The irreconcilable left seems to be enjoying its theatrical indulgences, even if at the expense of national progress.
They see themselves, I can only gather, as some sort of Platonic philosopher-kings, albeit heavy on the philosophy and diaphanously thin on the practical management side. Those two were meant to balance in the real world, as, say, FDR profoundly understood and Barack Obama understands, but bomb-throwers never will, because they refuse to.
There is, you see, no fun in compromise. True, it's unappealing; it is to everyone of a principled mind. But most of all, it exposes the nervously idealistic to the bogeyman McCarthyite tactic -- yep, the left does it, too -- of charges of politically criminal apostasy. So better to let one's ideology rule in toto and thereby seize the claim of virtuous purity.
You know, like the Tea Partyers -- the irreconcilable left's spiritual doppelgänger. More than that, however, Tea Partyers have evolved into an effective political alliance with the irreconcilables: The former now hold a frightening net-positive favorable/unfavorable rating of 41 percent to 23 percent among the American electorate, while the only major political organ of a struggling progressive tune -- the Democratic Party -- has slipped into a sour-note net-negative.
And those two developments are prodigiously, if indirectly, related.
In that all-too familiar nutshell: Democrats can't govern. They can bicker with the best of them, they can squabble, and they can fight like the herd of tomcats they are, but they simply cannot govern. That, anyway, is the popular perception -- and it's taking root out there, as poll after poll is presently indicating.
In another all-too familiar and by now clichéish nutshell, they -- that is, the irreconcilables -- are permitting the perfect to battle and overwhelm the good. Yet, whether one likes it or not, the American political system is structured to be intolerant of the perfect; it will, however, from time to time embrace the good in small bits and admittedly problematic pieces. And righteous theatrical indulgences won't change that.
They can, however, through sheer volume and outsized presence, stop the partially perfect in its tracks. And oh, how rewarding that must be, to the perfectly inclined. Look at them, look at them, look at the preciously noble and pure -- even if such purity looms as a leading agitator for the majority return of right-wing Neanderthals.
I mentioned FDR in my opening, and this should be further noted: Had he served his presidency in this voluble media environment, I wouldn't have mentioned him. Because his presidency would have been largely forgotten and utterly dismissed. He would have gone down in humiliated flames, first term.
FDR had his irreconcilables on the left, too, and they were just as loud and just as congenitally malcontented -- but not nearly as noticeable. He suffered not from 24-hour cable-television assaults and overwrought progressive Web sites and endless streams of uncompromising left-talk radio -- all with a vested interest in internal conflict.
The irreconcilable left savaged FDR over his pragmatically progressive approach -- that is, what the 32nd president and founder of modern progressivism embraced as politically doable -- on scads of issues, from his early cooperation with big business to his diluted Social Security program. They were incensed, outraged I tell you, at this miserable sellout of a gutless, unprincipled chief executive.
Yet their outrage was largely confined to obscure periodicals consumed mostly by the virtuous intelligentsia. Other than Father Coughlin and Huey Long -- until the latter got plugged and the former became certifiably unplugged -- FDR had, for instance, no Ed Schultz, the Glenn Beck of "progressive" cable, hyperemotionally braying every bloody evening that "the base is ... wandering in the wilderness, Mr. President.... They want to know, where are you?... Right now, Mr. President, your base thinks you’re nothing but a sellout -- a corporate sellout, out that."
It is scarcely curious that Mr. Schultz -- along with other MSNBC irreconcilables, in addition to camera-mugging talk-radio progressives and hysterical Web site purveyors -- never submits any statistical evidence for this claim. And the reason that it's scarcely curious is that he hasn't any. Indeed, just about the only crowd still propping up Obama's falling numbers is ... The Base.
That's not to say, however, that the sheer, read-my-virtuous-lips volume of the likes of Mr. Schultz's voice fails in inordinate influence. He, and his audience-readership-hungry colleagues, simply cranks up the withering noise and compels his mighty little band of like-minded malcontents to scream "No, no, no," Republicanlike, at Congressional targets.
