“The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.” This is something I’d like to see President Obama demonstrate during Wednesday night’s State of the Union address. He’ll need to announce some bold proposals for reining in Wall Street, for investing in communities and creating jobs. Something showing that he has a lot of fight in him, that he is willing to stand up to entrenched power in both parties as well as the bullies on the Right.

I’m not holding my breath, though. After some tough talk about Wall Street, and a very good response to the Supreme Court’s ‘corporations are people too’ decision, the President now appears to be appealing to centrists and conservatives with a deficit reduction plan that most likely will please no-one. It is still unclear what lessons the President is drawing from last week’s double-whammy (Scott Brown and the Supremes). But it would be a mistake to focus too much on reaching out to a compromise-oriented middle that no longer exists --- or matters --- at the expense of re-activating the base that got him elected.

And what about the social justice movement? We are still alive and kicking but, let’s face it, we are not winning what our friends at National Peoples' Action call the 'battle of the big ideas.' Not only do we not have the power and influence with this Administration that pundits on the Right claim we do, we also are not in control of the narrative about what is happening these days, such as, why healthcare reform is faltering, why the stimulus should have been bigger and better-targeted, and why financial reform should have been a top legislative priority from the start (not to mention breaking up banks and getting more community control over economic resources).

Instead, the story that is being told, once again, is skewed by market fundamentalism, disguised as populist/anti-tax/anti-government-spending grassroots outrage. And we are letting them get away with it. We were handed two devastating defeats last week and we are sure to be disappointed by the limited scope of President Obama’s State of the Union proposals this week. Now, we have to make lemonade out of these lemons.

The Administration’s heightened awareness of populist anger over Wall Street and the state of the economy is an opening to push hard for real financial reforms. And, while the Supreme Court’s make-over of the meaning of political ‘speech’ makes reform all the more urgent, it also puts a spotlight on the role of Big Money in the current crisis, and in the current lack of action on the part of Congress. For all their anti-government swagger, Wall Street and Corporate America are quite comfortable with activist government, as long as they can control and manipulate it. The Supreme Court makes it even easier for them, but it also could give us an opportunity to expose their game.

Unfortunately, the President and leadership of the Democratic Party are not doing such a good job of making the case for financial reform, public investments and job creation. It is up to us to tell the truth about market failures, and to extol the benefits of public investments in the real economy – the productive economy that creates jobs, restores our infrastructure, invests in people and communities. 

--Sandra Hinson