Force Obama to do the right thing

What can I do to help Obama?

The public has to force him to do the right thing

By Robert Reich

June 29, 2009 | Someone recently approached me at the cheese counter of a local supermarket, asking, "What can I do?" At first I thought the person was seeking advice about a choice of cheese. But I soon realized the question was larger than that. It was: What can I do about the way things are going in Washington?

People who voted for Barack Obama tend to fall into one of two camps: Trusters, who believe he's a good man with the right values and he's doing everything he can; and cynics, who have become disillusioned with his bailouts of Wall Street, flimsy proposals for taming the Street, willingness to give away 85 percent of cap-and-trade pollution permits, seeming reversals on eavesdropping and torture, and squishiness on a public option for healthcare.

In my view, both positions are wrong. A new president -- even one as talented and well-motivated as Obama -- can't get a thing done in Washington unless the public is actively behind him. As FDR said in the reelection campaign of 1936 when a lady insisted that if she were to vote for him he must commit to a long list of objectives, "Ma'am, I want to do those things, but you must make me."

We must make Obama do the right things. E-mail, write, and phone the White House. Do the same with your members of Congress. Round up others to do so. Also: Find friends and family members in red states who agree with you, and get them fired up to do the same. For example, if you happen to have a good friend or family member in Montana, you might ask him or her to write Max Baucus and tell him they want a public option included in any healthcare bill.

Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was secretary of labor during the Clinton administration. He is also a blogger and the author of "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life."