The Democrats are in a shambles. Progressives, née liberals, are in particularly dire straits. They have been marginalized and their influence on public policy wanes even as events reconfirm their values, their philosophy and their historic cause. They face an election that pits extreme rightists against an incumbent president who fits comfortably into the national establishment's moderate wing. They have no standard-bearer. Their core constituencies are being ignored or patronized. The terms of debate on the great issues of the times have been set without reference to them or their ideas.
They have themselves to blame since they have committed the Seven Sins of politics.
SLOTH
Democrats are slow on the uptake. Their reaction time -- whether to events, shifts in public mood or Republican actions -- is lethargic compared to the quick response of the latter. This goes along with a tendency to drift lethargically with the tides rather to make their own waves and to ride them resolutely. Exhibit number one is the swelling anger in the country after the financial breakdown of 2008. This was a natural for the Democrats. The discrediting of Republican dogma and their business underwriters, the abuse of financial power, exposure of the fatal flaws in the snake oil of market fundamentalism, a spotlighting of the huge gap between the fortunes generated by casino capitalism while mean earnings for salaried people stagnated.
Yet it was the crackpot right through the subsidized Tea Party movement that channeled all that passion to the reactionary end of the political spectrum? Democrats, liberal Democrats anyway, still can't figure it out. Nor can they accept the glaring truth that they were sold out by the Obama administration in the name of the White House's own self-serving commitment not to rock the boat by doing anything that challenged seriously the status quo. The same scenario developed with the 2010 volte-face in the direction of 'austerity' and subverting Social Security and Medicare in the name of budgetary discipline.
Even with the campaign season under way, it is Republican personalities and ideas that dominate the news. They are omnipresence. Their off-the-wall schemes set the terms of discussion, e.g. Paul Ryan and repealing the New Deal. Democrats presenting other views are most notable by their absence. The 'conservative' media bias is not the main reason -- although it exists. Anyone who argues powerfully and vociferously will draw the cameras. A blast of any kind stirs the pot, even at FOX -- and publicity is the name of the game nowadays. Yet getting a Liberal Democrat to a microphone is a rarity -- one of the minor secular mysteries of the age. Those few who do show up usually do little more than offer a few bromides framed defensively in a timid voice. Progressives and liberals are simply too slothful to exert themselves.
GREED
Avarice is the hallmark of our times. Its close companions are egoism and a craving for the status that only access to the circles of power can provide. Journalists, think tankers, embryonic politicos all want to be seen in the right places, to stay on the good side of the powers that be, to network promiscuously, and thereby to advance their career, career success as measured primarily in terms of money. The net effect is to mute critical thinking, mute public expression, and to inculcate the ethic of caution. Timidity prevails, Social conscience shrivels; and the moral compass is thrown out of kilter. The status quo is reinforced -- a status quo that includes the relentless onslaught on enlightened public policy and on the interests of most Democratic voters.
WRATH
The most bizarre feature of the liberal segment on the political continuum is the absence of righteous anger. Nearly every day presents us with glaring policy sins and outrageous acts. Many emanate from the White House itself: gross assaults on civil liberties, the vilification of public school teachers as the source of all that ails America, intensification and geographical extension of the mindless and counter-productive 'war on terror,' intensification and geographical extension of the mindless and counter-productive 'war on drugs' -- now concentrated on home grown marijuana, inhumane and indiscriminate round-ups of 'illegals,' and cosseting of the American plutocracy. Yet these outrages get just intermittent attention and muted criticism of the perpetrators among mainstream liberals. One must search out the marginal websites to find pointed, sustained criticism. Liberal Democrats can't stand the sight of blood -- especially when it's their enemy's. Doubly so, when one of their enemy is in their midst.
Having a nominal Democrat in the White House, of course, provides an all-purpose excuse for pulling one's punches. Obama, we are told, is the only thing that stands between us and a homophobic Supreme Court. So the President and his henchmen are allowed to get away with just about everything, including killing innocents (Afghanistan, Yemen, Honduras) to the sound of silence on the so-called Left. There, the pundits amuse themselves with zapping Sarah Palin and giggling at Herman Cain -- although neither presented nearly the threat to a humane, progressive America that Rahm Emanuel and his pals in big finance did.
ENVY
"I should be where those guys are." That is what a very large slice of the liberal Democrat political class is thinking. Rampant individual careerism is an accessory to collective sins of public policy. Washington politics is a segment of American society that always been heavily populated with the ultra ambitious and self-seekers. In the past, though, it was mediated by conviction, by an ethic of professional responsibility, by a sense of decency and a capacity for embarrassment. Those traits have diminished. There is also a pull factor in the equation that reinforces the 'push' factor. For anyone with the requisite audacity, the sky's the limit. Look at the last decade's presidential aspirants. Look at the wild men (and women) who populate Congress along with their legion of non-descript, look-alike colleagues. Look at the people appointed to senior foreign policy positions based on appealing demographics and network connections. Look at the fawning reporting of journalists from prestige papers -- and the rewards they receive. The 'why not me' mentality understandably intensifies -- the inescapable consequences for the degradation of public life follow.
PRIDE
Pride is a sin when it comes to mean a preoccupation with insignia of rank and badges of privilege. That is the way it is today. Pride from doing one's public duty well; from acting with integrity for the sake of principle, action dictated by a moral compass, action that subordinates the narrow self-interest to something bigger -- all of those behavior are an endangered species. Whistleblowers are persecuted (in defiance of the law), loyalty is measured in mafia terms, exploitation of the language and imagery of public virtue to mask base purposes is the norm. Doing anything to remain in the inner sanctums of power is justified by reference to the needs of already ample bank accounts; parachuting from government service to serve mammon offered by those one had sworn to regulate is taken for granted. This is the norm -- and it is widely praised. As to the pride of an Archibald Cox, of a George Marshall, of a Congressman Peter Rodino and a Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, of a Brooksley Born. Well, that may be too retro for current tastes and ambitions.
