First some facts about midterms... Swing voters in the Midterms are older and whiter than the population...
Young voter and Minority voters don't show up historically... Political power is about who shows up ... Who is willing to give until it hurts to give the most... All I have heard for a few months is a PIE fight between those who want more now, this moment upset that their (Name your pet issue has not been moved far enough down field fast enough.)
If that is you problem then fine... What would President McCain and VP Palin have done? Draw down to fifty thousand in Iraq? Doubt it? Leave Afghanistan nope... Attack Iran? A real possibility. Embrace the world or even address the arab world? Are you fucking kidding me. Move for Mideast peace or even push Likud toward engagement? Not a fucking chance. Obama for all his faults, which are many IMHO. Including a lack luster Press office and horrid PR. The whole Democratic party establishment gets a BIg fucking F in dealing with the Information war of politics.
Still our system is designed to be stable not move fast... This is hard for many of us to stomach... Still if you think you are going to move your issues toward the goals you want, without giving more than you are now. I mean your whole fucking life in time and money and heart. All you have if it matters enough? We are fighting against 30 years of conservative control and fifty years of infurstructure that is based on lies or disinformation etc... Fat chance if all you can do is be upset. A vision built on divide and conquer.
I have a landry list of mistakes and half measures on topic after topic but you know what. I would rather have 20 percent of something rather than 100% of what the GOP is selling...
Did Obama Tank the economy? NO the GOP did with there mantra of deregulation with the help of some Democratic party people. They thought the world had changed enough that we could break some walls down in regulation. Did Obama not get Healthcare reform that we wanted because he was told by Senate Dems that if he pushed a public option they would Torpedo the bill period? I don't know but it seems a real possibility. The Joe liebermans and Ben Nelsons of the world and the states with large multi national insurance interests...
Is DADT repeal without support of the Military establishment a good way to have lasting change. I am impatient but the system has to accept the change and it is in the process of doing it on its own time line... A better solution and one that is Generational and the military Knows this moving forward. Obama is not picking fights when the solution is in front of him by the system itself.
DOMA is also generational and was never going to be put to a vote before a midterm. It is also just a matter of time until it too is in the dust bin of history. The stimulus should have been bigger I agree and I imagine the White house if it was not Chicken Shit and would use the fucking bully pulpit and treat the American People like adults would admit it. Kurgmen has laid this out on the sunday shows and in print very well...
We have a structural issue in regards to the economy period... The corporate/moderate wing of the Democratic party could care less if you are angry. If you don't show up they win if they lose the majority they win who are the swing votes in a filibuster? Primary them or replace their power in other places(just a thought but Alaska, Florida even Crist can't be much worse than Nelson let alone we could lose California how is that possible) ...
The leaders of the party may be good managers in congress, but they are not good spokespersons or visionaries. Obama has done worse than George bush in explaining his vision and policies. That is the frustration we all feel... Still taking your ball and going home accomplishes what? Alot of us see Two supremes and a possible third at least keeping the court from being a total loss to wingnut land... Read Tobins the Nine....
Michael Moore and the rest of the pundit class need to focus on the future and not the internal meta of the DNC establishment... You fight those fights in the primaries then you hold you fucking nose and vote and advocate for the policies you want. Give and work for who moves your issues forward even if it is only half assed on some things... Even if it is at a snails pace.... If not you get Bush over Gore and a Five trillion dollar debt with no money to move on the real issues... It cost more lives and resource because you lack the vision to see the conflict in front of us as Intolerance of the future and people not like me as the enemy in every conflict in the world.... That the conflict is between the past and the future.... The established power centers and change... Change is hard, people get scared it is a base instinct... The T party is a reaction to base instincts and without a counter balance in vision and correcting misconceptions by everyone from the president to every one of us. Low information voters will go with what they hear or feel is normal.
A lot of us spend way more time in meta fight and wasting time and being comfortable sitting on our asses... We like to bitch and moan and complain, but many, not all for sure, but many like to feel smarter than others rather than get part of what they say they want....
