No matter how you call it, flip-flops, reversals, switches, swing to the right, policy pirouettes or change of mind, Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has struck a nerve with many of his supporters on what they view as his move to the center.
Thousands of them – and a sizable number of them from the senator’s own website – are up in arms about the changes, and they seem particularly disappointed by his approval (and possible vote) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the granting of immunity to telecommunications companies that spied on private citizens without warrants.
It was bad enough when Obama promised to sustain Bush’s faith-based initiative, agreed with the Supreme Court on its repeal of the handgun ban, sided with the likes of Justice Clarence Thomas regarding the death penalty for crimes less than murder, supported the Court’s decision on the right of citizens to bear arms and recently expressed an option to “refine” his stance on the war in Iraq.
Freelance journalist and translator Paul Robeson was among those Obama supporters who were alarmed by the senator’s sudden shifts of principles and policy. “The apparent traditional move to the center by Obama is not only a mistake, it reverses – in many people’s mind, especially his base and Black Americans – his commitment to be a candidate of change, he told The Amsterdam News in a recent telephone interview.
“It was he who said that ‘It’s about you and not about me,’” Robeson continued, voicing the concern of thousands who feel that Obama must be accountable to his base and not abandon it. “He can’t take us for granted ... and he must demonstrate anew his commitment to bring about real change.”
There is perhaps no more loyal Obama supporter than State Senator Hill Perkins, but he, too, was concerned about the shifts. “I think these moves are necessary if he’s to compete successfully in those battleground states,” Perkins began. “But, despite the changing positions, he’s still the best candidate.”
Perkins said he would prefer that Obama be more consistent and that he was particularly troubled by his candidate’s concession on FISA. “But we have to continue to pressure him on these issues since the movement is more important than the candidate,” he added.
Obama, as Perkins observes, may be the more progressive than Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but that’s not enough, said Robeson, adding that it wasn’t one Obama shift that disturbed him more than another. “It’s been an accumulative effect and the speed and context of these changes that has caused the most concern,” he said.
Whether these shifts in policy – and we shouldn’t be surprised if more are on the way – will have a negative impact on his bid for the White House is too soon to know, Perkins said.
“Thus far, the changes we’re seeing are necessary if he’s to win the election,” Perkins asserted. “I don’t see any large defections at the moment.”
Even so, there are those who contend that the changes, based on expediency, stamp Obama with the label of “just another conventional politician willing to do anything to win.”
