Mr. Tavis Smiley has spent considerable time and energy counselled African American's to withhold their votes from the Democrats because Barack Obama was not black enough to suit him (from Brother Charles Pierce):
...And then, on the panel, Tavis Smiley came back once again to Heighten The Contradictions, and to explain that black people intend to teach the Democratic party a lesson by refusing to vote in elections that will guarantee that black Americans will be disenfranchised even further.In North Carolina, you say that we want to move beyond race. We're in a post-racial Americans and yet to played the race card in North Carolina. In Louisiana, in Georgia. You can't win lest the black vote turns out for you and in Kentucky, as was discussed earlier, you have a candidate there who four times in a matter of minutes wouldn't even admit to voting for Barack Obama. You want his loyal base to support you, you give the president the Heisman, but you want his constituents to vote for y I mean, Peter only denied Jesus three times. It's a four-time denial in a matter of minutes but you want the black vote to come save you again. You want Hispanics to save you again. I'm not saying that blacks and browns ought to abandon the Democratic Party. I'm saying you've got to hold them accountable. And maybe the lessons about what happens this year ought to start being reviewed now in advance of 2016.The Naderite crapola that ignores the fact that we are all going to have to live under whatever horrors may come out of Tuesday's elections isn't even worth arguing with at this point. But what St. Peter has to do with the Heisman Trophy, I haven't the faintest idea.
The Purity Brigade spent over a solid fucking year singing the "Obama Is Worse Than Boosh!" song into every microphone anyone would hand them because Barack Obama was not Jill Stein enough them.
Well now that Mr. Smiley and the Purity Caucus have gotten exactly what they asked for and we enter an exciting new age of Congressional witchhunts, impeachment saber rattling, round-the-clock XL Pipeline, Universal Concealed Carry, Jim Inhofe controlling the Senate debate on climate change and Much!Much!More! I hope they are ready for all the accolades coming their way.
Because going forward, I certainly plan to hold the *title quote by very quotable Cosimo de' Medici near to my heart,
And I don't plan to spare the horses.
Because now...
...Conservatives really do have a license to to this.
Because now...
...Conservatives really do have a license to to this.
41 comments:
"The Purity Brigade spent over a solid fucking year singing the "Obama Is Worse Than Boosh!" song into every microphone anyone would hand them because Barack Obama was not Jill Stein enough them."
Yep. While ignoring the fact that thousands, perhaps millions of people of color were being subjected to voter suppression and racist Voter ID laws.
But that doesn't matter when compared to the NSA and Snowden's adventures, right?
Thanks for cutting your noses off to spite your face, you fucking morons.
I have no evidence, but I am still suspicious that the Purity Caucus has some foxes in the hen house.
As the dust settles, I won’t be surprised when the first member suddenly switches sides (in some potential cases switches back), publically declares Republicans the “reasonable ones,” and takes that six figure think tank job with travel expenses and regular prime time cable news appearances.
It's weird. You've got the truth right in front of you. In fact, you include it in your post. But you're incapable of processing it properly because of your partisan delusions.
Come on, Driftglass. You know how stupid this sounds. The liberals lost another election for the corporate/banker Democrats... Yeah! Stupid, stupid, stupid. I think it's fair to say that you are taking this Glenn Greenwald hatred to an unhealthy extreme.
Today, Brother Pierce writes, "They all got hung with the votes they didn't take. Alison Lundergan Grimes wouldn't even say whether she'd ever voted for the president." And this: "There really is absolutely nothing else to do. When all the cleverness and the calculation fails, and when all the political wizards have proven themselves to be fakes and charlatans, and all the conventional wisdom has proven to be the squawking of fools, principle really is all you have left." All of a sudden, purity starts sounding pretty good.
Is ir always darkest before the dawn? Calm before the storm?
I have confidence republicans will continue to use that big hateful teiranny Government to kill two years of American's lives and tax dollars.
There has been no accountability for their actions, voter suppression, propaganda lies, Gerrymandering.
But then, I hearken back to Nancy Pelosi's table setting and what was off the table. How the President decided he wanted to move forward and not bog down in the past with Bush and Cheney.
In return, we all got depraved obstructionism. We got Louie Gomert accusing Eric Holder of casting aspersions on his asparagus.
Democrats did allow the Bush administration a pass on accountability. The republicans will not be so kind.
