yyyyyyyup!1
I’ve been taking some heat on Twitter for what is, apparently, my aggressive alienation of progressives. Meh.
I’m not quite sure what that means, but I guess people don’t like the fact that I have little patience for liberal fainting couch-dwellers. You know the people I’m talking about; those who think that sticking it to the Democrats in 2010 was a totally awesome idea. (Hey, how’d that work out for ya, jackwads?)
Now the Professional Whiners are talking at me about how we should unite around policy goals and not the president, and that my intolerance for bitchassery makes them feel bad. To that I say this:
So the fuck what.
You spent two years talking about yourselves as if you were the base, entirely ignoring that there were large swaths of people who support the President (albeit not necessarily every move he makes).
You called Democrats “house niggers.” You called President Obama “Barry,” and “Mr. Presnint,” and “chocolate Carter.”
You lied about his policies and then offered not one word of praise when he actually did what he said he would do (like work with Congress and the military to repeal DADT).
You used your national platform to attack a blogger, blackwaterdog, who simply wanted to create a space for those who have been turned off by the sock-puppetry that has infected Daily Kos.
You use the spotlight you crave so desperately to lie your ass off, fully knowing that your brain-dead sycophants would never notice.
You have allowed your purportedly progressive blogs to be infested by trolls, plants, ratfuckers, and sock-puppets.
And now you seem to think that early organizing is, like, sooooo stupid and, like, sooooo totally something we Obots would do — as if you are blind to the fact that we are facing destruction at the hands of the idiotic Teabillies.
Instead of organizing, you want us to join hands with you and sing kumbayah about public options and ponycorns, as if we’re not aware that you’re going to hock a disease-ridden loogie into your hand before you clasp ours.
Yup. We’re the ones with the problems. We’re the ones huwting your feewings.
First, quit whining — it’s not becoming.
Second, suck it up — all the way up.
Third, who the fuck do you think you are? Don’t talk to me about uniting around policy goals rather than the President. What a bunch of patronizing bullshit; as if we Obots have no thoughts of our own about liberal policy, and instead choose to blindly follow Our Leader, brains leaking out of our punctured skulls as we lurch — arms outstretched — towards 2012.
You know what I think? I think that you know that you’re irrelevant. The base was happy in December after the Great Bush Tax Cut Debacle (you know, the one that was the prelude to a bunch of kick ass shit passing through Congress, and the one which Republicans later decided was not their shining moment since the tax cut package contained too much stimulus and Republicans weren’t able to sufficiently stick it to Obama to satisfy their blood-lust.)
In short, your endless cries about punching hippies and sticking it to the base have proven impotent, and deep down in places you don’t talk about at cocktail parties, you know that you’re staring down the barrel of your own irrelevancy.
With that said, in case you still have some lingering belief that you’re important, I’ve got some news for you:
You’re not.
To wit,
…
The real stunner here for progressives is how widely supported Obama’s decision to keep GITMO open is. Progressives including Rachel Maddow have been filleting Obama for his decision to keep the prison open for weeks, but it turns out that these critics are in the minority. It could be that these are still some pangs Bush inspired terrorism fears that are leading Americans to support GITMO, or maybe Americans are not comfortable with the idea of detainees being housed in the US? Until a pollster asks exactly these questions, we won’t know.
The data from this poll is a dose of hard reality for progressives who like to think of themselves as Obama’s base. The truth is that they are all small part of Obama’s base, and the White House is fully aware of this. There is an entire bloc of Americans who don’t follow the progressive movement but came out en mass to elect Barack Obama in 2008. These people are the Obama Democrats, and they are in many ways separate from the progressive movement.
…Progressives and Tea Partiers are over represented in the Internet discussion and both place a premium on purity. If one were to only read the progressive Internet discussion about Obama, you would come away thinking that he is doomed one termer, when the big picture reveals that Obama is in a good position to be reelected in 2012.
Barack Obama’s decisions on GITMO and Libya may disappoint many progressives, but they are very popular with most Americans. Progressives are not wrong to feel the way they feel, and I want GITMO closed as much as anybody, but Obama is the President of the United States and if he made decisions based on what the progressives wanted, his decisions would be unpopular with about 2/3 of the country.
When progressives bash Obama’s recent decisions are they really upset at this president, or are they upset that more Americans don’t agree with them? The reality of human nature is that is probably a bit of both.
Progressives have a right to feel the way they about Obama’s decision to leave GITMO open, but they have to face the fact that 67% of America disagrees with them.
