Three recent diaries by prominent bloggers serve to highlight how profoundly Obama and his administration fail to understand their problems with their own base. First, Melissa McEwan explains the principle of being principled. Second, Greg Sargent provides a scorecard to help Obama & Co tell apart the different players. And third, Jane Hamsher explains how Obama's struggling in a newly democratized mediaverse that empowers citizens vs. government in powerful new ways.
1. When I wrote passionate criticisms of a Republican administration and Republican Congressional majority who failed to champion LGBTQI equality, assailed women's bodily autonomy, treated Roe as a suggestion, refused to disclose lobbyist visits to the White House, invoked the separation of powers to protect themselves, called for spending freezes on social programs, legitimized rightwing extremists, advocated for offshore drilling, pushed HSAs, escalated a war, thumbed their nose at due process, engaged in black ops, treated scientists with contempt, expanded the executive's extrajudicial powers, demeaned liberal activists, and invoked state's-secrets privilege for bullshit reasons, I was a principled progressive.
2. When I write passionate criticisms of a Democratic administration and Democratic Congressional majority who fail to champion LGBTQI equality, assail women's bodily autonomy, treat Roe as a suggestion, refuse to disclose lobbyist visits to the White House, invoke the separation of powers to protect themselves, call for spending freezes on social programs, legitimize rightwing extremists, advocate for offshore drilling, push HSAs, escalate a war, thumb their nose at due process, engage in black ops, treat scientists with contempt, expand the executive's extrajudicial powers, demean liberal activists, and invoke state's-secrets privilege for bullshit reasons, I am a stupid ingrate who doesn't understand how politics works.
She is simply pointing out worm's-eye-view of the obvious consequences for a would-be "pragmatist" President who foolishly runs as a once-in-a-lifetime transformative idealist and then is "Shocked! Shocked!" that anyone actually believed him then.
This is further compounded by the fact that the would-be "pragmatist" President who foolishly ran as a once-in-a-lifetime idealist and is now "Shocked! Shocked!" that tens of millions no longer actually believe him anymore.
Roadmaps For The Souless
But that's only one aspect of Obama's problem. Greg Sargent provides an overview, and perhaps what's most telling is mere fact that he actually has to spell out to Obama that you can't tell the players without a program:
It's interesting that we are seeing the usual excuse-making for how and why the health care battle went the way it did. Bloggers are calling for civility after having displayed nothing but outright hostility to their readers, calling for cooperation after having browbeaten even the most stalwart progressives into towing the Democrat Party line (I say 'Democrat' instead of 'Democratic' because there is no longer anything even remotely democratic about the Democrat Party). Now the denials that what passes for the left blogosphere has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Demcorats, Inc. are pouring forth.
And I notice that you still succumb to your baser urges to denigrate anyone who does not tow the Democrat party line. Your condescending dismissals of criticism only illustrate just how much you prove daily that what Talk Left and others have written is absolutely true.
I do not write this out of anger, but out of the genuine desire to get you to really look in the mirror and evaluate your methods. The passage of a Republican health insurance bill, written by insurance company executives, by a Democrat-controlled Congress and pushed relentlessly by a Democrat president with the enthusiastic and often hostile-to-progressives support of people like you who had voices in promoting legislation that most others don't, can be called nothing else but a total failure for both the American left and the American people who must now suffer its consequences.
You could have used what influence you wielded within blogger-activist circles to promote single-payer for example, but chose to start with the compromise and then proceed to accept less and less as Congress gutted the weak public option you supported for no other reason than you didn't feel like pushing for something that would have worked. You are not alone in having done this, so don't take this as criticism focused solely on you. Kos, MoveOn, Act Now, Act Blue, and other blogger-activists all share the blame for this failure.
I find it disingenuous to suggest that it was Obama, and not blogger-activists who decided they were more comfortable with the institutionalization of the status quo and partisan sniping at progressives, who somehow changed the tone. This attempt to foist blame upon Obama implies that you and others had no power to shape the tone of discussion, a ludicrous notion given the fact that you all own or moderate your blogs. There was never a point where Bowers, Kos, Hamsher, Move On, Act Blue, Act Now, and others needed to resort to name-calling, bullying, threats, and condescension in promoting what pretty much everyone saw as not a progressive but a Democrat Party agenda. What has your behavior gotten you all but the continuation of the status quo and further frustration for progressives? Nothing.
With all due respect, I think you and the other self-appointed leaders of what passes for the American left need to grow up a little and take stock of what your ultimate purpose is within what passes for the left blogosphere. Are you Democrat partisans, or are you progressives? There is a difference, and I think you know it. You do not strike me as being dumb. I think you must realize that you cannot be both, not with things standing as they are. There is no room in the Democrat Party for democratic principles or for progressives. Your insistence on eliminating the filibuster, another Republican position you only too happily adopted for the sake of political convenience, is but one example.
