Still so clueless about with whom they grapple. Bleating like a beaten baby seal: ‘Where’s the rational dialogue?’ Beyond pathetic. Claire McCaskill Exhibit no. 1. Pure mewling.
We’re not going to repeat for the 10,239th time what the Movement is up to, etc., Weimar, yada, yada, yada. Go read Digby or Greenwald for the ‘shock.’ We can’t be bothered to write it anymore. If a governing majority is determined to yank defeat from the jaws of recent victory, be our guest.
Still depressing. America’s future still steered by the cynical, self-dealing, manipulative class. Their vessel? Poorly educated, white, easily scared and angered, Baby-Jesus-loving mobs with some racism sprinkled in. The same Plutocrats who prospered under the Warlord floating on a sea of venom, hatred and irrationality making steady progress for the Port of Status Quo.
We’ve spent too many hours with people who helped set up ‘Fox Nation’ and communicate with Ailes, Norquist, Newt et al. Their utter disdain for any moral consequences of their political activity is bottomless: especially when overlooking Right Wing moral hypocrisy. Expediency doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. But they know what all the Democrats (netroots aside) don’t — you only need to pretend to believe in democracy to *gain* power. An energized minority can overawe the sheople. Be the wedge for the Dictatorship Of The Entitled to govern. Nazis. Guns. Lynching. ‘Deal With It!’ as the angry internal Fox memos say.
All these Neo-Upper-West-Siders (in spirit if not fact) Starbuckians now on MSNBC crying foul. They wimper and plead for calm discourse over another frappuccino, preferably in NPR tones. They gasp and careen into run on sentences blurting the discovery that lobbying groups are involved! Yeah, for real. Get out !
Democratic consultants tut tut about how these ‘crazy’ tactics ignore pluralism and politics of the middle. What’s the point of supporting the willfully dim? Recall – it took the greatest economic collapse since the Depression to seal the deal last November even with Katrina, Iraq, etc., etc. We’ll know it’s over when Shrum comes out. His declaration on Gregory that it’s all to the Democrats’ advantage is the final act in the farce.
The very estimable Frank Rich wonders if we’re getting ‘punk’d’. DOH. See the spectral-looking founder of Politico, Jim VanderHei, equivocate, lamenting that all the town hall shouting and violence makes it hard to see definitively how much *might* be coordinated or a real grass roots phenomenon. He’s worse than a battered spouse – he seemingly yearns for the Warlord’s boot of fear and punitive control. Laurence O’Donnell then ponders the percentage of ‘astro turfing’ or ‘a genuine uprising’ (think about the flinch in those words). But then O’Donnell thinks everything is a sham unless it occurs in the Senate Finance Committee. Did you know by any chance he once ran Committee staff?
Well, we did get Obama out 12 days into August. Should we do cartwheels because Obama had one town hall today? With a gun toting wing nut carrying a sign calling for bloodshed in the audience?
__________
Changing gears, isn’t it curious to watch Tweety’s back and forth over HRC? The other day we got a Nutrasweet imitation of admiration. Then today his gloating over her curt response to a misinterpreted question. Given how many times Tweety has gone berserk on air — including with Olbermann — isn’t it beyond (what’s the Catholic word for it?) chutzpah ? Although it does beg the question when the State Department will ever get competent translators. The Kennedy worship services with Tweety, the busted fabricater Barnicle and the plagarist Doris Kearns Goodman are also getting old.
__________
Note to Dems, before you get stomped on (again) like hapless chinchillas, go rent ‘Terminator’:
Kyle Reese: Listen, and understand. That
terminatorRing Wing Movement is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
Tattoo *THAT* on your foreheads you idiots.
DrLeoStrauss says
The latest example of the hapless ‘Left’ [sic]. First, they tell Obama they’re going to vote for him anyway. Second, they donate to him almost $100,000 to get tickets to sing the song below. Third, why, if he doesn’t discover some fundamental principles soon, they won’t promise ‘to try not sing out of key.’
