Tom Bales at "Things That Really Piss Me Off" makes some good points:
... Republicans didn’t coin the terms “prog”, “emo” or “professional left”. These epithets… I call them that because they’re used as epithets in much the same way the word “liberal” has been used so by conservatives for years… are applied by those people who claim to be the left today to distinguish those who are more than a degree or two left of themselves.With the upsurge in almost cult like and extremely extremely easily manipulated belief in the infallibility of President Barack Obama… not in spite of his conservative leanings but more likely BECAUSE of them… It’s reached the point at which it is just as common, if not more so, to see the leaders of these NeoDemocrats spending more time bashing the “professional left” than they do the right even though the marginalization of the “professional left” is now so complete as to mitigate any threat they might have been to the corporate/conservative agenda. Indeed, some are building practically their entire Twitter presence around condescension and snark toward the left while giving the right a pass.I’m not worried about the “professional left” says or does and haven’t been for a long time and it’s not just because they no longer have any real power. They don’t but my lack of attention to much they bring to any discussion is that I often disagree, if not with what they’re saying, then the way or the reasons they’re saying it.What they DO have however, is just as much right not to vote for a Democratic candidate because that candidate doesn’t support their agenda as the NeoDems did not to vote for Mitt Romney. They don’t betray any one or any political party by not voting for a person or a party that doesn’t support them any more than the rest of us do by not voting Republican.And there’s this: I’m not hearing anyone from the “professional left” proposing anything that would take food off my table, deprive me of the meds I take for life threatening conditions or remove the roof from over my head… the ONLY three things that really matter to someone like me. I’m sure as hell however, hearing people claiming to be part of TODAY’S left who are perfectly willing to compromise any and all of those things, quite often for no other reason than the administration has expressed a willingness to do so.And when I attempt to point this out, all I get is some vague assed but always smug reference… usually from one of the wannabe pundit’s sycophants… to “emos” and “progs” or at best an assertion that I’m basically old and senile and easily frightened and therefore incapable of knowing how the system “really” works, which I’ll guarantee you is the wrong fucking tack to take with me.As for you actual liberals… those people who make up what’s left of the actual left in this country… you’d better start doing whatever it takes to get your shit together and find a sack big enough to put it in. All we’re seeing right now is a clash between right wingers and ultra right wingers over who’s going to be running things when it’s all said and done and you can damned well bet that you having any say in any part of it is not on the agenda of any of them.Liberals have one function and one function only as far as today’s Democratic party is concerned and that’s to take the blame when one of their guys loses because you didn’t feel like voting for someone who didn’t represent your beliefs just to keep the “other” side from winning. Keep letting them shove you into that shoe box and putting rocks on the lid and it means the end of any concept of loyal opposition and therefore democracy in this country.Me, I’m just going to sit here doing what I can to protect what little dignity I’ve got left which, in this day and age, basically means being neither liberal nor conservative, neither Democrat nor Republican, neither left nor right, always taking each case based on its own merits or lack thereof and doing the right thing as I see it. I’m too damned old to start subscribing to anyone’s version of groupthink and have no intention of letting ANYONE give me a ration of crap because I didn’t vote for the person they think I should have.For what it’s worth… I voted for PBO in 2008 AND 2012 and used my little blog and Twitter voices to support his reelection bid, working just as hard as anyone else. This does not mean that I’m going to put him on some kind of pedestal and try to rationalize every action or statement he does or makes that I feel is to the detriment of people like myself nor that I won’t hesitate to say something when and if I think he’s done so. If that bugs anyone on the Twitter machine, that’s why Twitter included an “Unfollow” button.The common goal should be to defeat the right wing/Wall Street agenda. We can argue our own differences afterward.
10 comments:
1. He has a point.
2. I'm working on it, but don't expect much.
3. Damn, I miss the Group News Blog.
But I am worried about the professional left, the Rushes, the Bushes, and the Obama's, and such. They will in the name of "Freedom" take away your rights. They will limit your right of arms, speech, and power to vote, just because they can.
What really worries me about the whole Obamabot-vs.-emoprog issue is not the part where most of us on the left hold our collective noses and vote for the local conserva-Dem candidate because he/she is better than the Republican alternative. Voting the lesser evil has been an American tradition since we decided to be a two-party system.
What worries me is the long term trend with the Overton window. The GOP purges itself of moderates and runs further to the right. The Dems, meanwhile, try to appeal to the ever-moving center by throwing their base under the bus knowing they can take us for granted come election time.
The long term trend is not only are we increasingly choosing between center-right and wacky-right but that the center itself has noticeably moved even since the W Bush years. As the Dem leadership knows they can take us for granted and seem determined to be the GOP-lite party, will we continue to drift to the right?
Do we then have a difficult choice as progressives to continue to support the Dems and have a gradual slide into fascism or support a 3rd party, giving power to the GOP and having a rapid slide into fascism?
Sorry to be so gloomy but this is the part that worries me over holding my nose and voting for Dems who I know perfectly well are not liberal or progressive.
Fair point, but doesn't come close to going far enough.
Bill Clinton put the Democratic party on the path to competing with the GOP for plutocratic dollars by screwing the average American.
Obama has kicked that up many notches. This, in spite of the epic failure of the Bush-Cheney regime.
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I could see the good points better if they weren't behind so many straw men.
@Itfhethunderdontgetya
Very true that Obama hardly created the strategy of chasing the GOP as they move to the right or shilling for the corporate agenda. He's merely the latest data point in a trend.
I'm open to suggestions as to how to arrest the rightward trend of the Dems.
After 2010, I was hoping the defeat that I believe arose from the liberal base being demoralized (FYI, I still "held my nose" and voted for the local conserva-Dem in that election), might shock the leadership into realizing the folly of being GOP lite. Unfortunately, they bought into their own talking points about how wonderful and unappreciated they are as well as their straw man argument that we're just pouting because "we didn't get the pet unicorn he never promised."
So clearly political losses won't do it and voting 3rd party only puts the GOP in charge. But just holding our noses and voting Democrat only makes them take us for granted. So how do we change things and take back what should be our party?
For what it’s worth… I voted for PBO in 2008 AND 2012 and used my little blog and Twitter voices to support his reelection bid, working just as hard as anyone else. This does not mean that I’m going to put him on some kind of pedestal and try to rationalize every action or statement he does or makes that I feel is to the detriment of people like myself nor that I won’t hesitate to say something when and if I think he’s done so. If that bugs anyone on the Twitter machine, that’s why Twitter included an “Unfollow” button.
The common goal should be to defeat the right wing/Wall Street agenda. We can argue our own differences afterward.
That was a long, twisted, and inflammatory route to get to this rather bland conclusion that a large swath of "liberal/prog/emo/left/whateverthefuck" probably heartily agree with.
But just holding our noses and voting Democrat only makes them take us for granted. So how do we change things and take back what should be our party?
It's a tough problem, because of the big money and resulting corruption.
But let's learn what not to do: Lick boots and screech at those who wont.
AKA, TBogging.
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"I voted for PBO in 2008 AND 2012 and used my little blog and Twitter voices to support his reelection bid, working just as hard as anyone else....
"The common goal should be to defeat the right wing/Wall Street agenda."
The old "we'll defeat Wall Street by putting it in the White House" plan. How's that working out? Aside from very well for Wall Street, that is.
What Tom Bales said.
I really began noticing this when I tried reading Zandar. He has a good number of posts that essentially read "here's a Republican who's being a shithead, and also fuck all emoprogs."
Balloon Juice is also a good source for all your entitlement reform apologist needs.
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