A Saturday Reading List For Pragmatic Progressives

What a crazy week in politics. When the politicians leave Washington, it seems like the pundits get restless and start making shit up and stirring up controversies to bring attention to themselves. Thankfully there is an awesome group of bloggers to bat down the bullshit. Check out these stories you might have missed that caught my eye.

• For any progressives flirting with Ron Paul as a candidate, read this and then come back and try to rationalize your stupidity.

• I’m sure you’ve seen the reports of Richard Trumka’s idiotic interpretation of the compromise on the debt ceiling hostage crisis. The People’s View takes him to task and then reminds us that the Obama administration is the best thing that has happened to labor in 30 years. Trumka joined the “blame the victim” crowd who continue to ignore the hostage takers who are blatantly and openly trying to stop any progress from the Democrats.

• One of the smartest bloggers online has this important post about the “extremism” that the poutrage crowd has been pushing in their Tea Party wannabe world. You should be checking in with Smartypants daily if aren’t already, she is one of the best for sure.

• Did you hear that author Stephen King has a new left wing radio show coming to the airwaves in Maine. White Noise Insanity covers politics in the northeast better than any.

• And come on people, both political parties are not the same, get your head out of your ass.

• Did you know that all those unemployed people and folks struggling across our country are really rich? Does it matter that they can’t afford food to put in that expensive refrigerator that they have? If they were really poor, they wouldn’t even have one. /snark

• One of the newest warriors storming the blogging scene took on Andrew Breitbart and coaxed him out of his rat hole, good work Evilsax!

• Even though I personally understand when the President has to compromise with the Republicans, I want him to fight those motherfuckers more too. That’s why I’ve been looking forward to campaign season — where a president is allowed to be partisan and fight.

Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles

How To Deal With Dysfunction On The Left!

The left wing in this country has been fickle and dysfunctional when it comes to electoral politics for a long time. I remember Ted Kennedy throwing a monkey wrench into the reelection of President Jimmy Carter after challenging him in the primaries. That is just one example of how our party often sabotages itself, another would be the Gore/Bush race of 2000 when the refrain from many on the left was that there was no difference between the two. We all know how well that turned out for us liberals and the country. Elections matter, damn it.

Today, we are experiencing the same type of crap, but we also have opportunists like Jane Hamsher, Adam Green and Glenn Greenwald making money off that fickleness and idealism from some on the left.

Tien at The People’s View has another great post that helps to explain some of the different types of “non-supporters” of President Obama and how to deal with each type.

In brief the Narcissist suffers from a pathological need for attention; hypersensitivity to insults and criticism; an over-inflated sense of self-importance; unrealistic expectations and a preoccupation with success and power.

[...]

Their belief system is composed entirely of being against whatever “The President” believes in.

• Prospect for convincing them to support the current President: Non-existent.
• Strategy for coping with their behavior: Never make it personal. Always focus on what they do, not what they say or who they are.

The best way to undermine Narcissists is to ignore them and deprive them of the attention they crave. However, I’ve come to realize that very few people are actually capable of employing the tactic of responding in this fashion. The Narcissist counts on people ‘reacting’ to everything they say, and most people, particularly online, oblige them. That gives the Narcissist unearned power, but there it is. Trying to change their minds is an exercise in futility.

Does that remind you of anyone? Since joining Twitter back in late April, I’ve observed Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher in the Twitter world, where people’s thoughts are often a stream of consciousness, unedited and hard to put back in the bottle once let loose. These attention seekers send out Tweets that are clearly meant to inflame opponents and get them to either read their over-the-top rhetoric or engage with them online. I certainly fell for it initially, but soon realized that they were playing me and trying to get the attention that they seek. The more I gave them that attention, whether negative or not, the more they loved it. I’ve known for a long time that they would do anything for clicks on their blogs, since the traffic that helped to pay their bills dropped so dramatically after the 2008 election. That is why I never link to their websites. They don’t really care if the clicks they get are from supporters or opponents. But being new to Twitter back in the spring, it took me a little while to realize they were goading me into engaging with them for the same reasons. I’ve talked before about how they built their blog empires based on anger, mostly towards President Bush but also just anger in general. Republicans did it with the Tea Party anger and people like Jane Hamsher and Adam Green have filled that niche on the left. They have just shifted that anger towards President Obama.