The ineluctable outcome: a splintered party, a wounded majority, and electorally unfavored inaction. Obviously there are other factors -- Blue Dogs and "New Democrats" who remarkably resemble old Republicans -- but the irreconcilable left is doing its part, too, to hand Congress to the Tea Partyers.
Thanks, Ed. Thanks, Arianna. Thank you, Keith and Howard, and all those within your self-satisfied, echoing chamber. And I'm sure your virtue will slip not one iota in other progressives' high esteem as Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell go about gutting what admirable little is left of this country.
who are you writing for?
Go to hell carp. Should we all abandon our ideals, venerate corporate shills like Obama and Reid, and cheer for a bill allowing health insurance companies to decide how much of our money they want to take? I'd rather get sick and die than lose my house trying to pay federally mandated sky-high premiums and deductibles to insurance company executives who will deny my claims anyway. This bill will financially rape those too poor to buy insurance and leave them in the exact situation they're in now, i.e. no access to health care. This bill has been stripped of anything resembling reform and is merely a license for insurance companies to pick our pockets. Don't impugn the motives of sincere progressives who refuse to support a president who lied his ass off to win their support and has governed far to the right of Richard Nixon. Keep sucking up to the corporatists Carpy and maybe someday you'll land a spot on Fox & Friends.
Dear Mr. Carpenter
Believe it or not, I'm actually one of the few people following your column who actually like you. You've done a pretty good job of realistically assessing the health care situation as it's evolved from point to point. However, if fault is to be found, I believe it is, in my opinion, with the fact that you don't look far enough down the line from our present situation.
Think about this: Suppose some teabagger is encouraged, with GOP money and backing, of course, to drop their current insurance, claiming they cannot afford the premiums, with, or without a gov't subsidy. Thus he/she/they cannot afford the fine either. Off to jail they go, and their attorney files suit against the gov't for incarceration without due process. And, further, that for the U.S. gov't to mandate citizen purchasing of ANYTHING is unconstitutional. All these guys would need is ONE friendly lower court judge to rule in their favor, and while this thing gets appealed all the way to the SCOTUS, GOP & Corporate Media have a field day. Rep. doofs will be all over the place proudly cackling that they knew all along this was a bad bill, and as an adult, voted against it. It won't matter whether the case is good or not. But do you really think THIS SCOTUS is gonna pass up a chance to stick one to Obama? However unlikely, this is only ONE scenario. I'm sure that by trying to cover his butt, Obama is walking into another trap. He was better off just going for broke with the simple majority he has. By being too bright by half, he's making a very stupid move here. One that could very well cost him his Dem. Congress, as well as his presidency.
Like I said...
There goes the base...
I honestly don't think you deserve all the vitriol dished out below, as a writer I sympathize, it's not easy coming up with interesting angles on current events, especially in the era of the 24 hour news cycle and constant comment...
But you screwed up, you blamed the victim... And you asked this audience to compromise with those who take no prisoners... If we were dealing with honest men, and I do attack their character as opposed to their judgment, then an honest compromise would be possible, but these folks ask for compromise, get lots of embarrassing concessions from the Dems and then vote NO anyway...
If you have heard my voice then you have heard similar sentiments, including a long talk on the need for maturity and compromise if Democrats are to actually govern, come from my pen as we now see from yours. I still demand political realism from my fellow Democrats of the Left, but there are principles, one of which is simple equity, that cannot be compromised or ignored in any negotiation.
The Senate Bill is unacceptable, it is a giveaway to the health insurance industry and contains nothing that will truly curb the abuses or spark real competition. Howard Dean is correct, we should reject this Bill if it comes to a final vote with the Mandate but without a Public Option or more to the point, Medicare for all.
But don't feel too bad, you did get a rise out of 'em...
RGJ/Dallas112263
Regarding the irresponsible
Regarding the irresponsible Green Party, see the winter issue of the SPLC Intelligence Report, I believe it was. First it helped select GWB (by running the guy who later congratulated Barack Obama on his victory by telling him not to be an Uncle Tom), then its Minnesota caucuses endorsed a military-oriented person for senate because he was a Native American (though the primary did correct this error), and now it has run an anti-semite for president and uses sophistries to enable this anti-semitism.
The Green Party can go screw itself. It’s the Democratic Party or defeat; if you won’t vote for the Democrat, then vote for the effing Republican. Go, do it.
sheeple
Only sheeple believe the lie that there can only be two political parties. The people screaming it loudest usually have the most to lose if their party loses.
I say screw the Democrats now because a vote for a Democrat is the SAME as a vote for a Republican. We aren't getting ANY change. From Obama we are getting Bush's third term and nothing is getting done in Congress because the minority Republican overlords still control everything even though they are vastly outnumbered.
The evil corporatists hijacked the Republicans AND the Democrats. If we are to take our government back from corporations we have to send their lackey politicians into retirement. Vote Green in 2010 to start the process.
is it too late to revoke the money I donated
to you before you joined this group enterprise? 'cause this in-your-face frankly insulting writing style is so loud I can barely discern the message itself. that old cliche about the perfect being the enemy of the good has now warped into the almost too awful for words being the enemy of the downright deplorable which is somehow the fault of progressives rather than the man in charge, according to PM. as obnoxious a notion as PM's tone is nasty.
You're Correct, of Course. But…
…aside from all the talk of political purists ruining the Democratic Party's standing in polls on the internet: Media-scourged, misunderstood, not treated fairly—and not regarded with the maturity and political practicality of FDR and his chorus of saints, for example, which we enjoyed and certainly benefitted from a couple of generations ago, you omit one reality-changing fact, the twisting tornado of power and influence which has spread an ugly gloss on everything you and other "be real" advocates discuss: the unprecedented, unparalleled, unavoidable, unstoppable and irresistible power of hundreds of millions, and a few billions of dollars, which floods our politics from Seattle to Miami and cause our right-minded and good-hearted representatives to be thoroughly soaked in the flood of the cash until their shoes squeak, their socks are soaked, and their very lives come to depend upon what they receive from the increasingly evident genuine power in our politics, cash.
bad Democrats
The Democrats now have the majority and they are solely responsible for the Welfare for Insurance Companies Act of 2009. It is nothing more than a $multi-billion present for insurance companies. The Democrats and Obama own it and have showed that they are just as happy as Republicans to accept corporate bribes and screw the common folk.
If you want government by we the people again, stop voting for the corporate whore parties and vote Green next year. If you keep voting for Democratic and Republican corruption you'll keep getting corruption. Stop the madness and vote different!
This so-called reform bill has become nothing but a windfall for
This so-called reform bill has become nothing but a windfall for the insurance industry; no true reform but simply a mandate to purchase their fatally-flawed money-grab. It's more government welfare for corporations and yet another example of the rich stealing from the poor. These corporations already have so much money that they have to invent new ficticious asset markets to invest it all in. It's time to bring our money back home, back into the real economy, and put these health-insurance shams out of business. It's time to reel in Wall Street and put an end to the casino economy. It's time to reel in money-power's monopolistic hold over broadcast media and over the electoral process. It's time to end "winner-take-all" politics and institute a constitutional change to proportional representation.
The Tea-Partying Carpy
'nuf said
Now here is an intelligent comment in response to Carpy.
Straw Man Argumentation
Wordy, but mostly worthless commentary, Mr. Carpenter.
If we [whatever that ad hoc coalition of strange bedfellows might be?] can not kill this bill, then we might as well give up on having a functional American democracy ......... and that is not hyperbole!
Screw unprincipled Democrats and Obama's hopeless legacy.
Wouldn't It Be Loverly...
...if Carpenter spewed as much venom on the corporatists who are ruining this nation as he does those who don't see things his way?
This health care bill bill has nothing beneficial in it for the common person. The insurance companies can still refuse to cover you, can still refuse to pay for "pre-existing" conditions, and have no limit to how much you can be charged for the privilege of maintaining their profit margins and bonus funds. On top of this, many of us will be paying an excise tax on our "Cadillac" health care plans while Wall Street and insurance execs get more tax BREAKS on their windfall compensation packages.
