Obama and company apparently feel they deserve some appreciation and recognition in their what I can only call "bizarro bubble" perspective. It seems Obamaco is getting ready to blame us on the left for any Dem losses in November.
I say, let us take advantage of this opportunity. If we are marginalized and demonized by them whenever politically convenient, "Let's give them something to talk about!" Let us make our displeasure felt at the voting booth! Though when was the last time any real messages from us on the left actually made the establishment or faux-progressive media radar. To blame us they will have to end their insulting denial of the scope of our existence.
I say again, "Blue Dog Obama Treats Far Left Like a Hydrant." I was chided by some for calling us "far" left. Relatively speaking, I meant. It is not we who have drifted far left, it is Obama and legacy Dems and legacy Repubs who have galloped right. And yet, Obama spins away in indignation, as he continues to self-annoint all his sell-out activities as "historic". Borrows progressive rhetoric to celebrate his destructive, constitution-eroding, regressive leadership.
Glenn Greenwald says it all so well as he responds to a recent quote from Obama:
[Obama] The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible. . . . .If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we'd better fight in this election.
This may be one of the most audaciously hilarious political statements I've read in quite some time. The Holder Justice Department's record on domestic civil rights enforcement is actually one of the few areas where there has been substantial improvement -- and that's a perfectly legitimate argument to make -- but for Barack Obama to cite "civil liberties" as a reason why Democratic apathy is "just irresponsible," and to claim with a straight face that this election will determine whether we're "the kind of country that respects" them, is so detached from basic reality that I actually had to read this three or four times to make certain I hadn't misunderstood it. To summarize Obama's apparent claim: the Republicans better not win in the midterm election, otherwise we'll have due-process-free and even preventive detention, secret assassinations of U.S. citizens, vastly expanded government surveillance of the Internet, a continuation of Guantanamo, protection of Executive branch crimes through the use of radical secrecy doctrines, escalating punishment for whistleblowers, legal immunity for war crimes, and a massively escalated drone war in Pakistan. That's why, as the President inspirationally warns us: "If we want the kind of country that respects civil liberties, we'd better fight in this election."
[snip]
What is notable about it is what it reveals substantively. The country is drowning in a severe and worsening unemployment crisis. People are losing their homes by the millions. Income inequality continues to explode while the last vestiges of middle class security continue to erode. The Obama civil liberties record has been nothing short of a disgrace, usually equaling and sometimes surpassing the worst of the Bush/Cheney abuses. We have to stand by and watch the Commander-in-Chief fire one gay service member after the next for their sexual orientation. The major bills touted by Obama supporters were the by-product of the very corporatist/lobbyist dominance which Obama the candidate repeatedly railed against. Rather than take responsibility for any of this, they instead dismiss criticisms and objections as petulant, childish, "irresponsible whining" -- signaling rather clearly that they think they're doing the right thing and that these criticisms are fundamentally unfair.
[snip]
And it's even more baffling that they seem to believe that insulting their disappointed supporters -- rather than addressing the source of their critiques or, even better, doing something about them -- will generate enthusiasm to go vote.
Thanks, Glenn. More and more I am inspired to vote NOTA (none of the above) in terms of legacy Dems and go for the GREENS!
We've got 5 weeks and then we've got 2 years. We are in a tug of war to get our country, our constitution, our multi-trillion dollar military, bank and insurance bailouts, our pre-rogue criminal international reputation back from the status quo establishments -- both of them -- in power. Someone said recently the Dems as the lesser of two evils sure have gotten more and more evil. Time for their reckoning. We know the Republicans are murdering rabid rat bastards. It is time to call out the Dems as murdering rat bastards. Both are WAR/MONEY parties. Both are beholding to the fabulously wealthy .1% of the country.
I am not going to hold my nose and vote this election for either party that massively BETRAYED the citizenry. Yes, the Republicans are awesome in their cravenness. So are the Dems. Obama and the Dems betrayed. Pointing to the Republicans can't eclipse that. Well, it does for some. But not for those of us seriously paying attention. Obama and the Dems want us to eat sh*t and smile. Obama isn't even bothering to play Lucy and the football this time. He is so smug and arrogant. He thinks we have no place to go. We do, Mr. President. We can go Green. We can go for real reformers. We can't afford to lose more time and liberty from callow pretenders.
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