As Nixonn was givin the exoneration to step down, Ted (Mcarthy) Cruz shall ensure it is not offered to Obama.
It won't be a blue dress for Ted, although it will be of less significance with the penalty higher only a liberal can pay for the tyranny president to eat a ham sandwich perhaps.
For now,
let us evaluate,
Did Steve Isreal perform for the Dems?
As written, expecting a democratic vote for a candidate that hides from his own parties President and ridcules him to enable the lies of the opposition.
We know that wasn't Sen Elizabeth Warren. yeah, she is in a safe zone.
How do you treat the cancer of re electing a candidate that is indicted on 8 counts of fraud?
How do you get republicans to the dentist to get that tarter off their teeth in the case of Scot Brown carpetbagging?
Yeah, yeah, much of that is the programming of having the "R" in front of your name.
There are still too many zombies out there that blame Obama for the Bush economic crash and are mad that Obama would bail out Wall Street. The Wall Street they were so angry with in which the "R"'s obstructed most regulations placed to defend it's recurrence.
Republicans can campaign aggressively but when it comes to their governing record, that is an entirely different world.
Did the Democrats over play their chances to hold on and give false accounts of it?
Is it to early in the funeral to analyze the passing on of moving on?
Boo hoo. Yeah it's all the fucking hippie's fault. Losers.
The purity trolls at the Daily Kos, while kind of bummed that their team lost the Big Game, have found a bright spot in the slaughter of the Blue Dogs which means that everybody gets a pony now and a unicorn in two years when when everyone will vote for the sparklefaerie party after two years of Republican Hell. Now the funny thing is that the Blue Dogs were pretty much annihilated in 2010 and the Republicans will do a hell of a lot of damage in two years - which must be undone before the putative progressive juggernaut can even begin to address the true problems that vex us all. Pig in a poke, guys, you are celebrating your own incompetence.
Let the hippie punching begin?
Again and again.
It's a game that never gets old.
And the rednecks are partial to it too.
thwap skrev:
It's weird. You've got the truth right in front of you. In fact, you include it in your post. But you're incapable of processing it properly because of your partisan delusions.
In the words of a player who ain't with us no more: "Specifics, please. Generalities make my teeth itch."
Cirze -
No hippie punching, Driftglass is simply stating facts that have been well known for over a year. A lot liberal loudmouths have turned "I don't agree with Obama about X, we should push for Y." to irrational screeds about "I don't agree with Obama about X, and if he doesn't grow a pair and support Y. If he doesn't, we should stay home in November, because Y is more important than coming GOP buggery Z!!"
If there's any "hippie punching" - its only because said hippies decided to poke Obama and Democrats with sharp sticks while the GOP have been metaphorically kicking everyone in the gonads.
Pierce doesn't get to fucking complain. Pierce is one of the chief shills and leg humpers of Greenwald, who is the king of this nonsense.
Guess what Pierce, people fucking listened to the person you told them to listen to. This is the result, enjoy!
You are 100% correct, DG.
The Purity Brigade™ leaders are very, very happy, I'm sure.
It's how you know they aren't really lefties. If you're a serious radical leftist, the last thing you do is look to the people at your immediate political right and scream at them for only partially agreeing with you, while rooting on the reich-wing that lies about the centrists and center-lefts being "loony" like the radical leftists.
Also: there are no more hippies. That's the rub. Everyone blaming hippies or punching hippies is simply blaming and punching a straw man.
There are pragmatic radicals who understand you dance with the people who brought you and wine and dine them into becoming better dates, and then there are Purity Brigade™ members who think that once you get to the dance, you stomp on your partner's feet for dancing when the music comes on.
@n1ck
Oh there are hippies. Look at members of the Greenwald fan club like Digby and Pierce. Who spend all their time screaming about drones, Drones, DRONES! as if we are still invading foreign nations ala Bush. And who can't stop ranting about the evils of the NSA seeing what you are doing on a military network, aka the internet, despite not knowing jackshit about IT or the internet.
They still exist, and they are still tripping over their own dicks and fucking up their own party and then wondering why they lose.
The Democratic party and sane left correctly blames them, and correctly tries to cut them off at the knees at every possible chance. That's what makes the Democrats superior to the Republicans, they know you smash your crazies, you don't listen to them and for gods sake you don't elect them.