Perhaps if you were all honest about your motives, more people would know better where you stand. The consequence of this is that you might lose support, but the people you have all alienated with your actions left you behind long ago. We are now beginning to organize around ourselves, to find new ways of acting on behalf of the common interest. You may still find a place in the new organizing strategies, but I think you need to be aware that you frittered away all credibility and all right to hold leadership positions within the progressive activist community. We watched as you all sold yourselves to the powerful, to one extent or another, and we no longer require your services as leaders.
True leaders listen to what their "followers" have to say, and they take the concerns expressed into consideration. I realize you will look upon what I have written as insulting, challenging, whatever negative connotation you wish to ascribe to it. I call it tough love, because that's what is behind this open letter. I am asking that instead of reacting with the usual hostility to even the most polite criticism, you take a step back and listen. If everyone is telling you the same things, it might be time for you to consider that you are the one with the problem, and that it is not everyone else who is at fault for not caving in.
I saw this excellent entry over at Docudharma and just HAD to share. Specifically, I want to hightlight a couple of paragraphs, because they relate very much to how the left has been thoroughly brainwashed by the right into adopting a permanently defensive, always-ask-for-crumbs mindset.
If you can change the way people THINK about an issue you can...and Rove did...change the way people talk about it and act on it. And it worked.
...
Somewhere in the back of our mind a nagging little voice cries out to us..."What will the Republicans think."
"How will the Republicans react?"
And the meaning of that voice is...."How can we PRE-compromise to the Republicans?"
In the Dem politicians mind, that translates into mental, almost unthought about, nearly unconscious phrases like... We have to GIVE THIS to the Republicans or they will be mad."
In bloggers minds that translates into mental, almost unthought about, nearly unconscious phrases like.... "We can't have Single Payer or a strong Public Option."
"We can't call for an end in Afghanistan."
"We have to compromise on Coal."
"We have to use the (demonizing) phrase illegal alien."
And of course the worst one, the grand daddy of them all, used by both the Polilticians and the Bloggers.....
"We don't have the votes."
When Mr. Bowers urges people here to throw everything we have into pushing a "public option" that really won't do the job of reforming health care and certainly won't lead to anything like single-payer, or when Mr. Rosenberg harps on the evils of the sellout Democratic Party yet always steps up to beat down any notion of actually leaving the Republican-wannabes to their political party of choice, what are they doing if not writing from the very frame of mind right-wingers want them to?
It's worth pondering. Anyway, read the full entry. It's quite eye-opening, for those willing to have their eyes opened.
Al Kamen of the Washington Post becomes the latest reporter to be used by people in the 'intelligence community', reporting falsely about torture supporter and Obama advisor John Brennan who withdrew his name from consideration for a high level intelligence appointment, citing criticisms from bloggers as the rationale.
Meanwhile, the incoming administration is still looking hard for someone to be CIA director. Everyone's apparent first choice, John Brennan, a former deputy director, ran into a firestorm of Internet criticism when word circulated of his near-pending nomination. Liberal bloggers argued that Brennan had tolerated aggressive interrogation techniques or even torture while at the agency. Brennan withdrew.
"No one went to bat for him," a source said. Insiders call this the first example of a "blogocide."
The episode bothered a lot of Brennan fans in the Obama operation, where he still heads the CIA transition team. "If we're afraid of bloggers," one transition observer quipped, "how can we take on al-Qaeda?" Various names have popped up since for the job, including Washington lawyer and former agency general counsel Jeff Smith.
Malaysia's leading political blog was being blocked yesterday in
what was seen as a crackdown on internet websites credited with
contributing to government losses in this year's general election. The
move came as former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was being sworn
in as the new opposition leader following a by-election victory this
week that returned him to parliament for the first time in a decade...The
Malaysia Today website was blocked by state-owned Telekom Malaysia, the
country's leading internet service provider, on the orders of the
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, which said comments
posted on it were "insensitive, bordering on incitement".
(This is pretty funny actually. - promoted by tremayne)
That's right. Yesterday at a debate between Rep. Virgil Goode of Virgina's 5th district and his Democratic challenger Tom Perriello Goode said this
"And they want me out of Congress, the liberal Democrats want me out. And they want me out because I'm a conservative voice, if we can silence that person that's exactly what we want, we want more mushers up here in Congress that won't speak out and stand out. They want a Obamajority in this country, Tom is on the Obamajority list for the US House of Representatives, they want to get him in there because they know he is going to be voting with them. They want to control the White House, 60 votes in the US Senate and a strong majority in the US House of Representatives."
Goode is famous for using bogeymen to scare people, he attacked Rep. Keith Ellison for being a Muslim and repeated tall tales about China that even Dick Cheney said where false.
Now he's found a new bogeymen. He's attacking the Obamajority, an ActBlue page started by a 14 year old blogger--me.
