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The all-too-visible empire

By Owen Paine on Monday June 12, 2006 05:42 PM

Beware the bloggery -- a merit-class invisible empire.

Recently I've taken to drawing insulting parallels between today's Demo party blog klaverns (like TCBY Cafe, Call Me Elmo, and Adipose Express) and yesterday's sheeted klaverns.

The dems have long since lived down that earlier "sinister influence" as they have the slave owning planters, peckerwood injun cleaners, and sordid city machines. But here arises a new organized compact menace -- and why a menace?

Cause the donkery, even if not directly steered by job holders, needs to be steered for job holders, because it must be the party of job holders, if it wants to be anything more than a corporate tweedledee echo and once-a-generation crisis collision mat.

These demoblog communities with their ever-more-fondly held notion that winning is everything, only prove these are rugged merit-class resolutes -- issues be damned -- we don't need no stinking issues. And they're right in a sense. As far as these fellers go, the donk party just needs to win the Kulturkampf that started back in the 60's.

The other, older tradition -- a pre-cold war tradition associated with FDR, the CIO, and the hours and wages law -- that would require some long languishing principles to be resurrected, brought up to date, and put into law and practice.

For that, sheep must be parsed from goats -- and that's a task well beyond mere electioneering -- beyond putting in office a bigger ration of right-minded, soulful, soft-on-difference professional opportunists like Dean, Boxer, and Kennedy, who won't get anyone a flea hop closer to another New Deal for the jobbery.

Comments (9)

Rowan:

Hey - easy on putting Billmon up with Atrios and Kos. He might have supported Kerry, but it was certainly a half-hearted "this might get us away from fascism" embarrassed support. (not quite as entertaining as The Black Commentator's "John Kerry - One Half-Step Back From The Apocalypse" endorsement, but still.)

Meanwhile he posts cogent critiques of the American way of life, economic system, Israel-Palestine policy, and voter fraud - you know, all the things that get you banned at Kos and Atrios doesn't talk about.

Though I will grant that his commenters, since moved to Moon of Alabama (which is how I found your blog) are farther to the left than he is, which means there's a lot of real communists.

js paine:

rowan i will retract
the billmon curse
and agree with you
if he promises to take
some kind of pledge ...any pledge
that in substance keeps him from repeating kerry voting
lesser evil -ism
in my estimation is what got us here
its neither realistic
or responsible


to cast a vote for
the party's corporate core candidates
is worse then letting
us all take the full measure of elephantry

and one avenue most dangerous
is to vote donk to prevent
some horror the repubs have in the offing

its not sensible to lump
bush with hitler
and it's equally not sensible
to lump
say kerry or kennedy or dean
with peace justice and humane action
look at the two party record
pile up the bodies
you won't get a dime for the difference


the last thing we need
is some call for
compromise
some vast salvation front
to defend against
a republican
threat to our way of life
there will be no electoral road
to great power wars
and domestic fascism
we don't need a co alition of decency
led by
the soft sided
agents of wall street

and as empire wars
check out the donk
thinkery
like this beinart
kold cookin revival

truman as hero
shows
the soft ness
is at best poisoned
white bread for the emerging world
and on a usual day
yankee bomb racks will be emptying or ready to be emptied
over some patch of the third world somewhere

the donks are
easily as lethal

bosnia and kosovo

the 8 year
berger albright
"cowardly containment"
of saddam-iraq

these were soft actions
by soft sider
extra ordinaire
bill clinton

billmon:

"These demoblog communities with their ever-more-fondly held notion that winning is everything."

Yes, as opposed to pathetic fossils like you, to whom LOSING is everything - and always will be.

If I'm Elmo, then I guess that makes you Oscar the fucking grouch. Asshole.

[snicker] Oh, dear. It looks like somebody's feelings are hurt.

jsp:

pseudo billmon

thank you sir may i have another

Rowan:

I tend to believe that having people sign pledges of ideological purity isn't the best idea.

Certainly, lesser-evilism is a significant reason we're in the political spot we're in, but I don't think it's the only reason.

And it's also worth noting that a large reason that the Communists in Germany didn't prevent the rise of Hitler is that they were too busy focusing on beating the center-left Social Democrats. Comparing Bush to Hitler is in my view premature, but I respect Billmon's knowledge and analysis of history enough to understand a lesser-evilism which isn't "I hate them both but I'm supposed to vote and Mommy always said vote Democrat."

js paine:

the weimar debacle

well doc rowan you've walked into one of my blue plate
specials


but i'll leave it be ..
for now

and as to a fresh voice on same
see zeno and her post above on this point
if the stone keeps rolling and remains mossless
perhaps i'll un roll
a few weimar eye openners for u all

Rowan:

Not regarding Godwin's Law, yeah, I'd love to see it. But we can start with ms.xeno's post.

Well, we can start. I'm all ears if you want to talk history. Certainly it doesn't look like Billmon has any time to make up his mind on the Left flank issue, but that's not surprising, really. It's precisely the dual purpose we serve for folks like him --whether we're Naderites, Socialists, Reds, Anarchists, whatever-- that makes us such useful scapegoats every time his supposed protectors sell him out again. It's remarkably like the Rightwing rewrite of Vietnam as now re-repackaged in the form of all those noxious "fighting Dem" candidates. To wit: The mere expression of dismay and disloyalty by a scant million or two citizens is more than enough to break the delicate creatures' hearts and kill them. They coulda' had it all, if we'd only believed...

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