First, thanks more than I can say for your lively and thoughtful contributions below-decks and via email. I don't say that nearly often enough, but I mean it most sincerely.
Second, in the big, wide world of the internet I have found you can save yourself a lot of typing if you ignore the Dementor Trolls: the ones who only show up when they can feed off of the disappointment of others, reliably counsel nothing but hopelessness, and speak in declarative sentences about things they cannot possibly know about.
They haz a bottomless sad and they want you to haz it too.
However, thirdly, the way I run this bar, anyone can run their mouth as they like until they make threats or get on my nerves. Then...
This is how I was taught, and sadly it seems to have become ever more anomalous as ever more of the blogosphere turns into a high school cafeteria purity ball (The outraged!sellout! finger-wagging I got for dinging a couple of prominent lefty bloggers once or twice out of the nearly 3,000 posts I've done was hilarious: as fine and silly a Discommendation
as I could have ever hoped for :-)
Lastly, as regards, President Obama's tax swap-o-rama, I have no idea if the deal he cut in secret with the GOP was the very best deal possible. I'm pretty sure it wasn't. However my anger with President Obama doesn't come from any mystical insight into his "real" sinister motives which for some reason I and only I possess.
(Dude! He's controlled by aliens! How blind can you be!)
No, I'm incredibly pissed for the simple reason that his statements fail the test of their own internal logic so laughably that it insults my intelligence.
Because, Mr. President, if you really believe -- as we do -- that Republicans are hostage-taking thugs you would speak and act accordingly.
But instead, your Administration's reflex action right along (Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod, public option, bankster bailout, etc.) has been, when in doubt, mollify the hostage-taking thugs on the Right (because you fear them) and then whine that the Left is unreasonable for getting pissed off that you are mollify the hostage-taking thugs on the Right (because you does not respect us.)
And, so when your actions of conciliation and appeasement clearly belie your words of condemnation (and when your reaction to being called out by your supporters for this glaring dissonance between word and deed is to lash out at those supporters) then you forfeit your right to be surprised when we start to doubt your motives or lose faith in your capacity to do the very hard job we hired you to do.
24 comments:
Yes!
Am I a dementor-troll? I go way over-the-top... often.
Thanks!
This place is my first stop when I turn on my computer.
You are the man, Drifty.
In order to be relevant to this post, I must comment. Here goes. You say what I think with words I only WISH I could think of. And yes your podcast is too short and always leaves me wanting to hear more. Therefore I will once again try to fight thru the paypal firewall and leave a wee tip so I don't have to make my brain hurt by thinking of the devastatingly perfect words that seem to come so easily from your brain. Thank you DG and keep on fightin'!
Would anyone be too surprised if Obama were to switch parties before the 2012 primaries?
CapD,
If he does then that would at least open up a remote possibility that there could be a Democrat in the 2012 general election.
Chicago Guy,
Ok
KWillow,
Dementor Trolls never think to ask themselves that question :-)
gruaud,
Thank you.
karen marie,
You are very kind
Hef,
Gratzi.
CapD,
Never going to happen.
However, it would not surprise me to him swap VPs and/or reshuffle his cabinet around to put more (Lord help us) Centristy faces up front.
Hell, if I knew I was going to be treated like some sort of elitist or something I would have worn more bling.
Thanks for the dialog.
You really have a talent for this, you have the ability to express ideas and concepts (I'm mainly talkin' podcast here) in such a concise and usually funny manner that cuts thru all of the junk that emanates from the Google box (dont watch TV ... ).
All I can say is KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! And I didnt say fuck once, yay.
if I can figure out how to not use PP (boycotting) yer $$ is in the mail ...
Matt
Nova Scotia
That snap presser was just plain sad. A nasty hostage analogy for the GOP's tactics expressed with absolutely no rancor, followed by yet another petulant bitch-slap to his base (looks like somebody wasn't paying attention to what kind of paybacks that butthurt attitude led to in November) ... yeah, dude, this IS the public-option all over again. That's the problem. Got an excellent solution to a big issue? Sacrifice it on the altar of bipartisanship (Obama's bogus magical pony).
Someone needs to tell Obama not to start every round of bargaining with a big giveaway - it makes you look weak & foolish, & costs you vital leverage when it's time to close the deal.
Dear Driftglass,
How about a post on what Steve Gilliard would make of this situation. I like to conjure him up when things are really looking bleak -- like post 11/04, when he really destroyed the "That's it. I'm leaving the U.S." group, and rallied his readers to fight on, like only Steve could.
But what would he make of the current clusterfuck, with the President we all know Steve would have been thrilled to see (the fruits of his 2004 call to arms) at odds with progressives, and being called out for not fighting?
This current mess does not fall into any neat paradigm. I hate the deal. I see tax cuts to the rich as insane. I see the seeds of social security destruction. I hate the estate tax reduction.
And yet, I haven't seen a pragmatic alternative approach, except throwing the dice on expiration on January 1. What would the new batch of lunatic freshman Reps pass?