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/157245-obama-interrupted-by-protest-song
Dear Mr. President we honor you today sir
Each of us brought you $5,000
It takes a lot of Benjamins to run a campaign
I paid my dues, where’s our change?
We’ll vote for you in 2012, yes that’s true
Look at the Republicans – what else can we do
Even though we don’t know if we’ll retain our liberties
In what you seem content to call a free society
Yes it’s true that Terry Jones is legally free
To burn a people’s holy book in shameful effigy
But at another location in this country
Alone in a 6×12 cell sits Bradley
23 hours a day is night
The 5th and 8th Amendments say this kind of thing ain’t right
We paid our dues, where’s our change?
One can almost understand Obama’s contempt for his own base, and sadly for the rest of us. Note to ‘Professional Left’ [double sic] — grow a pair. And if you don’t know what they are, shut up and donate that $100,000 to democrats from the democratic wing of the democratic party and associated blogs. They do more pressing Obama’s fecklessness than you do hiring singers or griping to your personal trainer every week.
The miracle isn’t that the Movement came back with a vengeance – we all here predicted that in 2008. It’s that there’s still tattered remnants of a Democratic Party at all. Inertia.
Comment says
That woman in thar Heil hitler clip is all too common around right wingers – Btw, Israel has a great health care system – But you never hear about that? Pretty odd that there seems to be a cover up of sorts with respect to something Israel does very well.
Comment says
Leon – great summa of the birther and deathers
http://globalparadigms.blogspot.com/2009/08/birthers-deathers-and-fear-of-change.html
Anon says
Now they are yelling “Heil Hitler” at Jewish people. Classy!
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/18/hitler-israel/
Of course white supremacists and neo nazis have always been part of the fringe right but now they are getting MSM’ed….
Comment says
re Newtdom and Arianna – Newt showed why he will never be President just this week – His total lack of graciousness and tact – He could have slapped down Palin in a condescending “grown up” way like isakson did re “death panels>”
Had he done that – he would have earned some ‘Seriousness’ creds and scored a notch against a more vulgar demagogue than himself.
But Newt lacked enough class to do that – Rather, we winked along with the death panel biz.
Anon says
Well, I don’t have much experience in McCarthyism on a land without an army and military junta behind it. But I can tell you the view from someone who lived under authoritarian rule, that even with military backing and REAL death panels, things get pretty hard to keep if the government can’t keep most of it’s citizens trust. Most military aren’t willing to shoot half of the population to keep some idiots in power.
GOP lost that trust. They are done IMHO. What the remains of the GOP and the teabaggers will go on doing, plus what the people disillusioned with Obama will resort to is what could be disgraceful. I really fear that Rush, Newt and Palin are creating a new Taliban. What’s the difference between a suicide bomber and a guy who shoots people at a gym and kills himself ? The weapon choice ?
I fear those nuts from the Movement are breeding domestic terrorists. Deliberately ? Irrelevant. Like the mujaheddin, the illusion of control is only that. An illusion.
I do think the excesses of this enraged mob, coupled by the utter failure of Bush will ensure that their ilk is out of power for a long time. But their rage will be still on the news for a long time. Let’s hope a bloodless rage. Not so sure it will be bloodless though.
Sigh
Anon says
Heh, if 8 years of Bush didn’t drive you to drink nothing will!
All kidding aside, this is indeed excruciating to watch. I still think that you can’t get 22% to turn the country the wrong way forever. Particularly immediately after their spectacular failure. I think we might get a 3rd party instead, to rise in this power vacuum.
What this 3rd party will look like is what keeps me awake at night. Things could go either way.
Dr Leo Strauss says
It’s all bemusing. We don’t have a chair at Princeton and a Nobel Prize, nor do we run a chattering Plato’s Retreat like our fellow refugee from Newtdom, Arianna. We don’t have our own cable show or even a national column in a dying but still-salary-paying Newsweek. But to watch them, thought leaders [sic] all, suddenly discover that negotiating with the Movement is futile in August 2009 . . .