Instead of bashing Obama maybe progressives would be better served by directing their energy towards getting more Americans to adopt their position on closing Guantanamo Bay.
The Professional Left had a field day on Monday, didn’t they? — claiming that Obama stabbed them in the back by announcing his reelection campaign on the same day that he announced his decision to leave GITMO open and on the same day Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheik Mohammed would be tried in a military rather than civilian court.
The collective head of the firebaggers exploded in fury. “How could he! He promised!” “He’s toast!” “Why should I vote for him?” “I’m voting for Grover Nader or Rand Paulquist!”
Tears were shed. There was a lot of hugging and cursing of Obama’s name to the heavens. (I heard that Rachel Maddow was also in an uproar; I chose not to watch her show that day because I knew it would piss me off, and as she did with DADT, I hope that she will admit her mistake.)
Keep whining. I relish demonstrating how impotent your rage is, and you’ll have to excuse me while I continue to pile upon your head the derision that you so much deserve.
Or, you could pull your head out of your ass and work with the real [rest of the -ed.] base to make sure that, come 2012, we’re not singing I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of Alaska, dontcha know.
You don’t even have to make a big show out of removing said head from ass. I don’t hold grudges.
1 Off-topic — if you’re not watching Archer, I’m not sure what the hell is wrong with you.
[via Politics USA]
[All the links (save the Politics USA link) are internal. Should you read them? YYYYUP! Only if you like my finger-rants, which, of course you do.]
VERY SERIOUS UPDATE: Emily is annoyed about this “base” stuff, as well; check out her post “Dear Democratic Base.” Also, too, asiangrrl ain’t havin’ it either; check out her post “The Base, The Base, The Base is on Fire.”
ACTUALLY REALLY SERIOUS UPDATE: Don’t get me wrong. I want Gitmo closed. I want these detainees tried in a court of law (whether under military or civilian law). My point is that Obama tried and was hamstrung by Congress and public opinion. To cry that Obama reneged on a campaign promise seems ludicrous under these circumstances. Further, what was he supposed to do? If he couldn’t try them in civilian courts, should he have let them languish in Gitmo? Unless I’m missing something, that doesn’t make sense.
The main point of this rant, though, is to push back against the very vocal online left who seem to be convinced and have been convinced since the Great Healthcare War of 2010 that they — and they alone — are The Base, when the numbers demonstrate (and have demonstrated for several months) that the opposite is true.
Finally, even if some of the 67% who approve of Obama’s Gitmo decision are crazy-assed Teabillies who hate civil liberties and want to lock up all the brown people, the narrative that Obama is doing a shit job would seem to be false, no?
oh, no you didn’t. did you post this on BJ? Because this is a 400 comment post. I saw Rachel on Monday. I lover her, but not only was she all righteous, she was dead wrong in her critique. Absolutely over the top wrong. She said that Obama was kicking the base and breaking his promise as he announces his run for re-election. No mention of Congress, Holder’s statement, nothing. It was ALL OBAMA’S FAULT AND HE HATE US! Yet, the pundits and analysts on the left feel they are not responsible for the lack of informed progressives on the left. I don’t get it.
I’ll admit I didn’t watch Rachel precisely because I figured she’d go off the rails about this. And I have to admit that I was originally a bit disappointed with the decision until I was reminded that Congress has really tied DOJ’s hands on this in multiple ways. I also suppose we should be grateful KSM is going to be tried at all given that whole notion of indefinite detention (which is something I really have an issue with).
i’m not sure i have the gastrointestinal fortitude to post it over there!
Girl, don’t bother. Wait ’til ur up to it. The best thing about you is that you actively respond to comments. So you’ll need to be at your best if ya post over there.
BTW, i’m late, but I’ve been following the whole Joan Walsh “resent”-ment tweet business. What was that about?
It’s the “resent” part of her tweet that I find fault with. As if she been so aggrieved by the fact that the Dem base is a large number of AA. I mean WTF?
Add Adam Serwer and Ezra Klein to the list. Though at least Ezra acknowledged the role of Congress, before continuing to blame Obama that he wasn’t able to bully-pulpit a Senate that voted something like 90-6 against him into a 60-vote coalition to do what the opposite.
Ah thanks for that sooperdooper serious update.
I can’t say that you’re speaking truth to power, as I view most progressives (especially the firebaggers) as an impotent, cocktail-party crowd of spoiled brats.
You are speaking truth to the rest of us who agree with you and will, again, turn out in droves to support and re-elect President Barack Obama to his second term.
In fact, the Walker/Wisconsin debacle, the looming government shutdown and other GOP missteps may see control of the House returned to Democrats.