This bill must die, or we will all pay for this abomination the rest of our lives. Write your Congress-critters, and tell them that you will not sanction their continuance as a corporatist lackey with your vote unless they kill this bill.
Democrats are now our political enemies
I think the right-wing views and misrepresentations in this column are inappropriate on BuzzFlash.
============================
"As long as the republicans had a majority, they had cover for their pro-corporate leanings. Now that they [Democrats] have the majority and the left expects something, they have to find other ways to stall and divert so that the corporations stay happy." rwsandersii
Well put! This is an insight that too few liberals have, still thinking of the Democrats as the party of FDR.
BTW, a Green-Party vote is NOT wasted. The corporate media seem to have everyone (including most leftists) convinced that the Green Party needs 51% of the vote to make any progress. This is corporate propaganda! Only 5% of the vote will get the Green Party matching Federal funds, and a guaranteed place on the ballot.
A 5% Green-Party vote and a place on the ballot will make it harder for the corporate commission running the presidential debates to exclude the Green Party. They have a strict zero-tolerance policy for parties not funded by corporations, claiming there's insufficient support for them. Popular support for the Green Party will allow this censorship to be challenged.
A Green-Party vote will also encourage other people to vote Green in future elections. More immediately, it will send a strong message to the corrupt, corporate-funded Democrats that Americans will no longer unconditionally vote for them while they're working against us.
Voting Democratic is supporting your political enemies. It gives this corrupt party undeserved legitimacy and perpetuates the problem. Vote Green to start to take our country back from the corporations!
A vote for Green is indeed a wasted vote for the Republicans
The Green (Who?) Party is less popular than Lyndon LaRouche.
All Democrats are not "our political enemy" as the idiot above dishonestly claims.
We need to support Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and other progressives within the Democratic Party.
In next years Democratic Primaries, vote for the progressive challengers over the Blue Dog DINO-Fascists who have hijacked the Democratic Party.
And support:
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) works to elect bold progressive candidates to federal office and to help those candidates and their campaigns save money, work smarter, and win more often.
http://boldprogressives.org/
Democracy for America is the true DNC of the Democratic Party.
http://democracyforamerica.com/
You're a dupe
Let's look at the facts:
1. The Democrats saddled us with NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO, which export US jobs to low-wage countries.
2. The Democrats helped cover up the numerous crimes of the Bush Administration, including staging the 9/11 attacks, stealing elections, and lying the country into a war.
3. The Democrats voted for tax cuts for the rich.
4. The Democrats oppose a single-payer health care system.
5. The Democrats helped the Republicans overturn the Constitution. In particular they voted for the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the Patriot Acts.
6. The Democrats help maintain laws (like Taft-Hartley) that prevent the formation of unions.
7. The Democrats allowed media consolidation, which told us: 1. Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks, 2. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and 3. Iraq was planning a nuclear attack on the US.
8. The Democrats maintain laws that inhibit non-corporate-funded parties.
9. The Democrats voted for the fascist judges on the Supreme Court.
10. The Democrats allowed the government to spy on us, and set a precedent that telecom companies that illegally did this weren't charged with anything. It's still going on.
11. The Democrats allowed our government to torture. Furthermore, they're helping protect the Bush-Administration tortures from prosecution for war crimes.
These are all right-wing positions. It doesn’t matter that Dennis Kucinich is a progressive; what matters is what the Democratic Party as a whole does. You’re a sucker if you vote for this right-wing party because of a few progressive outliers.
So you’ve listed some progressive Democratic organizations. Big deal. They didn’t prevent any of the outrages listed above. They didn’t get us single-payer health care. They didn’t even get us a public option. You’re just another ignorant dupe, fooled by the posturing, and voting for our political enemies.
Fortunately, we only need about 5% who are smart enough to not vote for our political enemies, to start to take our country back from the corporations. Go ahead and throw your vote away on this corporate-funded party. We don’t need you.
Once again, you are a liar
You continue to dishonestly claim that all Democrats are alike.
Once again I have to point out that Progressives are not Blue Dogs or DINOs.
How thick is your skull?
