Obama and Wisconsin: No Need for a Balancing Act

The surprising strength and stamina of the protests in Wisconsin are galvanizing Americans. People will rally in all 50 state capitals this Saturday, an amazing demonstration of support for those on the streets in Madison as well as for the importance of respecting working Americans across the country. This is the sort of energy many on the left haven’t felt since the election of 2008, when throngs of enthusiastic supporters poured across the land in support of the audaciously hopeful candidate Barack Obama.

President Obama has elicited a different reaction from those same supporters. While he’ll be cheered for Wednesday’s decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, progressive detractors will complain it took him too long. His contagious charisma of the campaign turned into confounding compromise as he began to govern, and his bipartisan balancing act has frustrated many of us.

The conventional wisdom is that this Wisconsin moment puts him in a squeeze between his support for unions and his desire to please deficit hawks with harsh budget cuts. After all, as protesters gathered in the streets of Madison, the president was proposing his own array of tough love measures, from slashing community development block grants to reducing support for heating subsidies for poor families. Could the president support the workers without looking weak on budgetary concerns?

The short answer: yes, he can. This surge of protest actually puts the president in a clear position.

At a time when he’s calling for investing in America — the theme throughout his State of the Union — he has an opportunity to side with the workers who support that agenda.

At a moment when “jobs, jobs, jobs” are the top three priorities of every politician, he can cast his lot with the organizations that fight for decent jobs with respect and security.

Alternatively, he can side with the banks whose bailout-backed profits aren’t changing the economic outlook of regular Americans, and big business, which benefits from the cheap workforce of high unemployment and non-unionized labor.

In Wisconsin, he can voice support for the unions who have already offered concessions to meet current budget gaps. Or he stand with a governor whose objective isn’t a balanced budget, but a union-busting agenda.

President Obama can align himself with the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers, who have used their media platform to show solidarity with the working people of Wisconsin. Or he can team up with a Tea Party-backed governor who was pranked by a caller pretending to be his billionaire backer, during which he demonstrated his own eagerness to be a player, or even a pawn, in a rich man’s game.

Most importantly, President Obama can decide to be part of the movement that is filling the streets, a movement that is peaceful and passionate and populated by the working families whose interests he most needs to defend. He can be part of a growing movement that’s about to spread to all 50 states, and has given an authentic outlet to frustrations of regular Americans.

Or he can side with the Koch Brothers, who make every effort and spend every dollar to undermine his agenda, and who are invested in ensuring that working Americans lose in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and wherever else their lobbyists can effectively promote the interests of the rich and powerful.

This doesn’t seem like such a tight spot for the president after all. He doesn’t need to do his balancing act. Even without looking at the number of electoral votes in states like Wisconsin, the choice is clear.

Whether this movement grows into a Tea Party moment for the left can’t be known. What is clear is that it is tapping into the same type of energy that motivated the Tea Party: genuine frustration, a desire to take our country back, a belief that individuals can work together to change the course of our politics. Only this movement is inclusive, optimistic and on the right side of history.

Most Republican officials didn’t embrace the Tea Party wholeheartedly from the start. Neither does Obama need to don a cheesehead and take to the streets. But what Republicans did well was not stand in the way of a genuine eruption of energy. Democrats — especially the president — can do the same. Even if you don’t march with us, at least be smart enough to stand clear. 

And maybe these same protesters will march again in November, 2010 — this time door-to-door for those who picked the right side of the fight.

Justin Krebs is a political organizer and writer based in New York City. He is the founder of Living Liberally, a nationwide network of 250 local clubs that create social events around progressive politics, and author of "538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal."