Progressive Cannon Fodder

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

While heaping dung on the despised progressive tantrum-ocracy, please take a moment to note that they are the reason Barack Obama is not being stoned right now.

Two weeks ago in the media HCR was an albatross. Today all TV self-styled centrists (as opposed to self-styled pukes) are fawning over the bill.

Why?

Because the media hates Howard Dean and anyone else who doesn't worship our golden-calf of supposedly centrist gibberish.

When Dean came out against the compromise that began a media-spasm of TV centrists trying to figure out how to be for it.

The actual, literal topic of the day on Morning Joe was: "Are there any bigger cry-babies on Earth than the American left?" (Those who delight in saying that progressives agree with the tea-baggers ought to recognize that they live in a glass house.)

Recall that Dean ran for president against, among others, Joe Lieberman and it was Dean that was adjudged obviously unfit to hold high office! The man was held to be psychiatrically unfit for yelling at a noisy campaign rally while seeking to replace an alcoholic asshole who caused the premature deaths of one million people in Iraq as a symptom of his Oedipal scene, but who the CW crowd though highly of at the time.

The media... hates... progressives. Period. Hate. The big "H."

They will trash Obama on an average day, but run some dirty-fucking-hippies out there and watch how fast the weapons-fire is diverted.

The first time in months these bastards have had anything good to say about Democrats was when they realized that progressives are pretty disgusted with the Democratic Party right now.

The momentary CW is that this is a flawed but ultimately pretty good bill... it must be because hippies hate it. But don't try to bank those accolades. Obama will be back on the circle-jerk CW shit list as soon as the momentary hippie-distraction is over.

We invaded Iraq because the centrists saw it as another chance to trash anyone to the left of the Nelsons and Liebermans of the world. They couldn't resist! If the dirty-fucking-hippies had supported the Iraq War we probably would have seen a lot more tough questions from the self-styled centrists.

[ShortnFiery]

1. CENTRIST = Moderate = New Dem = DLCer = Blue Dog = Corporatist = Neo-Liberal = Warmonger.

In addition to the FULLY CORRUPT Republican Party, the above groups are "the enemy" to LIBERAL and/or PROGRESSIVE Democrats.

[NJmaverick]

2. You are clearly at the wrong forum

If you consider the majority of Democrats as your enemy you need to see the about us page of DU:

We welcome Democrats of all stripes, along with other progressives who will work with us to achieve our shared goals.


Welcoming is not calling them your enemy.

[ShortnFiery]

8. When they are untrue to Democratic Principles, they no longer are DEMOCRATS.

Only "in name" but not "in deed."

Nice try but no cigar. :thumbsdown:

[Aramchek]

12. you despise Obama and the rest of our Democratic Leadership. so are you really a Democrat?

[Generator]

17. Are they?

No, I don't really think so. They support endless war and they love insurance companies. THEY NEVER fight for women's rights, gay rights, or poor people. EXACTLY what is a Democrat? Joe Liebeman was a Democat. Ben Nelson claims to be a Democrat. The rest like a Weiner fight while it's easy, then surrender. The president tells us lies to our face and never stands up for anyting progessive either. HAVE you seen his bullshit bait and switch on human rights? Do you know that rendition, torture continue?

YES, we aren't fucked every day under the So called Democrats we have now, we are only fucked every other day. That's worth voting according to some on this board. I call it insanity.

[PassingFair]

19. They are NOT the "majority". They are the ones that are backed by corporate money.

Check ANY poll here on DU.

[dreamnightwind]

10. Where's the non-corporate center?

You know this is something I don't understand, and that needs to be changed ASAP. WHERE is the non-corporate center? Why have we let corporate agendas take over the center? There's no reason I can see that they should have the center, their interests do not match the interests of the proverbial average American, yet they maintain a strong grip on the "center" and centrist politics.

There needs to be a strong and broad non-corporate center for people to turn to. Myself, I'm farther out on the left, but I know lots of people who support corporate positions just because they're not radicals of any sort, and what they're presented with as centrist choices are only the choices corporations want them to have.

They need to wake up, they're being duped, and some new force needs to emerge that will give these people a true center whose purpose is to represent them instead of the corporations.

[ShortnFiery]

11. But that's the point, It's about THE MONEY ... it's always been about MONEY and POWER.

The Status Quo keeps "the rulers" in place and they spread the wealth among their cronies.

That's precisely why "the CENTER" is often times the MOST CORRUPT part of our politics because it maintains the status quo.

Ask yourselves, in ANY other Profession (save for the Catholic Popes) could a man as old and decrepit as Robert C. Byrd be able to KEEP HIS JOB?!?

It's all about cronyism and corruption, NOT about new ideas and/or results.

[Aramchek]

13. I'm really glad we don't have to live in your imaginary world.

you probably wish Byrd would just keel over so the bill can't pass, huh?

[dreamnightwind]

21. Coburn's single-prayer system

[dreamnightwind]

20. Well sure

I completely understand the money and power part, and how the corporations want to claim the center for their own interests.

What I don't understand, is how they get away with it. There's nothing inherently centrist about corporate interests. It has nothing to do with left-right-center, it's its own axis entirely, the corporate-public axis. We're supposed to not be aware that a corporate-public axis exists, and think of it as the center of the left-right axis, but it's not.

So I'm not looking at it from the point of view of the power players, I'm looking at it from the point of view of the people. The sheeple. The people who are naturally centrists by nature. Not radicals of the left or the right, they live their lives trying to fit in, be productive, raise their families, abide by the law, not rock the boat.

Corporations have somehow managed to position themselves in an imaginary center, when they do not represent the interests of centrist individuals. I see this as an opportunity. If we can wake these people up, and give them an alternative that is both centrist and based on a highly regulated and safeguarded form of capitalism (not the current radical high-risk capitalism), we can make real progress.

There seriously needs to be a place for centrists to go that isn't usurped by corporate interests, and there's no reason this can't happen.

[GreenArrow]

23. The business of America is, quite literally, business.

.

[dreamnightwind]

25. That used to be somewhat more valid

Supporting business and corporate interests made more sense when business and corporations supported America and American jobs.

Now they use us anyway they can, while at the same time they're taking the jobs off-shore to the weakest labor markets on the planet.

A Comcast service-man came to my house the other day to fix a problem cable modem. I was talking to him about his job and the company he works for. He said that, aside from the people who go out on calls, the entire chain of command that he deals with, including the human resources department, is offshore. He then got on his phone to make the call to activate the new cable modem he had installed, and spoke to a man whose name was "Joe" working from India. "Joe" issued the activation command and I was back online.

Corporate interests are anti-American, anti-environment, anti-social-justice, anti-freedom, anti-democratic, and ultimately anti-human. It effects people on the left and people on the right pretty much equally, and sooner or later we'll have to link arms with those on the other side of domestic politics to throw the corporations out of our government.

[Jennicut]

3. Blah. Lieberman is trashed all the time here on local tv in CT.

WTF is he doing is usually the response on my local news. But anyway, I think the Dem party and Rethug party need to slit into 4 parties and everyone will be happy, right? How does Canada do with coalition govt, anyway? Maybe it is better the the big tents?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. He is one of the most dramatic regional mismatches in politics.

I wouldn't use Joe as a guide because he has acted in wild contradiction of his electorate.

Few politicians ever go that far against the tone of their state or district... unless they are planning to leave politics for an incredibly high-paying job as a health insurance lobbyist.

[Jennicut]

5. Actually, Joe won last time with more Rethugs then Dems. Though he lost

many, many Dems that did vote for him in 2006. Still, his approval is hovering around 45%. People are divided here for sure but the media is not giving him a total break, which is nice to see.