The problem is the hippies, purity brigade if you will, is unwilling to face the reality that they've been the ones fucking up everything they want since politics started. Because facing the fact that you are the problem is pretty god damn hard, it's also not very good for page clicks!
There's also the entire Salon.com style social justice squad which spends it's entire time in a circular firing squad of who is the biggest victim. Video of a woman being sexually harassed, well that's actually racist because the woman was white and some of the harassers, including the most over the top ones, were minorities. So obviously this is not about proving sexual harassment, because if it was it would have been all about white men, but about enforcing the white power structure and slandering minorities. All Christians and conservatives are bad, but bring up Islam and that's generalizing! By the way, The Legend of Zelda is sexist, classist, racist, and portrays animals enjoying their slavery to humans! Those are fucking hippies as well, and they are also fucking everything up.
The problem isn't centrists, the Kochs, Obama, Pelosi, or Reid. Those people are the fucking problem and why everything goes to shit.
Not only are the hippies constantly sabotaging the rest of the left by falling for libertarian bullshit and creating circular firing squads, they give the right something to point at and go "that side is fucking insane", and send normal people screaming in the other direction.
Once you start to see it, once you realize it, you see it everywhere. It's a non stop avalanche of negativity, rending of garments, and setting hair on fire. It would be comedic if it wasn't such a huge problem.
I wouldn't have a problem with the hippies if they had definable goals. It's easier for me to work with someone that wants something tangible. With the purity corps all they do is sabotage a person trying to do some good. If you think seeing them online is bad, you should talk to them in person. They'll make you want to give up living. They like being on their bullshit.
I remember Tavis Smiley working with Wells Fargo to hook people up with some fucked up home loans...
Vic78
@Anonymous
With that definition, I'm a hippy. The thing is, I realize that you don't smash the teeth out of the people to your immediate political right for being less "enlightened" as yourself.
The thing is, St. Greenwald is very, very far from being a hippy. He's just projecting his previous support of Empire onto the evil libruuls who gave him shit back when he was supporting Bush and Co.
Even Pierce isn't a hippy. Everything I've read from him shouts that the story isn't Greenwald, and is the drones. Well, I agree, because as long as our flying death robots are murdering people overseas for being at a wedding party, or being an EMT, well, we reap what we sow. Think al Qaeda, ISIS, Pakistan, Afghanistan, ad nauseum.
I think the difference between myself, and a "loony lefty" is that I understand that Empires rarely disassemble themselves, and I know damn well Obama can't just flip a switch somewhere in the Oval Office turning off CIA terrorists. I also realize that as much as I hate the drone terrorism our country commits, it is significantly less atrocious than sending in jets and ground troops to take control of oil-baring territory for oligarchs to slightly increase their relative standing to other less-fortunate oligarchs.
What I see, instead, is false-flag "leftists" who come spouting Libertarian™ bullshit while pretending to be super ultra mega leftists. You can tell them from their insistence that they are an anarcho-syndicalist, when all they have is a cursory understanding gleaned from Wikipedia, and a quote or two from Chomsky.
Radical leftists definitely have a place at the table, as they are the ones constantly trying to pull centrists and liberals left. That said, the Purity Brigade™ members aren't really leftists if they are cheering on reich-wingers when they win elections.
Kinda how cats dressed up as dogs aren't really dogs. The shit is in your DNA; either you want the political process to trend left, or you don't. Just because you call yourself a leftist doesn't mean you are, especially if you're willing to destroy the only left-leaning party in order to make some kind of point, which is of course immediately lost because in the process you've destroyed the very thing you were trying to influence.
Meh. To each his/her own.
the puritans do provide a situation obstacle as mentioned above.
I noticed that purity GOPer's came out and looked for the "R' in front of that name.
Fact is, Dems gave up the House for a decade because they couldn't find a reason to vote during the Census year which led to Tea Potters Gerrymandering.
many were bothered with their president for numerous excuses. I guarantee the aren't happier with the alternatives ofPalin , Cruz and Goemert.
Yes. progressives are a separate breed. You NEVER heard any of the mass conservative media tell you they disagree with any of their candidates on anything.
I can thank Jon Stewart for a punitive lecture of those Democratic candidates that said, "vote for me to be a democrat that will not alighn myself with our president. Thanks Jon, I mean it....
Do you miss Michelle Bachmann yet?
