Do not fall prey to the MSM trying to drive a wedge between far left and moderately left Obama

[ncteechur]

supporters.

Be careful of the way they write and phrase stories and headlines. As we have seen in just the past few days, they have framed the email story, the Afghan detainee story, and a couple of others in a way that would paint Obama as being cut from the same cloth as Bush. Don't be fooled. There is no comparison. I agree that if there is agregious conduct coming from the Obama administration, get angry. But don't do it based on what the AP or other write on first read.

[Why Syzygy]

1. The ACLU isn't MSM. nt

[Enrique]

2. the stories and headlines have been straight

[EraOfResponsibility]

3. egregious, not agregious

fyi :)

[leftstreet]

4. There's already a wedge

It's not shocking to see it being exploited

[tekisui]

5. So, what to do?

No surprises, but how do we move ahead?

Bipartisanship begins at home!

[leftstreet]

7. Wish I knew

The divide/conquer/marginalize the left strategy has always worked for the Predator Class.

And the teevee basically handed them a total victory.

Grr.

Maybe we need a pamphleting campaign!?

:shrug:

[Numba6]

29. da revolution ain't happening until you pay for those leaflets, buddy!

:rofl:

[hay rick]

6. Left of Obama is "far left"?

MSM is going to give me a wedgie. I'm scared.

[inna]

11. LOL! exactly. :) nt

[Captain Hilts]

8. I don't. nt

[TBF]

9. Those of us on the far left are not confused -

If the msm is talking about something it is already too late to worry about it, because we've already been screwed. We can look up who owns what and understand that the msm is not looking out for our interests.

[eridani]

10. As FDR said to A Phillip Randolph and others in the 30s--

--MAKE me do it! Let's not just support Obama's agenda. Help to shape it as well.

[cilla4progress]

12. Very good point!

I wonder how much is strategizing, in any case. E.g., bank nationalization. I just feel - I may be wrong - the Obama administration is just WAITING until there is enough momentum (the tipping point) including from the Repub side - which has already started, yes? - so that THEY don't have to wear the mantle of pushing this "socialist" principle, but it is simply inevitable due to the weight of public opinion.

Who's with me on this one?

[eridani]

16. I am! Let's help push that public opinion! n/t

[Numba6]

26. that's true, "make me do it", but APRandolph's response wasn't like th snarky uber-progressives

Randolph didn't turn around & say "The FEPC is a sham, we get nothing, FDR sux unless he does exactly what I say on every issue, every appointment, every New Deal institution."

& that is the sum total of the urber-progressive position against Obama

[burrowowl]

13. Say what!

Obama so far is right of center!

[Numba6]

28. yes, the massive stimulus - increasing gov't portion of GDP spending by 50% -- is

"right of center"

You've got your head straight -- straight w/ the MSM critique of Obama

& he did this, & started to re-order gov't priorities, in HIS FIRST MONTH in office

Get a grip

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8215623#8216869

[ananda]

14. Obama is not left or close to it.

He could be considered center or moderate right.

[bvar22]

15. The MSM doesn't have to drive a wedge.

Obama is doing a good enough job all on his own.

[FrenchieCat]

17. How's that?

[alwysdrunk]

18. It's not the MSM, it's the far left themselves

The media is just reflecting the feelings that are really there. The far left are like spoiled kids. They aren't getting what they want so they switch straight to "centrist! corporatist! just like Bush!" Just look at DU.

Of course this is a conversation not really even worth having on this board. Very quickly the cries of "there is no far left" pop up every time.

[EFerrari]

19. Let's see, who to believe? alwysdrunk or Gore Vidal?

I think I pick Gore.

[Zodiak]

21. To be like spoiled kids, one has to be spoiled

Can you think of ANYTHING the left has pushed for an got over the last 30 years?

I would say the left is more like a kid that has been kept in the basement living on cockroaches and dishwater by his cruel parents who don't want to hear him and don't want the neighbors seeing him. Those same parents bring the kid out of the basement every few years to vote, gives him a pat on the head, and then gets shoves him right back into the basement.

That is how the left is treated in this country, and apparently it is a treatment you applaud. You hear the kid in the basement whimpering to get some food, attention, or love, and you call him "spoiled" and would rather he just shut up.

If you are going to criticize the left on this board, I would appreciate it if your similes have some basis in fact and are not just some ad hominem attempt to infantilize those you criticize. A political movement that has been right as consistently as the left has over the last decade deserves more respect than a ham-handed attempt to infantilize them.

