Political humor often tells troublesome truths. A reason the old Soviet Union had so many jokes. We can’t recall if we’ve shared one of our favorites before. It sums up our current exasperation with Democrats as well. Such weak reeds.
[SCENE] A Politburo Meeting Late 1970s
[AROUND TABLE] Brezhnev, Chernenko, Suslov, Gromyko et al.
The Politburo hears a classified report from an R&D center that Soviet science can now resurrect the passed. After excited discussion, a unanimous decision is reached. They must first resurrect the Great Ilyich (Vlad). And so they do.
Soon thereafter, chest heavy with medals, Brezhnev welcomes a slightly startled Lenin to the 1970s. The Politburo escort Vlad into a Zil limousine and first show him the nomenklatura apartments staggered along Kutovsky Prospket in Moscow. Then, Vlad and entourage are hustled aboard a Tupolev and flown to see the sprawling military industrial complexes in Chelyabinsk. Wearing his trademark beret, Lenin smiles, says little and scribbles furiously in his notebook. He is shown Leningrad and given a special tour of the off limits foreign currency beriozka stores reserved for elites with normally illegal foreign currency. A token for the burdens leading the dictatorship of proletariat. Lenin notes his face everywhere.
Back in Moscow, the Politburo lavishes a dinner. Much toasting and praise. The Father of All Peoples. Leader of Bountiful Wheat Harvests. Founder of Socialist Hairclub For Men. Brezhnev falls asleep, drooling. Vlad finally asks leave to visit his old Kremlin apartments and haunts.
Days pass. No one sees him. Who’s gonna disturb the Great Man? After a whole week, nervously, the ‘team of rivals’ mumble to each other, ‘I thought you were watching him’. Finally, they crack open the doors, peer in. No Vlad. Gone.
Panic. What to do? Someone blurts out, bring back Felix. If anyone can find the Great Ilyich, it’ll be Felix. The next day the taciturn Polish Chekist stands before the grey men. He asks short, specific questions about what they saw, where they went. He declares he will find Lenin. But must be undisturbed.
Felix briskly heads to Vlad’s library. He locks the door behind him. He strides directly to a bookshelf and plucks open one of Lenin’s favorite books.
As expected inside is a note: “Felix. Meet me in Vienna. We have to start over.”
———–
Starting over is a tempting notion now, too. We have a two-fold problem with Brand Obama and his Democratic coterie – made more difficult by the fact Obama is not on the ticket, except he is. First, the Brand is seemingly uninterested in wielding political power for *tangible* result. 18 months make that ‘clear’ (in his parlance). Second, the Administration is increasingly perceived as incompetent by previously pro-Obama independents – and it’s not just oil-spill coincidence.
Sure the jobless rate is JP-5 fuel for the disorganized opposition and independents. Same with BP. But they’re an accelerant, not the fire itself.
For the disoriented Movement, the fire is refusal – by a significant segment of the American population – to be part of the liberal democratic social compact. Micro dramas within the Movement/Tea Party about kicking someone out or in are a distraction. All remain furiously united in one thing: they collectively perceive themselves as the only *legitimate* political actors. True whether the jobless rate was Obama’s promised 8%, 6%, etc.
Brand Obama doesn’t understand the Movement’s role over the Republican Party. Most Democrats never will. No accommodation is possible with a Manichean Weltanschauung. Seeking ‘bi-partisanship’ when one side defiantly remains outside liberal democratic politics is lunacy. We dislike hearing ‘We told you so.’ And so apologize. But we did. In 2007 and throughout 2008. Take that Katrina and les autres at ‘The Nation’.
August-November is also too short a season to show now tangible competence. Even if they knew how. This cycle will play out with the cards in already in the shoe.
We all know Obama’s not on the ticket. Losing a chamber isn’t shocking like it was in 1994 after 40 years. It’s just one cycle. Washington always is a shirts and skins game. Two teams only. Politics remains the art of the possible. We can only look at the netroots with renewed urgency to help organize and field hardened candidates as a future real alternative. How many cycles will it take? Four? Five? If a double dip is avoided, perhaps less. That’s still a lot of coercion by this menagerie — ‘Yeah we suck, but marginally less.’
One incident speaks volumes. When Brand Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Kagan, was asked in testimony to critique any Supreme Court decision she ducked the question entirely. Then ran back to her office, flipped through a used copy of Gilberts, pre-highlighted. Only finally to proffer a third-tier law school’s One L’s (D+ obvious) written reply she’s not down with Korematsu?
My God. Exactly how much crap do they expect us to take?
—–
CODA: And re the joke, where exactly would Brand Obama agree to meet and start over? Probably Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington.
Comment says
Tweety being schmaltzy as he waxes nostalgic with highly selected history of supposed good ‘ol days of bliss with Tip and Ronnie and JFK for good measure.
Comment says
The conflicts involving Warren and her opponents in the Admin and Senate are never really explained clearly in the media — It’s portrayed mostly symbolically.
Dr Leo Strauss says
We started and deleted several blog posts about Liz Warren and her current role as symbolic political prop. We’ve always had great dealings with her and like Bruce as well. It’s amazing to see the energy, rigor and vitality that positively radiate from both her body and mind are if anything brighter today than when we first met (shall we say it?) a long time ago.
It’s true the idea for the consumer agency is hers. It’s true that she consistently shows a staggering commitment to these issues that her prodigious and spectacular work output only hints at. She is one of those fabled true ‘change agents.’
Sure, some guy on Young Turks video blogging might demand she get the post. He and others ‘discovered’ Warren 2 years ago – literally the Triassic Period. And Arianna always knows how to feed chum out to roil page views. (Liz Warren news next to click trapping photoslide show of the 10 best Kardashian bikini shots evah!)
But that is about using someone as a prop, a stand in, an instrument. Liz Warren has more than earned to be respected and thanked for her professional precision, incisive leadership and unfaltering commitment to help the most vulnerable. She understandably would want to to give the agency at least a chance to start off well and help people.
For her as a person, for the family, we wonder if she wouldn’t be better off taking stock and consider other opportunities to contribute. Her impact will pack wallop and reverberate from wherever she elects to focus.
This chalice we fear is already poisoned, even were she to ‘win it’. Maybe true friends cut through transmogrification into an AgitProp symbol and ask in private the hard question — if she doesn’t deserve better. Professionally, of course. And personally, without question.
Whatever choice she makes, we are 100% in support.
Comment says
Do you think Dodd is starting to get really worried about his post Senate Wall St. pay package?
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/109539-dodd-doubts-warrens-confirmability-for-new-consumer-protection-post
Comment says
http://money.canoe.ca/money/business/canada/archives/2010/07/20100716-121332.html
The Feds are prob regretting that they dropped that Yahoo stock manipulation angle.
Comment says
Big day for Conrad:
http://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/18944451234
anxiousmodernman says
CNBC’s Larry Kudlow on C-SPAN this morning claiming that investors are “going Galt” with a capital strike. Corporations sitting on big cash but are so afraid of being nationalized that they can’t invest.
The solution is to not let Bush II’s tax cuts expire, naturally.
PS: I’m lucky to live in a better job market, but we all know it’s causes. Me I’m waiting to see how the rules play out before I think about jumping in (and I’ll need some grad school first). These are going to be an interesting couple of years.
anxiousmodernman says
Hey, I didn’t get any phone calls from Politico.
Did anybody east of the river get phone calls from Politico?
Dr Leo Strauss says
Who knew an entire capital city could be a beriozka store?
From: Mike Allen
Date: July 19, 2010 7:05:19 AM EDT
. . .
THE BIG IDEA — D.C. vs. THE REAL WORLD — “Reality gap: U.S. struggles, D.C. booms,” by Jim VandeHei and Zachary Abrahamson: “[T]imes are booming for Washington’s governing class. The massive expansion of government under President Obama has basically guaranteed a robust job market for policy professionals, regulators and contractors for years to come. The housing market … is easily outpacing the markets in most of the country. And there are few signs of economic distress in hotels, restaurants or stores in the D.C. metro area. As a result, there is a yawning gap between the American people and D.C.’s powerful when it comes to their economic reality – and their economic perceptions. A new POLITICO poll, conducted by market research and consulting firm Penn Schoen Berland, underscores the big divide: Roughly 45 percent of ‘Washington elites’ said the country and the economy are headed in the right direction, while roughly 25 percent of the general population said they felt that way. The online poll, the first in a six-month Power and the People series, surveyed 1,011 people nationally to compare their views with the views of 227 people who live in the D.C. metro area …
“The sample of Washington elites was aware of its propitious situation: Seventy-four percent of those surveyed said the economic downturn has hurt them less than most Americans. As Democrats were celebrating passage of the financial regulatory bill, … Wisconsin was among many states reporting new signs of economic distress. The state lost jobs in June in both the private sector (for the third time in the past four months) and government (despite the stimulus plan). Washington has been largely shielded from the economic downturn, even in 2009, when most states and cities were hit the hardest. … Many New York firms have opened new offices and created new jobs in D.C. to deal with the growing web of regulations. Northrop Grumman – one of many contractors profiting from government growth – is moving its operations from Southern California to Northern Virginia. … Even media companies, which have been hammered by the economy and bad industry-wide trends, are hiring in town. Competition among Bloomberg, POLITICO and other outlets has resulted in bidding wars for reporters with sophisticated understanding of government policy. And more money is on the way, in the form of well-paid agency jobs associated with reforms of the nation’s health insurance sector and financial markets: Both bills call for substantial new federal oversight by agencies such as the Health and Human Services Department and the Internal Revenue Service.”
Article http://bit.ly/cWLMyG Results page http://politi.co/aT1TA7
anxiousmodernman says
The missing piece of the joke is this: Who would the Dems ressurect?
RedPhillip says
A very funny Brezhnev-era joke. I’m sure Vladimir would have included instructions to Felix to at least bring Yakov Sverdlov with him to Vienna, and then make plans to recover Leon from Mexico. (That would be a reunion I’d love to witness!)
The near-mindless denial on the part of the Obama grouping concerning the political import of the Movement seems of a piece with their fundamental lack of any politics of their own — beyond the tribal, factional fight over who controls the levers of power and the spoils that derive therefrom. What is paraded as policy is mostly marketing. For many years the posturing of the Democrats and Republicans have reminded me of nothing so much as the Uruguayan Partido Colorado and Partido Blanco that dominated their politics through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, i.e., two factions of what was essentially one party for all the (often violent) team flag-waving.