tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post1525582047292198355..comments2024-03-28T21:32:41.763-05:00Comments on driftglass: Waiting For The Miracledriftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-18835493695679737402013-05-24T14:22:19.603-05:002013-05-24T14:22:19.603-05:00DeistPaladin has a good point and Charlie Pierce s...DeistPaladin has a good point and Charlie Pierce seems to think it unworthy of consideration that the selection of Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 was not exactly democratic. If you'd like to say it's all Bush's fault, I can't really agree. But that doesn't mean Obama has the ability to turn on a dime either. Still, there's a <a href="http://whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.com/2013/05/but-this-war-like-all-wars-must-end.html" rel="nofollow">pretty big gap between words and actions</a>.mahakalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08649042340743257076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-71959612522391412512013-05-24T11:57:00.664-05:002013-05-24T11:57:00.664-05:00Spot on, DG.
Of course the purists who have...how...Spot on, DG.<br /><br />Of course the purists who have...how many candidates in office progressivizing everything...are here to tell you that Obama should be the magical negro that David Brooks and the rest of the moderates pretend to want him to be.<br /><br />The fact that an American president, which is an Imperial Office, just told the country that we cannot continue doing the BS that we've been doing is a step in the right direction. And as Pierce or someone else I read wrote, not at the end of his second term, but at the start of it, says something.<br /><br />Obama is a pretty decent 70's era Republican.<br /><br />And that's a fucking start.<br /><br />For the purists: Start getting actual progressives in office, from the bottom up, or shut up. It gets old reading the purity trolls complaining that Obama doesn't just wave his magic wand and fix everything. As if the fascists don't control the House and have enough fascists in the Senate to stop anything substantive from being done.<br /><br />Unless you purity people want a progressive dictator, deal with the system. Or continue making threats about revolution, when it's clear that the American people couldn't be arsed to revolt against their television, cable and iPhones.Cinesiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14996950964848333121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-23302553418124967592013-05-24T10:40:58.079-05:002013-05-24T10:40:58.079-05:00This Charlie Pierce reverently cited by Droneglass...This Charlie Pierce reverently cited by Droneglass... What twaddle! Blaming the betrayed, cheated, oppressed electorate for the Dems' blatant treachery. <br /><br />Repent now, ruling-class bootlickers, "progressive" toadies ! Beware the peoples' wrath that is to come!<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14585724033790292974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-46538126205701804652013-05-24T07:27:25.771-05:002013-05-24T07:27:25.771-05:00Respectfully, Pierce makes some sweeping statement...Respectfully, Pierce makes some sweeping statements about what the American people will or will never elect based on little evidence that I can see. W. Bush won by a thin margin largely due to the opponent being a long-winded boring wimp, the opposing campaign being inept, the media being complicit and possibly a touch of hanky-panky with the votes with Ohio. I don't think we can make grand pronouncements on what is or isn't possible based on 2004. <br /><br />Very often, I hear this kind of defeatist rhetoric from those who pronounce America to be a "center-right nation" and the best liberals can hope for is a milquetoast moderate president who'll occasionally get us a few concessionary bones. All I can say is I'm glad that the pro-choice movement didn't succumb to this apparent allure that premature compromise seems to have for some. If Democrats had fought for abortion rights the same way they now fight for other progressive causes, right now we might have a nationwide ban with exceptions for rape or incest in some states while being told that this is the best deal the Democrats could realistically get. Instead, the pro-life movement has largely lost the fight both in the courts and with popular opinion and now have been forced to wage this war through back-door bureaucratic means, trying to hassle both patients and providers, rather than getting what they want through direct legislation. Why? Aren't we supposed to be this hopeless center-right nation where liberal causes are doomed? <br /><br />I'm not suggesting that politics isn't the art of the possible. I'm well aware that our nation has been built on compromise and that politics is often a dirty business where needed changes are won only by long hard fights and piecemeal increments. I'm not sulking because, as the strawman argument goes, "Obama didn't get me the pet unicorn he never promised". I've held my nose each election whenever I needed to vote for the "conserva-dem" because at least he/she was better than the GOP candidate. <br /><br />I am saying that maybe we shouldn't be so eager to toss in the towel before we even enter the ring. What has been disappointing about Obama is his style of negotiation where he gives away half the store before he even gets to the table. "Yes we can" quickly morphed into "Aw c'mon guys" as he made the transition from candidate to president. And this is not just a problem for Obama. Obama is a symptom of a larger disease that seems to have infected most of the Democratic leadership. <br /><br />Perhaps we could take note of where we have been successful and look for clues for what has worked. Let's examine our relative success on the pro-choice issue and see if perhaps there's a way to make the case to the people for other progressive causes. DeistPaladinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-36166558752362220812013-05-23T22:53:39.338-05:002013-05-23T22:53:39.338-05:00"We will never elect a president on a platfor..."We will never elect a president on a platform that he will weaken the office, and that also means giving back powers only recently acquired and exercised."<br /><br />True 'dat. The electorate is Maureen Dowd, just wanting someone to lead them...<br /><br />Good luck with that.Scott Ingramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05751177999283862522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-11249883594229499272013-05-23T22:45:33.700-05:002013-05-23T22:45:33.700-05:00Do you remember back when everyone was talking abo...Do you remember back when everyone was talking about infrastructure and Maddow droned on and on about bridges that need to be maintained and other nanny state mamby pamby stuff?<br /><br />Do you remember when Van Jones was calling for a new plan to "Rebuild the Dream" and infrastructure jobs to repair crumbling bridges?<br /><br />Nah, me neither.<br /><br />http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/05/breaking_bridge_collapse_in_wash_state.php<br /><br />(LOL I did a search on your blog with the keywords Bridge and Infrastructure and the number one search result concerns this sentence "And this is the one thing that the Right does supremely well: employing literally hundreds of thousands of people to construct an entire lie-based infrastructure which is constantly rebuilt, refreshed and expanded upon." Too bad equivalent effort isn't put into physical infrastructure.<br /><br /><br /><br />Scott Ingramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05751177999283862522noreply@blogger.com