November 10, 2010
Election 2010 was a victory for corporatist Republicans even more so than Tea Party radicals, a stunning resurgence for the Establishment GOP that says as much about weaknesses among Democrats and the Left as it does about strengths on the Right.
7 comments:
Yeah. And a real beating for those statist "Democrats."
Why does Parry continue to attempt to legitimize the status-quo?
Has he not read any Sheldon Wolin, Steven Hill, Noam Chomsky, Michael Hudson, Dean Baker.
Even Howard Zinn, in the magnum opus, "People's History..." he repeatedly outlines the "Bipartisan Consensus" and the corruption of the current electoral and so-called democratic process.
I wish Parry would ask some hard questions and either attempt to prove all those authors wrong, or just admit he benefits from continuing this tragic charade.
I think mass insanity also has something to with it.
The hard lesson? Look Bob, don't overanalyze everything, ok.
People didn't vote for Obama in 08 to continue Bush policies. That's pretty plain and self-evident. Cutting back room deals and letting industry write legislation (btw, compulsory insurance is not health care reform, ok), letting BP be in charge of writing the narrative for Gulf cleanup, and on and on and on.
Your analysis is flawed because the magic troika of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi didn't do anything worthwhile to earn another vote of confidence from the public. Plain and simple. The hard lesson those three should have learned is that the more they try to accommodate the GOP, the more they drive away their base.
Last, Obama ought to know there's something wrong when GWB compliments him on carrying on the war.
Harvard-smart, Southside stupid..
JonnyJames and Lazy Ichi nailed it.
Another thing to consider: The Progressives/Left largely don't have the scads and scads of money to pour into media that those on the Right do. How can non- and anti-corporatists compete with the billions being poured into the crap the American public is being fed?
Grassroots organizations/movements are just that: How often do people like us stumble into sheer amount of money that would be needed to compete?
I'm one of those who voted for Obama, but has been disappointed. I DO see him as selling out and knuckling under. I feel we on the Left have been massively swindled, and I'm angry.
I'm afraid it WILL take another Revolution to restore sanity to our nation, but Americans are weak and lazy.
I think Parry makes a good point, and the same one was made by George Lakoff in an interview on election night. The challenge he describes is ultimately one of leadership and communication--not the demagogic manipulation of the electorate with agit-prop, but the persistent putting forward of honest analysis and feasible policy along with taking risks and making commitments to see them through. This is something that the President and the party structure can't do alone, and in the absence of plutocratic resources to pump out the content through the privatized public bandwidth, we have no choice but to use whatever democratic fora are at our disposal--meetings, rallies, university classes, blogs, social media, community radio, public access TV, churches, schools, water-cooler conversations and so on.
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