Nobody outside of your little circle of Democrats gives a flying fuck about what you call “neoliberalism“.
Yes, you think there is a big, dark ugly political philosophy behind neoliberalism. We are aware of the theories. To me, it sounds like you have blown up the neoliberal boogieman disproportionately to its actual effect. But we don’t care. No, we do not.
We have our own theories about what the Clintons were up to and we simply disagree with you. We disagree strenuously because we weren’t brain dead during the past 20 years. We know how to keep score.
Give up already. It’s bad enough that you committed us to 4 years of Obama with Gitmo, Kill Lists and 9.8% unemployment in NJ. Remember, in 2008 he was touted as the cure for “neoliberalism”. And how did that turn out?
Don’t make us dislike you.
Filed under: General | Tagged: Atrios, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Duncan Black, neoliberals |
The Confluence 
Yes, Duncan is stuck in the past, isn’t he? #mostoverratedbloggerever
atrios is an ass who makes money off his pithy little comments. He thinks he’s so smart. Has he ever given a shit about any of the small people? No.
The “creative class” members want to sip their wine while discussing their little political theories away from the icky little people those politics affect.
BTW, these people are still mad about passing NAFTA in the 90’s, but not about Drones, Gitmo and kill-lists. That’s all you need to know about them.
Thank you and they don’t really care about NAFTA either. It’s just something to beat Bill with .
True, not one of them has ever worked in manufacturing or even knows anyone who has worked in manufacturing. But NAFTA was a mistake as were the other things they used to slam Clinton. He did a lot of good things but he trusted that future presidents and Congresses would adjust those laws and treaties as needed and that never happened. Remember, 99 senators voted to repeal Glass-Steagall and the one who didn’t vote was McCain who was out of town. I was busy worrying about my own life that year so I’m not sure how all 100 senators were bamboozled but it can hardly all be laid at Bill Clinton’s feet.
Good to see you!!
Good to see you too. We go way back!
Didn’t we use to have cocktails at DailyKos way back?
I actually like Atrios, when he isn’t bringing up the neoliberalism shit. He and his Judean Peoples’ Front has actually set us back 8 years. I think his their credibility is shot on that front.
Two thoughts (one related to the previous post)–
1. A true shame Medicare was not expanded down to people age 55 and up. It would have expanded the pool and helped all those older unemployed workers who are or are going to be really struggling to get afordable decent health care until they are the current Medicare-qualified age.
1. Why is everyone “still mad at Clinton” but not at all mad at Obama? This is a mystery.
You know, the attacks on the Clintons in the face of so much opposition from the party base makes me wonder if the “neoliberals are evil” crowd isn’t working for the Republicans. They get so incensed about how bad the Republicans are but they go out of their way to trash the best president their own side has had for several decades. It’s so bizarre and so effective at turning voters away from the Democrats that they must be accepting kickbacks from Karl Rove.
I’d believe that. There’s too much consistency in their complaints. It’s as if they each get their talking points every day.
Wait I have a third one–
3. Where did all the anti-war protesters go?
I think about this all the time. What’s the biggest government benefit I’ve ever used? FMLA
Bite me, haters.
{{snort!}}
Maybe that should be a hash tag on twitter. #bitemehaters is where you can list stuff you got out of the Clinton years.
Include me on the twitter list for #bitemehaters!
I like that. I might bother to tweet so I can use #bitemehaters.
If I remember correctly, George H.W. Bush actually fought for FMLA. He was not as stupid or coldhearted as his kids.
I thought the speech was fantastic for the most part. I hope Atrios keeps saying these things so that it will remind the rest of us to NEVER LET THIS GROUP PICK ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE!!!!
I know, right? They didn’t waste anytime getting right back up on their soapbox to rant about Clinton.
I’m less of a fan of the Clintons than many here, but certainly they were/are Democrats in a way Obama never was or will be. And those who try to excuse Obama by attacking the Clintons, really end up excusing W. instead. Remember him Clinton-hters? For your arguments on Clinton’s neo-liberalism to hold water, you’d have to believe the world would look pretty much the same if 8 years of Gore had been followed by 4 years of Hillary. And that’s an argument I find hard to take seriously.
Or to put it another way, for myself, I’m not going to argue with those who say that compared to FDR, Bill looks like Obama. But the thing is, compared to Obama, he looks like FDR.
Riverdaughter…
I may be wrong, but I believe “neoliberalism” is a twisted perversion of liberalism which is actually crypto-fascism. It is to a great extent a toxic economic & political philosophy born out of the wet and fever dreams of the dwarfish University of Chicago economic alchemist Milton Friedman and first proselytized in cultish fashion by the “Chicago Boys” his students, acolytes and worshipers (who have proven to be far more dangerous than Ayn Rand’s clique of young toe-suckers like Greenspan & Ryan).
The prototype, ground zero of their snake oil experiment was Chile in 1973. Ironically, on September 11th of that year. The Chilean military, aided and abetted by the Nixon White House and corporate juggernaut ITT, crushed Chile’s burgeoning South American democracy and replaced it with the villainous Gen. Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. The infamous “Chicago Boys” bewitched by Friedman’s sorcery, descended on that disheartened country to put their withcraft to the test, to shoot the wounded (so to speak), beggar a people, disappear whoever objected and steal all the national treasure. The mission was quickly accomplished.
The cult has since spread like a plague throughout the world and in recent years has infected the Big Kahuna, USA! USA! Like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, sad to say, Bill Clinton appears to have caught the plague from Summers, Rubin, Geithner etc, who have likewise infected the current hapless regime. The GOP, however, have not had their bodies snatched, they are actually aliens from outer space.
You are a scientist, Riverdaughter. Is there a cure for this plague?
Are you going to sit there and tell me that Bill Clinton is as bad as Pinochet? Is that what you’re telling me, Bernard?
I know what neoliberalism is and the small stupid group of Democrats who have bought into the neoliberalism boogieman have completely lost the plot.
I don’t see Bill as a gung-ho convert to neoliberalism. He has even admitted that he made mistakes listening to Summers, Rubin and Geithner. You may have noticed that his wife kept her distance from those three during her presidential campaign. The Clintons seem to have learned from their mistakes. What is Obama’s excuse??
Everything I have observed of the Big Dawg since he left office is consistent with his loyalty to the party, in spite of its nominee or whatever stupid deficit reduction plan that nominee got himself roped into. I’ve read Clinton’s remarks on the subject and he’s a lot cleverer than Obama, or apparently, the rest of the party.
And while the “neoliberalism is evil” clique is hyperventilating over Clinton’s many “crimes”, they seem to have lost any sense of perspective. If Clinton is the poster boy of neoliberalism (and I can give you a zillion counterexamples of why this is NOT true), then that would make Obama its evil mastermind.
I can’t take seriously anyone who would tell me that Clinton and Obama are in the same group when it comes to neoliberalism. There simply is no comparison. Don’t even try. It’s laughable.
not even hardly….Clinton took some bad advice from Summers and wished he hadn’t. That’s the extent of it. Other than that, he and some others decided the party could not longer be anti-business, duh, ya think?
It’s Obama who was infected. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess you supported Obama based on the fact that at least he wasn’t Hillary Clinton who of course would be expected to be exactly like her husband, being his rib.