Stupid Shit Andrew Sullivan Says, Ctd.

"...but liberals seem too prissy and purist to join that fight."

-- Andrew Sullivan, 05/09/12

The word Mr. Sullivan uses is "liberals".

But what his link refers to is this (emphasis added):

"But many liberal donors, including Mr. Soros, have raised objections to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which opened the door for super PACs and unlimited campaign spending. They say they did not believe they could match the Republican groups, so they wanted to try a different approach and back several liberal groups rather than put their financial muscle behind a single effort."

So let's set the record straight.

After spending most of last 20, 30, 40 years being massively outspent by the wingnut welfare system and shouting into the teeth of a hurricane of dismissal and abuse by every Conservative and Centrist media outlet in America, I can tell you that Liberals generally are neither too prissy nor too purist to stand up and fight.

We have gotten used to being broke and despised.

We have gotten used to being constantly slandered and lied about.

We have gotten used to seeing caricatures that in no way resemble us punched in the face every time some lazy Beltway "Both sides do it" hack needs something to toss on the scales as a counterweight to the latest Conservative atrocity.

We have gotten used to all of this and we keep right on fighting because, as the saying goes, "the weak died along the way and the cowards never came."

I will not deny that I have quit some Liberal organizations when it became clear they could not stop  fetishizing "process" long enough to get shit done.  But I will also not deny that focused Liberal power is why during the 2008 campaign, every single Democratic candidate for president blew off Wall Street chum-bucket Harold Ford, Jr.'s DLC Centrist circle jerk   --

Democratic hopefuls snub party moderates 

By RON FOURNIER WASHINGTON - 

Bill Clinton will be there. So will 300 officeholders from more than 45 states. But one thing will be missing when Democrats gather in Tennessee this weekend to discuss how to appeal to moderate, independent-minded voters in 2008: the Democratic presidential field.

Not a single one of the eight presidential candidates plans to attend the Democratic Leadership Council's summer meeting, a snub that says less about the centrist DLC than it does about a nomination process that rewards candidates who pander to their parties' hardened cores while ignoring everybody else.

"They have tunnel vision," DLC founder Al From said of his fellow Democrats.

From said he has nothing against Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, or the other seven Democratic presidential candidates. He even understands why they won't attend the DLC meeting. But that doesn't make him worry any less about the future of his party.

"Presidents are elected in the middle and they are elected by being bigger than their party. Neither parties' activists alone can elect somebody president," From said in a telephone interview from his Washington office. "Democrats have a long history of nominating people, including people who have lost badly. The challenge for Democrats is to nominate somebody who can win the election." 

-- but, with one exception, they did all somehow manage to make it to Netroots Nation in Chicago.




Yes, kids, there really was a brief moment there -- before the brackish, tapioca tide of Centrism closed back over everything -- when you might have actually spotted, say, Subcommander Markos on (gasp!) "Meet the Press" slapping David Brooks' dick out of Harold Ford Jr.'s mouth.



So Liberals have no trouble stepping into a fight even as we realize that we might be end up being played for chumps for leading with our hearts.

However sometimes we do have trouble staying in a fight when we find that our standards-bearers seem more interested in stepping out of the ring to cut deals with our enemies than in, y'know, bearing our standard.