Don't diss the Dems ... not now, when there's so much at stake. Remember how we liberal folk liked to scoff at Reagan's "eleventh commandment"? Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow Republican? Take a look in the rear view mirror and note how the Republicans have taken this seriously (it's a shame they took the rest of Reaganism seriously too, or we wouldn't be in the mess we are now!) Note, too, that it has resulted in the rigid party unity that now successfully hamstrings the whole country.
Successful strategy? You bet! Yet here we go again, we Democrats, gleefully assaulting each other at every opportunity and undermining every effort by our own administration to get anything done. And it's not only the Democrats in Congress. It's we, the people out here in voter-land. Every day I hear and read this indignant, self-important, self-destructive screed from bloggers, acquaintances, even friends who should know better. Just yesterday I heard -- from a fellow Democrat and one who, I believe, believes as I do -- that Obama is a "warmonger." That he's a "politician," no different from the others who disappoint our lofty ideals.
Well, yeah! Big surprise! Had he not been a politician, he would never have been elected. As for the "warmonger" part, it seems to me naive in the extreme to expect immediate departure from all parts of the world where we have stirred the hornets' nest of violence and hatred -- directed, for the most part, against ourselves. (It's not paranoia: they are out to get us!) My own instinct is to believe that Obama loathes war as much as I do. That, if he could, he would bring our fighting forces home tomorrow; deliver universal health care overnight; devote the federal money needed to stimulate our desperately ailing economy; and without delay divert the funds needed into our education system, into job creation and justice, earth stewardship, world peace...
Have these people who carp at Obama bothered to read either one -- or both -- of his books? Have they really taken the trouble to find out who this man is? Not a superhero, certainly. Not a Messiah. Nor a witch-doctor or miracle-maker. And certainly a politician. Granted. The man's a pragmatist. Advertised himself as such, never claimed to be anything but. He weighs what can be done and does his best to get the result he wants. That he faces sullen and implacable opposition from the "loyal opposition" makes it hard to get those results. That he faces a lack of solidarity in his own party makes it nigh impossible. It amazes me that he has managed to achieve as much as he has done, these past twenty months or so -- achievements that are sniffed at or ignored by those who believe they know better.
No one is, or should be, above criticism. Like others who believe as I do, I would want faster and more tangible results. I want, particularly, an end to war. But we left-leaning people elected this man to do precisely what he said he would attempt to do, and many of us now join in the chorus of those who would destroy him simply because he has not been able to do it fast enough to satisfy our high-minded expectations. I want to scream when I hear these nay-sayers and lofty idealists say that Obama and the Democrats will deserve the loss they can expect to be handed in November -- as though they themselves have no responsibility.
I say, these people will be as much to blame for an electoral defeat as those they choose to heap their blame upon. I happen to deplore the lock-step discipline of Republican lawmakers and Republican voters alike. I happen to disagree fundamentally with their positions ... and fear their (to me incomprehensible) power. But on my side of the political fence, I see nothing to be happy about. Will those who are now so dissatisfied be content when we end up with a Republican-dominated Congress? Will they relish the vindication of their own opinions and predictions? The spectacle of Obama rendered effectively and truly powerless is the one that haunts me much more than the spectacle of Obama struggling against the odds to achieve a modicum of success.
There's a certain satisfaction in believing in one's own moral rectitude -- in standing by one's ideals no matter what. Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a historical moment when the "art of the possible" is severely reduced by the press of rigid and irreconcilable differences. If we fail to be realistic, if we fail to achieve the solidarity we need to move forward, I fear we we all be a good deal sorrier than we are today. We must learn to moderate our rhetoric and take a broader, more realistic view of things if we are to inch forward, ever so slowly, into a viable future for this country. That "change we can believe in" will not happen with the wave of a magician's wand.
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WE are not dissing the Dems. THEY have dissed their own party's history of fighting for the working people.
Successful leadership and "pragmatism" are mutually exclusive. A Fortune 500 CEO doesn't come into his/her job asking "How much profit can we get away with?" They carry high expectations of themselves and their managers. Likewise, a successful president doesn't come into the office asking "What will the Republicans and Bluedogs let me get away with."
A successful President comes in and declares, "This is what I was elected to do. This is how we're going to get there. If you want on the train, great. If you fight me, I'll kick your rear end."
And the "pragmatic" President is failing because he thinks like you want him to, not like he should.
