Arianna appeared on CNN's "The Situation Room" Tuesday evening to discuss President Barack Obama's newly-published Rolling Stone interview, in which Obama upbraids the Democratic base's lack of enthusiasm, and the threat of a "Third World America" for the middle class given the sputtering economy.
"The President is right in many ways," Arianna told host Wolf Blitzer. "The anger and the frustration, the disappointment, are legitimate. But ... people need to keep participating to bring about change. It's never easy."
And there are a lot of changes to make, she said, if America is to reverse the damage done to the middle class in recent decades.
"I think the anger is at what's happened to the middle class over the last 30 years," she said. "I think that we are in for a series of 'throw the bums out.'"
WATCH:
It is always a pleasure to see you. I am all for throwing in with you and your obvious enthusiasm and commitment to the Rally to Restore Sanity. I am a creative, a brain-stormer, an inventor and I have a cadre of ideas that I think might prove invaluable in boosting the rally's significance and reach. Since you agreed to do logistics I want to share what I have come up with so far.
1)Getting out the vote is essential, but let's not get the cart before the horse, we need to get the word out that there are only a very few days left for people to check their registration so they can actually vote. Most states cut it off 30 days before the election. Please pass the word loudly and broadly as only you can.
2) It is crucial that there be live two-way feeds of the event available across the country. I think that Jon doesn't realize what he has started. I cannot afford to attend (nearing foreclosure again). I am clueless about how to organize something like this, but I have a truck and am willing to run errands or haul borrowed equipment. Right now Lexington is hosting the World Equestrian Games and there are Jumbotrons everywhere....but I don't think they will just simply let me borrow one or two. I am going to speak with the owners of a local venue that would be perfect for the event. charlesinky
So are you saying Obama promised something he was in no way capable of delivering?
It would be ever-so-refreshing, if not reassuring, if she took a cue from this and started supporting the only real shot we have at continuing to emerge from the damage of the Bush years.
The Repubs want to return to the "good ol' days" in a predictably self-serving fashion; the Tea Party offers nothing more than a vessel to vent anger and into which Repubs can not-so-covertly funnel money to continue to promote their divisive partisanship; and there are no other serious contenders from an independent source with any viable ideas going forward.
Democrats are the only reasonable way forward and if we don't pull together and recognize what's at stake, we'll all suffer. (And you can't tell me that any of the progressives, Ariana included, who are complaining now will somehow be assuaged when the Repubs are back in control. Really, now. Get a grip, people.)
Unfortunitly that is not the case in this Country effectively a vote for the green party is a vote for the republicans.
I know I know it sucks but it is reality.
So the only thing left to do is to work towards changing the voting system in the US so we can have real Democracy rather than this two corporate parties one worse than the beast we currently have.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/28/obama/index.html
To summarize Obama's apparent claim: the Republicans better not win in the midterm election, otherwise we'll have due-process-free and even preventive detention, secret assassinations of U.S. citizens, vastly expanded government surveillance of the Internet, a continuation of Guantanamo, protection of Executive branch crimes through the use of radical secrecy doctrines, escalating punishment for whistleblowers, legal immunity for war crimes, and a massively escalated drone war in Pakistan. That's why, as the President inspirationally warns us: "If we want the kind of country that respects civil liberties, we'd better fight in this election."
While we Dems will continue to vote Dem, (only because the repubs are suck worse), you will have to hear what we have to say. Maybe, just maybe, this time you will listen.
It's incredibly tragic that the enthusiasm behind Obama has evaporated as he appeared to vacillate, hesitate, or disappear on issues for which there is no leeway for indecision:
Not straightening out Wall St. and banks — appoint Elizabeth Warren and be decisive about it.
Not ending DADT — where was he when senior military denounced it?
Jobs creation — if he's a Christian by choice, couldn't he have said Jesus told him it was the right thing to do… what right-winger would go against Jesus?
Marriage equality regardless of sexuality — an about face on his oft-stated position of equality and fairness reeks!
I'm not buying into the Teapublican trumped up dissatisfaction, but it's difficult to dismiss my own well-founded complaints. The last election cycle I didn't feel like I was voting for "the best of the worst." I sincerely wish the incumbent wasn't the automatic candidate for my party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbjT6qDQl_c
"We always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead, or the roadblocks that stand in our way.It is not standing on the sidelines, or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it and fight for it." -Obama (from his Ohio victory speech)
Don't forget the J F K factor: There are limits to a president's power.
I suggest we quit hating and get moving quickly, and use the tools we have left, including the democratic process, while we still have a chance. Get creative instead of just being critical. It's down to the wire.
I'm not walking away, are you?
"We never knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's making excuses about the enormity of the task ahead, or the roadblocks that stand in our way.It is standing on the sidelines, and shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, something better awaits us even if we don't have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it and fight for it." -Obama (from his Ohio victory speech)
Rewarding Dems for their rightward leap, only encourages further leaps to the right. I didn't really leave the party; they left me.