I’ve read posts by Charles Pierce, Digby and Atrios lamenting how Obama has decided to hold a “leadership” meeting with the big bank ceos who got us into this mess to discuss the details of the Grand Bargain.
It sounds a lot like crocodile tears.
Look, you guys KNEW when you were cheering for him (or cheering against Mitt Romney) last year that he kisses the bankers’ collective asses.
What I can’t understand is how it is that such a bunch of smart people could only see two possible options last year. You didn’t even try to challenge Obama and put the fear of God into him. So, stop your “shock!” and righteous indignation or pointless navel gazing about why the “culture of smartness” does what it does and cuts ordinary people out of directing their own fates. You’re either useful idiots doing the party’s work or you’re not nearly as smart as you think you are.
There are always multiple solutions to the problem. You need to think outside the box, possibly take the long view and stop being such whiny ass titty baby cowards about what is happening to your formerly safe spot in the Democratic party.
They moved your fucking cheese. Get on with it.
Filed under: General | Tagged: bankers, Barack Obama, cowards, Democrats, grand bargain, WATB, Whiny ass titty babies |
The Confluence 
The Democratic Party as it existed for decades is dead. The sooner people realize it and stop pretending, the better. Either conduct full-scale guerrilla war within the party, as conservatives did in the 50’s and 60’s, or start something else. Because a president and Democratic “leaders” who count the financial elites as their friends aren’t your friends and aren’t on your side, not now, not ever.
Full scale guerilla war within the party or starting something else are each equally plausible. Both deserve to be tried. The people who believe in one of those two courses should apply themselves to the course they already believe in because they will do their best work in that course. Hopefully they would not spend precious energy trying to convert and recruit people from the “other” theory group.
Each theory group should do its own best work and then they can compare notes on what has worked down the line. They could even do tag-team style shared co-ordinated actions against the current DemParty leadership and officeseekers. For example, the guerilla warriors could mount a primary challenge to a Mainstreamer so devastating that the Mainstreamer winner emerges so wounded that a
Third Party effort could get that mainstream Democrat defeated . . . ‘Nadered’, if you will.
In that bitter primary challenge scenario, if the Mainstreamer wins the bitter primary and comes out wounded, the guerilla challengers could vote for the Third Party candidate to raise the chances of defeating the wounded Mainstreamer. ” We won’t BE good Democrats until we GET good Democrats.”
It’s always best to face up to unpleasant facts. No matter how much they may sting. You shake it off and deal with the situation head on. Professional bloggers like Kos and Digby are reliant on support from the institutional Democratic Party. They have to wrestle with their consciences every day. Do they want to remain professional bloggers and be used as tools of the party leadership, or do they want to stand up for principle and risk their profit streams?
” By their choice shall ye know them.”
Boy,oh boy, do I miss Al Gore’s Social Security lock box.
Remember, how the PTB ass lickers in the press scorned Al for that?
Meanwhile, Matt Ygelsias has an article in Slate about class warfare positing that the Republicans are fighting to stick it to the poor and–wait for it—Obama is fighting to stick it to the rich.
I know–hahahahahahahahahahahaha to infinity.
I had the impression that little Mattie wised up a year or so ago; guess not.
Saw that headline, it was retching…but you know Matt Y appeals to people who like to disguise their insatiable greed with convoluted arguments justifying their “I got mine…er..um…through hard work” attitude.
Yes, I remember Al Gore’s lockbox. I liked the lockbox. I voted for the lockbox.
Convinced by friends to read the Digby piece…and? God, she make me retch trying to redeem her long lost credibility…and that is all this is, her trying to look concerned so she can sucker a new group of political neophytes. What a jerk.
I believe Digby’s mission for years has been to indoctrinate and psycho-massage her readers into a position of learned helplessness.
She does it by expressing helpless indignation for the readers to project their own helpless indignation onto.
You were a reg, there, for a while, rur. Do you have an opinion about why she stopped accepting comments?
Her site’s a lot less interesting, now, to me.
Yes I was. And I was bitterly anti-HClinton too. I believe I was gender-neutral about it, though. My deal was ” Clinton-NAFTA-DLC-etc.” I didn’t find out about The Confluence until long after Election 2008, far too late to help me. I might not have been ready for it any, but then again, I might have.
Why did Digby shut down comments? Because of too much bitter and unsilence-able opposition to the real Obama as more Digby commenters realised what the real Obama was. Digby began by secretly erasing comments and secretly banning commenters while pretending she wasn’t. This was also when she brought Atkins onto the blog. As more of the remaining commenters became anti-Obama and as the pro-Bama commenters became more visibly pathetic, I suppose she found the comments section just too embarrassing altogether and closed it.
That’s basically how I remember it as well.
Atkins…Atkins? Oh yeah, this guy: 😈
Part of my problem at the time was I was reacting to other reactions and filtering through my own past memories. Much of the counter-Obama material I saw at the time seemed Nixonian to me . . . the accusations of “slick and arrogant”, the imputations of knowing involvement with Bill Ayres IN HIS CAPACITY as domestic terrorist, etc.
Again, if I had been following Riverdaughter/Katiebird’s patient fact-based first-principles analysis at the time, it might have corrected my impressions and re-grounded my analysis in reality.
The best I can say for myself at the time is that at least my first choice was Kucinich, not Obama. If Obama had been on Michigan’s primary ballot along with Kucinich, I would have voted for Kucinich regardless.
Nice photograph. We do need to give all due respect and credit to My Eye Cue at the Krawdad Whole for that postergraph, I believe. ( I have respelled the relevant names to avoid triggering moderation).
Here is an easy to digest refutation of Obama’s “Grand Bargain” on all the key point his minions are try to put forth. Note the part pretty far in that mocks the “raising taxes on the rich” as another flim flam.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/michael-hudson-on-obamas-catfood-social-security-reform.html
I am at a library computer without cross-linkable capability so I can only say that in a very recent NaCap thread, near the bottom of the thread, commenter Sufferin’ Succotash offers two links. The second link is to an article about how the Obama Budget also recommends
“studying” about selling the TVA to private buyers. If the Tennessee Valley People who benefit from their (our) public TVA oppose that enough to make their mostly Republican officeholders defend TVA against an Obamacratic effort to destroy it, that furthers the “role reversal” between the parties on some things.
The toothless groggins will go for it being sold, until they get their higher electric bills.
Will they? I suspect they will not. Someone should unearth data about how Goldwater did in the TVA areas after he said “sell TVA”. It might prefigure current reactions.
Obama as Roman Emperor: Would have asked Hannibal what was taking him so long to get to Rome.
And then there is this depressing story from Corrente:Obama budget another nudge toward Social Security privatization with automatic IRAs
You would think Obama and Bush II work for the same people, now wouldn’t you….scratching my cynical head.
OFF-TOPIC FUN BREAK!