Judis: The Left too deep in the tank to apply pressure on Obama on the Stimulus

[Paulaguyon]

One labor union has even published ads thanking Susan Collins, Snowe and Specter for helping pass this bill.
MoveOn.org applies no pressure on Obama to keep the stimulus big enough and targeting the right areas. These and other issues are discussed today in this article by The New Republic's John Judis.

Although some might argue that TNR is a hawkish Iraq-war supporting discredited website, this particular analysis by Judis seems to be spot-on, being praised by Progressive blogger Glen Greenwald (and trust me, nobody has been more critical of TNR than Greenwald in the past).

GG has this to add about the problem in question (excerpt):

During the 2008 election, Obama co-opted huge portions of the Left and its infrastructure so that their allegiance became devoted to him and not to any ideas. Many online political and "news" outlets -- including some liberal political blogs -- discovered that the most reliable way to massively increase traffic was to capitalize on the pro-Obama fervor by turning themselves into pro-Obama cheerleading squads. Grass-roots activist groups watched their dues-paying membership rolls explode the more they tapped into that same sentiment and turned themselves into Obama-supporting appendages. Even labor unions and long-standing Beltway advocacy groups reaped substantial benefits by identifying themselves as loyal foot soldiers in the Obama movement.

The major problem now is that these entities -- the ones that ought to be applying pressure on Obama from the Left and opposing him when he moves too far Right -- are now completely boxed in. They've lost -- or, more accurately, voluntarily relinquished -- their independence. They know that criticizing -- let alone opposing -- Obama will mean that all those new readers they won last year will leave; that all those new dues-paying members will go join some other, more Obama-supportive organization; that they will prompt intense backlash and anger among the very people -- their members, supporters and readers -- on whom they have come to rely as the source of their support, strength, and numbers.

[SIMPLYB1980]

1. .

:eyes:

[wyldwolf]

2. TNR discredited? By who?

[high density]

3. Maybe Judis & Greenwald can work for the ACLU

The rest of us perhaps realize that Bush brought a lot of shitty policies to this country and it will take some time for them to be reversed. So far I think the progress has been outstanding. I feel it's quite nice not to see much of a circular firing squad, but that seems exactly what these two guys want.

[Luminous Animal]

5. They are not advocating for a circular firing squad...

did you read the articles? Nobody is saying that change must be instantaneous. Rather, they are making the case that if one wants to progress one must advocate for it. They are asking that we be as engaged in the democratic process as our opponents. Over the past few decades, the republican base has done a remarkable job of electing authoritarian wingnuts and moving the party towards a more reactionary right. They've done this because they've put convictions (as shitty as they may be) over party.

[grannie4peace]

4. interesting

[cliffordu]

6. I'm in the tank. Completely in the tank.