"You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better." Matt Damon
Some of us like to pretend that celebrities don't matter. They do. They're our royalty, and what they say resonates with a lot of people.
And this nonsense from Matt Damon shows an almost total ignorance of American politics.
A one term president with balls?
Let's say the president showed "balls" and "got stuff done." Presumably these would be ultra-liberal things somehow passed by an extraordinarily divisive Congress, half of which thinks the president is a radical socialist and some of which thinks he's not even an American. All -- not some -- all of those ultra-liberal things would be rolled back, repealed and shit-upon by the subsequent Republican president after this president's one term.
Or let's say the president showed "balls" (as if the enormous healthcare reform bill, the largest middle class tax cut in history, the expansion of healthcare for children, the massive stimulus, the rescuing of the economy, the killing of Bin Laden, the major strides in equality and civil rights -- all during a time of record political divisiveness -- wasn't at all ballsy), and let's say he lost next year because he decided to swing for the ultra-liberal fences and whiffed every pitch because of the aforementioned divisive Congress.
Where would we be?
We'd have a Republican president, first of all, who would move the nation farther to the right, and we'd have a reinforced impression among the American people that liberal Democratic presidents are pathetic ineffectual dreamers.
How the hell would this be better?
A lot of screechers are going around demanding the president push a legislative agenda that's unachievable but none of these people can point to a whip count in support of single-payer or legalized pot or any of the other unachievable goals that get tossed around as "Obama-doesn't-have-balls-because-he-didn't-do-this" pet issues.
I tell you what, Matt. Go out and convince voters on the ground in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas (etc) that your "ballsy" agenda items are good for America. Door to door. Make it politically safe for members of Congress, and the president for that matter, to vote more progressively. Then you'll be helping. But pushing for an ineffectual one-term Democratic president will only make it more difficult to pass progressive ideas.