Friday, April 26, 2013

If Only He Had Tried Harder!

The BULLY PULPIT Tautology - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money

The post linked above explains, yet again, that the idea that you can fairly blame Obama for the gun legislation failure is not based on any defensible or realistic theory of Presidential power. It disposes of, rather effectively, the "LBJ coulda done it!" myth that pervades many critiques of the President from the Left. If one does not understand the institutional reality of Congress, one might wish to refrain from magical thinking about the Bully Pulpit.

I find this lesson instructive not only as a matter of understanding how Washington actually works, but also as a tangible explanation of why going out to vote for the Dem candidate for President every 4 years is going to get the Left exactly nowhere. If we want a more liberal government, we're going to have to start with City Counsel, County Board of Supervisors, and other local level institutions. That's how the Right took over, and that's the only way I can see that they can be defeated.

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