The law of the playground is genetic and was not repealed by 2008. A Democratic President and Democratic majority flinching before a tiny enraged minority and bizarrely letting that minority govern by default?
Priceless.
Dr Leo Strauss says
As an aside, we have to shake our heads as the Daily Kos features a conversation on the Nuclear Posture Review. Can you believe it? A SAIC ( a contractor) rep and the national labs are in the process?
Sometimes we wonder why we wake up and type. After all these years. That this alleged defense industry vet stumbles into and discovers a broken process in late 2009 and passes along this secret outrage and concern among the netroots! Call Rachel Maddow.
After the last 8 years and all that’s been said and done, it’s getting enough to drive a person to consume an adult beverage.
Stiftung 3.0 is now getting clear. I think this site may well start selling chinchillas next week. Get ready!
Dr Leo Strauss says
You’re right this is just another chapter for W. Cheney’s been the perfect foil. America’s tawdry fate is that none of this reaches the level of grand historical tragedy (yet – JJA was right the past always telescopes into the future) because of the denatured and shambolic American formlessness. There could never be a ‘true’ Weimar here. That form of decadence requires (i) an acute self-awareness; and (ii) some Culture to invert and subvert. Intent -and consent — are everything in transgressive acts.
How precisely does one make stripmalls with carpet outlets and nail salons aesthetically decadent? We have to settle for the more mundane technical definition as we’ve all talked about. For that, W is indeed the right man at the right time in the right place. His skill at deflecting blame to others takes on a different light. The 500 ballots? Plus those chad things in Florida? Plus Scalia? Plus Mr. Earthtones *plus* Cheney? Then we lose Billie Mays *and* the Sham Wow guy gets arrested.
How can one not see Destiny?
Comment says
It’s really amazing how Bush has played this game his whole life – with different good guys and bad guys (Powell – blameless for Iraq, Cheney did it all) – It’s been his modus for so long, but few libs can see it because they are too dependent on seeing him as a rustic coyboy who can barely read.
Comment says
Leo – looks like some libs are getting suckered by this pseudo-feud that being hyped bet Bush and Cheney – Minor differences are being highlighted – This is all too Bush’s advantage as the libs take to his so-called side as the lesser evil and implicitly excuse his policy – Make him a victim of sorts – Bush used to use Rove as a blame cut out and same with the neocons. More people in the world probably blame Chairman Perle for Iraq than they do Bush – Meanwhile, time heals most wounds – except those who paid the price fighting the wars all these characters cooked up.
DFH Dave says
Re Anon:
The “violence” part was tongue-in-cheek, ya doofus. I’m no peasant spooked by Frankenstein’s monster. On the other hand, an effete reluctance to get our hands/rhetoric sullied with pig shit will get exactly NOTHING accomplished. It’s not no salon-based debating society any more.
Anon says
Ya brilliant, fight ignorance and paranoia with paranoia and violence… Nothing left to lose but the country.
Never wrestle a pig into the mud. The pig enjoys it and is better at it than you.
DFH Dave says
Fuck, damn, shit, people! Pick up the clue phone! There’s only ONE plausible explanation. It’s NOT political ineptitude on Obama’s part. He’s a brilliant man. He’s an on-the-take PALOOKA who’s taking a deliberate dive on behalf of the corporate sociopathic BLOODSUCKERS. What’s up with this “deal” with Big Pharma for a miniscule $80 billion in (falsely) promised savings over 10 years? WHY won’t he call out Senator Grassley on his “death panel” lie? We’ve been HAD. Pitchforks, people, PITCHFORKS!! It’s all we’ve got left.
Anon says
Oh I don’t think Democrats learned much, if anything. What changed is Republicans, and the US population in general. We now can see the hand moving behind the curtain, and the puppet strings. And with all the bad stuff happening I think people are on no mood to have the GOP puppeteers inciting riots. Particularly after they themselves having proved so conclusively that the crowd who has to gain from this is utterly incapable of governing. Glasnost happened for a reason. Authoritarian regimes where disaster relief doesn’t work and the kids of the well-to-do die of melanin poisoning are getting harder and harder to maintain. Is even harder to start one up.