LUST
The lust for power, for money, for celebrity -- those are the sins that bedevil us today. Sexual lust is a constant source of titillation when it involves celebrities, is illicit, and mildly deviant. Then it becomes a diversion from the things that matter. Power may be the ultimate aphrodisiac, as Henry Kissinger once said. Celebrity and money are not far behind. Those three, these days, corrupt our public affairs far more seriously than they corrupt our person morals.
GLUTTONY
An insatiable appetite for the superficial and fleeting is especially dangerous for liberals. For they must struggle to shift attention onto the basics; they must husband time and energy to counteract the inertia of the times; they lose when the game is played in fantasy land. Yet they, too, suffer from the affliction of being attracted to the glitzy and the off-beat. For them, it is a fatal attraction.
A ravenous, insatiable appetite is needed -- but for facing unsavory truths, for bringing to light buried iniquities, for unflinching action, for social justice.
Seven venal sins or seven mortal sins? Makes scant difference as far as public ethics are concerned. The accumulation of venal sins has mortal consequences.
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Sloth: Yes Dems are short on the return insults but they fail because they are just too d*mn nice.
Greed: Again too d*mn nice, yeah they are like most politicians and take money but everyone does if they can.. There are a few who don't but mostly......
Wrath: It takes someone with little to no conscience to attack for little to no reason, look at the GOP.
Envy: Totally disagree with the writer. I think they envy that they are not as cut throat as the GOP but that is about it.
Pride: Seriously? They have pride in their country and themselves (mostly) and they fall back on that because they don't want to be like the GOP.
Lust: Well, everybody does at some point, look at Mr. Wiener.
Gluttony: Disagree completely but got nothing, maybe I am at that point in my life where I can't use that excuse.
We progressives were not slothful. We were angry. We didn't want to be getting all the money and power of the insiders.
So what happened?
The media was owned by the big money of the plutocrats who also own both parties. They ignored us. They belittled us. They said when we got angry that we were off our rockers and fired us from MSNBC. When we took to the streets and occupied across the country, the big money and their big establishment political machines called out the police to evict us, beat us and arrest us.
These are the reasons we progressives are not in power in the Democratic Party, not because we were doing seven sins.
By the way, when the Tea Party was doing it's thing in 2009, so were we. We showed up just as much as the Tea Party types did at Congressional Town Meetings. But the media ignored us and hyped them. We were not lazy.
We will not give up. We will not go away. Our non-violent revolution has just started. The media can ignore us, but more and more the people will realize what we are doing, like in Chicago right now. They can entrap all of us with informers who plant evidence.
The democrats abandonment of core principles leaves them acting more like a street gang than a political party. It is simply and only about obtaining and retaining power. Gone is is any conviction of using power to do the right thing.
I'm seriously considering Romney because maybe if Romney wins then the Democrats will at least pretend again to support the Constitution. Maybe then they will stop defending a continuation of George Bush policies like they've been doing under Obama and become an opposition party once again. I have no illusions any more that the Democrats are for the little guy. They've ruined that brand by their money grubbing subservience to moneyed interests. The best I can hope for is that they will once again support what they used to support out of principle if only to make Republicans look bad. Very few of our current crop of Democrats have any principles. The only thing they want is to get re-elected and to find a cushy job with big business once they leave Washington.
A Pox on both of their houses.
Nailed it. Under a republican president, the dems will fight tooth and nail to protect SS and Medicare, just like the did when Bush was president. Under Obama, they will compromise both programs into oblivion.
Any questions, see Simpson Bowles, otherwise known as the catfood commission staffed with anti-SS advocates of Obama's choosing.
Vote for Jill Stein if she's the Green nominee or vote for Rocky Anderson. Do movement building for a real Left.
Considering very few Americans actually are fringe left progressives, what do you expect?
Prosecuting Wall Street bankers
Taxing the wealthiest among us more
Gay marriage
Getting out of Afghanistan
Protecting Social Security and Medicare
Not focusing on the deficit but on stimulus to create jobs
You people ARE the problem. You keep wanting a solution that doesn't put any responsibility upon you ... only thing is, we wouldn't have half the problems we do if you took responsibility.
Everyone rallied to Barack Obama while he was campaigning, thinking that we had a real New Deal liberal who would clean our government of the crust and accretions of outdated right-wing concepts. We rejoiced when he won the election, only to stand drop-jawed as the supposed liberal champion of "Yes We Can!" turned into the tepid centrist of "I wish I could've, but you know".
I think "wish I could've" really means "never really wanted to" in the first place.
The point is, that if and when he realizes that trying to play nice with Republicans is a lost cause, maybe he'll wise, up stop wasting his time trying to be nice to them, turn around and start sucking up to his own base. The Republicans have been doing it all along.
This is just a pipe-dream, but wouldn't it be great if President Obama finally grew a pair, hitched up his pants and confronted Boehner publicly with something like this:
"OK, John, I've had it. You want to pitch a bitch about raiding the debt ceiling again? Bring it on! That fight is yours to lose. So go ahead, hold your breath till you turn blue and let the limit run out and shut down the government. Before you do, though you'd better check with Newt about how well that little stunt worked for him back when he tried it. So stop crying, blow you nose, pour yourself another scotch and sit down and start getting to work!"
If he did that publicly, the left and most of the center would come flocking to him. Republican obstructionism has only won them support with the crowd with Obama Derangement Syndrome. Everyone else is sick of them already.