Stories You May Have Missed – Linky Goodness

Here is a boatload of links for your enjoyment. One more day of vacation for me, then it’s back to the grind.

• Andrew Sabl at The Washington Monthly caught this little gem from my buddy Paul Krugman

• I found this amusing, Jane Hamsher shows us once again why she is not qualified to represent anyone on television, especially the left.

• This is a great summation of the craziness that is happening with some on the left in regards to President Obama.

• I’ve been observing “concern trolling” for a while in our politics and found this great explanation of it from the wiseGEEK.

• Booman tells a very real, scary story about what could very well could happen in the United States if the separation between the rich and poor continues to grow.

• Here is a great post from April that I missed on Joan Walsh of Salon.com and her issues with race.

• Thanks to The People’s View for taking on one more professor who is trying to rewrite history to fit with their preconceived notions about President Obama.

And finally, here is a Youtube clip I came across that reminds me why only a damn fool would run against President Obama in a primary. And it is very revealing of the people who are now turning on the president, ones who never were supporters.

Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles

Paul Krugman’s Comprehension Skills!

Economists are a strange bunch. When I got my first undergraduate degree in business, I was subjected to like 6 economics classes, give or take 1. Every one of my economics professors was a little bit odd. This is just anecdotal, I’m not impugning all economics professors, but others might want to share their observations. Damn near all of them were supply-siders, so that gives you some idea of where they were coming from politically.

I’ve always appreciated Paul Krugman’s opinion on economics, I am a Keynesian for sure. But the more I read his writings, the more I see that he doesn’t always comprehend things as they are, to put it politely.

Krugman recently linked back to a piece he did after President Obama’s first inaugural – there will be a second. When I clicked and read it, I noticed something right away that made me wonder whaaaaaa? He wrote this back on January 22 of 2009. I’m bolding the part that caught my eye.

Thus, in his speech Mr. Obama attributed the economic crisis in part to “our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age” — but I have no idea what he meant. This is, first and foremost, a crisis brought on by a runaway financial industry. And if we failed to rein in that industry, it wasn’t because Americans “collectively” refused to make hard choices; the American public had no idea what was going on, and the people who did know what was going on mostly thought deregulation was a great idea.

Uh, well, Paul…President Obama wasn’t saying that Americans “collectively’ refused to make hard choices”…he was talking about politicians and leaders. Here is the entire paragraph from President Obama’s inaugural address.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.  Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.  Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.  Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered.  Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many — and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

I don’t know how anyone listening or reading that could possibly think that the President was talking about “Americans” refusing to make hard choices. If he were, why would he end the sentence with “prepare the nation for a new age”? Is it the role of citizens to “prepare the nation for a new age” or politicians and leaders?

I read that paragraph to say that it isn’t just Wall Street’s fault (greed and irresponsibility), but the politicians who enabled it to happen; the ones like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush who deregulated Wall Street and made it possible for the greed and irresponsibility to overtake us. I also interpreted it to mean that politicians didn’t make the “hard choices” like raising taxes on the wealthy or more specifically, voting against the Bush tax cuts. I would also add the failure of politicians to actually pay for two wars or Medicaid Part D — those were a couple of hard choices that weren’t made as well.

I have no idea what motivates Paul Krugman, it smells an awful lot like sore-loser syndrome. Hillary was supposed to be president and that young upstart, Barack Obama, swooped in and stole it from her….you know?

I don’t see anywhere in that paragraph or in the entire speech where the president blames “Americans”. They are the victims of the greed on Wall Street and the lack of balls on politicians — no offense to women who don’t need balls to get shit done. So as you can see, Paul Krugman’s interpretation of that one sentence sent him off on a tangent. I guess he’s standing by it, though, because he linked back to it to remind us all.

Blame The Victim – Our Economy Shouldn’t Have Worn That Short Skirt And Low Cut Blouse!

Cartoon by John DeRosier

The first thing I want to say with regards to the apparent deal that was struck between the hostage takers and those representing the victims is that any “liberal” pundit or blogger who encouraged voters to stay home in 2010 – SHUT THE FUCK UP! I don’t even want to hear your fucking whining. It is your fault that the goddamn Republicans were given the power to fuck us all over so much.

