When Only a Hissy Fit Will Do
By Steven C. Day
To be honest, I still don’t know where I stand on the current Senate version of the health care “reform” bill. As the quotation marks around the word reform imply, I share many of the concerns raised by Governor Dean and other opponents to the current Senate bill. But I also agree with much of what Paul Krugman, Steve Benen and others who still reluctantly support passage have to say.
So I rock back and forth in the fetal position, flopping this way then that. At one moment, I worry the bill will be a political disaster — a gift to the insurance industry that will push the cause of true reform back another 30 years. At the next moment, I’m struck by the undeniable fact that the bill, even with all its flaws, will still save countless lives.
But of one thing I am certain: this dispute and how it has been handled has badly shaken my “kinship” to President Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership.
And, yes, there is a large emotional element in why I feel that way. Like many liberals, I feel sold out. It began, I suppose, when Obama and the Democrats put the interests of bankers and Wall Street ahead of those of ordinary working people. Sure, they had to do something to prevent a second Great Depression. But did they have to do it in a way that will make the rich even richer, while doing almost nothing for the middle class and the poor? Somehow I seem to remember something from the campaign about spreading the money around a little.
The sellout of liberals, to my mind anyway, then continued as Obama filled his cabinet with what used to be called New Democrats, while including virtually no truly progressive voices. Jesus, card-carrying Republicans are better represented in Obama’s inner circle than progressive Democrats. I sometimes wonder whether liberals wouldn’t be better off if we became full-fledged enemies of the president: maybe then we too could become part of his “The Team of Rivals.”
Liberals also feel sold out, of course, by the way a whole host of progressive priorities, from gay rights to renewed respect for civil liberties, have been pushed to the back of the bus, and in all too many cases, completely thrown off the bus onto the side of the road. And, finally, to bring us to the issue of the day, we definitely feel sold out by Obama’s apparent conclusion that liberals are part of the problem to passing a good health care bill, rather than part of the solution. That we are people to be mollified where necessary, but ultimately ignored.
Whatever the Beltway crowd may think in their insular Georgetown-cocktail-party-splendor, this is not the irrational rage of an “angry left.” And when Beltway Democrats — and, yes, that includes the one who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — adopt this convenient conventional wisdom as their own, it isn’t just a lie: it’s a betrayal.
But ah what a fine storyline — the liberal base of the Democratic Party discounted as a slightly different reincarnation of the teabaggers of the right. Two opposing groups of crazies who should be deemed to cancel each other out. Meanwhile, we all await breathlessly the arrival of those glorious “centrists” — most notably, of course, Saint Joe Lieberman himself — to ride in to save the union!
So here we stand: the very people whose years of hard work helped put the Democrats in the catbird seat, finding ourselves largely out of the loop.
The question obviously becomes then: what are we supposed to do about it? And the answer, I think, is that we’re supposed to do precisely what we’ve already started doing. We’re supposed to throw a hissy fit: we’re supposed to scream and growl and stomp our feet. We’re supposed to demand that we be listened to, that we be taken seriously. And, yes, we’re supposed to threaten to take our ball and go home. And we’re supposed to mean it.
The political calculation at play couldn’t be any clearer. Obama has concluded that we liberals are in the bag; we may whine and shout and carry on, but in the end we’ll be there. It’s the Joe Liebermans and the Olympia Snowes he has to listen to and cut deals with. He had to, for example, lavishly thank Snowe for temporarily supporting the Baucus Bill when it was voted out of committee, while at the same time ignoring years of hard work in this area by Jay Rockefeller.
Well, that equation is about to change. And you can see the impetus for that change in the rage that’s buzzing around the Internet even as we speak. A rage also demonstrated in Obama’s falling poll numbers.
Liberals are through being taken for granted. Sure, compromise is necessary; we won’t get half of what we want most of the time and we shouldn’t expect to. But the days of the progressive core of the Democratic Party being the ones who ALWAYS have to give in are over. And if Obama & Co. don’t see that now, then it will be our job to make it clear to them.
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Ok, I knew Obama wasn't going to be that progressive, but...
...I thought he'd at least make an attempt. Kinda. I could understand a little bit of that "bipartisanship", "make nice with the Republicans so we can work together" stuff, but damn, when does Obama start being a leftist? I knew it was bad when he dismissed single-payer from the beginning, but I had no idea we would have a health care bill this bad.
And the real kicker of it all is that no matter how much Obama tries to "work with" the Republicans, they're going to call him a socialist-fascist-muslim-dictator no matter what he does anyway...he may as well have pushed some genuine leftist stuff, they're still gonna hate him just the same.
Hissy fits are futile
So many things to address. Where to start? It is certainly stating the obvious to say that Obama sold out progressives; but then Obama really had no choice. If Obama wants to get anything at all that could be construed as progressive in any sense he must work with the political party he is affiliated with, the Democrats. It is there that the sell out has its' origins. Progressives have only the Democratic party and that is like having $5 when you go to the Ritz for dinner; you'll be able to get a package of saltines with your water....maybe. I see yet another advocate to vote Green. Why? Where are they? What's that you say. I should go to their website? Well, yes, there is lots of good stuff there. They seem a very progressive party but, uh, are they on the political horizon? Does ANY media, mainstream or otherwise cover them? Who are their spokespeople? Where is their grassroots base? Five people in a living room in what town/city/state? Oh, perhaps they are at their nadir (Nadir? Nader? take your pick.) and they will rise like a Phoenix in....2010? 2012? After the first Palin term? The second?
And what will they do? Do you have anyone running for Congress in your district as a Green? I don't. They come around once every four years and want me to vote for someone for president. Why would I do that? We have a progressive (I do believe that Obama is a progressive thinker) in the White House now; with an affiliated party majority in both the House and the Senate and what is he able to do? I am begining to suspect that it is the Democrats who are in disarray and the Republicans who are unified. If Olympia Snow is a moderate she sure seems to cleave to the extreme conservative point of view when the voting begins. Perhaps she feels she has to espouse a moderate point of view since her state went for Obama in the general. She may feel she has to give lip service to and the appearance of a moderate stance if she is to win re-election in 2010 but my dollars to your doughnuts she will never vote that moderate point of view on any issue; if she did she would invite and get a primary challenge from the right; and she would lose any RNC funds. Republicans don't have an idea beyond the usual tax cuts, rein in spending, unfettered free market BS they've been spouting since Reagan. Why shoud they? The Democrats can't get their act together in any sense. The Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot at every turn all the 'shattered' Republicans need to do is sit back and let them destroy themselves. Easy feat since there are more DINOs than real Democrats anyway. Maybe the best thing that could happen would be that the progressive Democrats become the third party we need. Let the DINOs founder on their own. That way a truly progressive party would have a solid base of accomplished incumbents so whatever they called themselves they could run truly progressive candidates and not worry about trying to bring even more conservadems into the fold. If the public is really feed up with having no voice in government, and I believe they are, then a new progressive party is what we need. There is no better way to find that party than for real progessive Democrats to split from their pary and give us a voice.
F*ck the corporate media!
So you're not going to vote Green because the corporate media won't cover them? That's called "surrendering".
We don't need the permission of the corporate media to take our country back from the corporations!
VOTE GREEN!
A filibuster would be more entertaining
They want to filibuster? Good. While I and my family are opening Christmas gifts, celebrating New Year's, Valentine's Day and Easter, that bunch of old Republican cadavers can strap on catheters, adult diapers and prove how patriotic they really are. Just imagine the YouTube hits like:
Day 5: Mitch McConnell trips over his ear hair.
Day 10: An exhausted Pat Roberts and James Inhofe begin singing a duet of "D----A-----I-----S--------Y....."
Day 15: Saxby Chambliss loses all feeling in his extremities and flops around on the floor like a fish.
Day 20: David Vitter propositions Olympia Snowe. And Richard Shelby. John Ensign accepts.
Day 25: Jeff Sessions challenges the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev to a rasslin match.
Day 30: Chuck Grassley takes out his dentures and begins arguing with them over a football bet.
Day 150: Joe Lieberman accidentally announces support for the bill.
Yeah!
I'd PAY EXTRA to watch this!
hissy fit? let me count the ways (why i am not suprised)
get a clue. black agenda report has been reporting this news about obama for 2 years, including the fact that he promised "progressives", such as you, nothing for your vote. you and other luminaries of the left only saw imagined, not real, black progress and ignored his associations. my friends are more cynical; our support was based on the premise that if a black man played imperialist tricks that they would somehow be more palatable because a white candidate would do it anyway. we were right and wrong.
black issues have not been addressed substantively in the white house since LBJ, unless, of course, you're speaking of clinton's welfare reform that took away help from the poor and black while ignoring corporate welfare, or the policy of mass black incarceration, an economic issue about which you have said nothing. But what do i know? i voted for kucinich before people such as those who populate this site failed to raise hell at the MSM for not covering his campaign. speaking of which, why does the MSM have such total control of the airwaves?
thank clinton for deregulation that allowed a few greedy piranhas to devour local radio stations nationwide under the premise of what; a profit? who was the black corporate lackey presiding over that disaster? why, the general's son, michael powell. black people really benefitted under that black leadership, wouldn't you say? now that others besides blacks are being victimized, we have a problem.
what's the plan for 2012, more hand wringing? i can't believe that no one - NOW - is trying to field a substantial third party movement (and candidates) in time for the mid-term elections. i guess you only say things are bad. these are but a few of the reasons i refrain from writing these silly responses. nothing changes, but this day only, i am disgusted. tell me why i should not be cynical? let me help you, you can't.
p.s.
don't anyone dare address my lower case form, it is not an oversight.
Your post ....
... is entirely in lower case form.
Your post ....
... is entirely in lower base form.
???
Try again, Kevvy.
Time To Get Serious About Alternatives
We already know what the Republicans do when they are in power, and we don't like it. We don't vote for them. We aren't liking what the "Democrats" are doing now that they are in power. We shouldn't vote for them. What are we to do? Our national politics are incredibly corroded by corruption, and as anyone who was ever involved in restoration of classic cars or other items knows, it can take a long time to make all of the necessary repairs to restore it to like new condition. But the work has to begin somewhere, even if realizing results may take years.
I have begun to vote for the minor party candidates, even if I have to write them in. If I can't find one of these that I can support, I write in "None of the Above" on my ballot. I am not concerned that any candidate I vote for wins the election, for it is far too early to hope for that. What I hope to accomplish is to bring said candidate's party to the five percent level, a legal niceity which enhances the economic viability of the minor party.
IMHO, it's our only realistic option.
Good, raw hatred
The Republicans have earned and deserve our hatred. The Dems? Merely our contempt. Vote the Repubs back in. They'll do what they do, and, eventually, the great unwashed will figure it out and abolish this godforsaken, capitalist disgrace of a form of government.
Mr. Obama has been CAPTIVATED by his Emanuel/GolddamnSachs GANG
Mr. Obama has been TOTALLY CAPTIVATED by his Emanuel/Rubin/Summers Citi-bank, GolddamnSachs, and JPM-Chase GANGSTERS, who have taken TWENTY+ TRILLION of our taxpayer-extorted dollars as "bailouts," and now want to shove this DESPICABLE, "Americans MUST pay for FOR-PROFIT 'health' insurance" - or be TREATED LIKE TAX-CHEATS by the IRS - and you wonder whose side you are on?
Why, Just last week, Aetna insurance announced they were DROPPING 650,000 customers - "GO AHEAD AND DIE, you scum!" - and Mr. Obama PRETENDED NOT TO NOTICE, he PRETENDED that leaving insurance companies IN CHARGE of his "health care reform" (MANDATES! mentioned just above) - and you wonder which side you are on?!
Well, if you know anything about the American revolution, it, too, GROUND ON FOR YEARS, before many Americans decided which side they were on. (sigh)
Hissy fits are for sissies
The only way to get the Democrats attention is to stop voting for them or giving them money. Let them try to stay in office with all of the votes they will get from their corporate masters. As long as they have the undying devotion of liberals and progressives, they have no fear of being corporate whores that survive on bribes.
Vote for change in 2010. Vote Green!
Greens(Who?) are the sissies. Their poltical muscles are weak.
Vote Green(Who?) and throw away your vote to the Republicans.
Progressives are not Blue Dog DINO-Fascists. That is an indisputable fact, so don't try to claim all Democrats are the same. They most certainly are not!
I'm gonna throw a hissy fit
I'm gonna throw a hissy fit ... all of my Congressional reps have heard it. And I'm going to donate money to Greens and other independents. I might even give money to a Republican to help unseat some of the real traitor Democrats. And you better believe that folks wont vote for 'em - I sure wont. Sadly though - that is what happened in the past. So many of us were so nauseated by Clinton and his center-right policies that it was very hard to not vote for Nader in 2000. And certainly if Clinton had kept his base activated, Gore would have STILL won by too much for the rigging to circumvent. But the entire progressive base felt completely disillusioned as best as I can tell. I sure was. And I am now.
MAYBE we need another 4 years of republicans before we can flush the crap out of the democratic party? How stupid can Obama be? I just read that Palin is polling neck and neck with him! Geez. That is pathetic.
Yup
Pretty much come to that conclusion: massive Congressional turnover needed. There might be a shortcut, in some cases, through however many years of Republican hell we'd have to endure, and it'll probably take some heavy duty organizing to do it. Convince as many DINOs (both meanings) as possible that they're better off retiring from office than suffering electoral defeat...which we must guarantee will be their fate otherwise. They can be reminded that they'll make more money, too, what with all the fat corporate offers that will come flying in after their announcements. Everybody wins.
That way, at least, new progressives can vie for the empty seat rather than getting squashed in the primaries by the party machine, and it would avoid the extra step of taking it back from a Repub in 2 - 6 years.
More I think about it, the more I like it. Call your reps today and tell 'em: retire, or lose your next election.