I don't believe the Administration is stupid enough to believe that yelling at their voters is a winning strategy. I can believe that they see losses in 2010 as inevitable, and so are now scapegoating "the Professional Left". This has the added benefit of sucking up to the corporate media, lobbyists, and plutocrats who employ same.
It will set up a toxic post-election season in D.C. All the punditry will shriek with one voice, "The Administration has been too liberal! MUST MOVE RIGHT!"
Meanwhile, the Presidential Catfood Commission will be coming in with their recommendation to cut Social Security, to be given an up-or-down vote by a Congress full of emboldened Republicans and lame-duck Blue Dogs about to go on to their new jobs as lobbyists.
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23 comments:
I really don't get it. Unless it's some sort of sekrit signal to big-money donors.
See, here's the conundrum: if the DFH's withdraw "operational support", as it were, they aren't going to push the Democratic party to the left by punishing it. It's simply going to be taken as a signal to find a new base.
What the Republican party has literally been able to do is elect a new people, when it turned out that the voters weren't the voters they wanted.
As long as the (R) party can get away with that, punishing the (D) party is not going to work. I don't know what will work, but I know what won't.
This all could've been avoided if Jon Stewart had been given more time to speak before the senate.
well, you DO have to be a bit of a masochist to be a Democrat, it's true....
Although I have to disagree with Nutella. Imagine the way the Senate would shape up if the Rude Pundit addressed them?
If you govern like you're a minority party, you'll soon be a minority party.
At the same time, if the Baggers win some seats, the media exposure will show just how bat-shit crazy some of them are. I'd rather have that happen before the presidency is on the line.
I don't know what will work, but I know what won't.
A strong showing in the next set of primaries will work. Until then, we have to grit our teeth and hold our noses.
Mandos said...
See, here's the conundrum: if the DFH's withdraw "operational support", as it were, they aren't going to push the Democratic party to the left by punishing it.
I don't agree with that interpretation of events, Mandos. The people who aren't motivated enough to vote are not the DFHs. Most of them will vote, as usual. I know I will.
I agree with Glenn Greenwald:
It's just amazing to read about how union members are reluctant to work for Democratic victory because of the economic suffering they are experiencing -- or how young, first-time and minority voters see little reason to work for Democrats -- and then hear Joe Biden dismiss those concerns as "whining" and Obama deride them as "irresponsible." Democratic voters aren't unenthusiastic because they're reading too much blog criticism of the President; they're apathetic because they see what has happened in their own lives over the past 2 years and see little reason to work for those who have been in power during that time.
I think this is cynical scapegoating by Obama and team. I'm glad I have a good Congresswoman to vote for. If it was for Obama again, I'd be wearing a giant clothespin on my nose, rather than just holding it.
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I guess it depends on which blogs you read, because, of course, blogs are a PERFECT representation of the situation in real life. The DFH blogs I read are full of people declaiming that they WILL NOT VOTE so as to punish the (D) party, and I'm not just talking about FDL.
And I read it on the internets so it MUST be true.
That's an article for plugged-in people to fume over: the electorate, I'm fairly sure, does not actually give a shit about Joe Biden.
It's not helpful, nice, or motivating, and it feeds right-wing gasbags, so bad move there Joe, but I think the hippie-punching'd go down a lot easier if people were working.
they're apathetic because they see what has happened in their own lives over the past 2 years and see little reason to work for those who have been in power during that time.
perhaps; it may be true, and I only know what I can see in my limited zombie view, and this year I am volunteering to hit the bricks and the phone banks in favor of my Senate candidate, and I have been as hard hit as anybody.
Cuz the Republicans are such flagrant assholes, and I don't think it's any huge trick to discern such.
But the Liberal MSM likes the horse races, it does. Chuck Todd eats kittens.
If people were working, there wouldn't be any need for hippy-punching.
So how does one blame hippies for people not working?
I can imagine Burt Prelutsky's answer.
But I don't see how the Administration can get away with blaming the likes of Atrios and Jane Hamsher while letting themselves off the hook.
I can and do see the Beltway media cheering the move. How much more proof is needed that it stinks?
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None. None more proof.
I will drink to that.
Sent you email, by the way.
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Electoral politics are meaning- & useless, except for SCOTUS (I love "SCOTUS!" It's like I'm serious & meaningful. And inside.) appointments.
And I'm starting to wonder if those make any difference.
Sent you email, by the way.
received, by the bye.
Z-mail works better than G-mail.
But I don't see how the Administration can get away with blaming the likes of Atrios and Jane Hamsher while letting themselves off the hook.
I completely agree. They and the Congress fumbled away a big opportunity, primarily because they were scared of being accused of being liberals and socialists. Which is stupid, because the right-wing was going to hurl the l- and s-words no matter what. Instead of trying to deflect criticism and cover their asses, they should have been pushing legislation that would have at least given the impression they were trying. They should have treated the GOP for what it was--a ruling party that was roundly kicked to the curb. Instead they wasted a lot of time trying to take them seriously.
They also did a horrible job explaining the benefits of the things they did do. And it's not terribly hard to express the benefits of stimulating the economy during a recession or pushing for everyone to have affordable access to healthcare.
I am an old man. There are many things I cannot remember. Let me share a couple of them with you.
I cannot remember EVER having the opportunity to vote for a candidate at any level who was as far to the ideological left as I would have liked, or even as far to the left as I am.
I cannot remember ANY election that did not simply represent choosing the lesser of two evils.
I cannot remember ANY election where I voted for a candidate because I actually WANTED that candidate to govern - I only voted for candidates that were 'not as bad as the other guy'.
I don't understand why all these people are running around in hair shirts with their asses on fire like this is something new and different. It's an American midterm election. You can vote for the corporatists, or you can vote for the nihilists.
But I can tell you one thing. If you are unhappy with the corporatists, you are going to be an order of magnitude LESS happy with the nihilists...
You must choose. But as that noted political philosopher Geddy Lee reminded us, even "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice".
"If you govern like you're a minority party, you'll soon be a minority party. "
Alternatively, they actually don't like us! I know, sad to find out that Obama does in fact hate hippies. Don't worry. Everyone hates hippies. Tattoo it on your forehead. We lost.
thunder, I am down in your neck of the woods today. Went to lunch with the most typical, outspoken right winger you can imagine!! (What's in the water down here?!) I mean, the guy hit every talking point. Every single one. (His job is political -- that's why it got brought up.)
Anyway, I would have been scared of him!! If it wasn't that I was secretly laughing that he was sitting across from such a dirty hippie and didn't even know it! (Although HE'S the one who ordered the Veggie burger -- not me!) I was also so, so secretly wishing I had a tape recorder so I could've posted the conversation!!
On a different note, we have to get together for a drink.
this year I am volunteering to hit the bricks and the phone banks in favor of my Senate candidate, and I have been as hard hit as anybody.
Put in a couple of hours canvassing for John Hall today- one of the folks I talked to asked for a lawn sign.
Sounds like a good plan, BG.
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Other people outraged by Stephen Colbert wasting the time of a House subcommittee: Gateway Pundit and Jonah Goldberg.
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