I haven't written here for a couple years, but, what the hell. All this kerfuffle about Jane Hamsher is too amusing to pass up.
What is it, folks? We're talking here about one of the premiere "progressive" voices in the media, who has received plaudits from practically everyone on the Left at one time or another.
And now she's crazy? Crazy like the proverbial fox, maybe. You see, Jane, far as I can tell, doesn't much give a shit what you all, or anybody else, thinks of her: something about having a potentially terminal disease does that to you (I know). She's also a good bit smarter than you all are, at least on average, and she's a strategic thinker, of that there has been ample evidence.
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So what is she up to? Well, think about it a little: is there any value in having a "loony left"? I personally think there is, when what you're trying to do is shift the whole spectrum left. Matter of fact, it's practically indispensable.
I wasn't very active during the late sixties, mostly because I was pretty young, but subsequent research has suggested to me that the Abbie Hoffmans of the world did a lot more to effect change than most give them credit for. It's all about the definition of compromise, all about negotiation, all about scaring the crap out of the Wrongists by revealing that there's a significant force on the Left that they REALLY don't want anywhere near power.
Bernie Sanders is a big boy, and I seriously doubt that he's upset about Jane's political gymnastics: for him, what doesn't kill him makes him stronger, and there's no way sniping from what is clearly a fairly untenable position is going to do him significant harm. And palling around with Grover Norquist? That's a hell of a big megaphone he's holding; that alone is worth something. And I can think of any number of other reasons to play a little patty-cake with the wingnuts: anybody else up for a cage match between Jane and Bible Spice Palin or the Madwoman of Minnesota?
Finally,part of the deal is that her antics might conceivably make the "less loony" left a bit more respectable, in their rejection of her. It's called taking one for the team.
Y'all should take a pill, relax: Janie's playing a game, and she's a risk-taker (what's she got to lose: she's rich, white and terminally ill, to paraphrase Paul O'Neil). She's doing it for all of us, whether or not we agree with the details. If she's pissing you off, you probably would have been pissed off at Sam Adams, among others, at the time of the American Revolution.