President Barack Obama’s second term has so far been a story of high liberal hopes and scant liberal achievements.
The president has been re-elected, demographic trends favor the growth of his coalition, his party has a technological edge, and his opposition is confused and divided. One might therefore expect Obama to be enacting the legislative agenda of that rising coalition. Yet the White House has to be disappointed, whatever it says, by the way the second term has been going.
The president’s poll numbers have been falling since December, for one thing. His average job-approval rating, compiled on Pollster.com, has been below 50 percent for weeks.
And liberal policy gains have been sparse, and mostly unrelated to Obama. His campaign for new gun regulations is fizzling out -- and not, primarily, because of opposition from the Republican House or filibuster threats from Republican senators. Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate Democrats, has kept an assault-weapons ban out of the gun bill because it had fewer than 40 supporters. That’s in a chamber that has 55 Democrats. The main gun legislation now under consideration is a proposal for “universal background checks” that is filled with exemptions.
Liberals can celebrate the rapidly increasing support for same-sex marriage. Most of the action on that issue, though, is taking place in state legislatures, referendums and the courts. Obama hasn’t had much to do with it. If the Supreme Court declares traditional marriage laws unconstitutional, it won’t be because the administration has asked for it; it hasn’t.
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