I really like Camille Paglia. I liked her when she slammed Bush too, for the record. :-)
Quote:
Sept. 9, 2009 | What a difference a month makes! When my last controversial column posted on Salon in the second week of August, most Democrats seemed frozen in suspended animation, not daring to criticize the Obama administration's bungling of healthcare reform lest it give aid and comfort to the GOP. Well, that ice dam sure broke with a roar. Dissident Democrats found their voices, and by late August even the liberal lemmings of the mainstream media, from CBS to CNN, had drastically altered their tone of reportage, from priggish disdain of the town hall insurgency to frank admission of serious problems in the healthcare bills as well as of Obama's declining national support.
But this tonic dose of truth-telling may be too little too late. As an Obama supporter and contributor, I am outraged at the slowness with which the standing army of Democratic consultants and commentators publicly expressed discontent with the administration's strategic missteps this year. I suspect there had been private grumbling all along, but the media warhorses failed to speak out when they should have -- from week one after the inauguration, when Obama went flat as a rug in letting Congress pass that obscenely bloated stimulus package. Had more Democrats protested, the administration would have felt less arrogantly emboldened to jam through a cap-and-trade bill whose costs have made it virtually impossible for an alarmed public to accept the gargantuan expenses of national healthcare reform. (Who is naive enough to believe that Obama's plan would be deficit-neutral? Or that major cuts could be achieved without drastic rationing?)
By foolishly trying to reduce all objections to healthcare reform to the malevolence of obstructionist Republicans, Democrats have managed to destroy the national coalition that elected Obama and that is unlikely to be repaired. If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis. It is theoretically possible that Obama could turn the situation around with a strong speech on healthcare to Congress this week, but after a summer of grisly hemorrhaging, too much damage has been done. At this point, Democrats' main hope for the 2012 presidential election is that Republicans nominate another hopelessly feeble candidate. Given the GOP's facility for shooting itself in the foot, that may well happen.
This column has been calling for heads to roll at the White House from the get-go. Thankfully, they do seem to be falling faster -- as witness the middle-of-the-night bum's rush given to "green jobs" czar Van Jones last week -- but there's a long way to go. An example of the provincial amateurism of current White House operations was the way the president's innocuous back-to-school pep talk got sandbagged by imbecilic support materials soliciting students to write fantasy letters to "help" the president (a coercive directive quickly withdrawn under pressure). Even worse, the entire project was stupidly scheduled to conflict with the busy opening days of class this week, when harried teachers already have their hands full. Comically, some major school districts, including New York City, were not even open yet. And this is the gang who wants to revamp national healthcare?
Why did it take so long for Democrats to realize that this year's tea party and town hall uprisings were a genuine barometer of widespread public discontent and not simply a staged scenario by kooks and conspirators? First of all, too many political analysts still think that network and cable TV chat shows are the central forums of national debate. But the truly transformative political energy is coming from talk radio and the Web -- both of which Democrat-sponsored proposals have threatened to stifle, in defiance of freedom of speech guarantees in the Bill of Rights. I rarely watch TV anymore except for cooking shows, history and science documentaries, old movies and football. Hence I was blissfully free from the retching overkill that followed the deaths of Michael Jackson and Ted Kennedy -- I never saw a single minute of any of it. It was on talk radio, which I have resumed monitoring around the clock because of the healthcare fiasco, that I heard the passionate voices of callers coming directly from the town hall meetings. Hence I was alerted to the depth and intensity of national sentiment long before others who were simply watching staged, manipulated TV shows.
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Why has the Democratic Party become so arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans? Though they claim to speak for the poor and dispossessed, Democrats have increasingly become the party of an upper-middle-class professional elite, top-heavy with journalists, academics and lawyers (one reason for the hypocritical absence of tort reform in the healthcare bills). Weirdly, given their worship of highly individualistic, secularized self-actualization, such professionals are as a whole amazingly credulous these days about big-government solutions to every social problem. They see no danger in expanding government authority and intrusive, wasteful bureaucracy. This is, I submit, a stunning turn away from the anti-authority and anti-establishment principles of authentic 1960s leftism.