The next thing I want to say is THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA for taking on the toughest job in the world in 2008. It’s a thankless job trying to clean up after the biggest fucking failure of a president we’ve ever had in George W. Bush. But of course no one could have imagined that the Republicans would throw every obstacle they could find in your path, including the kitchen sink.

For people like Paul Krugman who characterize every compromise with the hostage takers, the terrorist Republicans, the obstinate children in the Tea Party as a “cave-in” — grow the fuck up already. Wipe off your snotty nose, suck it up and help us fight those motherfuckers in 2012. If you don’t wake up and realize that Republicans are playing you like a cheap fiddle, you don’t deserve to represent liberals. We don’t need crying, whining babies, we need people who will stand up and fight. Now pull up your Underoos and get to work.

For the general public who hasn’t paid attention, let me break down what just happened for you.

• Republicans created this crisis by demanding massive spending cuts to programs primarily for poor people — OR ELSE — they would wreck the economy for everyone.
• Republicans began their propaganda campaign to attempt to blame the national debt on President Obama and the Democrats, when we all know that the Republicans spent like drunken sailors and gave massive tax breaks to the top 1% of the population during President George W. Bush’s term.
• The Professional Left in their immaturity and “emoprog-ness” began weeping into their Kool-aid and wetting themselves because it became clear that they weren’t going to get their utopian, idealistic way…they ended up prostrate on the floor, kicking and screaming and acting like fucking children.
• President Obama in an effort to stave off a complete meltdown of our economy kept his cool and pushed for a compromise — a deal with those devils to prevent the impending doom.
• Many of these Republicans hostage takers voted for every damn penny that President Bush spent on two unnecessary – off budget wars, the unfunded Medicare Part D and the unpaid-for trillions in tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% who haven’t invested a fucking penny of that money in America, but are hiding it overseas where they don’t have to pay any goddamn taxes on it — thanks to President Bush.
• So President Obama, being the president of all people and a responsible, sane person — continued to try to reach a deal to simply prevent us from plunging into another recession and possibly a depression. A compromise had to be reached, there was no other option. It didn’t have to be this way either. In 2010, Tea Party Republicans were sent to Washington in large part because of an effort by people like Ed Schultz, Arianna Huffington and others to suppress Democratic voters. They, of course, are the loudest voices whining about having to deal with those assholes AND IT IS THEIR OWN FUCKING FAULT that we are in this mess.
• And now we have wasted almost the entire summer dealing with this Republican created crisis – this hostage taking. And not only did they distract everyone from the real problems we are facing like joblessness, but they also succeeded in getting the whiny “emoprogs” to lose their shit about it. All in all, the Republicans had a great summer at the expense of the rest of us.

The reaction from many on the Professional Left is to blame the victim. President Obama had to deal with an unprecedented hostage situation that has never occurred in the history of our country, yet some of these people want to blame him for HAVING to compromise with these hostage takers. They all lament the fact that President Obama dealt with the GOP, yet not one of them offered a solution that would get us out of this hostage situation; not one idea about how we realistically get out of the mess.

I know the whining and crying is just beginning on the left, so I’m preparing myself for it. I’ve already heard and seen the whiners push the idea of fucking it all up even worse by running someone in a primary against President Obama. It doesn’t surprise me, these people are just as stupid as the Tea Party – they are just sipping lattes instead of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

UPDATED: No offense to either latte or PBR drinkers, I like a good latte myself…now PBR, not so much. But hey, whatever gets you a buzz. :)

A Saturday Link-O-Rama For Lefties!

Here are some links for your reading pleasure, culled from my reading list over the last week. Please come back and comment here if you are so inclined.

• When you hear people make the statement that over half of Americans don’t pay any income tax, you will have this information to throw in their selfish faces.

• If you ever wondered where Bill Maher is coming from and where he has been rhetorically over the years, this is a must read.

• The Baltimore Orioles recorded an “It Gets Better” video. Go watch it!

• The most excellent Matt Osborne reminds all the people screaming about Elizabeth Warren not being appointed to the CFPB that she didn’t even want the damn job. Oh, and click on Matt’s donate tab while you are over there and give generously.

• You have to check out The Grio’s latest auteur, Imani Gandy, as she tells us about the “South Central” tea partiers.

• What sort of country do we live in where the Speaker of the House can go on television and lie his ass off?

