How do we, the public, get Obama to act on what we need?

Do you really wonder what effects we, the public, can have on Obama and his policies? Consider the conditions he is operating in.

The government bureaucracy operates the way the law is written and was previously implemented. The President can only change that by decree around the edges (by Executive Order.) Making changes to those procedures and processes is a slow, painstaking process no matter what it might look like or what politicians promise. That's what protected most of America from the great mischief that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld conducted for as long as it did.

Only those things that are high priority get changed. That is true for both good and bad changes. If the President doesn't put the spotlight on a change they want and hold the light there, the change does not happen. By law, tradition, and operational necessity the bureaucracy will revert to the previous methods unless continually pressured. Routine always predominates in EVERY large bureaucracy, public or private. Since the President and his staff have limited time, energy and expertise to expend on making those changes only the highest priority items get their attention.

The job of making changes is most difficult for the federal government. The federal government is the largest bureaucracy there is. That's why big organizations are not as innovative as smaller ones are.

That inertia in bureaucracy is what protected most of America from the great mischief that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted and conducted for as long as they did. But they had eight years to conduct their mischief, so they were able to do a lot of damage. Besides, starting a war is something that could be done rather quickly by the President. Note that the media focuses on the changes. The things that stay the same aren't reported on, so all we in the public learn of are the changes and sometimes the big failures. That makes the operations of the President seem a lot more dynamic than they really are.

What's that mean to Obama and the many things we want from him? Don't forget that Obama was handed two badly prosecuted wars and a level of economic collapse unforeseen this time last year to deal with. Those HAVE to be his top priorities right now, followed by getting health care passed. He doesn't really have a lot of leeway to take care of items of lesser priority to the nation as a whole.

So what can we do to get Obama to change things? We have to flood his office with demands that the change be made. That way we get to change the priorities of the Office of the Presidency. That's what FDR meant when hesaid "Maam, I want to do those things, but you must make me." If we don't change Obama's priorities, then lobbyists, his kitchen cabinet and other politicians will.