How has "liberty" become the inspirational code word of conservatives rather than liberals? (A prominent example is radio host Mark Levin's book "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto," which was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three months without receiving major reviews, including in the Times.) I always thought that the Democratic Party is the freedom party -- but I must be living in the nostalgic past. Remember Bob Dylan's 1964 song "Chimes of Freedom," made famous by the Byrds? And here's Richie Havens electrifying the audience at Woodstock with "Freedom! Freedom!" Even Linda Ronstadt, in the 1967 song "A Different Drum," with the Stone Ponys, provided a soaring motto for that decade: "All I'm saying is I'm not ready/ For any person, place or thing/ To try and pull the reins in on me."
But affluent middle-class Democrats now seem to be complacently servile toward authority and automatically believe everything party leaders tell them. Why? Is it because the new professional class is a glossy product of generically institutionalized learning? Independent thought and logical analysis of argument are no longer taught. Elite education in the U.S. has become a frenetic assembly line of competitive college application to schools where ideological brainwashing is so pandemic that it's invisible. The top schools, from the Ivy League on down, promote "critical thinking," which sounds good but is in fact just a style of rote regurgitation of hackneyed approved terms ("racism, sexism, homophobia") when confronted with any social issue. The Democratic brain has been marinating so long in those clichés that it's positively pickled.
1) The "honeymoon" period is over. It happens every time.
2) A big reason he's lost some far left support is because he's shown interest in attempting compromise on health care reform, to the point of saying perhaps a public option isn't 100% necessary (something that has many on the left angry).
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"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
1) The "honeymoon" period is over. It happens every time.
2) A big reason he's lost some far left support is because he's shown interest in attempting compromise on health care reform, to the point of saying perhaps a public option isn't 100% necessary (something that has many on the left angry).
Based on current polls, he's already sleeping on the couch.
I'm a little disenfranchised with the democratic party in general. I had a little too much hope for them, I think. I think it was Bill Maher who put it "The Democrats have moved to the right, and the republicans have moved to a mental hospital."
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"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and bearing a cross."
Based on current polls, he's already sleeping on the couch.
At least he's still in the house.
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Ahmadinejad's wife to Ahmadinejad: Why are you always smiling? Nobody likes you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjwyQnEdATA- Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by my loves BSB
I listen to a lot of left-leaning talk radio and he's been getting pretty consistently criticized from the left all along.
Bill Maher's been criticizing him for months, Olbermann and Maddow as well. Cenk Uygur (huffpo/TYT) started calling him out on stuff while he was still in the senate. The idea that the liberal media has thus far been all candy and unicorns is pure fiction.
Part of the problem is that the right has been so vigorously trying to paint him as a complete radical socialist, so people who tend towards the radical socialist in their politics are being disappointed to discover that he's always been a moderate, centrist and is being far too conciliatory to a Republican minority who has demonstrated virtually no interest in doing anything but opposing absolutely everything he's been trying to do.
When health care reform with a public option has been polling between 55%-70% approval not among Democrats but among Americans in general, it's obvious that axing the public option is not going to improve his approval overall.
Remember that for a not insignificant portion of the electorate, health care reform with a public option IS the compromise, and to throw it away in order to still obtain zero Republican senate votes is rightfully going to anger people who feel that they're already compromising too much with the right.
I'm not terribly disappointed, since I've never considered him a progressive or really even all that liberal. I'd love it if he fired Rahm and moved ahead with what he promised in his campaign, but what politician in recent memory has actually fulfilled their campaign promises?
I hope the left does turn on him honestly, and is as loud and irate as the teabaggers have been thus far. If that's what debate in this country has devolved into, the left needs to quit bringing knives to gun fights.
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Does it sound logical that I would talk about the mother of a big white guy with a gun?
If Obama is getting flack from the whackos on both extremes, I consider that a good thing. That would make him a centrist which is where the (silent?) majority of Americans would like him to be.
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- Wisdom is the knowledge of how much you don't know.
1) The "honeymoon" period is over. It happens every time.
2) A big reason he's lost some far left support is because he's shown interest in attempting compromise on health care reform, to the point of saying perhaps a public option isn't 100% necessary (something that has many on the left angry).
You have a far left in the US? That's part of your mainstream?
You have a far left in the US? That's part of your mainstream?
