THE
IDEALISTS
deportations to record levels.
“The immigration piece was
extremely frustrating,” Bhargava
said. “That was the moment when
it became clear that this wasn’t
perhaps going to be a big priority
before the midterms.”
Civil libertarians have also felt
slighted. “I think in the area of
national security, there has been
widespread disappointment,” said
Aron. “I think the growth of the national security state is worrisome,
and it’s an area in which there’s
been very little public debate.”
Activists assumed Obama
would be more assertive in rolling
back the Bush administration’s
excesses, she said. But Greg Craig,
the White House counsel who
championed Obama’s campaign
promises about closing Guantanamo and trying terror suspects
in federal court, was driven out in
less than a year, clearing the way
for the White House to make important legal and national security
calls on purely political grounds.
Obama’s political advisers unashamedly argued against expending political capital on rolling
back Bush’s torture and detentio