"Don't trust fair weathered librals"

[angee_is_mad]

Found this post in the afrosphere and it reminds me of what is happening on here.

http://reachblack.blogspot.com/2010/01/lesson-learned-dont-trust-fair-weather.html

Perhaps you'll hear from a "frustrated" voter who claimed to walk 100 miles to canvass for Obama. And that voter will tell you that Obama is weak because he didn't fix eight years of bad policy in his first year of office. This voter will wax poetic about a time when he or she once made out to Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" song. And, if you're lucky, this "disenchanted" voter will lecture you on how Obama should have done XY or Z without the necessary votes in Congress because Presidents FDR, LBJ and GWB were. . . (sigh) I don't know . . . special?

And you’ll certainly hear endless criticism of the Democratic establishment and stupid mistakes by the candidate.

But if history is any indicator, you might also hear pundit after pundit talk about the "protest vote" or those who deliberately chose to sit on their hands to "teach the Dems a lesson" (assuming they are qualified to teach whatever that lesson may be).

What lesson, you may ask?

Well, the same lesson Dems supposedly learned from their great teacher, Ralph Nader, in 2000. That oh so persuasive "lesson" that only the truly progressive, ideologically pure, intellectually superior must teach to the masses of mindless "Obamatons," "kool-aid drinkers," "cult members" - feel free to add any of a number of condescending pejoratives -who are just too emotionally swayed by the President's swagger to remove the rose-colored glasses when judging this President and his policies.

You'll hear it, and you'll know it verbatim. Why? Because you've heard it a million times before. Which speaks to one of two possibilities:

1. Democrats are extremely dense; or
2. Liberals take themselves way too seriously

But whatever you hear, ask yourselves this . . .


When was the last time the self-righteous liberal actually did something? Sure, they talk a good game. They're well-read. Articulate. Impressive. And I'm certainly not saying that they don't do good work on a local level. But please name the last time you saw a legitimate sustained social movement from the left? Because it seems that such victories (if any) have been few and far between in a generation of conservative dominance in our national politics.

See, there's a lot of history to fall back on. Most will cite the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist movement, the rally for labor rights. But those things happened decades ago. Of course there's the current struggle for marriage equality. But, while long overdue, don't look towards the ballot for success stories as far as that's concerned either.

What am I getting at?

Liberals better start looking in the mirror. Liberals better start reevaluating how they relate towards the very people they claim to represent. And they better start talking to rather than at the American people.

There's a long list of what went wrong in MA. But, if any of it has to do with "disenchanted liberals" or an apathetic base. . .]

[Number23]

1. Would love to see the opinions of this author be as "revered" around here as the Greenwalds

the Krugmans et al etc.

My favorite parts of this piece:

"Seems like we'd rather lecture the world on what it should be and fight over the details. It's not a matter of moving to the political left, right or center. It's about building a political movement by finding leadership in unlikely places. Places like urban neighborhoods that Dems love to talk about during the campaign, but don't necessarily visit when it's time to make policy. It's about building a set of shared goals."

"...Politics is also about a choice. And that choice is always there whether we like the options presented to us or not. Because politics is more than fighting to get your candidate in office . . . it's also about making sure your opponent stays out."

"...We've fooled ourselves into believing that we can't progress unless the circumstances are ideal. We've filled ourselves with such doubt that only the truly extraordinary might survive the knee-jerk second-guessing and self-defeatism we've come to expect at the first sign of adversity. Because there are two glaring truths to come out of this election:

1. The Republicans campaigned harder (that's on Martha Coakley); and
2. The tea party out organized the democratic base (that's on us)."

Even though I am aware that it was independents such as myself that handed Coakley her @ss in Massachusetts and not liberals, this is still some DAMN GOOD ADVICE that you, me and everyone reading knows before hand will fall on deaf ears...

[angee_is_mad]

2. Cold day in hell

before that happens. DU is all about doom & gloom and how its all Obama's fault.