It is astonishing how certain parts of the Left Blogosphere have simply taken their eye off the ball here. Preventing a McCain victory is literally a matter of life or death, if not for you and me then for a lot of innocent Iranians and probably for hundreds to thousands of American soldiers and marines.
I don't like Hillary's relative hawkishness, I am less than fond of Obama's weak stances on Social Security and Universal Coverage, but really life isn't just about me. Because please oh please can we avoid the trap the Left ALWAYS falls into, letting the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good, and demonstrating that by splintering the Party?
Yes substantial parts of the Democratic Party are too subservient to Corporatism, which doesn't validate Naderism, there is no doubt that a Bush 1 re-election would have had drastically worse outcomes than the half-loaf we got from Clinton, and 100% guarantee that eight years of President Gore would look better than what we got from Bush.
In the real world, there's no need to concede any part of that fantasy. Gore the senator out-hawked Bush I and Gore the vice president wanted more than the Iraq starvation program of Clinton I. His relative dovishness came after his defeat in 2000. His solution to global warming, the recognition of which is his most salient achievement, is spoiled by its already demonstrated, real world failures. Neither Clinton II nor Obama are willing to stop agitating against Iran and neither opposes funding the occupation of Iraq. Both are solidly in the trainwreck-to-bailout capitalism camp.
But for the sake of argument, and assuming keeping our eyes on the ball means electing Democrats, what has been accomplished by trying to do so?
The Reid Senate and the Pelosi House are dramatically more pro-Bush than any of their constituents, including the Republicans who crossed over to punish the administration for its misdeeds. John Kerry, running on a platform of better Bushism, managed to windsurf his way to defeat. The "safe state" and Nader-baiting strategies didn't help him. In 2002, the Democrats lost the Senate, and re-lost the House, with no Nader to blame. The muddled fatuity of a promising a better War on Terror won them no electoral love. The Gore/Lieberman ticket, representing the foreign policy hawk and aggressively neoliberal wing of the party, drove more votes to Bush in Florida than were won by Nader. Suckling the Progressive dolchstosslegende of that defeat might help Obama or Clinton this year, but the poor thing has not withstood the test of time. If one were inclined to learn from experience, the last four elections, each more important the preceding, have demonstrated the inefficacy of running to the right, bemoaning the silliness of the left as a goad and hoping that the Republicans will be too insane in comparison to be electable.
How often has any party succeeded by admitting to being a hopelessly unrealistic, feckless, disorganized version of their opponents? "We're worse than useless, sure, but look! Those guys are at least as bad and they have promised to eat their own children!" No wonder so many people don't vote. Right wing mediocrity is the enemy of the perfect, the good, the not so good and everything else.
Comments (6)
quite so
Posted by op | March 25, 2008 2:53 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 14:53
just what goppy blood spill and horrors
will a dembo white house
totally lastingly prempt ???
this can't be about
just one day more of blue sky
is one day more of ...
just one day less of cannibal roasts
is one day less of...
i'm not taliking the worse the better
just lets get on with it
come on corporate
amerika give us your next best shot
nope
THE CorpAm LLC's are too clever
they will use this
indignant liberal human rights
fair play empiring admin
and their de rigeur
briar patch wet noodling
to good advantage
that is what they want whether
its admin-ed
by
HANOI JOHNNY AS TR II
OR
ST HILL AS WOOODY WILSON IV
--------
i don't get a clear sense
of these vichy pokes notion
of how almighty clio marches us all about
is there a goppy agenda
that can be aborted .... by
the goppy's
political symbiote ??
i guess in concept
is maybe this
by office maxing
the dembo vichy types
we can buffer
the whole corporate
cyclopean rampage
till the brutes self destruct
presumeably by mutual feasting
i don't know
what else this is other then
adding more fuse to the time bomb
i don't see how a party in thrawl to its corporate wing
can possibly snuff the fuse
once and for all
since to snuff it
once and for all
is to once and for all
repudiated the party's board room patrons
oh the hampster wheel of it all....
hey in moments of fullest awareness
i realize
this is mere formality
the class cloven substance of our globe
will burst both these party's of the worser part
Posted by op | March 25, 2008 3:11 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 15:11
errrrr ...in the fullness of time
then again clio looks mighty preg
with the star child to me
.....after a couple ten beers
Posted by OP | March 25, 2008 3:30 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 15:30
"the recognition of which is his most salient achievement, is spoiled by its already demonstrated, real world failures."
the failure of the first large scale cap and trade market
reminds me of early ventures
in joint stock company share trading
after the south sea company stock burst
in the early 1720's
a future near universal set up
looked to be headed for clio's compactor
cap and trade has limitless potential
hey if
if thirsty vampires opened
the first blood bank ...
don't mean blood banks per se
are goofy nasty traps
Posted by op | March 25, 2008 3:45 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 15:45
What I think we've got in the well educated liberals is a desire to get one more, maybe one last, Democratic payday. The first Clinton regime was pretty good to them. The top three quintiles prospered and there were even a few gratuities to toss to labor.
The Bush regime has undoubtedly been nerve wracking, especially for people in and approaching the peak earning stage of their lives. They've been helplessly watching the right wing nuts funnel all their current and future money into the military keynesian, elite welfare queen sinkhole. The ones with college debt to service, home equity on the line and kids reaching the most expensive phases need relief right now. The Democrats have delivered before.
At worst, they're able to speak coherently. Little things do make a difference.
Posted by Al Schumann | March 25, 2008 3:51 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 15:51
"the well educated liberals is a desire to get one more, maybe one last, Democratic payday"
i think this goes for their
payments in spiritual currency too
its all about now their souls salvation and esteem
soul esteem
a binding shadow folks' wounds
approach to highest calling
nurse nelly if to the victims of
the cross border inc/ goppy rangers
limited liability
white knights
tooling around
planet earth
in their
flying bull dozers
Posted by Anonymous | March 26, 2008 7:33 AM
Posted on March 26, 2008 07:33