If you didn't see the blowup last night where Colorado is the Shiznit pulled a GBCW, you missed a fairly good example of what's wrong with DailyKos, the Democratic party and the progressive movement in general. Now, I never saw the diary that ignited this shitstorm and I'm more of a lurker here than anything else, but I think I can shed some light on why everyone is so unhappy.
More beyond the fold.
Let's start with an ugly truth. Obama should never have won the presidency. I know there are a lot of people that want to buy into the hype about change and the complete rehabilitation of Washington politics, but that's really nothing more than the pro-forma noise of a campaign. It doesn't really mean anything. Now, you'd be right to wonder why that kind of empty bloviating belongs in a campaign and that woould make a lovely discussion for another day, but not making those statements is the political equivalent of saying you like to sodomize puppies.
How then did Obama achieve a miracle? He didn't and its time to stop pretending that he did. McCain lost. The accumulated stink of everything the Bush administration did wrong - and there was a metric fuckton of it - finally permeated down to the average guy. Republican policy for about the last decade has been to find a way to lock in 51% of the population, even if it means butthumping the other 49%. McCain did all the things Rove had taught him, but the numbers just weren't there and he started flailing. I knew he was done the moment he suspended his campaign here in Michigan.
Now, as much as we'd like to have a warm-fuzzy kumbayah moment over the golden boy triumphing over evil, we have to remember that we didn't send Obama to Washington with a mandate. It was more of a vote of No Confidence in the previous administration.
We didn't exactly give him the tools for an overhaul, either. Lieberman, Pelosi, Reed, Baucus... the fuckwit parade stretches to the horizon. Not only is our bicameral system designed to dilute, even neuter, change, but the people who should be hitting the Big Red Button lack the courage to stand for anything. I once saw my father so angry that he yanked the engine block out of an Omni with his bare hands and threw it on the workbench. No one got hurt, but I sure never messed with him after that. Can you honestly imagine Reed doing anything like that to shake up the Senate? No, of course you can't.
So we have a President who was elected for the wrong reason and a congress that needs refresher courses in civics and basic negotiation, what else could be FUBAR? Well, that would be us. Progressivism is all about having a dream, but damned if more than three of us could share a dream. Pro-choice, marriage equality, government transparency, getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq, closing Guantanamo, energy independence, reforming the insurance industry, green technology, job creation, bank reform, nature conservancy... I think you get the point. We're all pulling in different directions and Lord fucking help us if our pet project isn't at the front of the line to be solved yesterday.
That's why I completely understand Colorado's frustration. You have this retarded tug-of-war over a bunch of hot air as everybody spins their wheels waiting for the next election (man, you can tell I'm angry when I don't bother to unsnarl that sentence). Frustrated that your agenda isn't receiving enough fellatio? Lob a "Bush's third term" grenade into the conversation. Real helpful, that. Upset that someone disagrees with you or dares to counsel patience? Never you fret, there's a "smaller tent" faction wiling to nourish your inner purity troll. We surely can't be bothered to have an adult discussion about when half a loaf might be better than none.
So goodbye Colorado, may you find some peace. For my part, I have a mountain of donated toys to inspect and clean this afternoon.
I responded as follows to a comment below and am repeating it here. I won't apologize for the diary (nor will I change it), but I will concede that it was considerably more ranty and vulgar than my regular fare. For that I will apologize.
Sorry, as I mentioned in the original post, I had an afternoon's worth of work getting toys ready for a local Christmas event. I didn't "abandon the diary" as someone suggested earlier.
I thought I'd answer yours because you sound like you're the farthest from understanding what I was trying to say. To be specific, I think that Obama's a great president and that he's easily the most qualified person to hold the office since Ford, for whom I have a special place in my heart for being a fellow UofM grad and Eagle Scout. I also think he's legitimately the president (which I didn't believe of Bush) and an actual American, to boot, though I have to admit that citizenship hasn't been something I regularly consider in a candidate.
My contention is that we shouldn't be pretending that his win was a triumph of liberalism and the herald of sweeping reform. I know a lot of Republicans who couldn't bring themselves to vote for McCain mostly because of his ties to the Bush administration. Those people didn't vote for Democrats downticket and barring one of the genuine failures getting the nod in 2012 they're not likely to repeat. Maybe my experience is way off the mean, but I doubt it.
I feel the truth is that we had an energized Democratic base and won a fair number of independents not because Obama ran such an amazing campaign, but because BushCo piloted the plane straight into the side of the mountain. We shouldn't be going into 2010 and 2012 thinking otherwise.
However, when you look around here (and some other places also), you see a fair number of people ready to pick up the pitchforks because they're not seeing the fruit of this imaginary mandate. Maybe a better way to put it is that we elected him to generically "get the job done," then promptly set about picking apart his priorities, tempo and actual mechanics of affecting actual change.
On the flip side, saints forfend you should actually defend the man, especially around here. It's just not worth the trouble despite the fact that I believe he'll eventually join the ranks of those we consider "great" presidents. A couple of people of people have chided me for commenting on a diary I didn't read and I accept that criticism, but I'm pretty sure the stench of it was not unlike the odor that has permeated this site for the past few months (basically since congress went on summer vacation). If I wanted to be forced to pick sides I'd try to suppress my gag reflex and head on over to RedState or LGF, maybe the NRO. Then again, that's more pain than I can inflict upon myself.
As far as the HR's go? Whatever. I've been to the internet and it doesn't scare me.