Snuffed Out, Going Nowhere

Read this accurate and bloody sad essay.

H/T BB:

When Pigs Rule | Common Dreams:

"Silence is far too generous a label of contempt to apply to the Democratic Party. We are well past the point of acknowledging their complete complicity in the crime. Hardly anyone noticed in the 1990s, when New Democrats (a euphemism for old Republicans) stopped talking about the plight of the poor, even before Bill Clinton finished the job by killing welfare, reaching into the mouths of America’s impoverished and removing the food that was once there, all for purposes of guaranteeing his second term as president (and, boy wasn’t it worth it, too – look at all he achieved!). If you weren’t alive in the 1960s and 70s, you might never have realized that there was once a party in America that was rather seriously devoted to fighting a war against poverty. By the 1990s the poor became an embarrassment, and among slick New Democrats in Washington only gauche political retreads continued to remind us of their existence and plight, becoming every bit as welcome among the elites as Grandpa’s incessant flatulence at a formal dinner party."

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From the Professor (Nobel Earner)

The Threat Within - NYTimes.com:

"But Barack Obama is now the party’s leader. And let’s be frank: Obama still, after all that has happened, seems devoted to the dream of transcending partisanship, a dream he tries to serve by being nice to Republican ideas no matter how terrible those ideas are. (I did warn about this during the primaries — just saying.)

The great danger now is that Obama — with the help of a fair number of Senate Democrats — will kill Medicare in the name of civility and outreach.

This doesn’t have to happen. Republicans have, in fact, offered Democrats a huge political opportunity — much as Bush did in 2005. But I’m sorry, I have no confidence in the current leadership’s willingness to do the right thing, even when it’s also politically smart."

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Obama is doing exactly what he wants done. These aren't failures. He is acting with purpose. He represents his corporate lords.

He's fighting. Just not for me or you.

AMERICAblog News: Are you feeling fired up?:

"And now? This time, I find myself having to make intellectual contortions to make the case. I think: What could the slogan be this time?

'Change you can believe in: As long as you don't expect ME to get out front and make a forceful argument for it.'

'Change you can believe in: As long as the GOP and the Chamber of Commerce approve.'

'Change you can believe in: As long as it doesn't really challenge the power of Wall Street or inconvenience the wealthy.'

Yeah, I know just writing this is going to earn me the flames of all you Democratic pragmatists out there. You'll argue that Mr. Obama did what he could given the difficult circumstances. Silly me for thinking there is real value and power in idealism, or that failing to consistently and forcefully challenge the ideological framing set by one's opponents is what making real change requires."

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In a fantasy world...

Daily Kos: The Answer to Rachel Maddow's Question

You may label us any way you like, but we will fight for Social Security, we will defend Medicare and Medicaid, and we will not cease until the middle classes have jobs, people are safe in their homes, and our schools are educating our children.

We will not stop until the hungry are fed, and the sick are healed. We will defend the nurses, the teachers, law enforcement and fire-fighters and we will do it because we believe that THEY are the real Americans.

Call us Socialists, call us whatever you want, because we are calling Americans and we are telling them not what they can do for their country, they already know that. We are telling them what their country is doing for them, and we are telling them that you, the Republicans, are calling that Socialism and trying to take it away from you.

Get yourselves a philosophy, a big idea, a New Deal for America, if you wish, but make it something you believe in, something America believes in ... Then fight for it.

If you continue to be invertebrates, and simply try to be better Republicans than the GOP, and continue to follow the agenda, instead of setting it, then you will lose.

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