• Dennis G. at Balloon Juice has a great piece on a subject I’ve ranted about before, that dreaded “C” word….compromise.

Have a most excellent Saturday people. Do your part to neutralize the false information floating around about our President. The forces aligned against him are many and we all need to help beat back the misinformation and hatred.

The GOP’s Double-D Summer – Destruction And Distraction!

   The Potomac Shore

For the last few summers, Republicans have produced summer replacement shows for our enjoyment. Like last summer, this years script was written to do as much damage to President Obama politically as possible. The plot revolves around sabotaging the economy, causing higher unemployment and distracting us all from the fact that the Republican controlled House hasn’t done a goddamn thing since taking over in 2010.  It’s one big reality show with roles for everyone. And the media is more than willing to help produce it.

Last year we had the summer of “Muslim Bashing and Gulf Oil Surfing.” The summer before that we had the “Death Panel and Koch-funded Tea Party dances” and of course in the summer of 2008, during the election, we watched the “Rev. Wright and William Ayres Summer Spectacle.”

Since the election of Barack Obama, the Professional Left has had roles in this Republican non-reality show. They are playing the role of the “supposed” friend who ends up stabbing the lead in the back, all the while claiming to be his friend – who is just trying to help. In the current debt ceiling crisis, when Democrats and liberals need to rally together to fight the Republicans who are clearly trying to do harm to our country, instead, the Professional Left is attacking the mere idea of compromise and demanding completely unrealistic outcomes.

The Professional Left are running around screaming about every proposal and leak from an anonymous source and lamenting the fact that their newly found sacred cows are on the dreaded “table.” And they do it with absolutely no acknowledgement of the dire nature of the situation or the environment that the President is negotiating in. And of course, they don’t understand that the President is using reverse psychology. The President knows that if he is for something, the GOP is against it and he’s been using it to his advantage. Idiots like Jane Hamsher and Ed Schultz don’t quite grasp that idea or simply refuse to.

The media just eats that shit up too. The story has a hostage — our economy. It has drama — we could fall into a depression. It has grandstanding and heightened rhetoric – coming out of people’s asses. It has fighting within each faction AND even a ticking time bomb. Damn, you would have thought this whole thing was manufactured for our enjoyment. And it was — except it really isn’t that enjoyable.

Anyone who is paying attention knows that the debt ceiling has never been used as a hostage in the history of our country and the Republicans have created this crisis where none existed before. This is new folks.

John Boehner told many lies the other night in his response to the Presidents address. The one that proved to me that he either doesn’t understand what the fucking debt ceiling is, or he doesn’t care about the truth was when he referred to giving the President a “blank check”. Hey moron, the check has already been filled out, we just have to mail the damn thing. Any person in the media who doesn’t call him out on that one lie should be run out of fucking town. This very purposeful attempt to mislead his ignorant supporters proves that Speaker Boehner has no moral compass and will say anything to sway his mindless followers.

This big summer distraction certainly took the media and the public’s eyes off the fact that the Republicans in the House haven’t done a single thing to help get people back to work. And it threw gasoline on the fires burning on the Professional Left and is fueling their relentless attacks on our Democratic President. I have to give the GOP credit for playing the media on both sides of the political spectrum like a cheap fiddle. Anyone who thinks the “media” cares if they were played is fooling themselves.

Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles

Lawrence O’Donnell Schools Jane Hamsher and Adam Green – A Blast From The Past

This is a must see, vintage smackdown of the “firebaggers.” Lawrence O’Donnell and Ezra Klein educate the foaming at the mouth “progressives” Jane Hamsher, Adam Green and some other firebagger wanna-be named Mike Roger Hodge. Watch and enjoy!

H/T to grantinhouston!

The PCCC – Stealing People’s Money By Any Means Necessary!

Angry Black Lady Chronicles has the story. Here is a clip from it, go read the whole thing, it’s really good…

Adam Green is desperate for your money. So desperate that he is willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get it.

You see, a couple weeks ago, Adam Green (PCCC’s Treasurer and Grifter-in-Chief) registered the domain name “ColberSuperPAC” in an attempt to bleed donations and membership from Colbert’s Super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (which can be found at tSuperPac.com>):

“Progressive Change Campaign Committee Treasurer Adam Green purchased the URL ColberSuperPAC.com, omitting the t in Stephen Colbert’s name, and then redirected that URL to his own PAC web site in an apparent attempt to steal critical membership and donations away from Colbert’s PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. Colbert announced Friday night on his show, The Colbert Report, more than 100,000 previous ABTT members need to sign up a second time because the organization is now a super-PAC.”