So If you have no vision or patience or understanding of the possible. Why waste you fucking time bitching... You have every right to be upset... I sure the hell am. I lurk more than post and always have. My UID is low and would be lower but I waited a week to check out the new site... So what, that makes me nothing special... I have seen every Pie fight in two primaries and live through them all.... Armando and Clark... The Dean Campaign .... Etc... Clinton Obama was nothing special in comparison.... Hunter should write a SYFPW Diary related to the midterms....
Lets be honest .... History tells us that the POTUS party historically loses seats... That Minorities and the Young vote at lower levels than in Presidential elections that old white voters dominate.... Our problems are not small and they are structural and long in the making... Generational shifts coming... Entitlements debt along with Government Debt... Read the times article by Orszag today...
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Where are the liberal thinkers books? Where is the progressive solutions? Where is the progressive pundit class? Why are we fighting meta battles over small gains.... How would government work if Obama didn't have a Broken fucking senate with its rules built for a Agrarian society and moves at a fucking snails pace? what if we had people in the jobs they need to be in within four months of any term. It is a tragedy that any administration regardless of party does not have the people in place in the first few months... Why not a rule making conformation automatic if not voted on in a time period?
In the end much more has been done to make things more progressive and bend the ark toward justice than not. Is it perfect? Not at all. Should the president fight a few on principle? I tend to think so.... But if we don't raise the the Liberal / Democratic intensity we are going to live with stupid and no progress for two years and watch the GOP try and take credit for any improvement possible. (Hearing anyone.. you no they will)
We need Twelve years of gains in the Whitehouse and congress to move toward the world we want at that point demographic change will settle many of the issue in our favor... Not even looking at shifting the Courts back to moderation.....
I am calling you all out... The POTUS, The congress, Leadership the pundits class from liberal to moderate... Even the Eisenhower wing of the GOP... What kind of future do you want? The media is worthless and even some of our own are to focused on the meta... (We love you all).... We need to take the long view.... As progressive we need to build organizations and Think Tanks etc... Academia needs to wake up.... Even our Comedians need to focus on remembering where we were in October of 05... After five years of complete GOP rule... When Bush left office he raised the debt five trillion dollars and tanked the economy with losses of 12 trillion dollars in private equity... Besides that for thirty years the Middle class earns less money per capita. The only difference is that goods are cheaper because we buy crap from people making a buck a day....
Globalization maybe a fact moving forward but our government owes us some real standards and we owe the world leadership on those standards....
In order to do that we need to beat the T party wing regardless and start backing even the Blue dogs because when they lose there replacements are much much worse.... Political power is change and goes to those that Show up...... Politics is the art of the possible... The suffrage movement had convinced Wilson they were right... Then they had to make him do it.... The T-Party is an Astro turf campaign (We no it the media knows it but they pretend not to) .... 10/2/10 is when the democratic wing of the democratic party needs to be in washington in mass... We also need to open up the money train.... (Deep pocketed conservatives and Corporate hidden money is in play.) Were are the big Progressive/ liberal money?
We need to fight the disinformation with facts and not let people who are miss informed act like they are correct... We need to Pull our heads out and Cowboy the fuck up and move forward... If you are not at the table you are on the fucking menu..... What issue period is the GOP going to move that you care about?
Event the Front page of our little world that is only a small sample of the party as a whole... Has failed to show leadership etc.... Where are the give until it hurts calls... Where is the unity of purpose.... If progressives want progress, we need to look long term and not assume that things getting worse will do anything other than make it worse..... How much worse a whole do we need... DId you think it was going to be fucking Easy... We just tell the truth and it is still Hell for the GOP. All they have is lies and misinformation that might work in Nov. It might by them a bit of time... It will not help one more person get needs filled or progress any of our causes any faster... In the long run it will not even help them IMHO...
So for the record instead of the normal Meta of support vs being pissed...( We are all a bit pissed even those that don't think tearing down what positives we have is worthwhile) What kind of leadership or agenda do you want moving forward... What issues do you want accomplished? How and what is it going to take to get them done? What are you willing to do for it... What is your plan with the political landscape we have and the leadership we have.... In answering these question be realistic about the possible and the time frame and what it will take... If we are the reality based party we had better start living in that frame of mind....
Thanks to those who read this rant.... Please excuse my poor writing and lack of editing ... I have been up awhile.....