November 3, 2010
Already weakened by three decades of slow arsenic poisoning from Reaganism, the United States ordered up a new dose of Ronald Reagan’s special “government is the problem” elixir in Election 2010 – and it is hard to envision how this willing victim will soon, if ever, recover.
15 comments:
It’s also a safe bet that the American Left will continue to berate Obama for not being “left enough,”
I will berate him for kissing republican ass like he's been doing for two years. It's not that he's not "left" enough, it's that he has NO CONVICTIONS.
Every significant campaign promise he made, he tossed overboard without a fight. Every single one.
Republicans from war criminals to bank fraudsters all got a pass. Government secrecy is at an all-time high. Etc., etc.
He campaigned for JOE LIEBERMAN for chrissakes! Jesus H. Christ!! Not to mention a whole passel of other right-wing bluedogs, while campaigning AGAINST people who would actually help him fulfill his campaign promises! WTF is up with that??
I'm pissed at Obama because I am hard-pressed to think of more than one or two small things he's done that would have been different from Bush or McCain. Frankly, I wish McCain had won - the country would be far better off after the 2012 elections than it will be now.
for not somehow enacting socialized medicine or for not getting Congress to approve other sweeping progressive legislation
No, I berate him for NOT TRYING! I would rather have had NO medical insurance bill than the crappy one Obama got us (which will soon be repealed anyway).
Don't you get it?? Obama has FUCKED UP!!! His own supporters, of which I was one, have come to hate him.
I predict that Obama will move even farther to the right over the next two years, in a desperate attempt to keep his job. And it won't work, of course.
But the voters told pollsters that they felt Obama was too much of a left-wing activist.
Baloney. What voters told pollsters was exactly what they heard from Fox News. Without a countering opinion from Obama, what else would they say?
Whose side are you on, anyway?
Left? Obama has not heard the word. Bipartisan? He has tried to out-repub the bastards who hate him, then they all vote against the legislation they have altered.
The dems have not varied from "W" since gaining a majority in 2006.
The electorate wants Obama to provide jobs, while complaining that gov't is doing what private enterprise should do.Are they all full of tea??????
As a middle-class democrat who feels Robert Gibb's spit land on me each time he steps up to snarl at the administration's left leaning critics I can tell you that you are as clueless as the President.
The working-class "base" is not the equivalent of the rich like George Soros who don't give a damn about the middle class. I sure as heck didn't ask anyone to ditch Air America. It was the only thing that kept me sane during the Bush years.
Like all "left" elitists, you are clueless and immune to the pain that middle-class democrats feel. Union leadership was decimated and the DCL-flavored Democratic leadership has failed to replace it with anything to glue the party together. Your post implies that people like me should stop pushing back and retreat to a farm, preferably armed, until the latest round of fascism and war subsides because clearly nothing will get better from here.
We are dismissed with disgust when we don't exhibit enough sheep-like behavior. This is what happens when your base doesn't happen to be Kool-Aid drinking religious nut bags. I suppose the Democrats and President Obama wish we would down some sleeping pills and only awake in time for elections. Perhaps you are unaware of how vicious the left was in criticizing F.D.R ? We are far milder in our rumblings.
The middle-class left has been kicked in not nice places since the election of Reagan. We are furious about being demonized by the right, ignored by the left, except for elections, and run out of more states than we care to think about it (Florida). We can not understand how Democratic leaders have been so feckless and unable to develop a long-term strategy. Why the hell blame it on us ? It is the height of idiocy in my mind to blame your base when you exhibit no leadership.
Middle-class progressives have had their salaries decline, their causes belittled by both sides and their standard of living is slipping away along with their social security and medicare. So excuse us if we are not in the mood to suck up to leaders who don't give a crap about us.
Florida Governor Bob Graham was beloved by Democrats. Why ? Because he actually was one. So sneer away Mr. Parry, I used to think of you as one of the good guys. I could really use that $100 I sent you back.
Excellent article and my sentiments almost 100%.
If Americans think the corporati and the r's are going to create jobs for them, then they surely are nipping at the kool-aid.
The r's read and memorized the nazi playbook on propaganda and media manipulation, and have used both quite successfully. I have been hoping for years that d's would come to their senses.
The only things that keeps r's from completely controlling all three branches are arrogance and stupidity. Arrogance: they will dredge up some of the same old crap with Obama that they did with Clinton; and stupidity: they believe that they can and will do whatever.
