The Left Is ALWAYS Correct.

[WeDidIt]

Yep, history bears that statement out.

The problem with that fact is, the Left is ALWAYS about fifty years or more ahead of their time, too.

It takes decades for the rest of the country to catch up to the Left, most of the time. Occasionally, the fact that the LEft is right about something becomes obvious to the majority of the polity in only a few years. A good example of this is the Iraq War.

So the fact that the Left is ALWAYS correct about things, like single payer health care and global warming, is sadly restricted by the fact that it can take so long for the rest of the country to catch up.

It's the catching up part that forces compromises that are hard to swallow some times. I hate it, but I always want to move a progressive agenda forward. I'll take a slice if that's all of the loaf I can get, but when the debates start, I'll always go after that full loaf.

[Junkdrawer]

1. Let's see...

Avatar showing Rahm thumbing his nose at us? Check.

Sig line declaring Firedog Lake as the biggest enemy of Democrats? Check.

Body of post claiming to be from a progressive who supports the Senate compromise as the best we could do? Check.

Yeah, it's all there.

[xchrom]

3. +1

[spiritual_gunfighter]

18. +1

It is hilarious that the OP claims to be a member of the left.

[Enrique]

2. so a centrist is someone who wants to put off progress

and a progressive is someone who wants to work on progress now.

[WeDidIt]

5. You can't move everything forward at one time with only about a third of the polity

So you progress as much as you can, and do so on multiple fronts, then come back and revisit each point as often as possible to progress a bit more.

It's slow, but it's still progress, and it beats waiting fifty years for a majority to catch up.

[Enrique]

16. the DLC call themselves progressives

they have a think tank called the Progressive Policy Institute.

They say they have the same long term goals as traditional progressives, but a "new way" of achieving them.

Sounds good, but then I look at what they do and I say to myself, I'll just stick with the old progressives, thank you very much.

[OHdem10]

17. A careful study of DLC positions and GOP Philosophy and they

fit the Moderate Republican. They have become so Pro-Business
and when crunch is on they will choose to assist Business over
the Working Class everytime.

The Republican Party is the Party of Business. This is one of
their founding principles.

As a Liberal I believe as did Senator Kennedy that we must
work with Business--giving them Incentives,etc.

This is different from the DLC who appear to be competing
with Republicans to see which party can best serve Business
Interest even if it hurts the American People.

[27inCali]

23. that kinda sounds like Obama's style

incremental process on a number of fronts as opposed to focusing and trying to win everything one issue at a time.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[WeDidIt]

6. Yes, they are.

They want to stop all progress. That's an extremely REGRESSIVE stance.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Armstead]

13. Depends on what you define as "progress"

[Hello_Kitty]

14. If wants were whiskey we'd all be drunk

Firedoglake has no power to stop the POS health care bill. Lieberman, Stupak, and Nelson DID have the power and DID threaten to use it. But you cheerleaders are willing to roll over and give them whatever the hell they want.

"Yessir Senator Lieberman may I please have another! No public option and no Medicare buy-in? Certainly, sir!"

"Of course Sen. Nelson and Rep. Stupak, you get to police vaginas! It's so important that we get something passed. What's that? You need to confer with Catholic Bishops about the vaginas? Please, go right ahead, we'll just be bashing the lefty blogosphere over here."

Sickening.

[winyanstaz]

32. yup...thats how it is alright....

makes you wanna puke.

[niceypoo]

27. They have no power

[spiritual_gunfighter]

19. Fuck this OP indeed. n/t

[zbdent]

7. the conservative Right agrees!

20+ years after the left introduces a fix ...

and that's because the conservatives look back and cherry-pick what worked and claim it as their own, while blaming the failures on the left ...

[WeDidIt]

8. Don't fool yourself

If the Conservatives thought they could get away with it, they'd kill Social Security and Medicare tomorrow.

In fact, Bush attempted to do just that with Social Security in 2005.

[zbdent]

12. the right love SS and Medicare ...

just look at the age of the Repug gatherings ... the ones with the signs "NO Socialized health care ... leave my medicare alone!"

[HughMoran]

25. "I was for it all along"

:rofl:

Fucking Republicans, can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em.

[Armstead]

9. Not always correct -- but frequently. But I disagree about the country...

I'll ignore your avatar and assume that you are sincere.