I love ya, drifty, but this is crap. You want my vote? Earn it.
Call me a purity troll , but there is NFW I'll pull the lever for someone who will sell me down the river for political expedience just because they ran as a Democrat.
BTW, that Alan Grayson won handily, huh.
Since "Neo Tuxedo" asked, I'll explain.
There's a video of Goldstein, I'm sorry, I meant Greenwald saying that if politicians know that you will always vote for you, no matter how often they betray you, because the alternative is worse, then they will start to take your vote for granted. They will take you for granted and they'll become more afraid of offending the right-wing noise-machine and they will then betray you to try to silence the right-wing noise-machine.
Trust me on this one; anybody who advocates denying votes to politicians who betray their base has probably already figured out that one consequence of this will be that said politicians will lose an election.
For my money, Obama and the Democrats are disasters. There's been no improvement on human rights. Obama has done nothing but continue bush II's policies. He's deported and dithered on immigration reform. He's coddled Wall Street criminals with trillions of tax-payers' dollars.
All the people you're concerned about are going to suffer because of this Repug sweep. But they survived bush II and things didn't markedly improve under Obama. For a lot of people, things deteriorated under Obama. I don't think the differences are as great as you imagine they'll be.
You can argue that the Repugs wouldn't let him do anything. Given that fact, why haven't Obama and the Dems spoken up loudly and proudly for progressive values, since striving for bipartisanship has been met with contempt?
Because the last thing a corporate shill Democrat wants to do is enflame ordinary people by exposing the oligarchy's control of this sham democracy.
Your political system is irredeemably corrupt. Jury-rigged. Billionaire owned. Voting is a total waste of time.
Vic78, you are the very model of a modern major "purity troll™."
Sad thing is while scanning your votriol from time to time, I imagine that we fall closely in line politically speaking, but your penchant for punching down* and right leave you wanting.
*Can somebody tell me of a time when hippies were a threat to anyone?
...
It's odd how karma reincarnates. Smiley blames Obama; we blame Smiley; others blame us. And the circular firing squad commences the slaughter.
Cue Dionne Warwick, "Valley of the Dolls"
"Gotta get off, gonna get
Have to to get off from this ride..."
Alas, there's no way out it seems. Even Simeon Stylites only got more enmeshed as he tried to escape.Throngs of people bothered him on his pillar--eventually even the Emperor. And etymologically, nirvana means a "blowing out," as of a candle--an extinction.
Punching down??? I just brought up Smiley's deal with Wells Fargo that put the bank in hot water. I'm talking about a party establishment that throws elections and facilitated the first black President being stymied. I'm not the one putting Anne Coulter on my show because she makes good tv. At times I curse the weak shit on MSNBC. I'll take shots at a 'liberal' that can't pay her writers but somehow pocketed a few hundred million. I'm not going to nice to 'liberals' that hang out with Sully. I also have disdain for people that still 'debate' Bill O'Reilly. This is what I talk about. I can accept someone not liking my standpoint, but I'm not guilty of punching down. I don't remember punching right either. I'm pretty hard on conservatism.
I do come from the "blame the victim" school of thought. If there is consistent failure, there's a structural issue that must be dealt with. I see democrats can't win midterms. Well, they all hire the same losing consultants and act as if their political instincts are non existent. There was an election cycle where they didn't get their asses kicked in the past 20 years. What was different in the 2006-2008 cycle? What changed in 2010?
I'm all about winning and setting policy afterwards. The things I rail against get in the way of winning.
Vic78
Driftglass,
While I am not part of the purity caucus I am not sure where I stand on comments of Tavis Smiley. These comments do have a place in the political discourse. All he is doing (at least from the part you quote from Pierce's piece) is showing how racist the democratic electorate is. Why else would Grimes have a problem admitting she voted for Obama? What are the democrats doing to change this problem? Unless Tavis Smiley asks these questions how would Democrats even know that these issues need to be addressed. Asking him to shut up is not fair. It only amounts to silencing the voices of minorities.
DG, I'd like to propose another group that could also be considered critical in our losses the other day. Most of the Senate elections I saw were "too close to call" for much of the night but the GOP managed too squeak out a win by a few percentage points.
Are we failing to appeal to "low information voters"? Many of them, like it or not, decide close elections.
