The young Obama’s most cunning deception, however, was not in being all things to all people. It was in being all things to all parts of the Democratic base. The wellsprings of the contemporary Democratic Party are young people, white liberals who profess the “New Politics” of environmentalist egalitarianism, minorities, and labor. Obama won in 2008 by adding independents to the Democratic core. Independents may have been the first bloc to abandon him, but over the years Obama has been expert in delivering the goodies to the Democratic coalition. Only in recent months has he struggled at balancing the different constituents of the Democratic Party against each other. In every case he has gone were the money is. His doubling down on his failed green energy bet and refusal to back the popular Keystone XL pipeline may irritate organized labor, but it sends thrills up the legs of greens in Hollywood and Silicon Valley who can cut the big checks.
His endorsement of same-sex marriage may undermine his support among religious minorities, but it surely helps him raise the big bucks in New York and Los Angeles. His pandering to young people with promises of financial aid, and to women with pledges of free contraceptives, may hurt him with voters who believe job creation is more important than a 3-point rate increase for the Stafford loan, and with all those who believe in religious liberty—but it could also inspire Obama’s shock troops to march forward to the polls.
The composite identity that took Obama 47 years to create has come undone in less than four years. It was just as faked as Julia. Behold the man as he is: A “New Politics” liberal whose idealism is dropped at the first sight of an FEC deadline. There’s nothing funny about it.
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