Jane Hamsher Gets Marginalized By Ed Schultz

If you didn’t see this last night on Ed Schultz’s show, good for you, don’t watch that shit. But this clip where Ed Schultz says a line that I don’t think Jane Hamsher appreciated, is worth watching. Ed’s response to her was typical Ed and really didn’t explain anything, but he stuck to his guns. The look on Jane Hamsher’s face is priceless and as I was reading Eclectablog’s piece over at Angry Black Lady Chronicles, it made me think of this clip. Enjoy!

And I don’t agree with what Ed says, I just like seeing Jane get all upset. I’m just like that.

Adam Green’s Dishonest Attack And Appeal For Cash — Grifters Gonna Grift!

Adam Green recently sent out a mass email attacking President Obama based on several lies concocted from a press conference on July 11, 2011. These lies were born and reside only in the mind of Adam Green, as well as the rabid Obamahaters who cling to Green’s every word to justify their irrational hatred for our President.

Green’s group, the PCCC (Progressive Change Campaign Committee), is probably the most organized group of people suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome.

So what was so dishonest about his appeal?  How about EVERYTHING!

Whether blatant or subtle lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations or selective omissions of reality, they are lies – pure fucking lies.

Lie Number 1: The lie upon which most of the other lies were derived: Obama “came right out and said” that he’s pushing for benefit cuts in important programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Adam Green cherry picked Obama’s statements in order to concoct a lie.  He plucked one utterance of the word “benefits” from a general statement by Obama in which he discussed the broader issues of how we get the country’s fiscal house in order. Bear in mind — the word “benefits” does not appear anywhere near the words “Social Security,” “Medicare” or “Medicaid”  (the big 3), and considering the President had addressed those issues before and after that question in the press conference, it shows that Adam Green doesn’t give a shit about the truth. If he did, he would have looked at everything the President said and not cherry picked  one word and then connected it to previous words in order to manufacture a lie.

Adam Green is using scare tactics to raise money from his vulnerable and apparently very gullible followers. I’ve been waiting for him to talk about “death panels”.

The following passage is where Adam Green plucked that word from. Of course, I’m including the context — unlike Mr. Green. The bold type is where he grabs that lone word, “benefits”.

And if you’re a progressive that cares about investments in Head Start and student loan programs and medical research and infrastructure, we’re not going to be able to make progress on those areas if we haven’t gotten our fiscal house in order.

So the argument I’m making to my party is, the values we care about — making sure that everybody in this country has a shot at the American Dream and everybody is out there with the opportunity to succeed if they work hard and live a responsible life, and that government has a role to play in providing some of that opportunity through things like student loans and making sure that our roads and highways and airports are functioning, and making sure that we’re investing in research and development for the high-tech jobs of the future — if you care about those things, then you’ve got to be interested in figuring out how do we pay for that in a responsible way.

And so, yeah, we’re going to have a sales job; this is not pleasant. It is hard to persuade people to do hard stuff that entails trimming benefits and increasing revenues. But the reason we’ve got a problem right now is people keep on avoiding hard things, and I think now is the time for us to go ahead and take it on.

As you can see, in the preceding two paragraphs, the president is talking in general about the difficulty of getting our fiscal house in order so that we can do things that progressives, I say liberals, care about. He was talking very broadly. I can just picture Adam Green wetting himself when President Obama said the word “benefits.” And I can also imagine him jumping on his computer and starting to type that dishonest appeal to his listserv for money, even before the President finished his sentence. He must have missed what came after that benign and very general reference to “trimming benefits”.

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Some Beauty Through A Windshield

Photo by Extreme Liberal (iPhone)

Frank Rich Crosses The Line Into Fantasyland – Let’s Play The Blame Game!

It amazes me just how many people in the media live in a highly insulated world and see everything through the prism that President Obama is responsible for all that came before him and all that lies ahead. They seem to live in a world without context, or nuance and create their own narratives.