Incidentally, Katrina and the PB&J / tomato / melanin problems happened here too, during Warlord’s reign. Is not hard to see where we were headed. People saw it, they just chose to not do anything about it, so they pretended all was well. “It can’t happen here” can only go so far though. I’m hoping we finally got to the point were it gets impossible to deny “it” can happen and there are some people spending a lot of money and effort to make “it” happen.
Heck, the “liberal David Frum” can see it now! Talk about hard to deny…
Dr Leo Strauss says
Anon, one would hope you’re right. Yet that is exactly how Dukakis and Estrich managed the ’88 campaign. One would think that the Democrats learned something from 1992, rapid response and the war room. Apparently not.
Anon says
So did my grandma, in spite of the death panel and Obamacare killing her :p
Observer says
“I got better.”
Anon says
I do share the exasperation but not the hopelessness here. I think the teabag leaders ramped things up to fast. If there’s anything this august did it was to let the mask fall from the Movement, publicly and undeniably even for the Blue Dogs and their ilk. Sarah Palin was caught lying undeniably, and so have the other Movement fronts. Gone is the “plausible deniability” that has always allowed the most inattentive “independents” to avoid taking a stand.
This will hurt them big time, way more than any words or fact checking the Dems can muster now, befuddled. Knowing the facts was never the problem. Admitting that the evil is real was. Because then you would have to – gasp – act. And now it is out in plain sight. So people will take sides and I doubt they will go with “Obama is killing my grandma and turned me into a newt!” crowd.
Hunter says
@AlanSmithee:
…Says the cynic who, having already decided that there can be no hope of change is even less effective than the nearly useless ‘pwoggies’ he mocks. I enjoy reading whoisIOZ as much as the next misanthrope, and am more than a little sympathetic to many of his main points, but even at this late hour there’s work that can be, and so should be, done. The abyss of solipsism that real cynicism pushes one into is just not helpful. And I’ve never so much as visited dKos, as if it mattered (I’m contrarian like that).
Hunter says
Well, obviously the Dems don’t have competent political leadership. Obama (rightly or wrongly) has decided to hang back and let congress have the first crack at this health care thing. His waiting till (about) now to really get in the public eye is in keeping with his general strategy that has worked time and again in his past. However, behind the scenes someone should have been on top of things, and ensuring that Olbermann OR WHOEVER was out there at least contesting the meme war. That no one was is political malpractice. And dispiriting. “Take a stand. Take the offensive. Control the imagery and the terms of engagement. Rational. Civil. Purposeful application of liberal democratic power.” Even in the face of a complete lack of rational engagement by the adversary, this is a plan I could get behind. Something more than a meme war… is too seductive for words.
sglover says
First: Excellent article!
“How can any reasonably competent political organization be caught so flat footed, so palsic, so ineffectual. Because now, when the Dems finally via KO or MSNBC get the facts out, the essential political imagery — which are the facts, not the real facts — is established.”
I suspect a large part of the explanation is that Dems, much like most Gorbachev-era CPUSSR members, are demoralized — they have no moral center. They really don’t believe in anything beyond gaining and preserving their own position and privilege. The old certainties (from FDR? MLK?) get a nod only in an ironic remark, and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that might spark a new consensus. All the happy horseshit about green economies and hope’n’change is nothing more than marketing. So why **should** they ever have taken a good, hard look at their opposition (as, again, the article does so well), when they were never all that interested in fighting for anything in the first place?
Other folks can date the Dems decadence however they like, but for my money, it became official right after their ’06 Congressional sweep. When that worthless scag Pelosi **unilaterally** declared the CONSTITUTIONAL remedy of impeachment “off the table”, what she was really saying was this: The stars are aligned for an even bigger, better sweep in ’08, and we will let NOTHING get in the way — certainly not your quaint notions of “law” or “accountability” or “justice” or “precedent”. So fuck you. It’s going to be our turn.