I've never seen evidence of that...
our left and your left are different. a lot of people in america lack global perspective, which is shown by people seriously referring to him as a socialist. the political spectrum in america is a fairly contextualized, zoomed-in version of the rest of the globe.
You have a far left in the US? That's part of your mainstream?
I've never seen evidence of that...
We do have a far left, but it's decidedly not part of the mainstream.
Thanks to the Overton window effect the perception is that moderates and centrists are raging liberals, and people who are actual liberals and progressives are the fringe. In reality, there is a left wing fringe (proud member!), but it has next to zero representation in government.
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Does it sound logical that I would talk about the mother of a big white guy with a gun?
I volunteered and voted for Obama with full knowledge that I was to the left of him, and that he was significantly more moderate and more of a compromiser than my ideal heart-of-hearts candidate would be.
Part of this was that I only had so many choices, and I picked the person who was -by far- the closest option I could get. And part of it was that I believe that Obama can accomplish more than that idealized person I imagine in my heart-of-hearts. Just because I want something doesn't mean it's best for this country right now.
So yes, I am somewhat disappointed. But I knew I would be, and while I will keep poking with a stick (not literally.) to get him to follow through with some things (healthcare and gay rights the two big ones for me), I did sign up for this.
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Visit my non-fencing blog, mostly about food, at Coset The Table!
I volunteered and voted for Obama with full knowledge that I was to the left of him, and that he was significantly more moderate and more of a compromiser than my ideal heart-of-hearts candidate would be.
I volunteered and voted for Obama with full knowledge that I was to the RIGHT of him. In fact, I wore a REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA T-shirt sometimes while going door-to-door. Unfortunately, I'm a Colin Powell-like Republican, which means that the candidate most likely to advocate the policies I hold dear was... ohmygawd... the Democrat. WTF????
Who stole my party?
When McCain picked Sarah Palin [Where CAN I buy that red leather jacket? Where...where...where????]that was the absolute last straw and I drove for an hour to the nearest Obama for President office and signed up.
I'm not happy about many things he's done and I believed then and still believe that he lacked experience; but I still think the alternative would have been an unmitigated disaster.
its funny how that idiot got booed at his speech last night. i think everyone is fed up with his lies. he should just give up and go back to mosque in kenya.
[Where CAN I buy that red leather jacket? Where...where...where????]
It is a cute jacket. I looked it up, I think it's Elie Tahari. But you may not be able to get it anymore. You can try Saks, Bloomingdales or Neiman Marcus. That's where she got it. Reportedly.
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Ahmadinejad's wife to Ahmadinejad: Why are you always smiling? Nobody likes you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjwyQnEdATA- Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by my loves BSB
its funny how that idiot got booed at his speech last night. i think everyone is fed up with his lies. he should just give up and go back to mosque in kenya.
Signed up on F.net just share these insights, Chase?
If you really believe that Obama has any connection to any mosque in Kenya then I would recommend that you get medical help and start taking your meds.
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- Wisdom is the knowledge of how much you don't know.
What I don't get is: Even if he did, why would it matter? Who cares if the guy is Muslim? Just because he's Muslim he must support terrorists? Hell, most Muslims don't support the terrorists!
If we suddenly went to war with a group of Christian terrorists would we then shy away from having any Christian officials in office?
(Note: not saying he is anyway, just making the note it shouldn't matter)
Whatever... goes right over my head, anyway.
EDIT: Another thing I just thought about the other day...
Isn't it funny how they let fly accusations of Obama being Muslim, while at the same time attacking him for his association with Rev. Wright, trying to drive home the idea he has a lifelong and tight association with him? I thought that was pretty awesome and was wondering if anyone else noticed that, too.
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"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Last edited by I_luv_saber; 09-11-2009 at 06:00 AM..
Reason: Punctuation error
As another note - I don't think it's much of a secret that I didn't and don't agree with some of Obama's policies. But, this show of willingness to compromise raised my opinion of him quite a bit. Unfortunately, as partisan as things are now I don't think it will help him much. Really too bad, because I'd like to see more of it and I hope he keeps trying that route (and I hope the Republicans will have the sense to cooperate). Here's hoping...
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"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
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