“Bashing Democrats”

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

On numerous of occasions I have been accused of “bashing Democrats,” “hating Obama,” as well as, some outrageously, vile charges that won’t be repeated here. The accusations have been in response to criticism of President Barack Obama’s policies which have been not just disappointing for a Democratic administration but, in some instances, worse than any neo-con Republican. It’s baffling that the Republican party is bothering to oppose his reelection, he’s done most everything they would have done short of starting another war unless one considers the expansion of the “war on terror” to Yemen and Africa. My guess would be that the Republicans are jealous that Obama isn’t a member of the GOP.

I was asked the other day by my former precinct captain why I don’t criticize Republicans. My answer was that I do. It’s just that today they are called Democrats. On that note, I give you the Black Agenda Report‘s managing editor, Bruce Dixon, who says it quite succinctly:

[..] The fact is that 120% evil Republicans offer the only justification for our support of 100% evil Democrats. And with the dissolution of what used to be the black consensus for equality, civil liberties, full funding for public education, and opposing war spending and corporate privilege, Obama-era Democrats continue to flee rightward toward war, privatization and austerity.

This deformed puzzle is not the political logic of free and responsible people. It’s the cramped and twisted reasoning of someone trapped in a box urgently trying to convince himself that it’s not really a box, that pragmatic acceptance of the box as the whole of the great and free universe is really all that can be hoped, struggled and strived for. It’s not. Only a beaten, cowed and enslaved people can imagine their forbears sacrificed and struggled for them to choose among greater and lesser, but both still monstrous evils.

We at Black Agenda Report spend more time denouncing Democrats because they act like and enable Republicans. We don’t spend as much time denouncing the party of white supremacy because Republicans rarely bother to pretend to be anything else. African Americans haven’t voted Republican in 50 years. But we’re more unemployed than we’ve been in seventy years, and more imprisoned than we’ve ever been.

That’s what choosing “lesser evils” has earned us. It’s time to chuck the fake choice between evil Republicans and slightly less evil Democrats. It’s time not just to think, but to climb outside the two-party, lesser-evil box, to breathe the free air and get ready for something new.

What Bruce said applies to all Americans regardless of race, gender, religion or national origin.

Actor and activist, John Cusack, in his conversation with Constitutional law professor, Jonathan Turley, questions where are the “lines” that the “progressive left” will not cross and what it means in terms of voting for Obama.

Now that the Republican primary circus is over, I started to think about what it would mean to vote for Obama…

Since mostly we hear from the daily hypocrisies of Mitt and friends, I thought we should examine “our guy” on a few issues with a bit more scrutiny than we hear from the “progressive left”, which seems to be little or none at all.

Instead of scrutiny, the usual arguments in favor of another Obama presidency are made: We must stop fanatics;-he’s the last line of defense from the corporate barbarians-and of course the Supreme Court. It all makes a terrible kind of sense and I agree completely with Garry Wills who described the Republican primaries as ” a revolting combination of con men and fanatics…the current primary race has become a demonstration that the Republican party does not deserve serious consideration for public office.”

True enough.

But yet…

… there are certain Rubicon lines, as constitutional law professor Jon Turley calls them, that Obama has crossed.

All political questions are not equal no matter how much you pivot. When people die or lose their physical freedom to feed certain economic sectors or ideologies, it becomes a zero sum game for me.

This is not an exercise in bemoaning regrettable policy choices or cheering favorable ones but to ask fundamentally: Who are we? What are we voting for? And what does it mean? [..]

The entire transcript of the conversation was posted in this article by poligirl. It’s quite long but quite thought provoking assessment of Barack Obama’s presidency and how many of our principles of law and the constitution the “progressive left” has compromised and abandoned supporting him.

The line for me was Obama’s vote, as Senator, to renew FISA with all its unconstitutional provisions, after saying that he would filibuster if it were not fixed. I knew then that the “we’ll fix it later” line was the grand lie to a tired, desperate electorate that was in need of relief from years of war and economic stress.

Along with Bruce Dixon, John Cusack, Jonathan Turley and others, I will continue to criticize Democrats for pushing a right wing agenda. I’m still not ready to make nice.

3 comments

    • on 08/23/2012 at 19:06
      Author
    • on 08/24/2012 at 03:44

    ploys? plots? … accidents?

    is to have these professional managerial salon dilettante diaper pissers calling the shots in the Democratic Party.

    ASIDE –

    There is a guy, Jack Whelan, who comments in my favorite seattle education blog http://saveseattleschools.blog… Jack breaks the ed deformer crowd into honchos, fools and naifs. my language here – the honchos are the doublethinking big shot ass ki$$er$ of gate$ – sauron’s ringwraiths. the naifs are the ones sucked in by the great slogans & who don’t know how evil their club is, & the fools have been educated and keep their seat rowing for their honchos.

    END ASIDE

    I’m 52, and whether I was a lowly fine dining cook in Boston in the 80’s, a cook on fishing boats in the Berring Sea at the start of the clinton daze, or a microserf at the end of clinton start of bush, I think 1 of the BEST things going for the lying fascists is that their political opponents are noblerer, gooderer, smarterer, and betterer than the fascists in all things wonderful, EXCEPT the messaging, tactics and strategy of politics!

    Having lived in Boston or Seattle for appx. 30 of the last 33 years, the noblerer professional managerial crowd is RELATIVELY quite affluent – & I’m not taking the time to link to the recent FED report on family income or the STABUS reports on money income of people, households and families.  These RELATIVELY quite affluents, when you look at the Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, … campaigns, and when you look at the bullshit congressional elections of 2002 and 1994 and 2010 – these affluents couldn’t be more fucking incompetent … unless it is deliberate.

    So, in the 80’s I didn’t go for Jesse Jackson cuz, even though I loved his speeches and what he said, I thought I’d end up with a bunch of trustafarian ass-wipes who’d NEVER make the shitty programs work better – the shitty programs I’d actually depended on, like financial aid and student loans and welfare. Of course, I had all these fancy ivy’d fucks whispering about scaring the middle and losing, and not being bipartisan, and not being moderate … and being all unity and solidarity …

    and I heard pretty much the same bullshit in 2003 from the coach bag Democrats of Seattle’s Queen Anne & Cap Hill who were saying how Kerry was electable and howard dean wasn’t —

    and we need solidarity and unity …

    and I hear the same bullshit from my teacher union “leaders” who are runnign lockstep with Democratic Party LOTE LOTE LOTE …

    and our 7 August primary had appx. 39% statewide turnout.

    so, here is a math problem I can’t figure out –

    if assholes like me and whiners like you are so horrible to the dim-0-crap party and its sell out bullshit such that no one votes, or, brown scott walker scott rick rich perry palin prick wins —

    why don’t they listen to us?

    oh wait – we’re on the irrelevant fringe of professional leftist f’king retards … so, why don’t they ignore us, instead of pulling out the high tea cup, the pinky in the air, the condescending look down the nose

    and blaming us?

    assholes – whether they’re DLC Third Way New Dem honchos, naifs or fools.

    rmm.  

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