This is, of course, independent of your pre-emptive attempt to stifle objection to your "far left" label. The fact remains that many people here who are called "far left" on this board by people who use your language were considered centrists only a decade ago. Perhaps people's cries that there is no far left has more credence than you give it...objection to the Iraq war is the majority of Americans, support for nationalized healthcare is also in the majority, as is support for the stimulus and the desire to nationalize the banks. From where I sit, those denigrating the "far left" really are criticizing the positions that a majority of Americans want but our ruling class doesn't acknowledge and refuses to deliver. The use of labels such as yours only serves to further this agenda by making the debate about false memes instead of actual issue positions.

The fact that you do not acknowledge that our MSM has an agenda (despite mountains of evidence built by multiple sources) indicates to me that you buy into their false framing uncritically. If you were to ask me, uncritical belief in MSM frames against the American left makes you the immature one...listening to self-styled experts with a thin record of the truth and taking their words as sage advice much like a kid would uncritically accept what his parents tell him.

[treestar]

25. And then try talking to right wingers

To them, Obama is as far left as it gets! That communist, Marxist, socialist who wants to start a totalitarian state with economic regulations! It's hilarious. Who could be to the left of that?

And they too claim McCrook lost because he was not conservative enough, as if people who found McCrook too liberal would respond to that by voting for Obama! :rofl:

[Forkboy]

31. Well, the far left of the Democratic Party is not the far left on the whole political spectrum.

I love watching people talk about the Democratic far left on DU as if it's the furthest reaches one can go on the spectrum. These people need to get out more, because a far left Democrat (as I would consider myself) isn't that far left.

[Raineyb]

33. It only appears so because the "center" has been pulled to the extrememe right.

Most of what we call the left in this country would be merely moderate anywhere else.

Regards

[Forkboy]

35. Exactly, that's why I have to chuckle when the term "far left" gets tossed out here.

I know a few people who would truly qualify as far left, and no one on DU is close. :)

[PVnRT]

37. Thank You For Your Concern

[CJCRANE]

20. Obama has 94% approval among liberal Democrats.

The remaining 6% post on DU.

[liberalsince1968]

22. What about the way Glenn Greenwald and the ACLU write and phrase stories?

They are the ones I'm listening to - not the MSM. And I find their conclusions chilling.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. I think that has been happening for years...even decades.

I hear moderates and DLCers demonize liberals and liberals responding by referring to the moderates and DLCers as "DINOs".

Right now, it'd be nice if the Democrats could be mindful of the M$M/Repuke attempts to divide and conquer. They've been doing this forever--case in point, Rush's Operation Chaos during the Obama-Hillary primary fiasco.

[Numba6]

24. The wedg is there (or rather, here), unfortunately I don't see it caused by the MSM

pro-Obama or pro-stimulus posts are denounced as "propoganda" around here by the snarky old timers who will never be satisfied by anyone or anything done.

I think they must all be day traders, they sound like Rick Santelli & Larry Kudrow -- from the "Left"

[mmonk]

27. And do not let the Democratic Party label allow you to be blind

to problem areas such as the detainee case.

[Cha]

30. Americans always need to be careful

the way they read corporatemediawhores who gave us 8 years of bush and the War on Iraq..and would have given us mccain and palin if they had gotten their lyin' way again.

[Forkboy]

32. There's been a wedge between the left and the center of the party for almost 2 decades now.

Let's blame Nader though. It's easier that way.

I totally agree with you on not buying into how the media frames these things.

[LWolf]

34. "Fall prey?"

As someone on the "far left," I don't think Obama is "moderately left." I think he is center-right, and I have since he declared his candidacy and I started looking at his positions.

I don't watch or listen to the MSM, other than an hour of NPR at 4:30 in the morning (my alarm is set there,) so let's not blame it on them.

I'm obviously not the only person to have come to that conclusion, as I discovered a couple of months back:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=929&Itemid=1

I wouldn't exactly call the BAR "mainstream media." I also wouldn't attack them as enemies for not being partisan, as so many DUers are anxious to do.

Obama drove the wedge himself. He has consistently, and publicly, distanced himself from the left since he opened his primary campaign.

Let's not blame that on the "MSM."

[Jennicut]

38. Eh, Center right, moderately left. It all depends where YOU fall on the scale as

we all look at politics from our own points of view. To my conservative parents Obama is a socialist, to you he is center right. To me he is left of Bill Clinton which would make him center-left. Clinton was a "centrist". You have to look how far right the right is to realize this. Still, if one does not like Obama's policies that is okay, every president needs to be criticized and have his feet held to the fire.

[LWolf]

40. Only if you look at if from a U.S.-centric perspective.

From a global perspective, he's center-right.

Since I don't see us as separate from the rest of the world, I prefer to see us from a perspective that includes the rest of the world.

[elleng]

36. Thanks for the warning,

but heck, we do it ourselves!

[Orsino]

39. Moderately *right* Obama.

Do not fall prey to the MSM's meme that calls Obama a lefty.