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Goddamn politics.

Started by LMNO, January 19, 2010, 03:38:10 PM

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BabylonHoruv

Quote from: Requia ☣ on January 20, 2010, 09:32:41 AM
I'm hoping a Republican getting in in Massachusetts of all places will be enough of a wake up call to the dems that they'll try to get their act together by November.

'hope' is a horrible traitorous feeling that God gave me to keep me stupid though.

Unfortunately they may do so by becoming more conservative.
You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

BabylonHoruv

You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

Cain

Quote from: BabylonHoruv on January 21, 2010, 12:11:20 AM
Quote from: Requia ☣ on January 20, 2010, 09:32:41 AM
I'm hoping a Republican getting in in Massachusetts of all places will be enough of a wake up call to the dems that they'll try to get their act together by November.

'hope' is a horrible traitorous feeling that God gave me to keep me stupid though.

Unfortunately they may do so by becoming more conservative.

A cigar.  Give this man one:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2010/01/20/left/index.html

QuoteI want to address two equally moronic themes emerging over the last couple of days which seek to blame the omnipotent, dominant, super-human "Left" for the Democrats' woes -- one coming from right-wing Democrats and the other from hard-core Obama loyalists (those two categories are not mutually exclusive but, rather, often overlap).

Last night, Evan Bayh blamed the Democrats' problems on "the furthest left elements," which he claims dominates the Democratic Party -- seriously.  And in one of the dumbest and most dishonest Op-Eds ever written, Lanny Davis echoes that claim in The Wall St. Journal:  "Blame the Left for Massachusetts" (Davis attributes the unpopularity of health care reform to the "liberal" public option and mandate; he apparently doesn't know that the health care bill has no public option [someone should tell him], that the public option was one of the most popular provisions in the various proposals, and the "mandate" is there to please the insurance industry, not "the Left," which, in the absence of a public option, hates the mandate; Davis' claim that "candidate Obama's health-care proposal did not include a public option" is nothing short of an outright lie).

In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party?  As Ezra Klein says, the Left "has gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months."  The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry.  Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials -- and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems -- has been captive "to the Left" is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it.  For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists -- which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased.  That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded "Left" has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year.  Is there anyone who actually believes that "The Left" is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party?  The fact that Lanny Davis -- to prove the Left's dominance -- has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is.  What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating?  I'd honestly love to know.

And then there is the "Blame the Left" theme from Obama loyalists, who actually claim that the Democrats' problems are due to the fact that the Left hasn't been cheering loudly enough for the Leader.  I recall quite vividly how Bush followers spent years claiming  that the failings of the Iraq War were not the fault of George Bush -- who had control of the entire war, the entire Congress, and the power to do everything he wanted -- but, rather, it was all "the Left's" fault for excessively criticizing the President, and thus weakening both him and the war effort.

That they are blaming "The Left", which appears to be some sort of omniscient, international conspiracy, suggests they are not going to pull in that direction, but marginalise "The Left" further and have them as a useful punching bag for everything that goes wrong.

As an aside, I am consdering changing my name to "The Left", just so when people blame this event or that on "The Left" I can go "yeah, that was totally me" or "what're you talking about, I had nothing to do with it".