progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
*Left the Building Watch (TiNAD**)
** Tuesday is New Acronym Day
CorrenteWire, like Elvis, has left the building:
According to Lind, Obama and his supporters are “Greater New England” types. But he thinks this is not a good thing:
“The question, then, is not why Greater New England progressives would vote for Obama. He presses all their age-old buttons: opposition to war, nonpartisan reform. The question is why anyone would assume that such a candidate would appeal to other Democratic constituencies, other than blacks (voting in this case for the favorite-son candidate).
Indeed, the Greater New England moralist culture has been rejected by practically every other substantial subculture in the United States: Irish-Americans in Northeastern cities, Appalachian white Baptists and now, evidently, Mexican-Americans. And this has always been the case.”
What Lind is describing is what we have seen in electoral politics for generations. When the Democratic party nominates a GNE liberal, we lose. We lose because they fail to connect to blue-collar, rural and small town voters. They fail to connect because they just don’t get it.
When I see idiotic statements like this, I like to learn something about the author: “Michael Lind (born in 1962) is an American journalist and historian, currently the Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. Ideologically, he has gone from liberal (in his college years) to neoconservative (in graduate school and directly afterward) to radical centrist (through the early 2000s), and back to a liberal (present).”
That’s a quite a set of ideologies! At least he doesn’t have to worry about a fixed set of values weighing him down. I realize what a hobgoblin foolish consistency can be, it’s just that foolish inconsistency isn’t any better.
Here, Lind just makes up a demographic, Greater New England, demonizes it, and state that this proves that despite his lead in the popular vote and delegates, Harvard Class of ‘91 is too elitist to get elected. Meanwhile, Yale class of ‘73 is salt-of-the-earth, and that saltiness makes the working class wanna go drinking with her, except for blacks, who in Lind’s analysis don’t really count.
The only thing worse than being Michael Lind is quoting from him approvingly.
I was at the DC for Democracy meeting where it was decided who to support in the Dem primary. In that group of mixed gender, race, and state of origin, economically middle class, Obama was a clear favorite. IIRC, Edwards was the second place favorite. If you had accused the folks at that meeting of being GNE moralist elitists (I hate to dignify fictional demographics, but for the purpose of conversation and ridicule) they’d kick your ass. Or laugh you out of the room.
I don’t really understand what CorrenteWire is trying to accomplish these days. If the idea is to create a club where Hillary can be praised, and Obama (and his supporters) can have mud slung at them, I guess there’s no law against that. The idea as I understand it, however, is that democratic debate is struggle without destruction. It supposes that each participant in the process will respect the views held by the others. That’s why the Democratic Party, despite their manifold flaws are still the good guys. That’s why the Republican Party is not.
And now for the punishment: 5 shots of Crown Royal with a guy named “Dad.”
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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Some speculate the Senator Clinton would want the spirit-killing Vice Presidency because she would be willing to wait for two terms so as to be the likely nominee in 2012. I believe that she could well contemplate this scenario. [Link]
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is filing a complaint with the IRS today challenging the conservative group Freedom's Watch status as a non-profit. [Link]
For Barbara, Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From First Lady to Lady Macbeth. [Link]
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Otherwise cites other (mostly right-wing) writers, adding a few words—or one word (usually heh, indeed, or ouch)—to denote approval. This style is, probably purposely, hard to engage. [Link]
Before you tie 'em, you have to lace 'em — and you can choose from among 43,200 perfectly legitimate ways to do it. [Link]
“He doesn’t have the appearance of a tax-and-spend liberal . . . but if the essence of being a tax-and-spend liberal is a lot of taxes and spending, that’s what he comes down to.” [Link]
Before an audience of liberal bloggers last fall, Hillary Clinton defended Washington’s advocate class. “A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans. They actually do,” she said. [Link]
As things currently stand, it appears that the 39 delegates from DC will include 19 Obama supporters and 14 Clinton supporters. The positions of the remaining 6 — the 4 undeclared DNC members and the 2 add-ons — are unknown. [Link]
But to understand what Obama is proposing, it's important to ask: What, exactly, is the mind-set that led to the war? What will it mean to end it? And what will take its place? [Link]
Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public ev [Link]
"It's quite clear that the Bush administration officials who were around in the 1970s are settling old scores now," said Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union. [Link]
Raelyn Campbell has a wild story. She bought a computer at Best Buy. It malfunctioned. She took it back to be repaired. They apparently lost it -- lied about it -- and lied about it -- and lied about it -- and then. . .lied about it. [Link]
When Feinstein pressed, Johnson admitted that "I don't know the answer to that," but offered he himself is working on it, determining "what are the next steps." [Link]
All of this might suggest that the new Executive Order was designed to prevent the IOB from re-emerging as an effective oversight body under a future president. [Link]
What about Congressman Darrell Issa of California? ("`Isa&quo~ means Jesus in Arabic). Former cabinet secretary Donna Shalala? (Shalala means "waterfall&~ in Arabic). [Link]
The filmmaker who won an Academy Award Sunday night for best documentary is next turning his attention to the Jack Abramoff scandal, including GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s role in investigating the affair. [Link]
Today, the House has just approved H.Res. 982, which provides for the adoption of H.Res. 979, recommending that the House of Representatives find Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel, and Joshua Bolten, the White House Chief of Staff, in contempt of [Link]
Looking at Clinton’s statements during critical moments in the war underscores her obscurantism on the most important issue of U.S. national security—a stance that makes sense only in the related contexts of strategic confusion and political expedienc [Link]
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