There is another diary here complaining about how Biden told liberal critics to stop whining. The diarist then trots out examples of all the reasons why libs have every right to complain.
For months, I have been on here calling for a progressive movement -- rather than just a disparate bunch of thoughts and arguments put out by fist-shaking people who prefer their own ideological purity over progress. Some agree, but some come back with "no, no...I'm not gonna vote. I've been betrayed.''
I have found that people don't respond to reason, logic, electoral math, anything. They just sit, grinding their teeth, saying "no no no." (Before you guys come in with the requisite "Oh, you're making me want to vote even less, you're being divisive -- I've tried everything else. I know you won't change. Now it's anger. And you won't change no matter what, so your 'stop being mean' arguments are also irrelevant.)
But today, having read the argument against the "stop whining" statement, I now understand why this is happening: This critic either assert false facts or (as I have written before) want to live in a fantasy-land of no political realities. AND it gets on the rec list. Life is bad.
(this will end with my typical call for a movement, and use this as an explanation why. So it is not just a rant.)
Let's take the points of this diarist one at a time:
Obama has:
1. Escalated foreign wars
US combat operations in Iraq have ended. That war is, for all intents and purposes, over.
Afghan war -- we are right on schedule for the final withdrawal in August, 2011. Now, the diarist may believe that a withdrawal simply involves dropping all weapons and leaving. It does not -- at times, in order to protect the troops and the citizenry during the strategic repositioning required for a withdrawl, there is a requirement for a short-term escalation. This is not an American thing -- the Soviets did exactly the same thing when they withdrew from Afghanistan. The decision to withdraw occurred at a (secret) Politburo meeting on November 13, 1986. The defense minister declared the war lost. They put in place their exit strategy. *There was a buildup., which was part of the exit strategy." (Again, for purposes of hobbling the mujahideen's ability to attack a retreating force.)The withdrawal began in January 1989 -- more than two years later.
You ignore Iraq, and want Obama to handle the Afghan withdrawal in a reckless --and unprecedented -- manner. The fact that he is succeeding in the withdrawal plans is meaningless -- you want it all, now. The fact that this approach is designed to protect troops and citizenry during the withdrawal process -- meaningles.
One war over, the other on track to end at the time promised following. Assessment: You're whining.
2. Cut Social Security.
This is a load of garbage. There are two chairs of the deficit commission, one Republican, one Democrat. The Republican, Simpson, worked on deficit issues when he was a Senator from Wyoming. He makes a stupid comment. Ok, fine.
BUT, there are no recommendations from the commission. And it is only an advisory body. So your position is, Obama plans to cut social security if the conservative co-chair of the commission says that he thinks Social Security is "a milk cow." That quote continued: ""Stop yapping your lips and listen good. This commission might be packed with millionaires, but we're looking out for little people who need Social Security." Does that mean Simpson still might advocate cutting SS. Maybe.
So, no commission has proposed cutting Social Security. And the conservative cochair said something stupid (while also saying that he wanted to protect the little people.) You seem to believe, I suppose, that Obama should have invested political capital in removing Simpson and replacing him with some other conservative. Purely symbolic waste of time and capital. No report is in, and when it comes, Obama can reject them.
No report completed and no recommendation that SS be cut. Assessment: You're whining.
3. Defend state secrets and continue rendition, torture, executions and Gitmo.
Let's take the last bunch first. Who has been rendered in the last two years, from where and to where? Unless you count publicly returning captured terrorists to their homelands -- no one.
Who has been tortured? NOT who has reported torture that took place under Bush, but who has been tortured in the last 2 years?
Executions? Who the hell has been executed?
Gitmo is open, true. And what is it like (which is the more important question.) One high-value detainee, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, has been moved from Gitmo to US prisons, where he is awaiting trial. So he has seen both: And what does he say?
Gitmo is nicer than prison. But American courtrooms offer more protections of his rights. Seehere
State secrets -- this one people will hate. Based on comments in the 2008 report on warrantless surveillance put out by the Senate, it seems as if foreign nations assisted the United States in the program, including providing wiretapped info to us. It is black-letter policy in every administration -- cooperation with a foreign government is classified. Maybe this is not the reason, but what I do know it is that a responsible president can't just say "open up the files" if indeed there are national security reasons not to. So, we are criticizing blindly.
Four arguments based on fiction, one where people can come out on either of two reasonable sides. Asessment: You're whining.
4. To stand in the way of gay Americans openly serving in the military or even enjoying the right to marry wo they love.
You're right. Assessment: Not whining.
5. To restrict a woman''s right to choose an abortion if she wants it?
Restrict means to make more difficult. HCR did nothing to make abortion more difficult. Except in medically-demanded circumstances, abortion was not an insured procedure. HCR did not change that. Perhaps you might argue that Obama should have fought to MAKE abortion an insured procedure. But that, again, would have been politically impossible. HCR, which has benefited millions of people (including my next door neighbor, and me) would not have passed. Critics may have basked in their principled defeat, but, thankfully, Obama cares more about people than purity.
Calling out a restriction that isn't there. Assessment: You're whining.
NOW to the hard part. There are things in here that people will not support -- they would want to add a provision to allow abortions to be covered (for the first time), they would want DADT repealed, etc. But that is why we need to be a political movement, one with a true block of votes that is a reliable supporter of those who do the most to advocate what we stand for. Do the most -- not do everything. Progress is progressivde -- a step at a time. If you demand politicians who do everything you want, you will fail.
For the writer of the diary: What have you done to fight for these things you believe in? Organize something? Go to DC to talk to your member of Congress? Or just sit at home, posting on D-Kos.
That is the difference between a movement and whining. Movements move. Individual complainers don't. We need a movement.