I can't tell you how many people I've discussed the election with who were "mad at Washington" and dissatisfied with the economy but couldn't get clear on who they were mad at. I would try to explain to them that the problem is the GOP but maybe I'm just not persuasive. I think I had a few successes but I couldn't convince a lot of them that "both sides" aren't to blame. I'd hear such arguments as:
"I think it's time for a change"
"I'm just voting all the bums out. Democrat or Republican. Fire 'em all."
"I'm voting against whoever's in now. Maybe the new one will be better."
These people were not well educated nor savvy on current events. They're not the kind who are likely to read blogs by Glen Greenwald or listen to Tavis Smiley on Public Radio. I doubt they would know who either one was if I brought them up.
My mother and father in law live in my home since the bottoms fell out of their lives. Long story but it involves a triple whammy of his job shipped overseas, health bills and a foreclosure. They are smart people in many areas of life but am amazed, when it comes to politics, how easily they get taken in by certain tricks. My wife and I often have to set my father-in-law straight on the latest chain email from Crazy Uncle Liberty. Many others out there don't have the benefit of a daughter and son-in-law to fact check the bullshit that the GOP operatives circulate.
I don't know what percentage "low information voters" represent of the voting population but based on the poorly thought out mad-at-Washington-but-not-sure-who-or-what-they're-mad-at-or-exactly-why vibe that seemed to dominate all my water-cooler conversations, I can't help but think it significant. As Obama is the president, some of that anti-Washington vibe doubtless turned against Democrats even where there was a sitting Republican.
This is another way the "both sides" narrative has regrettably worked and I agree the purity caucus doesn't help. At the same time, there was a lot Democrats did that didn't help either.
Some suggestions I have for Democrat leaders in coming elections:
...To be continued in my next post...
***Continued from previous post***
Some suggestions I have for Democrat leaders in coming elections:
1. Stop letting the GOP frame the debate. Grimes arguably lost when she wouldn't even say she voted for Obama. Low information voters are turned off by cowardice. She should have said, "What, you think I voted for Romney? Sure I disagree with him on some issues but unemployment is lower than it's been in years and Obamacare is working for our state..." (start with a jibe at the other side and then pivot to talking about your issues). If you keep waiting for the GOP to frame the talking points and are in constant reaction mode, you're losing. Low information voters will go with whoever seems to be in control of the debate.
2. Take a stand on some issues. Make them simple slogans repeated often. The GOP has demonstrated how effective this is in reaching low information voters. Nuance is great when you're governing but terrible in campaigning. The good news is we have an advantage with this tactic, since we have both public opinion and facts on our side.
3. Stop whining like private Hudson on Aliens 2 ("That's it! Game over man!"). Really, what the hell were you thinking, whining about how bad the coming election was going to be? Campaigning 101 is you never concede until after the votes are in. Low information voters will assume if you're openly and publicly fretting about how bad the election will be for you that there's a reason.
4. Don't assume the GOP-lite strategy will attract centrists. It's done a pretty spotty job for the last 15 years. If someone is still a centrist after all the last 15 years of GOP corruption, abuse and incompetence, they're likely a low-information voter. Low information voters will go with leaders who have the courage of their convictions, not with a candidate who's in reaction mode fretting, "hey, you know, I'm also a lot like them but not quite as extreme."
Sure the purity caucus isn't helping. Sure we should hold our noses and vote for a conserva-dem if we have to to keep the GOP out. But let's blame generals for a lost battle first and trouble-making or demoralized soldiers afterwards. A loss like this should be a time for reflection on a failing strategy.
And the Democrats practically gift-wrapped this election for the GOP. Let's be honest about that.
From what I remember of this long-ago election, centrist Democratic candidates ran like hell away from the president, fearing that they'd get Obama-cooties on them. I don't think that was because they were worried about the tea-liberals not voting for them instead of the Republicans. Alison Grimes wasn't courting the ten Greenwald readers in KY by refusing to say whether she'd voted for Obama, and pretending that the "purity" patrol is responsible for the failure of people like Coakley in MA (again) is just delusional.
As someone who voted for former Senator Udall, and worked hard on the first Obama campaign, I disagree with the assessment that Obama or much of the Democratic Party is on my side. On the issues I care about there is no difference between him and the Republicans. Wall Street, labor, Internet and TV deregulation, foreign trade policy, privacy, etc... If he's no different from the other side on the issues I care most about, why should I support him/them?
