This should explain a lot for you if you’re confused.
They’re Back: Obamabots Fan Out in Defense of their Hero
By Taylor Marsh
18 October 2011
What Glenn is describing in the top quote (link) is a virulent strain of what I call fan politics, which is most visibly seen today by Obamabots, as they’ve been called around here since 2007. Greenwald has been attacked on this site (Taylor Marsh) by them, as has Mr. Krugman. Fan politics is about people, like the Obamabots, who support a politician regardless of the policies he or she delivers upon, thinking anyone finding fault in their candidate of choice is committing some larger sin for not following in line. Fan politics is particularly destructive because it demands party loyalty take the place of political dialogue, party trumping principle.
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Die hard party loyalists don’t seem to get there is a undulating political upheaval slowly taking place, which has been happening on the right for several years, with the left joining in, the foundation of their discontent the continued drag right of the Democratic Party, which began under William Jefferson Clinton. What saved Clinton from the wrath being felt today, besides the fact that new media hadn’t matured, was the courage he had to launch the largest tax increase in decades, though Lawrence O’Donnell claims it was the biggest ever, which, along with the tech boom, led to peacetime prosperity for everyone.
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(T)he background of the left’s discontent is the belief that if Obama is reelected he will tinker with the New Deal, because he won’t have anything to lose, with his legacy of accomplishments his only priority. But as we’re seeing with health care, as the Administration scuttles Teddy Kennedy’s CLASS, not even Obama’s accomplishments are safe, because of the ramshackle way ACA was designed. Obama also seems to believe, joining conservative Democrats and Republics, that entitlement “reform” should be a priority, leaving most to rightly think that whether it’s a Democrat or Republican in the White House in 2012, the people’s safety net will be weakened.
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What is at the root of Obamabot invective, however, is the palpable fear and realization that Pres. Obama could actually lose in 2012. This is a stunner for them, especially considering where Barack Obama started his presidency.But now the President’s fans have their own egos attached to him and the thought of Obama losing is scaring the crap out of them. Their goal to get Obama reelected now tied to not being proved wrong about him, but also to protect gloating rights, never mind that the current choices from either party leave a lot to be desired. The sad truth is there isn’t very much difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney that will be felt by people. For Obamabots, it’s not just about Pres. Obama winning reelection in 2012. It’s not about their belief that Barack Obama will champion greater policies in a second term. There is no evidence he will. Obama’s reelection is now also about them. It’s personal, not political or policy driven.
Fan politics for the sake of the politician being supported is always toxic. It also usually disappoints. Just ask the bookend to the Obamabots, die hard fans of Sarah Palin.
Emphasis and some references provided.
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is anathema to them. They even justify his war crimes and lies. It was stunning to read their defense of the killing if an American teenager, the son of Anwar Awlaki, in a drone strike in Yemen. Some of those defending extra-judicial assassinations claim to be lawyers. They sound like they went to the same school as Alberto Gonzales and the lawyers that argued for the justification of torture.
is just way too little, way too late.
He has been a Mitt Romney Republican from the very start.
From a principled liberal’s perspective, he has been a disaster. I had to explain to a friend the other day why I wasn’t rooting for an Obama win in 2012.
The only way the New Deal survives beyond 2012 is if there is a Republican in the Whitehouse with a Blue Dog Free Democratic legislature.
Obama The Republican Lite puts Social Security & Medicare Medicaid on the table and the leaderless Dems fold like a cheap suit.
If Obama were a real Democrat, he would have actually fought for single payer, and maybe settled for a public option. The original stimulus would have been made large enough to work. 2B2F Banks would have been nationalized. No one would be above the Law etc. He does not deserve to be the Democratic Party nominee. Endorsing the Buffett Rule now when it was introduced years ago is just too little too late.
After Obama loses to Mitt Romney watch how his campaign answers the question the MSM is dying to ask.
You know the answer is going to be “We’re a Center Right nation”. A) because Obama is Center Right. and B) because that’s the storyline the establishment media is trying to push.
IF the guy had stellar strategy,
IF the guy had tough tactics,
IF the guy had melt in your mouth messaging
he & we would have gotten our asses kicked !!!
BUT – he could have put a BIIIIIIIIIIIIG dent in something BIG,
like health care. a public option – medicare at 55 – drop dead pharma & ahip
and he’d have the support of those who broke their asses for him, AND
sideline sitters like me – and millions more.
I care about him EXACTLY as much as Geithner & Rahm & Clinton & Obummer care about me – Zilch.
rmm.