This may turn into a rant rather than a question. I've wandered into some diaries lately that make me wonder how many tea partiests we have posting here, doing the usual Republican dirty work of selling Democrats as weak, ineffective, or no different from the disloyal opposition.
When I first began posting here in 2008 there was a clear recognition of trollish behavior, now we seem unable to differentiate between those who have "policy" issues with President Obama and those who simply want him gone because he's a Democrat, and black, and effective.
I opened a diary yesterday filled with data on the Obama/Holder DOJ's prosecutions of financial fraud cases, complete with caveats about how much more needs to be done, how underfunded and short-staffed the various investigatory agencies mysteriously became under the Bush Regime, and some praise that things are turning around.
Since a major complaint from many progressives has been the dearth of prosecutions, I expected there would be rejoicing, someone actually took the time to put some facts into a diary, some comparisons with what's gone before. Mostly what I read was "Not Good Enough (acknowledged by diarist, as a function of years of sloth and underfunding), with a few "Not Really Happening"'s, and some outright lies. My thought, halfway through one thread, was "If President Obama could walk on water, Repu....Progressives would mock his inability to swim."
I find it mind-boggling that people STILL routinely post about Obama's failure to close Guantanamo. Despite numerous other people pointing out the blatantly obvious - Congress refused to fund that closing, blocked moving prisoners into the criminal justice system and out of Military Tribunals, panicked about terrorists living in Our Neighborhoods, etc ad nauseum - we still hear about President Obama Not Using The Bully Pulpit to Get It Done.
So I'm wondering if this has become a schizophrenic site. On the one hand we have tens of thousands of comments bewailing the state of our media, as we vilify the President for not making use of his media sinecure to push progressive policies. I thought we were the smart, savvy people.
Not enough votes for a strong Public Option? Bully Pulpit would have done it. Would that have been the death panel bully pulpit, or the socialist bully pulpit, or the government being in the exam room with you and your doctor bully pulpit? Would the Wall Street Journal have covered the excellent reasons for government intervention into our poor-outcomes high-cost health care system? Maybe Fox or CNN would have been willing to do a documentary series about the people dropped for pre-existing conditions as soon as they started needing serious health care?
Maybe an explosive expose from one of the Money Cablez shows about the obscene profits in the Health Care Industry?
The bully pulpit is as stupid an argument as "Get The Government Out Of My Medicare" signs at Koch Party rallies.
I'm not interested enough to search the number of diaries declaring that BP would never pay for the oil spill, no one in the DOJ would follow up on anything to do with Katrina, Obama is ready to destroy Medicare and Social Security, Obama for Austerity, Obama in the Pockets of Wall Street, Obama Loves Tax Cuts for the Wealthy because not one of them has proven to be true, or fact-based in any way.
I can understand a lack of political sophistication that doesn't quite understand the value of co-opting Republican positions and following up with a sucker punch. In a culture where screaming and bullying is the only way to demonstrate strength it's hard to follow subtleties, particularly when there's so much misinformation coming at us that sorting out what's really happening isn't easy.
What I can't understand is how so many people who call themselves Progressives, or Democrats, or Liberals could be so oblivious to some truly remarkable changes in the national narrative. That the Republicans are no longer able to claim Fiscal Responsibility is not something I thought I'd see in my lifetime. Their propaganda machine has been so effective that most citizens, including lefties, don't know that every Republican administration for the last 40+ years has been fiscally moronic, and that it takes a Democrat in charge to reduce our debt and increase employment.
I can't understand that we're not cheering that the Republicans have lost Strong on Defense. I can't understand that we're not cheering about Republicans being seen, finally, as the party of the wealthy. I absolutely can't understand that we don't seem able to understand that making them fight to defend the Bush Tax Cuts every few months has damaged them deeply. If Obama had pushed through a roll-back of those cuts early on, what's left for the Left to point out? Seriously, every few months they're out there explaining what even their own voters know to be a lie - "Trickling Down Jobs". When Republicans can't afford to meet with their constituents because those Republican voters actually say "I haven't seen any jobs from those tax cuts" we should be wildly happy. Instead we whine about bipartisanship and civility.
My mom taught me something early in my life, and I'd like to share it with all of you who are so annoyed by President Obama's conciliatory rhetoric.
Don't pay a lot of attention to what people say. What counts is what they do.
Please do not share this thought with Republicans/Conservatives. As long as they stay befuddled this particular strategy is very effective. Acknowledging Paul Ryan as the budget genius of the new Republican Party by inviting him to sit front and center allowed Obama to reveal the fatuity and idiocy of his brilliant budget in one speech. One speech nailed the Republicans with their objective of destroying Social Security, Medicare, and the rest of our social safety net. One fucking speech. It's out there now, and they've got nothing to fall back on. Some are actually admitting the truth. Genius.
President Obama says "Of course we have to make Medicare stronger and more financially stable", stealing the RW meme from under their noses, and proceeds to prosecute fraud, waste, and bloat created by Republicans, thus strengthening Medicare financially, and we still have lefties screeching about how he's going to sell out Medicare. It's embarrassing. Karl Rove and the Heritage Foundation start a new line of attack (AKA lie), and within hours it's on Progressive blogs with a slightly leftish slant. Are we really that vulnerable, with all our apparent knowledge of the power of propaganda? It appears that we are, and that there's more pleasure to be found in creating new ways to feel abused and victimized by Big Government Bad Guys than there is in pushing back against the utterly destructive lie that government is, by it's very nature, bad.
Maybe the problem here is that most of the dedicated activists on the left are already out there working hard for OFA and a Democratic majority. All I know is that after the last couple of months I'm not sure what Progressive means, or if I really want to be associated with a lot of what passes for Progressive values and politics right now. I'm not going to thrive if the revolutionaries are successful. Letting things get really bad so people notice and fight back has not tended to work well historically. The new 1%, the revolutionary 1%, is inevitably worse than the evil people they tossed out, so people like me continue to suffer. The Cause isn't good enough for me to be willing to die for it. I prefer sanity, change that doesn't completely destabilize, and time to find out if what we think we want is actually better. Age will do that to you.
I have deliberately chosen not to link to comments mentioned here, or to use names of posters. I know that there are policy issues that are real, and valid. Most of them are not high on my personal priorities list. I'd rather have a strong EPA and FEMA than not. I'd rather see the DOJ pursuing lousy voter ID Laws than waste time on Fast and Furious investigations.
We, Progressives, lefties, Democrats have not been without sin. We let American Idol distract us from Bush's policies, we enjoyed the bubbles that bought us the newest computer and biggest screen TV on credit. We loved thinking that our investment in a house would keep us safe, no matter how lousy the Republicans were on fiscal policy.
Let's get busy improving on what our President has been able to accomplish in the face of unprecedented obstruction, and stop blaming him him for not being "strong" enough to fight the RW propaganda machine all by himself. Or let Romney win in November. Your choice.