Why Obama Can't Satisfy The Left »
Posted By tehranchik 9 months, 1 week ago in NewsConsidering that Democrats last November won their most sweeping electoral victory since 1964, and now enjoy unified control of government for the first time since 1994, the organized Left doesn't seem very happy these days. Some of that discontent reflects the difficulty of moving from an opposition party that perpetually prizes conflict to a governing party that must compromise to advance an agenda. But it also reflects a potentially destabilizing imbalance between liberal expectations and assets rooted in little-discussed truths about the balance of power within the Democratic coalition. As Democrats settle in to power, two distinct, and somewhat dissonant, lines of complaint are emerging from leaders on the left. One charges that Obama is deferring too much to Wall Street and its party allies in his response to the financial crisis. In just the past week, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has written that Obama's financial stabilization plan fills him with "despair"; his colleague, Frank Rich, has suggested that Obama's handling of the AIG bonuses might be his "Katrina moment" and Internet doyenne Arianna Huffington has urged Obama to strip authority for the financial rescue from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. That's insufficient for liberal columnist and activist David Sirota: he wants Obama to fire Geithner because "he's either lying to the public or totally incompetent."
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tehranchik
Well, I'm from and live in the Pacific Northwest. I did live in the middle east during the late 70's and early 80 ...
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Commodore19 months, 1 week ago
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Well it would help if the left had a clear objective. I'm sure even the most prominent liberals don't have a clue about this. But the left will never be satisfied because they are simply too arrogant. If it is a march to socialism then this country will be turned inside out.
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mesodude9 months, 1 week ago
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"If it is a march to socialism then this country will be turned inside out."
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--I guess...But the GOP is a flaming bag of crap exactly because uneducated cons are somehow still convinced that labeling liberals "socialist" (particularly after right wingers' extremely flawed judgement gave us the biggest government in history) is some kind of effective political strategy. Has anything occurred within...oh, say the last few years to give you reason to think that's helping the GOP in any way? Seriously...Do you have *any* shred of evidence that this is helping your agenda? -
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Progressive9 months, 1 week ago
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FTA:
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Kessler asks the right question: "Is this going to be two years of a brief what might have been [for Democrats] or the beginning of a long progressive era? I think the way the liberals and the centrists in the party relate to each other is going to go a long way in determining the answer." -
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tadair9199 months, 1 week ago
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this article is rather paltry. it reminds me of the controlled opposition of FOX news when they barely spoke against the Bush/Cheney junta (while pretending to be fair and balanced.)
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comparing AIG bonuses to Katrina is like comparing a bike accident to a 300 car pile-up. There is a big difference, and aig bonuses is not even worth mentioning.
this article doesn't mention the anger against the continuation of the war of terrorism, or the bombing of Pakistan.
or the questions as to why it takes 2 years to shut down a torture camp. no anger against not doing anything to restore our civil liberties, or repeal Bush's Patriot Act.
Where's the real meat? -
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IslamstudentComment removed: Retracted by user
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tadair9199 months, 1 week ago
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"But no matter how far the movement has gone in attaining its goals, the leftist is never satisfied, because his activism is a surrogate activity. That is, the leftist real motive is not to attain the ostensible goals of leftism; in reality he is motived by the sense of power he gets from struggling for and then reaching a social goal. Consequently the leftist is never satisfied with the goals he has already attained; his need for the power process leads him always to pursue some new goal. The leftist wants equal opportunities for minorities. When that is attained he insists on statistical equality of achievement by minorities. And as long as anyone harbors in some corner of his mind a negative attitude toward some minority, the leftist has to re-educate him. And ethnic minorities are not enough; no one can be allowed to have a negative attitude toward homosexuals, disabled people, fat people, old people, ugly people, and on and on and on.
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It's not enough that the public should be informed about the hazards of smoking, a warning has to be stamped on every package of cigarettes. Then cigarette advertising has to be restricted, if not banned. The activists will never be satisified until tobacco is outlawed, and after that they want to stop all spanking. When they have done that they will want to ban something else they consider unwholesome, then another thing and then another. They will never be satisfied until they have complete control over all child rearing practices. And then they will move on to another cause."
"Suppose you asked a leftist to make A list of ALL the things that were wrong with society, and then suppose you instituted EVERY social change that they demanded. It is safe to say that within a couple of years the majority of lefists would find something new to complain about; some new social "evil" to correct because, once again, the leftist is motivated less by distress at society's ills than by the need to satisfy his drive for power by imposing his solutions on society."
Later, he admits, "It's quite true that many leftists, possible even a numerical
majority, are decent people who sincerely believe in tolerating others' values... Our remarks about leftism are not meant to apply to every individual leftist but to describe the general character of leftism as a movement." --unabomber manifesto -
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jovial9 months, 1 week ago
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I've said before Obama is to the left of center. He's not a Kucinich Liberal. He's closer to a Clinton. It's just that the Right has shifted so far right that even the center appears left. For chrissakes even McCain was considered a RINO and a liberal! Thus they have alienated themselves from mainstream America. It will take a total revamp of the Republican party to get back those centrists and independents they lost. In other words they have to lose the Limbaugh's and such as their ideological heroes. The Democrats are enjoying popularity right now because they are closer to the center right now than Republicans. I fear if they drift too far left that popularity wil sag just as it already has done in the Republican party.
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oneironaut4209 months, 1 week ago
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"It's just that the Right has shifted so far right that even the center appears left. "
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I couldn't possibly agree with this more. I consider myself more of a moderate, but in the last 8 years, I've become a "liberal" because I don't agree with a questionable war, I don't support the invasion of religion into government, I actually believe that we should use some preventative medicine with regards to the environment so that future generations have a habitable planet, and I think having a fundamental right to basic health care ensures a healthy, productive population which is good for the economy.
Fortunately, I couldn't care less what conservatives label me...I'm not a flaming liberal, but the fact that so many of them, my parents included, have become rabid right-wingnuts makes me feel like one some days. 8P -
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Endoscopy9 months, 1 week ago
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What kind of koolaid have you been drinking. His record in senate was the farthest left senator. Far to the left of Kennedy. Biden was the third. So we have an administration from the extreme far left. The people like Pelosie and Reid are fairly far to the left. That fake stimulus package that they did not let the Republicans have any real say in was an extreme far left package of wish lists since they lost congress in the second year of the Clinton administration. Health care for everybody is not a moderate left idea.
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Take off the sunglasses and look at what is really happening. The blue dog Democrats are starting to growl. They won the republican seats by promising to keep the spending in check. What Obama wants is spending like we have unlimited money and growing the government to a huge extent. Each piece of spending in the fake stimulus package creates another government entity to spend that money. That means they want to make those programs permenant. And that is why the CBO says $1 trillion deficit forever. -
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jovial9 months, 1 week ago
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Another problem though I see is how the author or anyone determines who's liberal, conservative, or is somewhere in the middle. One's perception of one's self may not be based in reality and truthfully seldom is correct. Some people claim to be independent and like to consider themselves as taking no sides, but after talking with them it becomes clearly evident by their views they are not what they think they are. Some on the right and the left claim neutrality as well. It's a crazy mixed up world these politics.
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fsev419 months, 1 week ago
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A little basic civics Klarissa, the president doesn't write the laws. Congress makes laws. The President only signs or vetoes them. If you take the time to look at the source of the video in your link it is Russiantruth.com. I'm sure that's a highly reliable source.
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Natureboy9 months, 1 week ago
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The short story - Obama will not make the left happy because he is a corporatist who used the left to get elected, und das ist alles. Having gotten the votes from the left, he got all he needed from them, and now it's back to the task of serving his corporate masters.
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