ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
time? We actually thought a ton
was going to get done,” he said.
Even government watchdogs
were optimistic. “We had a president who had been articulating a
priority on whistleblower protection, government transparency
and contractor reform — the meat
and potatoes issues that we care
about the most,” said Danielle
Brian, executive director of the
Project on Government Oversight.
“It seemed very plausible that
many of the things we’d been
working for would come to pass in
his presidency,” said Lisa Gilbert,
then a lobbyist on money and
politics issues for the U.S. Public
Interest Research Group, and now
director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.
Four years later, however, progressive activists from all corners
have savored far fewer victories
than they had anticipated, and
licked many more wounds. They
are chastened by the reality that
Obama is a politician, not an activist. They are humbled by the
profound grip that money has on
the Democratic party, as well as
Republicans. And perhaps more
than anything, they have learned
that if you don’t push a president
hard, you don’t get the best out of
Deepak
Bhargava,
executive
director of
the Center for
Community
Change,
speaks in
front of the
U.S. Supreme
Court June
25, 2012, in
Washington,
D.C.