The “Populist”

Obama is a disappointment. He’s too cautious, too obliging, and too pragmatic. The young president fell victim to his campaign, which fired up voters’ expectations. But he has also gotten bogged down in his ideal of a government that, whether dealing with Wall Street or the Republican Party, favors compromise over the smallest confrontation. He still believes in the illusion of a post-partisan world, even with all evidence to the contrary, and still tries — in vain — to reach agreements with the opposition. For years, the Republican Party has walled itself away in an island of ideological extremes, which brands the State and the body politic as the enemy. How else could Newt Gingrich, a dirty, rotten, racist, incoherent scoundrel, emerge as a viable candidate to rival Obama on Nov. 6?

In his most recent State of the Union address, it seems that Obama has finally grasped that he must appear more aggressive if he has any hope of re-election. He has chosen to be a “populist,” a word that lacks the negative connotation in the States that it has in France. The president drew upon his rhetorical skills, which have saved him in the past, to lay out his plan for the upcoming campaign and a possible second term. He styles himself as the savior of the middle class, fighting against the millionaires and big banks. He claims to be close to raising taxes for the richest Americans, who have, so far, largely avoided high tax rates. And he argues in defense of the real economy, which creates actual jobs, as opposed to the destructive world of speculation. Perhaps, here, we can see a link from France’s Main Street direct to Washington.