Due to the instant gratification that most Americans expect and seek out in every part of their lives, and with most of the electorate possessing the attention span of a three-year old, the next two years could prove to be just as tricky for the r's as it has been for the d's, particularly, when boner, the carrot-colored nincompoop, who is one of the most corrupt politicians in 2010, takes charge of the house in january 2011.
Excellent article and my sentiments almost 100%.
If Americans think the corporati and the r's are going to create jobs for them, then they surely are nipping at the kool-aid.
The r's read and memorized the nazi playbook on propaganda and media manipulation, and have used both quite successfully. I have been hoping for years that d's would come to their senses about the use of the media.
The only things that keeps r's from completely controlling all three branches are arrogance and stupidity. Arrogance: they will dredge up some of the same old crap with Obama that they did with Clinton; and stupidity: they believe that they can and will do whatever.
Due to the instant gratification that most Americans expect and seek out in every part of their lives, and with most of the electorate possessing the attention span of a three-year old, the next two years could prove to be just as tricky for the r's as the last two have been for the d's. It should be interesting when boner, the carrot-colored nincompoop, who is one of the most corrupt politicians in 2010, takes charge of the house in january 2011.
I love how American people wants the government to improve the economy, but the government must become small and the government must stay away from the business. Tax cut, but balance the balance with increased spending......
Obama must feel like me, when my girlfriend asks "Do I look fat?" What am I supposed to say?
The left's become a bogeyman easily exploited by the right to dupe the ignorant Americans into believing the Socialists taking over the country,when in fact the left has long vanished and effectively ceased to be a real political option for many in this to-day America.In the other hand this recent election and the results out of it,justly mark the end of American Democracy (if there ever was one) and the total takeover by the Globalized Corporate Power.
The path that our people's political discourse has been guided down for the past several decades has, indeed, been poisoned by a toxic brew of ideological propaganda, theological ignorance, and cynical lies and deceptions. It is this poisoning of the proverbial well of the very language we use that prevents the viable reason inherent in informed Progressive thought from having the opportunity to even reach the average citizen, let alone quench their thirst and need of clear and simple truth.
Our political discourse has become a virtual 'minefield' of metaphorical banality, through which it is practically impossible to chart a comprehensible course. Added to this pseudo-intellectual 'playing field', is a long list of 'sacred cow' topics/references that must be avoided, lest the offender be sacrificed on the alter of political correctness.
Here we have an article by one of our most informed and honest "reporters", who, in his attempt to convey an ostensibly cogent analysis/informed opinion of the mid-term election, has evidently felt compelled to frame his thesis as "Kool-Aid laced with arsenic". While this is certainly a very creative way to employ the well-worn "Kool-Aid" metaphor, and it is certainly historically accurate to remind the reader that the slow-death of the substance and quality of political discourse has been facilitated by such an intentional and sinister effort, it seems to me that if we continue to use the language of our adversaries to express our opposition to their avarice and deceit, we unwittingly cast ourselves as merely supporting actors in the political 'tragedy' they have designed and implemented.
Their propaganda and rhetoric is "poison", not "Kool-aid"; it kills reasonable and informed thought. It's ingredients are not merely an unhealthy choice, they are an intentionally fatal concoction of lies, slander, and cynical revisions of fact.
Robert Parry is now and has been for some time correct in his observation that the onslaught of well orchestrated corporatist propaganda, both overt and subliminal, has successfully poisoned the minds of many of our people, even those who sincerely believe themselves to be morally and ethically opposed and offended by such corruption. One has to look no further than the responses to this very article. "me said" claims President Obama "...has NO CONVICTIONS." "West Miami Citizen" portends in closing his screed
"Florida Governor Bob Graham was beloved by Democrats. Why ? Because he actually was one. So sneer away Mr. Parry, I used to think of you as one of the good guys. I could really use that $100 I sent you back."
Such anger and outrage represents the feelings and voices of those who have been duped by decades of being programed with phony simplistic political assumptions.
cont'd
The path that our people's political discourse has been guided down for the past several decades has, indeed, been poisoned by a toxic brew of ideological propaganda, theological ignorance, and cynical lies and deceptions. It is this poisoning of the proverbial well of the very language we use that prevents the viable reason inherent in informed Progressive thought from having the opportunity to even reach the average citizen, let alone quench their thirst and need of clear and simple truth.
