mew wrote: When Obama is deciding how many new troops to send to Afganistan, health insurance reform is being seriously debated for the first time since Medicare, the economy is still wobbly, why is the big headline on the Drudge report OBAMA BOWS TO JAPANESE EMPEROR? And people are actually debating this, as if it was actually important!! What the hell is going on these days?
salp: that’s the last gasp of a people whose ideology has been thoroughly discredited
though the right knows how to stay on talking point they’re completely off the subject
republicans have come to resemble more a mob than a legitimate political party
i don’t mean to cast aspersions on every single republican
but i would urge the more reasonable amongst them
to check the company they keep
i’ve noticed when rational discussion doesn’t elicit the desired effect
rightist politicians & their media allies seek
they resort to a fear mongering and character assassination
of the most sordid & small minded variety
now i’m all for listening to other opinions
but those aren’t opinions
that’s just bad attitude
so i would suggest
we roundly ignore the drudges & fox news haters
until they’re willing to talk in tones other than those of whining toddlers
who haven’t yet discovered to ask for what they want in any kind of way
that would be appropriate in civil society
off hand i can’t name a lot of thoughtful commentators on the right
but someone like David Frum who i hear often on NPR
expresses views very different than my own
but in a way that isn’t gratuitous
& that in some alternate universe
i can imagine myself taking seriously…..
mew wrote: There are some things I just can’t figure out:
Why is it that some people trust corporations more than they trust their own elected officials who at least must pretend to represent their interests?
How could something as critical as health insurance be allowed to be run completely in the private sector, and public alternatives are seen as exotic when exactly the opposite is the case as concerns building highways, running schools, operating utilities? What’s up with that?
salp: Upon listening to an old audio clip of Ronald Regan declaring that if a medicare program is implemented it would mean the end of freedom in American,
i realized such ideologically charged rhetoric has been employed by right wing extremists since day one whenever a progressive politician or movement tries to move this society forward.
Probably the private sector can deliver services more ruthlessly but that’s different than providing services efficiently & democratically.
Obviously the right doesn’t believe in democratic goverment but rather in the dictatorship of the dollar
where the only socio-economic activity allowed is that which maximizes profit. Unrealistic for sure, self negating absolutely.
Compounding our current dilemma is the fact that even if President Obama came up with the fairest, most workable health care plan imaginable the party of NO would still object because their main purpose is not to build a system that works for the American people but to make sure the president fails in whatever efforts he makes in order to satisfy some completely unrealistic ideological imperative.
Your point is well taken about highways, schools etc.
it’s always been the government who has built the infrastructure
which allows the private sector to prosper.
It was the military that came up with the concept for the internet
& though the right wing might forget this
the department of defense is a GOVERNMENT agency
as a matter of fact
i would stop using the term ‘taxes’
and replace it with the phrase ‘users fee’
if an individual or company uses the infrastructure of this nation
that has been built mostly with public dollars
to make a profit
than one must pay a ‘users fee’ for that privilege
it’s the arrogance of the free market fundamentalists
which might ultimately prevent us from building a civil society for the 21st century
therefore we must actively resist those whose idea of organization
is stuck somewhere between the stone age & the wild west
mew writes: How far does Obama have to go before you feel he’s abandoned the goals of those who elected him? For some, it happened even before he was sworn in. For those like me, he’d need to do something so drastic I can’t even think of it. Where do you fall in that continuum?
my take on it is the same as i had during the election campaign
the parameters that the CEO of the american empire aka the president of the united states
has to maneuver in is so limited as to make any ideals a candidate might espouse while running for office irrelevant
as a candidate
president Obama ran as someone who transcended politics
or represented a post-political option
that’s the most stated reason he was preferred over his main democratic challenger
during the primary’s
but SURPRISE
it turns out being president is all about being political
in order to get even the most modest sensible policies implemented
you have to be manipulative
you have to be a horse trader
politics at that level
is simply the art of identifying whats possible
while neutralizing your political adversaries
that’s why progressive people
people with a sense of justice
people who think bombing ancient villages
with 21st century weaponry is unconscionable
people who don’t succumb easily
to cults of personality
should hold the president’s feet to the fire
constructive criticism is good
because in the end
change doesn’t come from the top
but from the grassroots
There’s so much to admire about President Obama’s executive style
substance is another matter
we the people must flesh out his policies for him
right wing obstructionism is so entrenched
& corrosive to any forward movement in this country
that the president seems a bit cowed by it
so it’s up to us to demand the change we were promised
without fear that we’ll be playing into the hands
of the president’s political enemies
let’s learn from the mistakes of Bill Clinton’s presidency
who ran a center-left campaign
& presided over a center-right administration
treating his adversaries much better than his friends
Old and busted
Is the combination of the intelligence-gathering qualities of the modern Internet and the current economic crisis creating the perfect storm that will bring real transparency to the world of finance?
Watching the response to the AIG bonus debacle, I’m wondering. And I’m hoping the president can get in front of this wave pronto.
the obstructionist tendencies & destructive propensities of the reactionary right in the U.S.
is what will ultimately be President Obama’s biggest challenge.
He should be lauded for keeping true to some of the specifics of his campaign platform
for either philosophical or more likely tactical reasons.
But when the boss of the Republican party, Rush Limbaugh, says he would like to see the president fail
(no excuse me) he would like the president’s “liberal policies” to fail
it lays bare the basic truth that the right wing love their own warped, extremist ideology
more than they love their country or the people in it
despite much chest-thumping rhetoric. Continue reading…