Exxon drags its feet for nearly two decades after helping inflict one of history's most devastating oil spills ever, and the Supreme Corp--ahem, I mean Court-- renders a 5-3 decision slashing punitive damages down to a paltry few days' profits. Meanwhile, Congress' capitulation/"compromise" on FISA will essentially roll back all the hard work of folks like Senators Feingold and Dodd to protect Americans' Constitutional rights.
These are two of the most egregious of a recent influx of events that signal a quiet chipping away at the American public's safety, economic security, and legal rights. It's being done through destruction or manipulation of the rule of law, and it's what Stephanie Mencimer, in her book Blocking the Courthouse Door, called "E Pluribus Screw 'Em."
In the interest of gaining some perspective, follow me below the fold where I will pose questions and try not to rant, in hopes of facilitating some conversation about how these events are related and what progressives can do, besides lament, about it all.
I always thought that the goal of the blogosphere was to raise the political dialog in our nation. To fill in the gaps where the mainstream media has failed. And, in general, we've done a pretty good job. We helped lead the charge and made the War the issue in 2006. We stood behind Chris Dodd and his fight against retroactive immunity.
But on one level, we have failed. When checking the blogs versus the mainstream media coverage of the Democratic Primaries, I honestly can't tell the difference.
Utah media entrepreneur and popular progressive blogger JM Bell has turned to Utah bloggers to draw more attention and support for short-handed Utah Marines in their Toys for Tots program this holiday season.
The Marines have taken ownership of Toys for Tots for 60 years nationally, and 30 years in Utah. Each year the Marine Corps, local media, business, and many volunteers work together on this program. From grocery stores to radio stations, many help to create excitement and offer locations for donation drops, but traditionally the bulk of the work collecting and distributing for the program has fallen on the Marine Corps.
And as Bell has written, local media has not given credit where credit is due. [...]
Today is International Blogger Day For Burma, organized by a worldwide coalition of bloggers, there is more information here.
This past Monday, I launched the Burma NewsLadder and I greatly appreciate everyone who has visited, signed up and posted links on the site. However, of all the links posted, some hopeful, many tragic, here's the one that absolutely chaps my ass.
Chevron, an American company, owns the pipeline that was built by slave labor that provides the Burmese junta with their cash.
The situation in Burma is tragic and the result of decades of horrific military rule that has reduced one of the most beautiful places on earth to a tragic ruin where monks in robes flee from soldiers with Chinese-made automatic weapons.
One of the tragedies of the situation is despite the efforts of groups who have been trying to expose the situation on the ground in Burma. Groups like WITNESS and US Campaign For Burma have been fighting against the apathy that is our current corporate media culture.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to John Good as the official campaign blogger for the Barry Welsh For Congress campaign. John is best known for his work at his own blog, Left In Aboite, as well as at Fort Wayne Left and Blue Indiana. John has agreed to join the campaign as lead blogger and blog team coordinator, or "coach" as we are calling him.
John is a great fit for our team ideologically and is a fantastic writer whose style is both thought provoking and entertaining to read. He lives with his family in the Ft. Wayne suburb of Aboite where he operates a small business logistics operation. He has worked on several Democratic campaigns as a volunteer and recently worked on the Tom Hayhurst for Congress campaign, so he does bring Congressional campaign experience to the table as well.
I look forward to his postings which will appear on our main blog at http://blog.barrywelsh.org, but he will also be posting to other group blogs such as Blue Indiana, DailyKos, MyDD, Open Left and Booman Tribune regularly as well. Be sure to check out his first post on the official campaign blog, and please take time to leave a comment to welcome John to the Barry Welsh For Congress campaign!
Join us for another edition of Meet the Bloggers as we discuss the 2008 Presidential candidates, their views on the war and other current topics. I'll be interviewing Robert Rouse, an antiwar activist member of Camp Casey and blogger from Left of Centrist about the war policies of the various Democratic and Republican candidates for President. We'll also be joined by Melissa Ryan of the Connecticut Local Politics and MyDD blogs as well as David "thereisnospoon" from Political Nexus.
We'll also have the 50 State Blog Roundup segment, anchored by Texas Kaos blogger Boadicea. Sponsored by Blue Indiana and Texas Kaos, the 50 State Blog Roundup is a podcast version of the news shared from the members of the 50 State Blog Project every week on participating blogs.
Despite the enviable combination of financial resources, strategic thinking, the capacity to mobilize its members and accountable leadership; UHW believes it has a lot learn from the "netroots" community.
After the repeated attacks on bloggers that we've seen on FoxNews shown to us on BraveNewFilms and what they've spent the week leading up to YearlyKos talking about on O'Reily (which I've been subject to by some nutbar who changes the station at my gym).
I've also been watching something else going on all week. Something very contradictory the "Liberal Bloggers" and "Liberal Media" accusations that Bill and his buddies at Fox seem to throw around so freely.
STATE BLOGS