It's not a matter of lesser evil when they support the same evils to the same extent.
Reading some of the above post,
it becomes obvious that the GOP's "burn down the house" frustrated Dems. So Dems laid back is 2010. This gave the promise to the reckless GOP driver of the car they drove in the ditch. Would get the car back, have someone elses insurance pay for the damage.
Oh, Obama and that mean old Pelosi did not include a single pauer in the health care. Disregarding the shock to the health care industry the ACA effected as passed. The frame work is there to move and improve in that direction.
This enhanced the GOP's onslaught over on ObmaCare in their mass media they nowown.
They are allowed to call any liberal media (main stream) while a network aas FOX touts how big its viewership is over the others.
Did the Dems really run for it??
It looked to me that they just had enough.
Enough of the partisanship, the gridlock, the obstruction, the demonizing by the right, the complete disatisfaction from the left.
I have been a union steward and realized how unthankful the job of representing folks can be. Even when you are good and perform well for the members.
There are little thank you's that must be held close for tough times when you ask yourself why I am doing this thankless job and getting some things done in a climate of power from the top being unreasonable.
I can't tell you how many progressive podcasts I listen to during the course of my work day that allows me to listen as I work.
Podcasters from the left siding with Rush and Beck and Hannity when it comes to supporting your party's members.
I can tell you that in negotiations with the company as a representative of the union members, many disagreements with my fellow union representatives in these talks where timed out and broke for caucus among union meme=bers only that the company did not see the dissension that they could use it against us. Oh, the company is very proficient at it.
As someone that enjoys voting "For" something. What was the "vote for" message?
Dems did not come out and vote!!!! like they should.
Hell in the red state of Nebraska, the perdentage of registered voters that came out and actually voted was under 50%. Under 50% and they are proud and excited it was that high/
This is of registered voters of all party affiliations.
So rewarding GOP obstruction and burn down the village. This election reward is going to change the GOP and they are going to have to prove they can govern NOW?
Isn't this what the media is burping up at us in our face?
Lots of things to blame for yesterday's results including voter suppression and the plain, simple fact that a lot of Dems ran perfectly horrible campaigns (my own, now ex, Senator Udall included). As Atrios said a little earlier " the great mystery is why Dems can't bring themselves to get behind policies which are a) clearly popular and b) they're associated with anyway."
I'm far from happy about what happened but not sorry to be rid of those assholes. If you're going to stick a "D" after your name then ACT like a goddam Democrat. 2016 should be better. Just hope the country is still afloat by then.
Doesn't take long for the self-victimization and Orwell-references to come out when the right-worshippers of the pseudo-left cost us another election.
And of course, plenty of despair and doom being thrown around - "voting doesn't matter, maaaaaaaaaaan, they're all the same, maaaaaaaaaaaan!" 2010 all over again.
And it's going to keep happening until either the self-styled hippies (who would spit on actual hippies for not caring enough about the Real Issues) get what they really want - another Republican full-control administration so they can lash out at everyone around them without caring who they hurt - or finally get thrown out of the party for cheering on our losses.
re: Cirze et al: "SEE THE VOILENCE INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM! HELP! HELP! I'M BEING REPRESSED!" I don't even understand why any of you read DG - you should leave the moment he starts calling out your continual attempts to ratfuck anyone who isn't pure enough. In the name of God, go!
**There's a video of Goldstein, I'm sorry, I meant Greenwald**
Can you explain this reference? Who is Goldstein?
And, for the record, I see little difference between a purity trolling pseudo-leftist and a rightwinger. Mostly because every time I scratch a sparklepony troll, I find rightist tendencies underneath.
That especially goes for those fuckers who decided that our President, who has at least tried to do something other than sit there and take it from everyone (at long fucking last), was someone to run from. And especially especially for people who did exactly that while running for office.
Turns out the Not A Dime's Worth crowd is right about something - it's just not about the people they accuse.
"The great mystery is why Dems can't bring themselves to get behind policies which are (a) clearly popular and (b) they're associated with anyway."--Atrios
No mystery at all. If Democratic public officeholders and party officials support the policies popular with their base more than half-heartedly, they will alienate their paymasters, the merely-half-crazy wing of the 1%. (The GOP's paymasters are the fully-crazy wing of the 1%, in case that need be said.)
