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Neglecting real debate
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President Obama cares too much about what other people think.
President Obama cares too little about what other people think.
Both are true, and this strange partisan paradox has kept the punditry afloat over the last few, dry weeks. Afghanistan still lingers; healthcare reform is still nascent, but now in closed rooms; jobless rates grow and the recovery is still slow; another casual war with Fox News wages on.
It is of course this last bit that is so strange, and has got us talking on TV shows and in columns across the nation. A war with a news channel? It appears so…un-presidential.
A national debate, especially one about an issue as compelling as healthcare reform, which concerns the tension between the role of government and the importance of liberty, should be hard work. What President Obama does about healthcare, or Afghanistan, in some way affects every one of the 300 million people in this country. But the President doesn’t appear to appreciate, or even want to acknowledge, the difficult labor that inevitably occurs during a major policy push.
Thus far, much of the debate has dealt with the legitimacy of anyone opposing healthcare reform. While the President should be, in some respect, valuing the opposition and offering winning arguments, he is instead complaining that his critics get too much airtime on Fox News. Hence David Axelrod's quote that, because Fox News gives these critics airtime, Fox is no longer a “legitimate news organization.”
Regardless of the motivation, this sort of petty whining is far too juvenile for a White House to engage in. It reeks of vanity and disturbingly thin-skinned governance. One isn’t sure which is worse: that the Administration is complaining every time it’s criticized, or that it has revealed in its oversensitivity that it doesn’t really comprehend the power and elegance of the White House leading a debate with the American people.
The lack of confident, refined argument from the White House has led to an especially ironic reality: President Obama has cared so passionately about the existence of his critics he has completely ignored what any of them have had to say. Republicans getting locked out of committee meetings serves as a symbol of the entire state of debate in the Obama era. A closed door precludes even the possibility of conversation.
What is most troubling—disconcerting, really—about this current state of affairs is that the President appears to dislike convincing the American people. He does not like to fight for what he believes in. Contrary to his post-partisan campaign claims, he doesn’t like debate.
And that’s a shame. Leading the American people in a debate over the great issues of our time is an honor and privilege no President should ever neglect.
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