Our political discourse has become a virtual 'minefield' of metaphorical banality, through which it is practically impossible to chart a comprehensible course. Added to this pseudo-intellectual 'playing field', is a long list of 'sacred cow' topics/references that must be avoided, lest the offender be sacrificed on the alter of political correctness.
Here we have an article by one of our most informed and honest "reporters", who, in his attempt to convey an ostensibly cogent analysis/informed opinion of the mid-term election, has evidently felt compelled to frame his thesis as "Kool-Aid laced with arsenic". While this is certainly a very creative way to employ the well-worn "Kool-Aid" metaphor, and it is certainly historically accurate to remind the reader that the slow-death of the substance and quality of political discourse has been facilitated by such an intentional and sinister effort, it seems to me that if we continue to use the language of our adversaries to express our opposition to their avarice and deceit, we unwittingly cast ourselves as merely supporting actors in the political 'tragedy' they have designed and implemented.
Their propaganda and rhetoric is "poison", not "Kool-aid"; it kills reasonable and informed thought. It's ingredients are not merely an unhealthy choice, they are an intentionally fatal concoction of lies, slander, and cynical revisions of fact.
Robert Parry is now and has been for some time correct in his observation that the onslaught of well orchestrated corporatist propaganda, both overt and subliminal, has successfully poisoned the minds of many of our people, even those who sincerely believe themselves to be morally and ethically opposed and offended by such corruption. One has to look no further than the responses to this very article. "me said" claims President Obama "...has NO CONVICTIONS." "West Miami Citizen" portends in closing his screed
"Florida Governor Bob Graham was beloved by Democrats. Why ? Because he actually was one. So sneer away Mr. Parry, I used to think of you as one of the good guys. I could really use that $100 I sent you back."
Such anger and outrage represents the feelings and voices of those who have been duped by decades of being programed with phony simplistic political assumptions.
cont'd
cont'd
To "me said":
Obama has never exhibited or practised the "CONVICTIONS" of liberalism or purist Progressive philosophy; he is a political moderate who is socially progressive and economically conservative. He was elected by those who preferred him to the NeoConservative McCain or the NeoLiberal Clinton. It is probably true that if all three had been on the ballot in 2008, he probably would not have been elected, but that, admittedly imaginary scenario, does not magically make him some 'savior' of progressive liberalism, it simply proves that our process for choosing candidates for the highest office in our society does not produce people who actually represent the will of the majority of our people.
To "West Miami Citizen":
I am a life-long citizen of Florida. Bob Graham is a right-wing extremist Conservative Democrat who rode into national office on the coat-tails of Rep. Robert Sikes of Crestview, Florida; who was also "beloved" by the Conservatives of his day. Neither were ever Democrats in the Liberal/Progressive sense, and they certainly never practised in private what they claimed to stand for in public.
I commend the following to anyone who might be interested in some interesting thoughts, from another thoughtful journalist.
http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
Obama has never exhibited or practised the "CONVICTIONS" of liberalism or purist Progressive philosophy; he is a political moderate who is socially progressive and economically conservative.
I still say he has no convictions. He campaigned on open government, gay rights, medical insurance reform (granted, not the Medicare For All that we need, but including the public option), "no one is above the law" (yes, those are quote marks), and a host of other issues dear to the hearts of those who voted for him.
Yet in all cases, Obama has thrown those goals over the side WITHOUT A FIGHT.
Can you imagine Bush backing away from his beloved Iraq War simply because the other party might not like it? HA!
Bush is a piece of shit, just like his father and just like Reagan. Yet those men had convictions and fought for them. Obama has no conviction that he's willing to put up a fight for.
The day after the election - even before the scumpublicans made their inevitable demands - Obama said he would go along with republican tax cuts for the rich. Does that strike you as the action of a man with convictions??
I will never, ever, ever vote for Obama again, or any other spineless wimp for that matter. After 40 years of that, I've had enough. I'll write in, or stay home first.
Ethan Allen,
You state that Bob Graham was a "right-wing extremist Conservative Democrat". I believe you either fancy yourself a provocateur or you have an axe to grind. Certainly you have written assertions using big words which have no basis in fact, which is frankly a waste of big words. I scoff at your characterization of Senator Graham as a right-wing anything.
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