The greatest bribery scandal in U. S. politics is not the actual, legally-actionable-if-detected bribes. Rather, it is the implicit bribe offered by the 1%: "Play ball with us now and we'll give you the life of Riley after you leave office."
The Dem official or officeholder must choose between risking political defeat by alienating hir base, or remaining faithful to the base, hence abandoning hope of a lush retirement.
I freely admit to being baffled for any way out of this mess.
CM
On Goldstein:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Goldstein
"Goldstein is always the subject of the "Two Minutes Hate", a daily program beginning at 11:00 a.m. at which an image of Goldstein is shown on the telescreen and subject to extreme contempt."
Here's somebody else articulating my puritanism:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/06/election-night-wasnt-a-gop-victory-it-was-a-democratic-rout/
"As a constitutional scholar, he had promised to restore respect for the law to the presidency, and instead has made end runs around every law imaginable, refusing to prosecute the war criminals of the Bush/Cheney presidency, the CIA, and the military, refusing to prosecute the FBI for violating the Patriot Act, refusing to prosecute the bankers whose crimes brought the US and the global economy to a grinding halt and left the US crippled going on six years now.
He has run the most secretive administration in history, even employing the 1917 Espionage Act against leakers and whistleblowers, and threatening journalists with jail for publishing those leaks. Under his watch, too, the Homeland Security Department secretly orchestrated the nationwide crushing of the Occupy movement by local police departments, while the White House, all the while, offered homilies about the sanctity of the right to protest. ..."
"Claiming to have been a “community organizer,” Obama hung the labor movement that had backed his campaign for president out to dry, declining to push for a promised and desperately needed reform of the National Labor Relations Act that would have ended the interminable and easily delayed process of requiring a secret ballot election to form a union, by reverting to the old system of obtaining a majority of signed cards from workers."
... etc., etc.,
MftI skrev:
If Democratic public officeholders and party officials support the policies popular with their base more than half-heartedly, they will alienate their paymasters, the merely-half-crazy wing of the 1%. [...]
I freely admit to being baffled for any way out of this mess.
I can see a way out of this mess, but it has nothing to do with anything possible inside or outside the system (I'm not even sure the system has a meaningful "outside" anymore). Rather, it has to do with the proposition that if something can't go on forever, it will eventually stop.
From where I sit, it looks like all we can do is try to cushion the inevitable crash.
Dave Lindorff's article to which Thwap referred
The site which finally showed me how to make a hyperlink on the user-hostile format known as Blogger
Thanks!
But you wrong on this.
**Obama has done nothing but continue bush II's policies.**
Sure ACA is a pro-corporate law but at least it made access to health care for millions affordable. That alone is a huge improvement over Bush.
@CM
You are of course correct, but in the mind of the unicorn rancher an incremental reform - no matter how superficially beneficial - is worse than shooting a man in the face because it only serves to prop up a rotten and corrupt system that is better smashed and rebuilt in pure form from the smoking rubble.
CM and Horace,
Sing that song to the whistle-blowers, then report back on which model of unicorn is on their wishlist.
Berto
thwap is right. Minority voters are tired of being used as window-dressing by the Democrats. Plus,the Democrats have abandoned labor. Moreover,when people start blaming the DFH over the heirs of the Koch Empire for the troubles of the modern Democratic party....What does one say to that?..You're going to miss the DFH.
@Horace,
To some extent I can appreciate their disappointment too. If one were truly hoping that the "change" Candidate Obama was talking about in 2008 was a broad re-evaluation of some of the worst assumptions in US policy making (foreign and domestic), you would surely be disappointed with how Obama has governed. I really do understand the visceral reaction some people get to the ugly conceit inherit to the whole process.
My problem with giving in and refusing to play the game at all is threefold:
* Refusing to pocket incremental gains that truly improve the lives of your fellow humans is no way to build a winning coalition and you need a winning coalition in order to retain power long enough to accomplish any of your loftier goals.
* Checking out is just a way to become utterly irrelevant. Even voting for third parties is preferable because at least the Dems will *see* the votes they are losing.
* Anyone on the nominal Left waiting for a governmental collapse to vindicate their views and satisfy their outrage is a fucking fool. When things get really fucked up, people tend to run to the Right. The hard Right. In the event that trust in government truly breaks down and the system crashes, loud and proud liberals will likely end up in hiding, prison, or exile.
-- Nonny Mouse
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