Madamab at The Widdershins posted this yesterday. I ran across it today, and thought she made some excellent points.
Morning Widdershins: Knowing Our Place
As more and more liberals understand that Barack Obama isn’t one, I keep thinking about what we online activists can learn from what happened in 2008. I think it all boils down to one thing: Knowing our place. The way I see it, there are three factions in the Democratic Party. Number one, there are the liberal elitist types, like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Al Gore. They look ridiculous in hunting gear, and don’t seem to have much connection with ordinary Americans. Nonetheless, their liberal values are strong and, for the most part, sincere. These guys do not get elected President. Ever. The only exception to this rule in recent memory was, possibly, John F. Kennedy, although his Presidency was cut short too soon for any analysis of his place in the Party to be more than conjecture. The second faction is the center-left, populist faction. This group includes FDR, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and both Clintons. Although this group may be rich, well-educated, or both, they have a deep connection to, and feeling for, the problems of us plebeians. This is the group that produces Presidents, and although they often do not campaign as liberals, they sometimes end up governing that way, depending on the circumstances under which they are elected to the highest office in the land. The third faction is the corporate, right-wing, DINO faction. These are the Max Baucuses, the Ben Nelsons, the Joe Liebermans. These guys never get elected President either, nor do they usually try to be. They are much more comfortable in the Senate, getting wined, dined and financed by the multinational corporations to which they owe their power. The problem in 2008, from an online activist standpoint, was this: The “progressives” thought Obama was a liberal elitist – someone like them. They thought Hillary was a corporate, right-wing DINO – someone like Joe Lieberman. And they thought the center-left faction was the one that always failed them in elections. They were dead wrong about all three. Obama is a corporate, right-wing DINO whose mentor in the Senate was Joe Lieberman. Hillary was a center-left populist, like her husband. And the liberal elitist faction is the one that never produces Presidents.
Article continues here http://thewiddershins.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/morning-widdershins-knowing-our-place/
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It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. ~Susan B. Anthony
I really don't like when the left wing Democrats call Blue Dogs DINO's nor do I like when Right Wing nut jobs call Moderate Republicans RINOS they are MODERATES neither right nor left.
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. ~Susan B. Anthony
I don't like it when people call progressives "far left wing nuts" either. SOME progressives saw obama for what he was a long time ago and voted for Hillary. I am not what a lot of people consider a "moderate" however, I DO know that she was the best hope to have progressive values brought forward as far as they can be for the over all good of the country with the congress and government that we currently have. I am a far left person who is a REALIST. I realize to get the goals met..you cannot be a perfectionist and this is what is so delusional and wrong with a lot of progressives. They want perfection and stamp their feet with anger when they don't get it.
Obama was NEVER going to bring universal health care, he was NEVER going to stop the wars, he was NEVER going to do any of the things they thought he was and Hillary was not. SHE would have gone a lot further to challenge the status quo and that's why the "party" did not want her as a loose cannon. He would "play ball" just like he did in Illinois you blind batty progs!
The problem with why the far left cannot ever get close to any of it's goals is they will not be realistic. When they get someone who will do say sixty five percent of what they want that person is not "good enough" so they elect someone of "feel good protesty ideals" and get Bush three! The problem with that is the rest of us have to pay along with them and get painted with the same fairy tale brush. ug!
and thought it was an article about how Bush and Obama both got basically installed into the presidency. Is that just something we have to accept, year after year? Or can we do something about it, since the people who do the installing are gazillionaires and we are not? I mean, I think even the unrealistic people Alice talks about below realize, now, that they've been had and that the system is rigged and democracy is NOT what is running the show.
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Barack/Barry: If you're NOT LEGIT, then you MUST QUIT!!
and thought it was an article about how Bush and Obama both got basically installed into the presidency. Is that just something we have to accept, year after year? Or can we do something about it, since the people who do the installing are gazillionaires and we are not? I mean, I think even the unrealistic people Alice talks about below realize, now, that they've been had and that the system is rigged and democracy is NOT what is running the show.
Alex, you have hit the nail right on the head. Democracy is dead and I just didn't realize how bad things were until we saw such a blatant display of banana republic tactics with a complicit media involved. I do not know the answer but, if people think we have fair reflection and fair elections anymore they are deluded. In a way it really doesn't matter anymore who runs for POTUS. The person who will play ball with the big backers like Wall Street and big insurance is "selected" then we go through a debacle and high drama of pretending there is an "election process" like "Wag The Dog" the entire thing is scripted to hell and gone.
Bush and Obama both were going to "win" whether people's votes were cast that way or not.
I spoke with more than one person who after last year considered giving up their citizenship and I'm one of those people. What is the point if America is not a place where people get to have a voice in their government? Clearly the only voice we had was a vote and that is gone, gone, gone now. Some are so blind that they think these candidates "won" and have ignored what went on just because their candidate profited from the debacle painted as an "election" both times. Next time it will be them who has no voice.
Both these parties are owned by outside interests now. Both of them play games with our rights to get what THEY want.
There is no justice in these elections anymore at all. Why people aren't more upset about this is beyond me. The Bush and Obama apologists are an insult to democracy.
Both these parties are owned by outside interests now. Both of them play games with our rights to get what THEY want.
There is no justice in these elections anymore at all. Why people aren't more upset about this is beyond me. The Bush and Obama apologists are an insult to democracy.
This TOTALLY explains what Kerry's problem is/was. Remember he rolled over for Bush practically before the votes were counted? Homeboy got his marching orders to STAND DOWN NOW!!
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Barack/Barry: If you're NOT LEGIT, then you MUST QUIT!!
Alex this all started waaaaaaaaaay back in two thousand and then the democrats in the 2008 primary turned all those same cheating tactics on another dem. What really drives me over the edge is that ALL the people who voted for Obama and were so angry about Kerry, then Gore said diddly squat when it happened to Hillary. It's as if all their arguments about voter rights, democracy were based in nothing but, self interest. Democracy be damned.
It's nine years now since we've had anything approaching a TRUE election where our votes count. Here we are trying to 'bring democracy" to other countries while at home we cannot be bothered to fix our voter rights issues. At what point are WE worse than any banana republic on the planet and what gives us the right to "fix" anyone else while we allow this to go on at home?