"Go ahead and throw your vote away" to the Republicans by voting for the Green Party (Who?). Progressives don't need you.
You're a liar who can't read
Learn to read. I never claimed "all Democrats are alike". In fact, I specifically mentioned the outliers like Kucinich, who put a progressive face on this corporate-funded party.
Furthermore, a Green vote adds nothing to the Republican total; it just means one corporate party will have to beat the other corporate party without our help.
You are a liar.
Please stop lying, again!
Can't you read your own comments?
In them you talk about "Democrats", not "most Democrats", "some Democrats", or "a few Democrats".
Just saying "Democrats" implys "all Democrats".
You may have mentioned Kucinich in one of your ridiculous comments, but you still urge the readers to not vote for (any) Democrats, which of course, includes Kucinich.
So in fact, you are urging the readers to not vote for him either.
The only thing worse than a liar is a stoopid liar like you!
Now when you vote for a Green(Who?), you don't vote for a Democrat, which is the same as someone else voting for a Republican. The end result in both cases is the Democrat has lost one vote compared to the Republican. That is why your useless vote for a Green (Who?) is a useful vote for a Republican.
Question
Is it easier to call me names than explain why the party you're advocating has taken right-wing positions on the most important issues of our times?
Your question is also a lie!
Your question is perjorative by dishonestly assuming ALL Democrats are evil.
Why do you continue to dishonestly lump ALL Democrats together and call for them ALL to be voted out of office?
Then when I call you out on it, why do you deny it (another lie) and/or change the subject?
Why do you continue to lie about your obvious failed and deceitful tactics?
No wonder the Green Party (Who?) is a complete failure.
"Ignorant dupe"? True enough, ....
.... in Kevvy's case, but it's not like you greenies can afford to tell anyone you "don't need" them. In the 2008 election, your candidate managed to pull 161,603 votes - 0.12% of the vote. When you say you "only need about 5%", that leaves you about 6,401,263 votes (4.88%) short. But keep up the tough talk and smearing Democrats as a whole .....
..... I'm sure you'll get you to that magic 5% in no time at all ....
The situation has changed
The difference is that now the corporate loyalty of the Democrats is clearer than it's ever been in recent history. There are a lot of disillusioned Obama supporters that worked for him, and are now realizing they've been betrayed.
We only need 1 in 20 of them to make an impact. We'll see what happens.
Voters more likely to vote for Progressives, not Greens (Who?)
You're living in a"1 in 20" fantasy world.
Progressives raised over $500,000 in one day a few months ago. Then they quickly donated it all to progressive Democrats.
The Blue Dog DINOs still don't get it. But they will on Democratic Primary Election Day when they get voted out.
In their entire history, have the Greens(Who?) raised $500,000 yet?
So it's the amout of money they've raised?
If cash raised is your criterion for success, the Republicans are your party.
I hope the Democrats morph into a party worth supporting. They aren't there yet, and may never be there. I prefer to support a party that will do the right thing once they're in office. You can't say that about the Democrats.
You're wrong again
The Democrats are raising far more money than the Republicans.
And the only way the Democrats can "morph into a party worth supporting" is for you to vote for progressive Democrats instead of throwing away your vote on a Green(Who?) with an impossible chance of winning a seat in Congress.
Besides, how do you know the Green Party(Who?) "will do the right thing once they're in office", when they have never been voted into office on a federal level?
Meanwhile, Democratic progressive politicians like Kucinich and Howard Dean are proven performers in office.
Yman, is really just a Yboy
How strange that you call me names, yet defend my position.
Not strange at all
I'm not defending your argument, Kevvy, just pointing out a major flaw in Alan8's argument, which coincides with your argument. See if you can figure out the difference. Pretty funny, though, particularly since you're both flip-sides of the same coin. You want to purge the Democratic party of all those that don't meet your standard of "true progressives" (a small percentage of Democrats), while he wants the "true progressives" to leave the Democratic Party for the Greenies.
BTW - "Yboy"???
I know you "true-prog" Obama-dupes aren't very quick, but that's the best you can do??? Hey, .... how's that public option workin' out for ya, Kevvy? Weren't you insisting it wasn't dead?
Heh, heh, heh ...
Which is the same as clarifying and defending my argument
Little Yboy,
Actually, I point out the same every time I say "Green Party(Who?)". They can't get any votes if no one knows or cares about them.
The public option is not dead. Support for the present Senate bill has now plunged into the lower 30s, which is roughly half of what it used to be.
Pitchforks and Torches Futures are skyrocketing. What good does it do to accept millions of dollars in campaign contributions (bribe money) from the insurance companies if the incumbent Blue Dog DINOs get voted out in their upcoming Democratic Primaries?
Are they going to behave like Republican lemmings and follow Blue Dog DINO-Fascists Obama/Rahmbo over the popularity cliff?
Heh, heh, heh!
Should've realized ....
.... you wouldn't be able to distinguish between the two.
You still think the public option is NOT dead?!?!?
LOLOLOL!
BTW - Weren't you an Obama supporter? Now you're already calling him a "Blue Dog DINO-Fascist"???
Guess Alan8 nailed the "dupe" part, at least ....
Your ASSumptions prove you are the dupe, not I.
Are you sure you aren't Carpy? Like you, he gives up at half time.
Why are you rooting for the fascists? What do we have to gain from a pro insurance bill that does not contain a public option and does little to reform health insurance?
We do not have a final Senate bill, and the majority of the people do not want a bill with private insurance mandates and no public option. If the Blue Dog DINO-Fascists want to commit political suicide, then passing a bill with no public option is the perfect way to do it.
That's not my opinion, that's what progressives are telling the Democrats in Congress and in the White House.
Besides that, we now have an unusual situation where the progressives and the teabaggers (who are right, but for all the wrong reasons) both want the same thing, which is for the Senate bill in its current form to be shot down. Combined, they could become a very powerful political force, if only the teabaggers would stop eating the paint chips.
For the record, I did not vote for Obama, or McCain. I knew Obama was on the fascist payroll ever since he voted for the unconstitutional FISA revision. I don't listen to what politicians say, I watch how they vote.
Uhhhm, yeah ....
... so what? that's what the true progs are saying to the congress and WH, but in case you haven't noticed, it's not making the slightest bit of difference.
"Rooting for the fascists"? What the hell are you babbling about? Laughing at the nutjobs on the left doesn't mean you're "rooting for the fascists". Quite the opposite, in fact. Mainstream progressives would be taken far more seriously, were it not for the likes of the illogical, tin-foil conspiracy nuts.
BTW - You claim you didn't vote for Obama or McCain, yet mock others who suggest voting for a third party candidate. So just out of curiousity, who was it you voted for?
ridiculous
Is it Thom Hartmann who has noted that the Republicans have compromised on _NOTHING_? Where is this elucive "compromise?" We should believe that Obama has ground the poor conservatives under his radical jackboots to the point that now we liberals must be led to recognize how unreasonable we have become? Ridiculous.
Furthermore, I'm damn sick of self-styled "adults" telling me that ideals are the enemy of realpolitik. And we're talking about an ideal here. A couple of them actually. The ideal that health care is a right to life. I would add the ideal of "no taxation without representation." We want health _care_. We don't want to be forced to buy health _insurance_. They are not the same things. Which is to say that "compromise" isn't always POSSIBLE no matter what the post-Reagan "adults" would like to tell us. What would have been the "mature" compromise with Hitler? "OK, you can kill the homosexuals and the gypsys but leave the Jews alone?" Really?
Contact Senators
I have one more comment, though not for PMCarpenter.
Contact all Senators who are leaning towards NOT voting for this horrendous bill!
I'm a Retired RN and have seen over the years what the Insurance industry has done to health care.
I have sent e-mails to all Progressive senators, including Senator Sanders, even though most of them are not my Senators, thanking them and telling them to stay strong and vote against any bill that lacks a Public Insuance plan, but especially one that will do nothing but enrich the Insurance industry.
It's time that Democrats got a SPINE and stopped capitulating and decided to call some of these Senators on their threats to Fillibuster. Let them do it and see how many Americans support their stupidity.
Finally, I would LOVE to see them STOP calling it Health CARE reform when it has NOTHING to do with a persons health CARE, but rather has to do with Health INSURANCE, or at least that's what they told us in the beginning.
The dangerous patriot...drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
Hey, Left! Carp says SIT DOWN & STFU!!!
This column is truly the abomination of abominations--so I truly don't where to begin. First, let me give you a understanding based on POLICY why this liberal is against the bill as written.
The main problem I have is the mandate for everyone to buy insurance from out-of-control, price-gouging, monopolistic entities with NO COMPETITION, as well as REGULATION RIDDEN WITH LOOPHOLES.
And BTW, just who will enforce the regulations such as they are? Governmental entites? Good luck with that when republicans take over.
Plus, if we were to pass this bill as is, there is no mechanism by which we can begin to ever get to single-payer. We will have cemented ourselves into a private health care system for eternity or until it collapses, which ever comes first. So let me repeat my objections:
1) No Competition for Ins. Companies
2) Regulation ridden with loopholes
3) No mechanism by which we will ever transfer to single-payer.
Now, I've been watching this debate on the blogs and on TV, and these are the objections of most liberals (among others). They are policy differences. They aren't based on "getting Joe LIEberman" or Obama or acting as a childish teabagging entity who just want to take our marbles and go home. These are significant policy differences which will affect our country for the next hundred years (if we make it).
Now, the reaction from liberal pragmatists to this "insurrection" from their ideological brothers and sisters is generally split into 2 camps. In one camp you have people like Nate Silver and Ezra Klein, acknowleding our points but arguing it out on policy and saying on-balence that the bill is still a step forward.
And then you have people like Carp. Bullying. Insulting. Impugning our motives.
Not only is this an outrage on a personal level, it only serves to harden our position so it is also stupid politically. But I'm sure it makes you feel better, Carp--so how exactly is your nilhilistic column any better than what you accuse some liberals of?
I am a human being. I have a right to my feelings. I have a brain. Therefore I think.
And I don't like this bill.
I would hope that in the future I can go on a liberal blog and read the main columnist and not be called a McCarthyite for having an opinion. I don't think that's too much to ask.
PM, you are TOOOOOO funny!
Like the other Obama worshipers, you spent the entire election in a giant circle-jerk with the "true" progressives (including Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann, Arianna Huffington, etc.), worshipping at the altar of Obama and suggesting that any criticism of The One was based on racism. Now that even the most ardent Worshipers (excluding yourself, of course) have begun to realize that they were duped, you try to defend Obama's broken promises and complete absence of leadership by arguing they are, in reality, political pragmatism, while whining about the "true progs" who themselves are now whining about the One. Hell, ....... you're now even going so far as to compare them to the Teapartiers.
Seriously, seriously funny ..........
more moronic lecturing
Get over yourself carp. You dont know squat. When the majority of voters vote for change, and get the same old stuff, they have every right to voice objections. You should get a date with Mary Landrieu. You both love the same talking points, and have the same penchant for rewriting history to fit your lack of factual reality. Watching her tell bald face lies on Hardball last night, and insisting that democrats cant do any better than abject failure, reminded me of reading one of your columns. Its your "centrist" (read slightly left of mussolini) bullshit, that is the minority view in this debate, as is shown clearly by the fact that a few "centrist" senators, who represent a tiny fraction of the population, are stripping the provisions that have majority public support from this bill. You DLC corporate jackasses, are well on your way to acheiving your true goal: utter destruction of the democratic party to clear the way for complete corporate control of government. You and your hero Obama are the worst of traitors to your supposed ideals. You fear Dean and Shultz and Hamsher, because they are not afraid to stand up for the people. Voters would sooner vote for democrats who forced change through congress than for those who allowed the likes of whiney Joe L. and Ben Nelson step on their faces. Its a shame the voting public fell for another corporate/media bait and switch, but at least now all the rats have been exposed. With the major parties on both sides splintering, maybe some real change will finally take place.
I'd have to agree with the other comments
PM,
You've had some great columns, but the problem the Democrats are having is that they never expected to be in the majority. As long as the republicans had a majority, they had cover for their pro-corporate leanings. Not that they have the majority and the left expects something, they have to find other ways to stall and divert so that the corporations stay happy.
Therefore the answer isn't further compromise or being dragged further to the right (is Obama any further "left" (to oversimplify things here) than Reagan?). The answer is for the left to push for uncompromising candidates so we can reinforce Kuchinich and Sanders.
Next election, I'm not compromising and I'm voting a straight green party ticket and I don't give a damn if I'm "throwing away my vote", I through it away on Obama and I won't do it again. I'll keep "throwing it away" until the green party become viable.
We're not asking for hard-liners, but a few more representatives with some ethics and respect for the common good would go a long way.
Richard
You Get What You'll Settle For, Pal...
There will be a bill.
There is NO DOUBT about it. It does not matter whether or not it is a piece of shit (which it will be), or that it helps the insurance industry FAR more that it will be of any assistance to anybody truly NEEDING it.
The Obamanable Sno-Job MUST have a bill to sign, and the Dims all know it. They also know he'll sign ANYFUCKINTHING as long as it is so dense and complicated that it will be hard to deny that ANYTHING is in it.
If Obmanable DOESN'T have a bill to sign BEFORE the SOTU, he will begin the second year of his only term as a lame-duck--which will be some kind of record.
But it won't happen, he'll have his bill. That's because the Owners need him to administer the coup de gras to Social Security and the last vestiges of the New Deal.
Which will supply the final irony: America's safety net finally undone by the first non-white President.
Carpenter is an apologist
Carpenter is an apologist for the far right and should be writing for the drudge report. Hopefully, he is costing buzzflash a lot of money in unsold premiums.
More like Neville Chamberlain than Drudge
Hey, I thought he was writing for the Drudge report. Silly me. I guess something that looks like a skunk, sounds like a skunk, and smell likes a skunk isn't necessarily a skunk.
He could just be a wannabe skunk looking for a more lucrative gig in the Chamber of Skunks.
Column by column, Carpenter is becoming Buzzflash's right-wing loon. He speaks of "compromise" with right-wing thugs and extremists with the moral bankruptcy of Neville Chamberlain, whose "compromise" with German's fascists brought on World War II instead of preventing it.
Compromise?!
There is a difference between compromise and capitulation. It seems that for the most part, Democrats have never been able to decipher the difference and instead of compormising they capitulate all the time.
As a non-Democrat, actually a non-affiliated, previous Republican, the Lincoln type, I am appalled at the recent actions, or should I say inactions of Democrats. I really have begun to wonder if perhaps those who have said the Democrats are no different than Republicans are not right.
The idea that we Progressives should sit idlly by and let the Democrats in power "work out" a terrible capitulation, that really is meant to make things worse, is absurd.
PM Carpenter, you are wrong on this one!
I'm not some idealistic young person, nor am I someone who has always been a Progressive, but there are SOME things worth fighting for and against. This present Health "insurance" bill in the Senate is something worth fighting against and pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq is worth fighting for.
Much as you would like to believe it is the "Far Left" that is speaking out against this bill, you are terribly mistaken!
The dangerous patriot...drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
actually,
he's wrong on most of it lately.
You misunderstand...
But then so did John McCain, when he claimed to agree with Howard...
If there wasn't a "hard" left able to find its voice then all we'd be left with is the Drudge inspired babble from the right and the so-called middle... Who have, frankly, sold the interests of the People down river...
The fact remains, if a Bill passes that contains no Public Option, no expansion of Medicare, no measures to insure competition, one that allows the Cartel to charge those with "pre-existing conditions" 300% of the base rate while it REQUIRES that we buy insurance from the Cartel under those conditions, that no one who even knows PM Carpenter is alive would support that Bill.
The very bad will have overwhelmed the partially good...
So was this your "Sister Souljah" moment, where you demonstrate your journalistic chops, your ability to be "evenhanded"? If so you picked the wrong target and then you missed it completely...
And you just lost YOUR base...
RGJ/Dallas112263