Let the class war begin (did Obama suddenly grow a pair?)

After mulling over Obama’s (surprising? uncharacteristic?) plan to raise taxes on millionaires—and his threat to veto any “Super Congress” budget cuts to entitlements—he can’t really go back on that, can he? He’d be crucified on the right and left, and justifiably so—I must say I feel greatly relieved…

At last the guy is punching back—and hard: The so-called “Buffett Tax” is a well thought out way to drive a wedge between the class alliance strange bedfellows that comprises today’s Republican party. America’s GOP blue-collar workers are about to see EXACTLY what they have in common with the rich.

Well played! (Hint: It’s not money or political influence, but you knew that)

Personally, I’d soak the rich (during the Eisenhower administration, the top tax rate was nearly 90%) and this won’t go nearly far enough for my particular Bolshie tastes, but for a President who has proven himself time and again to be a shitty negotiator, THE WORST, like a bad joke, this was still an impressive move, I thought. A veto threat is the definitive presidential line in the sand. He actually HAS decided to take on the Republicans in the class war (which frankly was his sole option anyway).

In the words of Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post:

At last, the president hasn’t conceded the race before the starter’s gun, hasn’t opened the bidding with his bottom line, hasn’t begun a game of strip poker in his boxer shorts.

Sums it up so far, doesn’t it? For now let’s just hope that Obama isn’t proven by events to have some sort of “bad negotiator” Tourette’s syndrome where he shoots himself in the foot again, nervously blurting out pre-compromises and ceding ground he wasn’t even asked to cede…

For the past three years, it felt like Obama had almost completely abandoned the Americans who had happily voted for him (union members, progressives, greens, African-Americans, Latinos, middle-class Democrats, etc, etc) in favor of some Quixotic effort to woo the most ideologically rigid bunch of Reich wingers to come along in several generations. He could have done so much in his first 100 days and he, I think, fucked it up royally. The Democrats controlled the White House, the House and the Senate. The held all the keys cards, but mostly folded. If there was a strategy, I was unable to discern it and I’m not alone.

It was his own damned fault, not the Republicans. They TOLD Obama that they wanted to see his presidency fail. They told him this straight up and he refused to take that boldly declared statement—as they most assuredly meant it—at face value. What was subtle about the GOP position? It can be summed up in two letters, N and O. How would it have benefited their goals in any way to do or to be seen doing anything bipartisan by their constituency? That would have only served to make Obama more popular and yet nearly every move he made was to cater to them. It’s been maddening to watch. Are his advisers so lame that they can’t parse a statement as simple as “Fuck you, asshole” and take it to its logical conclusion vis-à-vis national politics, then James Carville was most certainly right, they all should be fired. Bill Maher said that Obama could personally save Republicans from drowning and they still wouldn’t vote for him! As Maher repeatedly exhorted the President, it was high time for Obama to “flip the script.”

It was as if over the summer, Obama (finally!) had an epiphany about the Republicans, at long last realizing that they fucking hate his fucking guts. It’s as if he’s been reading Daily Kos, AlterNet and MoveOn, taking to heart what Maher, Carville, Paul Krugman and just about every lefty talking head and blogger has been shouting at him at the top of their lungs and finally decided to DO SOMETHING LIBERAL. For a change.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a great start and if Obama sticks to his guns this time, it’ll be more than that: nothing less than the return of a truly progressive President Obama, the one we voted for and thought showed up for work on Inauguration Day. That man has been curiously absent for much of Obama’s first term, it’s nice to have him back. He made that veto threat and now it’s up to progressives to make sure he lives up to his words, without compromise this time. If Obama lets the base down again, he’s fucking toast, but I think he finally realizes that.

Below, Bill O’Reilly says he might QUIT if Obama raises taxes on millionaires like him. CALL HIS BLUFF, MR. PRESIDENT!