The latest narrative that prompted this angry rant is the idea that somehow President Obama is responsible for the entire mess on Wall Street, because he didn’t swoop in and lock up all those evil bankers and hedge fund managers. I certainly understand Republicans trying to pin the mess on him — that’s politics — but when people like Frank Rich and Matt Taibbi jump on the bandwagon, I am reminded why I must blog.

Frank Rich wrote a lengthy piece the other day that tries desperately to pin the whole Wall Street mess on President Obama, and he issues all sorts of dire warnings and predictions about Obama’s reelection. According to Rich, Obama hasn’t sufficiently investigated the mess, hasn’t made heads roll and of course, he hired people from within the mess to work for the administration. Here is a paragraph from Rich that shows symptoms of the contagious Obama Derangement Syndrome.

What haunts the Obama administration is what still haunts the country: the stunning lack of accountability for the greed and misdeeds that brought America to its gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression. There has been no legal, moral, or financial reckoning for the most powerful wrongdoers. Nor have there been meaningful reforms that might prevent a repeat catastrophe. Time may heal most wounds, but not these. Chronic unemployment remains a constant, painful reminder of the havoc inflicted on the bust’s innocent victims.

There is a very simple answer to why President Obama didn’t make them “accountable”. IT WAS ALL LEGAL! And it was made legal by a legacy of deregulation that was created by Presidents Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton (maybe the worst of the bunch) and of course, President G.W. Bush. I’m not exactly sure what the critics would have President Obama do, declare martial law on Wall Street and start arresting people for crimes they didn’t commit? Some wanted him to even nationalize the banks? That would have went over well, I’m sure.

I know that Frank Rich and Matt Taibbi aren’t stupid, so why is it so hard for them to remember the real causes of the financial mess, and the myriad forces (and money) aligned against the President as he was trying to correct it. What they are doing is a form of “blame shifting”. We all know who is responsible for the mess, but you can’t read either Rich’s or Taibbi’s latest pieces and find much acknowledgment of that.

Here is another passage from Frank Rich’s piece that caught my eye and illustrates the tactic of “guilt by association”, one used by the critics who want to blame everything on the President and dismiss any accomplishments.

What has he done to deserve it? All anyone can point to is his December 2009 60 Minutes swipe at “fat-cat bankers on Wall Street”—an inept and anomalous Ed Schultz seizure that he retracted just weeks later by praising Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein as “very savvy businessmen.”

Really Frank? Calling two of the most successful businessmen in the country “savvy businessmen” automatically “retracts” what he said previously? Did you just declare that?  I’ve read both statements in there entirety and there is no contradiction.

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Is Bill Maher Really That Stupid Or Are His Sources Feeding Him Bullshit?

I listen to the podcast of Real Time with Bill Maher and I have to give him credit for inviting some good guests from time to time, but unfortunately he also gives platforms to people like Andrew Breitbart and Ann Coulter to spread their hateful messages. In Episode 218, available at iTunes, the first 20 minutes or so was pretty good, because it seems like every false meme that Bill spewed was shot down pretty quickly by his guests. He was unusually wrong that night.

He repeated a line that is vintage Bill Maher, catchy, clever, but completely wrong. Here it is…

It would be kind of a tragedy if we got to the end of four years of Democratic rule without having really tried any Democratic policies. – Bill Maher

I’m sure that line appealed to the “where’s my pony” crowd, but for people who are paying attention to more than just the negative spin coming from the loudest voices in the libertarian wing, it is obviously complete horseshit. I’m not referring to Hamsher, Greenwald, Adam Green, Huffington, Moulitsas or the rest of those folks as the left anymore. Anyone who helps Republicans get elected and damages the Democratic Party in our two-party system, doesn’t deserve to hang with us on the left.

Let me help Bill Maher with some reality. First, is it “Democratic Rule” when Republican’s have forced a super-majority of 60 votes on every bill that comes into the Senate chamber? Is it “Democratic Rule” when every single fucking bill that comes before the congress has an ultimatum attached to it by any number of Senators, each of whom can filibuster without even having to drag their lazy asses to the Senate floor? And of course, since 2010, when many who are listed above were either openly telling Democrats to stay home or implying it, Republicans have had control of the House of Representatives, which in case Bill didn’t know, actually writes the bills and appropriates the money. Is that “Democratic Rule” Maher?