[grantcart]

6. Exactly right - the high volume reaction to dropping the Public Option

has two ironic results:

1) It will completely reframe the bill as being a compromise bill and drive up the President's approval ratings

2) It will completely undermine the Republicans resistance to it. Nowhere can this be more clearly seen that the final position that Snowe will find herself in.

She went on record several times that she would be for the bill if only they had a trigger for the public option. Having gone farther and eliminated the public option all together what conceiveable reason does she have for not voting on it.

We all know that the reason is that she doesn't want a primary opponent.

So ironically, and you have to detach yourself from your own personal feelings to see it, Lieberman's traitorous betrayel is actually going to hurt the Republicans big time. Their huge stick for 2010 - government run health care plans - no longer exists.

Agreeing 100% with your framing of the issue I wonder how many people who now absolutely detest the President understand that they are in the larger picture assisting him.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. Generally agree, but not about the pug stick

I don't think the pugs have lost much, stick-wise.

The CW on this bill will turn sour again after passage (IMO) because it is so scatter-shot and staggered in implementation that I don't think reality will pose much of an obstacle to it being defined by corporate America and the RW even after its passage.

If I owned Aetna I would run ads against the bill after passage. Why not? The pugs have at least a puncher's-chance of taking the House.

And God help us if local news starts carrying stories about pre-existing condition denials post-passage.

At least there is no looming baseball strike.

(One of my theories about 1994 is that the baseball strike that summer helped make hate-radio. Grumpy old white men usually had AM radios tuned to baseball games and sports radio... in the background at the barber shop and such. The baseball strike removed tons of AM programing for angryish white men with the Limbaugh's filling the void.

[grantcart]

14. I understand but disagree

Over the last few weeks I have been asking alot of people I meet and I have been astonished how dialed they are to the Public Option, with most knowing what it is and how it will help.

It is now government regulated healthcare and not government run. With the AMA and others like them signing on most people know that the Republicans are just being stubborn, that they were unwilling to compromise and in some cases when they pretended that they were willing, like Snowe, turned out to be lying.

I can't see how Snowe is going to survive voting against this bill.

[stevenleser]

24. Well put. AND, when the armageddon isnt ushered in from the bill that the GOP has predicted...

people are going to wonder what the fuss was all about, ala the Obama speech to schoolchildren.

[glitch]

9. Which is exactly why Obama will continue to snub Progressives, it is very popular with Corporatists

Not that it's anything to brag about.

[Phx_Dem]

15. Media idiocy doesn't not excuse progressive actions,

which are actually not "actions" at all, just whine, bitch, complain and call names.

Wait a minute, that sounds like the GOP.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

26. Loathsome sentiment. Thanks for sharing.

[Laelth]

16. Very insightful. Thanks. k&r

Kill the bill.

Forcing people to buy insurance is no more the answer to a failed health care system than forcing people to buy houses is the solution to homelessness.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Generator]

18. That is spot on!

Howard Dean and Jane Hamsher have become the enemy of the people. The beltway rally around was sickening to behold.

Funny I think that the turncoats are the ones in office. You know if hadn't watched politics very closely on this board for the last five years I might have bought the president's and the Dems line. The shills on teevee are very conceiving. But they are pulling the same propagandistic stuff that I watched Bush do. I will not believe lies just because they claim to be my friend and are part of a team I thought I belonged to. They might mean well but they are lying to themselves and to me. This bill is a giveaway to the insurance industry. They represent the insurance industry. They do not represent the people they claim to. First comes the insurance industry. Then pharma. They cannot be represented equally. That is a fraud. An impossibility, That is what many don't get.

[treestar]

22. The progressives seem to hate Obama and the Democrats towards the center

Practically as much as the right does. The M$M would only jump onto that.

[Raineyb]

27. That would depend on your definition of "center"

Ben Nelson is a right wing pig all his claims to being a Democrat not withstanding. The center has been pulled so far right that people who are moderately right winged are being called leftists. The far left is not as far as the MSM would have you believe.