This second term? It oughta be a helluva good time.
Nice work, ma’am.
* It’s been said many times before, but here goes again: We firebaggers can’t be BOTH irrelevant and responsible for the 2010 election. Pick one.
* Anyone can post on my.firedoglake.com about (almost) whatever they want. You’re going to blame Jane Hamsher for some dude’s rant?
* DADT repeal was an Obama success. Can’t blame people for keeping the pressure on however. He blew the rest of the LGBT agenda.
* Those pictures by BWD did look amusingly like propaganda photos, but her heart’s in the right place.
* Obama was the one who built up closing Gitmo as a big thing. Bush left him with no good options. In my view closing it is less important than giving a fair deal to each of the remaining detainees. Forcing Omar Khadr to take a plea bargain or face indefinite detention was not a fair deal.
* Finally the sine qua non of a successful Democratic presidency is maintaining or improving the progressivity of the tax code. It was an enormous and unjustified risk to extend the Bush tax cuts and lower the estate tax. If he fails to undo that–and it won’t be easy–his presidency will live in infamy.
I think it is important to point out that President Obama has in fact gone far beyond his political promises for the LGBT community. Far from ‘blowing’ it, he has surpassed even his own original stance on the issue of gay marriage by ceasing to defend DOMA in court. Obviously, he hasn’t gone as far as the left would want, even I, a gay man, is way surprised by the actual accomplishments for the lgbt community. I’m sorry, but when I see people ‘blow off’ actual progress as being blown, I have to stand with the truth.
Obama changed laws that made any hospital that accepts federal money to not discriminate against lgbt family. This issue was a central theme during the 80′s and 90′s which actually helped motivate sympathy for lgbt.
Obama repealed DADT much to the chagrin of the angry progressive left who wanted nothing more than Obama to default on this promise. And when he didn’t, we got crickets from the progressive left.
Obama instructed the doj to no longer defend DOMA citing that his feelings had ‘evolved’. What did the progressive left say? Crickets.
I’ve learned that whatever the progressive left says, the opposite is most likely true.
Ask these people what other president has done more for the gay community and listen for more crickets.
I admit if there were one part of my post I would qualify this would be it. But Obama had the chance to do much more had he gotten off his ass before the lame duck session. What he has done is stuff that any Dem president would do.
“What he has done is stuff that any Dem president would do.”
Yeah, like Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA and DADT into law.. oh wait..
You’re both. Irrelevant and responsible.
Well, you guys are like the Tea Party. They make up a sliver of the Republican party yet they have the biggest microphone. While people like Glenn Greenwald, Hamsher & Co are nobodies outside of the bubble, they are the ones that have the biggest microphone. Your opinions make it on the liberal opinion shows, the radio, picked up by other liberal/non-liberal blogs, the village sometimes blindly adopts your talking points and then some of it makes it to the mainstream media. So while your numbers are small, the media magnifies your importance and it does seep out to the average voter.
As for those “propaganda” photos: such a ridiculous thing to worry about. Really. Its telling that photos like that scare anyone. Aren’t you all supposed to be independent thinkers and all that? Why does pis of Obama frighten you all? I mean the man is fine but he’s not exactly going to put a spell on you if you look at his picture. There are thousands of blogs that counter bwd’s, thousands, what are you afraid of?
Conflict sells. JH and GG don’t get to decide who MSNBC chooses to interview, but they’re not going to refuse when asked. JH says she lives as close as possible to the studio so she can appear on short notice. Obama supporters could do the same.
bmull, let me help you out – you are irrelevant and clearly not responsible. Ta-da!!
Lurved this post!! Keep it up ABL!
FWIW, bmull, I personally think ya’ll are irrelevant and not responsible for anything, voting wise. But there is an extent to which ya’ll invite ridicule by claiming more expertise and relevance in political debate, like when people get into flame wars about the public option. The FDL types asserted that “ordinary” people supported THEIR ideas, that the Democratic party should follow THEIR messaging strategies, that THEY knew best about organizing people … All of which might be true if some of you cats actually made it past fellow MoveOn.org e-mail recipients. But the amount of “ordinary” people who are quite clueless about all the permutations of the health care bill(s) shows that you clearly didn’t.
And yes, when it suits their small-c conservative narrative, the MSM will bring you on TV to complain, like they do Hamsher and Krugman. But mostly, the problem is that you have no leverage to counteract all this status quo skepticism about “the liberal agenda” and yet, because you types have a surfeit of representatives on the interwebs, your voices (however irrelevant IRL) are going to be amplified. And you use that amp to beat down on other liberals with your supposed moral superiority, despite the fact that this supposed moral superiority has so far not been useful for advancing most progressive agenda items — again, because you’ve built no actual constituency outside of the net.