I mean after they re-establish HUAC as their first priority.
Gilly. We need your wisdom and fire.
Upper West
Dude,
Thank , you.
What a pleasure it has been for all these years.
Busted
What really depresses me about this whole plastic up-fuckage is that when the payroll tax holiday "expires," the narrative in the media will be clear: Dems plan huge tax increase to rescue doomed Social Security. We all know that tax increases are opposed 100% of the time by Republicans, so what are the responsible, serious, centrists planning to cut from SSI benefits? The only permissible questions will be how much gets cut and who will get hit (hint: it ain't gonna be the over-65 set).
Does anyone think this is a brilliant prediction on my part? A crazy, impossible fantasy? A wild guess maybe? No, no, and no. We all KNOW this is coming, right? You can't possibly say this is just cynicism on my part at this stage in the game can you?
I once knew a grossly rotund dachshund who rolled over and pissed himself with joy at the prospect a stranger might rub his fat little tummy, who -- wriggling on his back in a puddle of his own urine -- still displayed more dignity than Obama, in his latest pathetic attempt to placate our implacably feral elites.
It's hard to feel anything but disgusted and dispirited at his miserable performance. Now, of course, comes the ritual "moving to the center" (after it's been yanked hard rightward) followed by triangulation against the dirty fucking hippies who worked so hard to get him elected. It's Clinton II -- without the broad-based prosperity!
At least I can always count on drifty to illuminate the latest symptoms of our disease with his unique blend of outraged sanity and elephantine recall, served by a wickedly precise and devastatingly apt turn of phrase. And his Ninth Level Photoshoppery.
Plus, for dessert, heapin' helpins' of his speciality: Blackened Grease Smear of Bobo.
It's too bad someone at the presser didn't mention the Sherrod incident--a case where the Obama Admin. tossed a hostage out of the third floor window when confronted with a bar of soap carved into the shape of a gun. Keep up the good work Drifty.
Drifty,
I agree that Obama switching parties will never happen, just that it wouldn't be all that surprising if he did. I wonder if he'll get primaried from the left.
Obama was bought and paid for before he was elected.
@USB: I actually don't think Obama is "bought and paid for" more than any other mainstream politician. I think the problem with him is just the lack of experience. When he began running for President, he had only completed about one year of his six-year term in the Senate. Prior to that, he had only completed two terms as a State Senator. What I think happens when you put somebody who hasn't had time to cultivate experience, influence, and connections into the highest office in the land, is that they will necessarily become a sock-puppet for the Old Boys And Girls Club of party hacks.
Honestly, do those who would still defend Barack Obama think that somebody such as Paul Krugman would say something such as this:
What’s even more puzzling is the apparent indifference of the Obama team to the effect of such gestures on their supporters. One would have expected a candidate who rode the enthusiasm of activists to an upset victory in the Democratic primary to realize that this enthusiasm was an important asset. Instead, however, Mr. Obama almost seems as if he’s trying, systematically, to disappoint his once-fervent supporters, to convince the people who put him where he is that they made an embarrassing mistake.
just to be "trollish"? I certainly don't think so.
I actually don't think Obama is "bought and paid for" more than any other mainstream politician.
Helluva caveat.
Welcome, Dementor Trolls, to the growing ranks of Freeminds, we who were never assimilated into the Oborg Collective, or have broken free of the assimilation.
The ranks of the latter group have grown significantly after the "invincible" Collective got thoroughly "vinced" at the hands of the Elephascist Dominion and its Tea Party Jem'Hadar--although like most "elections" in the Mostest Wonderfullest Country EVAH, its outcome was probably as throughly scripted as any pro wrestling match.
As an aside, I wonder why the Trek writers never gave us Borg vs. Dominion? I would guess the Dominion would prevail, as it would be hard to assimilate shapeshifters, although I suppose the Borg could assimilate the Jem'hadar...
MftI: PS: And try to remember that Shooting the Messenger is a behavior deeply entrenched in human nature and for the most part shouldn't be taken personally.
{I don't think the Borg would bother assimilating the Jem'hadar: They would have to learn how to manufacture that Ketrocel White stuff! But I think the Elephascists are more like Species 8472: "The weak shall perish!"}
L&L: Don't worry, I shan't hold it against Driftykins.
I'm such an ornery outcast that I'm significantly immune to peer pressure--when you're already an outcast, you feel little further pressure to conform.
Drifty is probably more normal, so he got carried along on the tide of astroturfed emotion that was the Obummer Long Con. I'm more surprised than anything else that his Excalibur-sharp mind failed to see it; it's like learning that, on one subject, you're actually smarter than Reed Richards.
'Nuff said, true believers! Excelsior! ^_^
when you're already an outcast, you feel little further pressure to conform.
Word. I suspect that you are more or less socially isolated as I am, and when you're in such a situation, you develop something of an immunity to "groupthink".
If y'all want to correspond via e-mail, I've temporarily (will remove the post in a few days) posted my addy at the top of my seldom-used LJ account.
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