed any reelection hopes.

This time the GOP lacks that political hammer and the president is standing firm, refusing to negotiate on “paying for things Congress has already voted for.” For their part, the Republicans want to hold the economy hostage again in order to continue to subvert long-established programs they have always disliked, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

It’s a game of chicken with incredibly high stakes. This time it looks like Obama won’t blink first and has already devised a plan B if the GOP remains recalcitrant. But one wonders if this bunch of Republicans is willing to take the nation and the world to the brink of disaster for the sake of their odious top-dog ideology just after the voters resoundingly rejected their philosophy.

Finally, as I wrote last week, this time Obama is eschewing half-measures on immigration reform and instead gunning for the whole thing, including what the Republicans abhor most, a path to citizenship for the undocumented. It’s easy to see why Republicans especially hate this component, aside from the visceral xenophobia of the GOP base. It’s a sure bet those millions of new citizens won’t be voting for their party.

I doubt if even Las Vegas would be willing to take bets on what eventually will result from these three battles. One thing is certain, however. For the last four years, it took a lot of effort to take pride in saying “I voted for Obama.” Not today: I voted for Obama, with hope, and at least right now I take pride in saying that.