Not two minutes after Boehner and Obama were finished talking, I saw this on the Front Page, courtesy of Jed Lewison:
This was largely designed to reach an audience that doesn't give a shit about anything that these guys are saying.
This type of thing really upsets me. Sometimes I wonder how Front Pagers become Front Pagers. I'm not saying you don't deserve it, Jed. I'm not saying you shouldn't speak your mind. You're not a reporter, so you don't have to "filter" what you say. And I'm sure you've "more than earned your stripes" around here.
But what you say impacts this community, so all I'm asking is that you keep that in mind in the future.
If I understood your quote correctly, then neither Obama nor Boehner had anything worth saying. As if we're the only ones that matter or something, as if there aren't hundreds of millions of people out there who haven't been keeping track of the debt talks and the players' respective positions, and didn't need to hear what the President had to say tonight. I can't speak for Boehner because I didn't watch it due to being confused about where his was airing (I watched Obama's through the WH feed), but to say that neither of them had anything worth saying is quite a hyperbole.
Obama laid out the facts. What he said sounded sensible. It was clear and explained what's at stake. He described the dangers of a short-term debt ceiling rise. He talked about what it takes to be a society. The speech may not have had alarm bells or dog whistles, but that's not what a President ought to speak to anyways. And when he said, "I have full confidence that we can come to a mutual agreement", that's not naivety, guys. It's statesmanship. It's the way a uniter should speak. If Obama believes that what our nation needs right now—more than ever, in this difficult time for the 98% most of us—if he believes what we need now is someone to still speak of unity and conciliation and of confidence in the system doing the right thing, then goddammit, that's what we elected Barack Obama to do.
It's the same kind of thing our fathers and mothers would say to us in dire moments; it's the same kind of thing people like Ghandi and MLK Jr. would have said in their respective days, no matter how dark they actually were. Because the reality is that, while most of us on here are privileged to have a community of like-minded (or not) individuals with which to share, most Americans are not on Daily Kos, and a lot of people are afraid of tomorrow. It's Obama's job to reassure us that it will be okay and our job to defend our right to be okay. That means attacking the real enemy, folks: the Republicans.
Anyhow, that's my opinion and I'm not sure it counts for much to the FP but I've been reading dKos for a long time and it would sure be nice to see less cynicism from the site's bulwarks.
I'm starting to think that the biggest enabler of cynicism is inaction (or soft action, like writing diaries). The only cure for cynicism and the only real hope for change in society is for the dreamers and the hopers and the cynics and detractors to come together and finally ACT in full faith for the visions they hold dear, rather than just expressing themselves. Thought is not enough.
I could only add one poll but would like to know your thoughts: is our Front Page too cynical?
UPDATE
Upon further reflection, I updated the diary title to more accurately reflect what I see as insidious—it certainly isn't (and I never made the case that it was) Jed Lewison or the Front Pagers proper—but rather the cynicism I sometimes see coming from the very top down on a blog and community that I think could really be a bulwark for change; a sort of modern-day e-SNCC.
Thus, changed from:
To the Cynics on the Front Page (With Poll) to To the Cynicism on the Front Page (With Poll)
Anyhow, thanks as always for the lively engagement and the relatively civil discourse in the comments. I don't write diaries often because I like to engage in the commentary and doing so usually takes me 2-3 hours, which I suppose is time better spent than watching Captain America or The Goonies but is nonetheless time I'm not spending doing the things that bring me the happiness that keeps me going in these dire times (and no, haha, it isn't watching movies).
Catch up with you guys, soon. Have a wonderful week and let's keep pushing ourselves to think critically—and to act. After all...
-therehastobeaway