Massachussets: blame the centrists/corporatists more than the liberals

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
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Whenever an election is lost, the first political message sent it who to blame (your opponents).

There's been some rush, therefore, for the corporatist Dems to say "the liberals are the issue".

Indeed I've corrected some posters in this forum saying just that.

This thread is to add a few links of op-eds with their own arguments why this is correct.

First, Glenn Greenwald:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/20-10

Second, one showing on a poll why De,pcrats voted for Brown or did not vote, showing the plurality (the largest group but not a majority) of Obama Demoracts who voted for Brown did so for Democrats not oppsoing Republicans strongly enough (more than twice as many who said he was opposing Repubcalins too strongly) - in other words, a protest vote handing Republicans a filibuster-proof 41 for the reason that Obama was not fighting Republicans enough.

Was it Centrists voting Obama had been too liberal, or liberals voting Obama had been too centrist, as many righties here claimed? It shows it was a lot more the former than the latter.

In particular, the poll shows the Democrats who voted for Brown or didnot vote were for pursuing more aggressive healthcare and Wall Street regulation:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/20-9

Here's one explaining the reason the election is a mandate is a mandate to shift policies away from the corporation to more liberal policies.

For example, the public opposes mandates without a public option 64-34. The public supports mandates with the public option Joe Liebermann killed 60-37.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/20-15
 

PokerGuy

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
13,650
201
101
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.

You are incapable of ratioal discussion; your entire contribution is to post your straw man ad nauseum.

Talk about someome who just got a reason not to need to repeat it.
 

misle

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
3,371
0
76
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.

Awesome. Thanks for the quick and concise summary!
 

alchemize

Lifer
Mar 24, 2000
11,486
0
0
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.
Post of the year.
 

nick1985

Lifer
Dec 29, 2002
27,153
6
81
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.

Thanks for the clear and concise summary!
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
Post of the year.

LOL. That's like awarding Joe Wilson's "You lie" speech of the year.

Whatsisname stains the thread with a paragraph of idiocy so bad it's hard to mock, and alchemize leaps the floor and starts licking it up mumbling "gourmet yummmmmmm", lapping up the hair and feces.

Who else wnats a bite of the crap? Too bad the rules allow for such thread pollution, but the illterate get to play too.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.

Craig in a nutshell. Thanks!
 
Feb 16, 2005
14,077
5,447
136
Liberal/Democrat/Heathen here... I blame Coakley for running a piss poor campaign and I blame the DNC for picking her. I was hesitating voting for her, and I've voted Democrat in most or all elections since 1984
 

EagleKeeper

Discussion Club Moderator<br>Elite Member
Staff member
Oct 30, 2000
42,589
5
0
Even Obama does not get the message.

He stated that the people of Mass had sent a message out against the Bush policies.

Hint: It was against the policies being impliments/proposed by his administration and the Democrat controlled/led Congress
 

Sinsear

Diamond Member
Jan 13, 2007
6,439
80
91
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.


LOL. Craig's whining has become epic since this vote.
 

MotF Bane

No Lifer
Dec 22, 2006
60,801
10
0
Even Obama does not get the message.

He stated that the people of Mass had sent a message out against the Bush policies.

Hint: It was against the policies being impliments/proposed by his administration and the Democrat controlled/led Congress

A message against Bush policies... three years after the Republican Congress, and a year after him in office.

Oh, the irony.

LOL.
 

tvarad

Golden Member
Jun 25, 2001
1,130
0
0
The way I see it, by pushing through the Pelosi's pet project viz. health care reform, BO did the equivalent of invading Iraq when he should have been fighting the perpetrators of the financial equivalent of 9/11 viz., the Wall Street Jihadis. When he had Wall Street by the b***s, he bought their "the sky is falling" BS and wrote them a blank check; a year later they're literally laughing all the way to the bank while the taxpayer is left holding the bag. He was snookered by both Hank the Crank Paulson and Pelosi to do their individual bidding. Now the bomb has gone off under health-care reform. I think he'll start learning to trust his own instincts going forward. That's one hard lesson in realpolitik.
 

ayabe

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2005
7,449
0
0
Glenn Greenwald also had an excellent post on this:

"In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "ha gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials -- and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems -- has been captive "to the Left" is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it. For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists -- which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased. That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded "Left" has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year. Is there anyone who actually believes that "The Left" is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party? The fact that Lanny Davis -- to prove the Left's dominance -- has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is. What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating? I'd honestly love to know."

It's a myth perpetrated by the idiot media and those defending their corporatist leanings. Surprise surprise, the public isn't thrilled about their insurance company giveaway - but the "real" problem is the left, uh-huh.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
Liberal/Democrat/Heathen here... I blame Coakley for running a piss poor campaign and I blame the DNC for picking her. I was hesitating voting for her, and I've voted Democrat in most or all elections since 1984

I know just what you mean. Progressives are put in a bad spot when their party makes them choose the lesser of two evils.

It created on the one hand a desire for her to win for the sake of the better part of the Democratic agenda, and a desire for her to lose on the other as the progressives saying the leadership has been too corrupt.

The main battle now is the 'who gets the benefit by blaming who they want' question, and if progressives did this as a protest, the point is lost if it's interpreted as a call for MORE 'centrism', not less.
 

shiner

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
17,112
1
0
Blah blah blah, the usual Craig BS. I can save you and others a lot of trouble, I can sum up your position on everything clearly and easily. According to Craig, the righties, moderates and anyone who doesn't believe in a giant socialist nanny state where the government provides everything is at fault. Everyone who doesn't believe there's a group of elite enlightened "progressives" (read: socialists) that knows what's best for all of us is at fault.

There, now you don't have to post anymore, I've saved you the trouble, no thanks needed.

Don't forget McCraigwen's fallback position when he is presented with facts that prove what he is saying is wrong:

McCraigwen234.jpg
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
Glenn Greenwald also had an excellent post on this:

"In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "ha gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials -- and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems -- has been captive "to the Left" is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it. For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists -- which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased. That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded "Left" has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year. Is there anyone who actually believes that "The Left" is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party? The fact that Lanny Davis -- to prove the Left's dominance -- has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is. What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating? I'd honestly love to know."

It's a myth perpetrated by the idiot media and those defending their corporatist leanings. Surprise surprise, the public isn't thrilled about their insurance company giveaway - but the "real" problem is the left, uh-huh.


Thanks, but that's the first link in my OP:) God to have the excerpt and comments, though.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
The way I see it, by pushing through the Pelosi's pet project viz. health care reform, BO did the equivalent of invading Iraq when he should have been fighting the perpetrators of the financial equivalent of 9/11 viz., the Wall Street Jihadis. When he had Wall Street by the b***s, he bought their "the sky is falling" BS and wrote them a blank check; a year later they're literally laughing all the way to the bank while the taxpayer is left holding the bag. He was snookered by both Hank the Crank Paulson and Pelosi to do their individual bidding. Now the bomb has gone off under health-care reform. I think he'll start learning to trust his own instincts going forward. That's one hard lesson in realpolitik.

You are confused, ignorant person. What are you referring to for this '"the Pelois's pet project", as ou confuse the sellout to right-wing and corporate interests the progressives who lost their bill?