I forget exactly where, but Andrew Bacevich (do you guys agree with me that he’s the most lucid and sane foreign policy guy since Kennan?) put it far better than I can:
“Well, I may be a conservative, but I can assure you that, in November of 2006, I voted for every Democrat I could possibly come close to. And I did because the Democratic Party, speaking with one voice, at that time, said that, ‘Elect us. Give us power in the Congress, and we will end the Iraq War.’
And the American people, at that point, adamantly tired of this war, gave power to the Democrats in Congress. And they absolutely, totally, completely failed to follow through on their commitment. Now, there was a lot of posturing. But, really, the record of the Democratic Congress over the past two years has been – one in which, substantively, all they have done is to appropriate the additional money that enables President Bush to continue that war.”
(You guys surely saw it already, but here’s the link: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08152008/transcript1.html)
Dr Leo Strauss says
Excellent point, Hunter. We must avoid mirroring the Movement at all costs because nothing sweetens their victory than that corruption.
However, the Dems *should have known* what was going to happen in August. How could any competent political leadership after this Spring *not* plan for this? Why were the Dems so slow in responding? They should have been prepared with DLA Piper, Armey, ATR, etc. press releases. Prepared with talking points all hammering home the facade. Democrats should have in the can ammo against Bonner Associates. etc. I mean this is High School Student Council Elections 101.
How can any reasonably competent political organization be caught so flat footed, so palsic, so ineffectual. Because now, when the Dems finally via KO or MSNBC get the facts out, the essential political imagery — which are the facts, not the real facts — is established.
Especially so when everyone agreed Obama had to get health care reform or suffer irreparable damage to his Administration. Interesting how the Obama White House itself equivocated all month about how to respond (and can’t get its story straight about its deal with Billy Tauzin).
Dems need their OWN visuals. Positive visuals. They should have planned the visuals and not leave everything up to extemporaneous rational discourse like Obama’s One L classes. Everything the Dems have done this entire month is defensive. Even Obama’s attempt to dismiss Palin’s weird claim was defensive and weak contra Laurence O’Donnell’s fawning.
This is political combat. There will be no bi-partisanship on health care. Understand that. Plan the visuals, the narratives, to get Americans excited and looking forward. The Dems are fighting on the Movement’s home turf: fear, emotional, violence and blatant dishonesty. It’s like Dukakis and Susan Estrich are back and done a collective mind meld to ensure defeat.
To repeat: there will never be rational discussion with the Movement on this. Plan messaging to anticipate and neutralize the Movement’s all too predictable playbook. After the tea bag stunt to be surprised by all this is not quite ‘Bin Laden Determined To Attack In U.S.’ But it is lame.
Dems are too hesitant. Do they want single payer? Do they want negotiated drug prices? Take a stand. Take the offensive. Control the imagery and the terms of engagement. Rational. Civil. Purposeful application of liberal democratic power. The Democrats are the only ones who can’t seem to remember that elections have consequences. Exercise of political power seems to scare them.
The premature flinching? Trust me. Grover and his ilk *THRIVE* on it. In that, Harry Reid et al. are the Movement’s best friends.
AlanSmithee says
Ah, the plaintive cry of the yellow-backed pwoggie bloggie! “Whutarewegonnadoooooo? Whutarewegonnadoooooo?”
Nothing, pwog. That’s what you’re going to do. Abso-tootly-ootly jack/shit. Everyone knows you don’t have the spine to do anything effective. Stick to getting reamed by your DP masters and whining about it on DKos. Remember, Hope for Change! Dumbass.
Hunter says
Then… what? Was Cheney right? Must we “spend some time on the dark side” to save our republic? OK, the pols are useless f’ing idiots who have some real power and can’t seem to use it and so deserve a lot of pain for their failures, but as for everyone else, what else can we do but call for a return to civil discourse? Even if our calls sound a bit plaintive at times, can we as a polity really afford to become our enemies in order to defeat them?