I don’t disagree with anything you said, except I think FDL’s criticisms of HCR are valid.
Great that you agree about your irrelevance, but the logical extension of that agreement is to a certain extent asking yourself why it matters that FDL’s criticisms are deemed “valid” when no one outside of FDL types (and those who want to mock them) actually cares about FDL one way or another.
Thank you ABL. Frankly I am sick of them all. My grandmother lived until she was 94 and died before she could cast her vote for President O. Can you imagine living that long and always thinking that you would never see someone with the same skin color as the POTUS? Can you imagine the excitement and wonder she felt when she realized that all this was finally possible as she entered her twilight years? The long road is what she knew of and talked about and so did many of our ancestors, and yes these whiny asses make me want to puke. I have been telling many of them over at DK and other sites that were excluding others that considered themselves part of the base too, and to stop using their privilege by thinking they speak for all. NONE of those yappers speak for me or anybody else that I know. Joan Walsh can stick her resentment where the sun doesn’t shine.
I also think it’s hilarious that thought of BWD’s success still irks them greatly. HA! I love her site and I’m passing the word along about it, WSY, this site, and getting folks to leave Dailybarf and other sites.
AWESOME!!! I’m usually on other blogs such as WSY and BWD, but I am comin gout of lurk mode to say that this was spot on! I can’t stand the PL and how they think they’re right about everything when clearly they have been wrong. And crickets, when they are proven wrong. It’s quite clear that after DADT has been repealed, unemployment is down %8.8 and Health Care has passed, you’d think that the pres could sail his way into reelction but you got the gripers whining that he’s not tough enough and compromises to much, therefore he’s unfit to be relected. WTF kind of reasoning is that shit?? And now some are trying to place blame on him for the govt shutting down because he didn’t use his bully pulpit?? I feel like we live in a nation of losers
ABL,
All I can say is OUCH. Telling it like it is has never sounded so good. I’m sharing far and wide.
By the way, it was great meeting you on Saturday.
hey anita! nice meeting you too. i was supposed to be on time to that party, but got couldn’t pry myself from the basketball game. :)
I’m sure our hostess didn’t mind you arriving late and staying later. Keep up the good work ABL. It takes a lot to push through the garbage that’s out there every day.
Hey ABL,
Do you know that your website is hosted by GODADDY.COM, a.k.a. The Elephant Killer?
PETA and the Humane Society are leading a boycott and asking people to change registrars.
Please join us!
I think I transferred my domain name a while ago, but I’ll look into it. :)
This is so on the mark ABL!! I was appalled at the firebaggers when they turned a dime on Obama, knowing what he was up against and now they want to demonized him becasue they didn’t get what the wanted. And now these same firebaggers are whining about how the conservatives are ruining the country and yet they still want every one to rally around them. And now they are tip-toeing very carefully becasue now they see by staying home in 2010 what damage they have caused. Greenwald, FDL, Huffington Bullshit and so on…can kiss my black funky ass.
I’m a fierce and staunch supporter of Obama and will defend his name no matter what. But as soon as Bachmann or a Romney get’s into the WH watch how these firebaggers start complaining and whining about that yet again. It pains me to see how racist some of the firebaggers really are. I’m not at all shamed of being called an Obamabot, in fact, I take it as a compliment.
Keep up the good post and I support you 100%.
PS…it was amazing to see how some actaully wanted to take full credit for getting Beck off the air by snubbing The Color of Change who actaully started the whole damn thing to get him off the air to begin with.
You fucking rock ABL. I want to see you on the cable news shows leading up to the election. Fuck Jane, fuck Glenn, fuck Joan….I want Angry Black Lady representing progressives on the television. How do we make that happen?
ABL looks like she’d be telegenic as all hell from the picture of her with a puppy back at the end of last year.
bmull is a regular author at Marcy’s portion of FDL. I agree with him that the policy issues FDL brought up wrt HCR are on target. ANd it is worth noting that this point isn’t just adding heat to discourse, it really does shed light on what improved policy could look like (cf many posts by Jon Walker on HCR).
JH brings a lot more heat than light. And it seems to be bringing her a metric shitload of sycophants that add to the heat and make the comment threads challenging for those that don’t drink FDL kool aid 9 times a day.
I know I should be commenting on the political aspect of this post but I just want to say that I fucking love Archer. “DANGER ZOOOOOOONE!”