He then goes on to say “without having really tried any Democratic policies”, which is the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. He dismisses the Affordable Care Act because it didn’t include the public options or a single payer system, neither of which would have any chance of getting even enough Democratic support. The ACA was the most liberal, “Democratic” legislation to pass since Civil Rights in the 60′s. If that isn’t trying Democratic policies for your ass, I don’t know what is.

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Progressive Poutrage: Where’s My Pony?

I would like to offer a slogan for Chris Hedges and the rest of the “poutrage” crowd: Losers Unite!

People wonder why so many of us in the New Left Blogosphere get so angry about the incessant attacks on President Obama and the Democratic party from those who claim to represent the left. For me, it’s about a future for my granddaughter and all the young people I care about. It is one thing to criticize and try to persuade a president or party to change, but it’s quite another to be a trojan horse, intent on bringing down the party from within. And that is exactly what Chris Hedges of Truthdig admitted recently.

I’m sure you remember Chris Hedges as the author of the Cornel West story that caused so much shit to hit the fan a few months ago. Well here is Hedges telling us his real motivation and hero, from Democrats for Progress (I don’t want to give Hedges any clicks)…

If elections were that effective, as the anti-war activist Phil Berrigan used to say, they would be illegal. We must follow the path Nader forged, attempting to sway enough people with conscience to sever themselves permanently and unequivocally from the mainstream and especially the Democratic Party.

I have no idea what that first sentence is even trying to say. Can anyone help me with that?

And did you catch the “especially the Democratic Party” line? I have to wonder why he thinks the Democratic Party should be the target even more than Republicans. To me, it reveals that the motives of this gang of anarchists isn’t progress or helping people in any way, it is to exact revenge on a political party for failing to bend to their demands. The Democrats are a party that is made up of many voices that speak for all sorts of different groups, children, women, the poor, the sick, GLBT’s, the elderly, college students, teachers, unions and many more. It apparently fails to be doctrinaire and rigid enough to satisfy them. Most of these Democratic politicians go into public service wanting to make a difference in their communities and help people. So let’s attack them and make some money off it. It’s the new American way.

And Chris Hedges really wants to follow Ralph Nader’s path, because I guess that’s worked out so well for Ralph? It’s a perfect metaphor for the movement though, Nader has never really been interested in any kind of grass roots politics, he’s never run for any local offices, the House, Senate or dog catcher for that matter. He wants to jump to the head of the line and be President. Much has been written about Ralph and how he operates from former employees, but that’s the model Chris Hedges wants people to follow?

And he wants people to “sever themselves permanently and unequivocally from the mainstream”, basically, make yourself an outcast, make yourself insignificant, irrelevant and join us on the sidelines where we can lob grenades at people trying to actually do stuff. What’s with hose damn people trying to do stuff, anyway? And really, would people with a “conscience” want to marginalize themselves along the lines of Hedges, Hamsher, Greenwald, and the rest of the band of boneheads?

If Chris and this crowd really think they are going to have any success in bringing down either political party, especially with the childish approach they are taking, they really need to bang their heads against the wall for about 5 minutes and see if that knocks any sense into their brains. I’ve had exchanges with some of these folks where I told them that if they really want to break the two party system, they need to organize at the local level, run candidates, get elected, do good work and rinse and repeat. Shit, they could just use the Tea Party model, who have had way too much success at it lately (minus the good work part). I think it speaks volumes that they aren’t even as smart as the folks in the Tea Party.

I decided long ago that if I really wanted to have an impact on society and do my part to help make our country a better place, that I am much more effective trying to change it from within. Since both political parties have all the money, the platforms and control of the system, to think that any grass roots movement could have a chance against them is just fucking crazy. Even the Tea Party people were smart enough to fold into the Republican establishment and gain traction. There is no reason why we liberals shouldn’t be able to do the same within the Democratic Party. But it takes time and patience. The extreme fundamentalist Christian right has been methodically and systematically infiltrating the GOP from the local level for more than thirty years in order to achieve their current party dominance. But the Poutrage Posse lacks that kind of discipline and focus, preferring instead to fling poo at the President, which, while clearly satisfying to them on some emotional level, is probably the least effective way to attract new supporters who are willing to do any actual on-the-ground organizing for change.

Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles