On New Year’s weekend, all it took was one picture to set the right reeling. It began, as far as I can tell, with Glenn Reynolds, who compared Obama’s tux pic to Bush’s fighter jock “mission accomplished” stunt, but later upped the ante by posting another Obama shot, with this description: Just look at his masterful presence in this meeting with National Security staffer Denis McDonough in Hawaii.
Ann Althouse getting quickly to the James Bondian quote of one onlooker, which becomes a jumping off point for her analysis that Obama looks “tired.” What she writes from there is just too loopy to take seriously. With this part of her analysis revealing: People who like Obama are blinded to the way other people see him. This picture strongly says cool to people who love him, but it doesn’t read that way to others… including the many, many people who don’t even want a cool President.
Andrew Sullivan jumps on the “photo-smearing Obama” crew faster than you can say are these people crazy? Mr. Sullivan always there, even when he ends up sounding silly.
It illustrates one thing, whether people are haters or fans, Pres. Obama incites political insanity, proving that whatever notion he had about bringing the country together was simply a far flung hope, a dream, a fantasy.
People are tenacious in their hatreds.
Take just one email I received recently:
Taylor how does it feel to be called a white bitch by Obama supporters after your appearance on MSNBC? All the obots are lashing sexist, disgusting names at you. And that’s the kind of people you wanted to be associate with. You’re getting karma ten fold my friend. Admit you were wrong, join forces with Hillary supporters who are true progressives to save any last ounce of dignity you have left. – PUMAShouldHaveVotedHC
Mark and I had a good laugh over that one. As if people “lashing sexist, disgusting names” at me is anything new! (My hate mail page is 10 years old.)
Whether Puma or Obamabot, the partisanship attached to a political personality alone is pathetic. Where the person or political party takes precedence over issue and policy.
The only person today who comes close to mirroring Obama like disdain on the left is Sarah Palin, with the derangement towards her just as hot.
And none of this vitriol is political. It’s personal, because personality cults inspire people to popularity wars. The political gone Hollywood, which happened a long time ago, but something that was raised to a new level with Barack Obama’s candidacy, the same klieg light aura shining through his presidency.
With 2010 elections coming, a tiny foreshadowing of 2012 to come, it only gets rougher from here.
Taylor:
Stunning – the reason I and so many of the progressives I know ran from Hillary was that we knew she was a Corporate Democrat and we hoped that Obama would be better. Sadly, while we were right about Hillary we were totally wrong about Obama. He’s just as Corporate as Hillary ever was. I think that’s the basis of the uproar in the progressive community. We let ourselves be had and we’re not amused.
We let ourselves be had and we’re not amused.
Yep, that’s about it.
The problem erupting now is that there is a whole new group of Obamabots who believe that people should either suck it up and accept the dumbing down of Democratic ideals, or leave the party, because you’re not sufficiently praising of Pres. Obama. It’s the latest disease.
Good news, mwfolsom, is people like you are not going to be suckered a second time.
Policies matter more than the latest flavor of politician.
“All’s fair in love and war,” and policies do matter. The US military[Pentagon] is completely out of control (as it was during the Vietnam war era) and they and their lap-goat Obama are ginning up every possible excuse to expand the wars in the Middle East. Obama for domestic political reasons and the military for funding reasons. Not satisfied with fighting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan the military is looking for rationales to begin full-scale wars in Yemen and Iran. Had the underware bomber succeeded (and he wasn’t meant to succeed as a concession to Obama) in blowing up that airplane over Detroit, Obama would have been forced by the military to allow it to mount an invasion of Yemen. With each passing day it becomes clearer that Obama is pimping out the US military (at its behest) to fight wars that only benefit Israel and Saudi Arabia. The foreign policy interests of Israel and of Saudi Arabia do not coincide with the foreign policy interests of the United States. Has anyone had enough of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon and its lap-goat Obama? Peace
Taylor:
I really don’t know where you live and who you hang with but I really wish I could sit you down withs some folks here in Albuquerque to let you see how pissed many good Democrats are. I’ve seen people who killed themselves last year for Obama all most in tears about what he’s doing. I can’t believe the folks in Obama’s inner circle have any clue what is happening outside of Washington. If they think he’s going to give another wonderful speech and patch it up in the end have they got a shock coming.
I see articles like the two below:
From HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-williamson/where-does-a-democrat-go_b_408557.html
Via Open Left from Ian Welsh: http://www.ianwelsh.net/why-democrats-are-doing-electorally-stupid-things/
and wonder if they are paying any attention at all to what their former supporters are saying about them.
Its all very sad -
“…we hoped that Obama would be better…”
That about sums it up. It was all hope. Obama has never claimed to be a liberal or a progressive but has instead touted his compromise abilities. Well, you can’t compromise with evil.
A lot of people didn’t pay attention to what Obama actually said.–from Obama’s DKos diary posting, Sep 2005:
…According to the storyline that drives many advocacy groups and Democratic activists – a storyline often reflected in comments on this blog – we are up against a sharply partisan, radically conservative, take-no-prisoners Republican party. They have beaten us twice by energizing their base with red meat rhetoric and single-minded devotion and discipline to their agenda. In order to beat them, it is necessary for Democrats to get some backbone, give as good as they get, brook no compromise, drive out Democrats who are interested in “appeasing” the right wing, and enforce a more clearly progressive agenda. The country, finally knowing what we stand for and seeing a sharp contrast, will rally to our side and thereby usher in a new progressive era. I think this perspective misreads the American people….
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/30/102745/165/500/153069
As a result of broken hopes Obama’s approval/disapproval has gone from 64/19 to 50/45 and his (his? he didn’t write one) healthcare bill is at 39/51, and those polls don’t misread the American people.
mwfolsom says:
04 January 2010 at 10:49 am
I have no doubt, believe me, mwfolsom. I think Obama’s inner circle is summed up perfectly through Rahm Emanuel, which appeared in the WSJ before Christmas:
“I don’t think the White House recognizes how much trouble they’re in,” said one former Democratic official this morning. “I think they’re miscalaculating what’s happening with progressives and the left. They feel like they’re being taken for granted.”
But Emanuel pointed to a New York Times column by economist Paul Krugman and another coming from National Journal writer Ronald Brownstein pressing for passage of the Senate health bill. “What you’re seeing is the progressive backlash against the progressive backlash,” he said.
Evidently, the Obama White House believes Krugman and Brownstein, aided by Obama bloggers who can’t see the forest through the trees, will win out.
Shorter: Obama & his people, which includes a large section of the Dem Party establishment, truly believe that THE LEFT HAS NOWHERE ELSE TO GO, so they’ll eventually “come home.”
As Don Bacon implies above, energizing the base wins out, or as I like to say the most committed wins.
Obama & company ignore another growing reality, depending a good deal on what happens on health care, which will be representative of the collapse or triumph of Democratic principles: What if the country held an election and the Democratic base stayed home?
The focus, from my perspective, needs to be, as it always does, on policy and practical decisions based on policy, not personality and posturing.
The Democratic Elites keep saying / assuming / counting on enough people continuing to accept the “logic” of “You have nowhere else to go” (as you note, Taylor), accompanied by “Be very afraid because the Republicans are worse.”
Efforts from within and as well as from without the Dem party are obviously required. Conversations like this thread illustrate that many people are, at the very least, tired of the status quo. Now, where do we go from here?
Progressive backlash on healthcare? When the base learns that the medical insurance enhancement bill (it it’s passed) has provisions for delaying expanded medical care for four years while new taxes and Medicare cuts are immediate (so that the bill will be “revenue-neutral” over ten years) there will be a firestorm. This will come at about the same time that Obama is submitting his supplemental budget for tens of billions for mo’ war.
Nowhere else to go? How about Independents? How about staying home? Independents are a plurality (40%) and less than 2/3 of eligible voters voted in 2008. Recent polls have indicated that 45% of Democrats are unlikely to vote this year while Repubs are at 75/21 likely/unlikely.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/1/821089/-Weekly-Tracking-Poll:-The-Holiday-Spirit,-Part-III
Stunning – the reason I and so many of the progressives I know ran from Hillary was that we knew she was a Corporate Democrat and we hoped that Obama would be better
That was one of the tricks from the Team Obama labling Hillary as a Corporate Democrat… Even worse were the likes of Thom Hartman and Randi Rhodes calling her a corporatist (fascist) at every opportunity…
Progressive Score Comparison shows Hillary quite a bit more progressive than Obama (on things that matter). Progressive Punch, Americans for Democratic Action, AFL-CIO and SEIU analysis.
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/011131.php
Obama’s economic team in waiting The Hamilton Project should of been warning enough.
Someone said on ‘Morning Joe’ that Howard dean was gearing up to lead progressives. I hope that is true. He might be able to put together a coalition that shocks people like Axelrod and Rahm.
As for the photo analysis…Sullivan’s take is so stupid and counter productive. The base that is the most seperated are the people who were for another candidate and were called racist by the bots.
I am not saying that the Clinton’s are not establishment not am I saying they are not coroprate freindly but I believe that they saw it as a means to an end…raising the lot of the people. I think Obama and his crew see it as a comfortable end in itself.
MW Folsom @ 10:49 AM :
“ If they think he’s going to give another wonderful speech and patch it up in the end have they got a shock coming.”
Taylor Marsh @ 11:14 AM:
“Shorter: Obama & his people, which includes a large section of the Dem Party establishment, truly believe that THE LEFT HAS NOWHERE ELSE TO GO, so they’ll eventually “come home.”
I think you both have a point. But, Big but. IMHO, and I have mentioned this before, as long as their inside polling shows a substantial number of Democrats (buttressed by the black vote) supporting them they will not be as worried as they should be; and more importantly, as long as progressives continue to jump when they say jump, they will continue to take us for grated.
No matter how pissed progressives bloggers say they are at BO the second Rahm, or Valerie Jarret or Axelrod calls to suggest a meeting, like some tin-pot African dictator they all rush to be part of their silly conference calls; or scramble for an invitation to the WH as the case may be.
Look people, when he invites bankers, they don’t deign to show up in person; try as he might he can’t get Mitch McConnell or other republicans to attend his state dinners.
Only when those who represent us in the progressive community begin acting with integrity — that is, having conviction about something and standing up for it — will the WH truly understand the damage they have done. Think about this. How is it possible that not ONE so called progressive had the conviction to stand up for woman’s right to choose? Or for the public option.? What’s to respect?
Until then they will continue to laugh at us. We bring it on ourselves. We are very easy to placate.
Here’s more on Dean Lake Lady.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31043.html
Imhotep
The “military” would very much like to pack their sea / duffel bags and come back home, thank you very much. They are being shredded by multiple deployments, long separations from home, mission creep, PTSD /combat fatigue, etc., etc., etc.
This is all about the clueless political class who see the military and military operations as the solution to all problems. This is what happens when political elites and economic elites don’t have any skin in the game. Rich mans’ war(s), poor man’s fight.
One wonders how enthusiastic dead-eye Dick Cheney and especially his daughter would be for hegemonic rampages if darling daughter had to pick up a weapon and a rucksack and go hump some Afghan terrain. It is whole different ballgame when you are one of the trigger-pullers that’s for sure.
The military follows the orders of the executive, specifically the commander in chief. If the CiC changes the policy the military is required by law to say “yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir!”
The policy of Obama is not the result of some all singing, all dancing conspiracy without end (amen;) it is the result of a government that is frozen in a mindset. It is the result of the failure of institutions. Most importantly it is the result of an electorate that is not holding official Washington to account. If ten million U.S. citizens were to show up on the Mall demanding the immediate return of our troops even died-in-the-wool war mongers like Holy Joe Lieberman would get the message.
Sorry Imhotep the issue is not some grand conspiracy of “they” and “them” it is our own damn fault. When 58% of the public thinks torturing the crotch bomber is an excellent idea, it speaks to a deep sickness in the electorate. We are the problem, we are the ones who have lost faith in the American experiment. We are the ones who allow style to trump substance. We are the base fools who think that discussing candidate Obama’s lack of a flag lapel pin is great idea. We are the ones acting like ill behaved 5 year olds; that is why the political class treats us like ill behaved 5 year olds.
Bluntly put – the idea that “they have no where to go” is their trump card and allows them to do as they please. As long as progressives play the lesser of 2 evils game we are just doormats to Rahm and the Dem elites.
While the Dem power structure won’t take it seriously there are ideas and discussions floating out there that perhaps its time progressives crank up the game a bit. We need to let some bad Dems loose. Some are arguing for something called a Full Court Press and others for even more sever measures. Right now I’m talking with other folks about having what may be called a “Just say no party” right before an election. The idea would be to get folks to request absentee ballots and have them drop by a place where a copier was present. The would simply not vote for a bad Dem – essentially leave the ballot blank for that office then copy that section of the ballot. On the back of the copy they would explain why they didn’t vote for a particular Dem. All these copies would be gathered up, counted and the day of the election copies would be sent to the Democratic Party and the Candidates Office also a press release would be sent out to the local media.
While I have no doubt their will be laughter at first from the Dem power players sooner or later a Dem will loose by less than the number of blank ballots presented and then the laughter will stop.
I figure if we could get 2,000 or so folks to do this for a particular federal office the Dems in DC will freak. I’m certainly open to other suggestions but this is the only idea I know of that will deal with the “they have no where else to go” trump card. Again, until we show them we will let some Dems loose they have no reason to view us in any other way than a doormat.
Take a peak:
The Secret Service says a third uninvited guest gained admission to President Barack Obama’s Nov. 24 state dinner. The person arrived with the Indian delegation, and the Secret Service says “procedural changes” have already been implemented “to address foreign delegations under the responsibility of Department of State who are entering facilities secured by the Secret Service.”
For more information…http://www.politico.com
MW Folsom @ 1:42 PM
I believe that the most effective way to do this would be through the primary. We have to find the target, fund our own candidate to the hilt and this time make damn sure s/he wins. Then go on and beat the republican opponent in the general. If we kill one, believe me we will scare them all to death. Forever. That is how we show power.
The Lamont fiasco set us back years. Until we rectify that we will always be perceived as powerless, and relegated to signing petitions.
Don Bacon says:
04 January 2010 at 11:55 am
Nowhere else to go? How about Independents? How about staying home?
mwfolsom says:
04 January 2010 at 1:42 pm
Bluntly put – the idea that “they have no where to go” is their trump card and allows them to do as they please.
The “no where else to go” is the “trump card,” mwfolsom. Perhaps the question is how many people will quit accepting it as such, and go Independent, or find some other way — the Just Say No Party idea, the Justice Party, whatever. And how many people will take responsibility for making the efforts to let the Dem Elites no we won’t accept their assumptions. There is a great deal of conversation about various ways to “crank up the game,” and it’s happening all around the nation, and in the blogging world, more and more people rejecting the “no where” assumption.
Ramsgate said: “I believe that the most effective way to do this would be through the primary.”
I totally agree but its not always possible to primary a bad Dem Candidate and when you can’t what do you do? I’ve seen bad Dems being primaryied before and it can and does work but its not always possible. We have a pretty bad Dem Senator in NM and frankly there isn’t a way to primary him. Our member of the House in Abq is fairly iffy and you would catch hell if you ran a primary against him. To do a successful primary against someone you need 50% plus 1 of the primary voters with you to do what I’m talking about takes lots less.
MWFolsom @ 2:20 PM:
Agreed. A primary is not always the answer.
Here’s my point: At this time the progressives have absolutely no credibility or real political power in DC. At least compared to the conservative wing of the Democratic party. The way to gain power is to make an example of someone — anyone.
Once we have shown that we mean business we don’t have to keep doing it, in other words, no more primaries. We would have made our point. Thus far we have never made that point, (we have no street cred) because no matter what we say or do, at the last minute progressives ALWAYS CAVE.
Progressives cave because “it matters too much.” I have never felt as fully betrayed politically as I do now. I think MWFolsom has a good idea.
Obama may be better than the alternative in style but not much more at this point.
Thanks kris
Ramsgate – I totally agree, until we politically put an axe in the back of some members of the US House and Senate we dislike they have no reason to take us seriously.
I’m absolutely convinced that the “elites” have been running progressives off for years but because they disappear they don’t count. We have to find a way to “make real” that their behavior is costing them what they treasure most – power.
Let me tell you of the experience progressives have had in NM with running primaries against incumbents. During the last cycle we successfully replaced several very bad Dems in the House and Senate via primaries. The response from the other side of the Party has been much akin to a trapped animal fighting for their life. The lashed out at us legislatively. They have come after progressives and their friends and hate us all the more. So, based on my experience your idea that all it will take is one probably ain’t the way it would play out. We are going to have to “wack” several to make a statement. Frankly, as I sit here and type, I’m not even sure that doing primaries against them would work. They would see each one as an isolated incident not as a statement of national progressive power. I fear we need to scare them and as the guy on Comedy Central said – we need to be crazier and more craven than them.
Being a doormat for all these years has left progressives in a bad situation. Drastic measures are needed to change the attitudes of the elites. It will take knocking off more than 4 or 5 members of the House to get the elites to the table.
Folsom, “It will take knocking off more than 4 or 5 members of the House to get the elites to the table.”
That would be just dandy with me.
It’s not the “job” of the Left, and I’ll include Progressive here because I’m feeling charitable, to get elected to office. They never will. At least not in large numbers. It’s the “job” of the Left to move the issues forward. It’s a curse, but somebody has to grin and bear up under the weight of it. Peace
Not to beat a dead horse but I’m deadly serious here. We have no hope of moving an agenda unless we have “some” power in the Party. The Corporate wing of the Democratic Party has figured out a way to always win any argument within the Party and they use it constantly. If we don’t break this dynamic its over and frankly I and many others are grasping at straws looking for a way to do so.
Lets get over the idea of a third party – it just ain’t gonna happen. Forget the Greens – they simply aren’t interested in winning so they aren’t an alternative. They can be useful to run candidates against stinky Dems in the general election but that’s about it. All we have is the Democratic Party and we are the worker bees that keep it humming. Sadly the elites have nothing but hatred and contempt for us. The only time they give us power is when the Party has to be rebuilt but as soon as that occurs we are out and they are in. Note that as soon as Obama got control of things out went Dean and in went the homophobic Governor of Virginia to retake control of the Party for the DLC.
We have a marriage made in hell – they know they need us and have tricked us into believing that we need them. We have a nasty case of Co-dependency going on here and having been there and done that I can tell you there is only one way to deal with it – stop being a facilitator. We have to reject the central premise that we need them as much as they need us, step back and let the other side fall flat on their face.
Until we are willing to let the Democratic Party fail we are locked into the same disastrous course we have been on for a while now.
MWFolsom
Never thought I’d bee agreeing with a premise like yours; but I’m so broken dismayed by the Obama administration that I can imagine following the course you recommend.
djjl:
It really sad that we are forced to do this but its all I can figure out. If we continue to be a doormat all we do is enable the activities of folks like Rahm and the selling of the Democratic Party to Corporate interests will only get worse.
Clearly playing nice with these folks won’t work.
djjl:
One other thing – you’re just getting to a point that I and other people have been at for a while now. Everybody approaches this issue in their own way and at their own speed. I really, really believe that DLCers and Dem elites have been turning folks off from the Democratic Party for years and they have simply have walked away. Please don’t let them take your party away from you. Fight back and make the Democratic Party what it says it is and should be not what the Corporate Democrats have turned it into.
I’m not going to let that happen. I saw what I had thought was the Democratic Party disappear at the Rules Committee Meeting to suspend rules so they could ignore rules. You know these uppity women need special rules to deal with them.
As far as old Harriet Christman is concerned, I doubt I’m the only woman who didn’t understand EXACTLY what she meant when she made the reference to “another inadequate..black man.” I have no doubt that she saw men and boys routinely receive benefit of their maleness – now with women making gains she stood to see one gain from being a man and black. She even hesitated when sputtering out the statement – imho it had nothing to do with racial animus. It was one older woman tired of being sent to the back of the bus or to serve tea to the big boys and their guests. Even Obama said that’s what he KNEW Hillary did as FLOTUS. That was the extent of her credentials – serving tea.
And to see the depth of his inadequacy thus far as POTUS is mind boggling.