Most of the country isn't paying attention to the details. That's not an elitist insult -- just a fact. I don't always pay attention to the details of everything either.

That makes the nation easily convinced by whoever has the best sales pitch. The GOP and the Corporatists did a remarkable sales pitch for 30 years, by making it sound like policies that were against the interests of the average person were actually beneficial to them. "We should tax you instead of the wealthy, because someday you may be wealthy too."

The problem is the Democratic Party either walked away from the contest and never really tries to sell the alternative -- or, in many cases, they are as bought and paid for as much as the Republicans.

The problem with the "settle for half a loaf" strategy is that it plays into the hands of the GOP and Corporatist Dems.

Take NAFTA, for example. "We're going to make it easier for employers to close domestic manufacturing operations and move them over the border where they can pay poverty wages." Not many people would have bought that of the politicians had botghered to explain the actual implications in clear terms....The problem is that the DLC Corporatist Democrats tossed up a lot of smoke and mirrors to obscure that real agenda. Thus the average person felt the issue was "too complicated to understand" and let the GOP and DLC ram it through.

In other words, if one is truly committed to liberal/progressive ideals, then we ought to start from the premise that people will support the best policies if we work to sell it.

[WI_DEM]

11. The left is not always right but we are usually more right than the right.

[freddie mertz]

15. I dunno. I had some issues with the tactics of the Weather Underground.

I'm as lefty as they come, but "always right" is a bit of a reach.

I am more comfortable saying that the right is ALMOST always wrong, and that centrists stay in the "yellow" zone too much of the time.

As for the left: on general principles, it's more often right than wrong, maybe.

[OHdem10]

20. I believe the original idea was. ON the MAJOR ISSUES of the

previous decades, the Liberals/Progressives had the correct
position.

War in Iraq

Patriot Act

Medicare

SS

NAFTA--we predicted the job losses and the "harmonizing downward" of
living standards when it was passed.

The list goes on. One point is: Go back through major legislation
and you will find we were in the correct position on the Issues.
Yet, often the Party ignores this and goes the Republican Position
hurting the country.

[CTyankee]

21. I have said this and said this. I sometimes hate being right on things.

But I always am. I was right on civil rights, Vietnam, feminism, progressive economics, you name it...the reason I hate it is that I take so much abuse from RWingers for it. And I sometimes stand alone. It can be a lonely feeling.

I am not the only one who is right on these matters. There are lots of us so I can't take too much credit. but I have lived a long life and have seen these things come to pass...

[bvar22]

22. I don't mind taking abuse from Republicans.

It is taking abuse from Right Wingers masquerading as "Centrists" in the Democratic Party that bothers me.

When have the "Centrists" been right about anything in the last 30 years? :shrug:

[CTyankee]

28. Yes, they're the WORST! Esp. since they are the ones who will suffer the most

and don't seem to know it. They're idiots and I'm done with the lot of them. Let them stew in their own pot of misery. I don't care about them any more...

[WeDidIt]

29. Centrists are eventually right

but they have to catch up to the left in order to get there.

[bvar22]

31. Hard to do....

...when then Democratic Party slides continually to The Right propelled by the Issue less "Centrists" chasing the mythological "Center"by triangulating with Republicans.

Remember THIS Democratic Party?

"In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens."

Gone.
Sacrificed on the altar of Triangulation and "Centrism".

All Hail the New GOD of the Democratic Party:
The RIGHT of Corporations to BUY power inside the Democratic Party to INCREASE Profits at the expense of the Working Class.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[HughMoran]

24. Agreed

They say, though, if you scream loud enough, you can alter the space-time continuum.

[ima_sinnic]

26. unrecced as total gratuituous BS

oh Rahm, go back to licking Lieberman's ass--it's much more becoming than pretending to be "left," and the thing you do best.

[depakid]

30. We surely were correct about the consequences of every corporate sell out during the Clinton era...

as historical events have born out rather clearly- and harshly.

Too bad that the same sorts of center-right politicians and officials who wouldn't listen before- are in power and unlikely to listen reason yet again.

[Pushed To The Left]

33. K&R, You said it perfectly. n/t

[LWolf]

34. If so,

then the left is correct when they put Obama at the "center-right" of the political spectrum, and when they oppose his center-right administration and policies.