Successful leadership and "pragmatism" are mutually exclusive. A Fortune 500 CEO doesn't come into his/her job asking "How much profit can we get away with?" They carry high expectations of themselves and their managers. Likewise, a successful president doesn't come into the office asking "What will the Republicans and Bluedogs let me get away with."
A successful President comes in and declares, "This is what I was elected to do. This is how we're going to get there. If you want on the train, great. If you fight me, I'll kick your a$$."
And the "pragmatic" President is failing because he thinks like you want him to, not like he should.
Obama and the DLC LOATHE the left and they speak for the Democratic party. Quit pretending it's OUR duty to overlook this and support them no matter what.
Obama is a (corporate) centrist. He believes in trickle-down economics - hence the preponderance of tax cuts in the legislation he proposed. But he was elected by a coalition, and that coalition includes progressives, unions, gays, pro-choice women, and environmentalists. These coalition members were not served, but instead were ignored and derided by the White House.
The health care bill became mandates without cost controls. The Financial Regulation bill did nothing to stop too big to fail. Even Geithner and Bernanke admitted that HAMP only saved banks - those who participated in the program still went bankrupt, just after making more payments. This is the truth. This is what Democrats fought for - bankers, insurers, pharma, big oil, and military contractors.
The left has not abandoned Democrats. They abandoned us. Supporting them now only encourages them.
And yet you recommend this as the preferred course of action?
Rather than bemoaning the "undermining" of "our own administration", perhaps you need to flip that coin to see how our own administration has undermined our unity. Certainly, no political leader can be all things to all people, but when disappointments mount from mole hills to mountains, there's been an awful lot of broken faith.
““Saying it again; and again.
As in many of the articles here on this site and others I've read, I am so sick and tired of reading about all these political prognosticators saying how the Dems are going to get pummeled this November. I have to ask, "HOW?" How in the he// is this going to happen with people like Brewer, Miller in Alaska, Bachmann in Minnesota, Angle in Nevada, Vitter in Louisiana, Kyle, Boehner, MacConnell, and on, and on, and on.
These people are all whack jobs and offer nothing. Are the people of this country so unaware that they see not the danger? Just the idea of Boehner and Cantor, Issa and King, in the House running around in control, makes my blood run cold.
I don't know what, or who it will take, but someone in the Democratic Party needs to get on their horse and ride, pretty GD soon, or we'll all be speaking in tongues, and doing the Fundamentalist Frug, come next year.
Just remember the phrase that Sinclair Lewis coined;
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
It is upon us now, if we allow it to happen. If ever the
Democratic Party electorate should be inspired, it should be now.
We have the time. We have the voting power. We just need to get it done.â€
Make this thought viral. Help turn it into action.â€
I'm sorry. I guess I'm just old fashioned.I'm gonna dance with the one that brung me. She may not be a beauty, and maybe she doesn't do everything the right way all the time, but she's got a good heart. Or as compared to the Rethuglikans,she HAS a heart.
Her primary challenger polled better against the Republicans than she did. But the Democratic Party spent $11 million to make sure she'd be on the ticket.
I'm not giving anymore money to a party that does something like that. I'll support individual candidates, but I won't give to an organization that supports Blanche Lincoln over a progressive.
Just win your elections without us for crist's sake. That's what you all were planning to do all along right? Awww, but you need us now to win? Haha, good luck with that. We don't vote for right wingers whether they have a D or an R next to their name, and expecting us to do so out of blind loyalty is the height of foolishness.
Unless and until Obama and the Democrats get their priorities straight and start fighting for the people and against the powerful interests in this country, they are not going to inspire people to vote for them.
The Democratic base does not support politicians who swill in corporate money. finito. And yet somehow Democrats have convinced themselves that they can swill in corporate money and push corporate policies for governing without consequences.
Right about now those same Dems are getting their rude awakening. Let them have it.
It troubles me that I agree with you, 120%.
But it also terrifies me that we may wake up with John Boehner as Speaker of the House. To paraphrase Matthew 7:5, have we become so busy removing the "speck" from our own eye that we cannot see to remove the "beam" from the Republican's eye? Some may argue (and I will frequently be among them) that there is no difference, and yet I believe at a fundamental level there is a tremendous difference between the GOP and Democratic Party and I fear for this country if the Republicans (these particular Republicans) return to power.
Looks as if a lot of them will be acknowledging that they're lobbyists working for bankers, insurers, pharma, big oil, big agriculture, and military contractors come January.