Krugman on Obama - A Progressive Critique from Daily Kos

Going right to heart of it, this critique from Daily Kos of Paul Krugman's increasingly dispiriting dismissals of Barack Obama describes what I think is the real conflict in the Democratic Party right now: progressive democracy vs. representative corporatism, to coin a phrase.

The argument is that an ostensibly more aggressive health care plan is more corporatist is terms of a philosophy of power, and is a primary division between Clinton and Obama; a more glaring example, in my view, is that Obama makes a return to constitutional control a priority, whereas Clinton has not fought hard to limit executive power. Far from it, on occasion.

Here too, Clinton is arguing only for the substance of policy. Obama is arguing for policy proceeding from much more strongly democratic view of power. In civil liberties this has been my point for some years - as brilliant as the Constitution is, the history shows that when the democratic values of the people are divorced from power, or when the values erode, the law tends hierachical, or now, even fascistic.

Start with the Bill of Rights, and convince Americans through endless concentrations of social, political, and financial power that they have no real voice in their own lives. The result is...mere words.

The core of the cure is revitalization of the democracy, in values, form, and law. The very test of leadership now is to bring Americans toward broad involvement in their government, not merely organizing them for collective adoration of a wise leader and her wise policies.

Obama, I believe, is demonstrating this capability now. His skill has been to locate and touch off the loaded spring of Americans' instinct for active involvement in the democracy.