Are Progressives Starting To Feel Betrayed By Obama?

If you've been paying attention to Barack Obama cabinet appointments so far you will have noticed that there haven't been any true liberal or progressive politician offered a cabinet position. So far Obama has only tapped centrist or right leaning democrats to serve in his administration. Most of Obama's progressive supporters are still confident that Obama will live up to his campaign promises and they trust his decision. But you have some progressive that are starting to question Obama based on his cabinet appointments so far. For instance you have Chris Bowers making the following statement:

I know everyone is obsessed with the "team of rivals" idea right now, but I feel incredibly frustrated. Even after two landslide elections in a row, are our only governing options as a nation either all right-wing Republicans, or a centrist mixture of Democrats and Republicans? Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration? Also, why isn't there a single member of Obama's cabinet who will be advising him from the left? It seems to me as though there is a team of rivals, except for the left, which is left off the team entirely.


It is just so very frustrating. It seems like the only place progressives are making any gains is in the House. We are being entirely left out of Obama's major appointments so far. I guess everyone gets to play in Obama's administration, except progressives.

Then you have Christopher Hayes at the Nation expressing his frustration in what he see so far:

Not a single, solitary, actual dyed-in-the-wool progressive has, as far as I can tell, even been mentioned for a position in the new administration. Not one. Remember this is the movement that was right about Iraq, right about wage stagnation and inequality, right about financial deregulation, right about global warming and right about health care. And I don't just mean in that in a sectarian way. I mean to say that the emerging establishment consensus on all of these issues came from the left. There's tons of things the left is right about that aren't even close to mainstream (taking a hatchet to the national security state and ending the prison industrial complex to name just two), but hopefully we're moving there.

And yet, no one who comes from the part of American political and intellectual life that has given birth to all of these ideas is anywhere to be found within miles of the Obama cabinet thus far. WTF?

I'm hoping Barack Obama live up to his pledge to bring change to Washington but looking at his appointments so far, I'm starting to question it. The people he have offered jobs to so far, all supported the Iraq war. For Obama to claim the Iraq war was the biggest foreign policy mistake in the history of this country, why would he put these people, Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emmanuel, Joe Biden, etc into top cabinet and advisory positions. There's even rumors he's going to keep the George Bush appointee, Robert Gates on at Secretary of Defense. What kind of fucking change is that.