Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Left And The President

The Professional Left, the second an article starts out with a quote like this without laugh emoticons or a Murdoch label you can only assume it will go downhill quickly.  It does, and the comments section follows suit with like thinking regarding criticism of the President from his left.  I don't have a problem with people thinking this President is great, hell - I agree that he's a standout in comparison to many but that has spit to do with things I regard as mistakes or just plain bad policy.  I don't bother blaming the President for the Congress or the quality of the Democrats he's had to work with; and that particular situation would really suck for anyone.

That is a liberal blog and its readers consider themselves as liberal.  Some of these people want you to know that criticizing the President makes it more likely that the GOPers will win (somehow left criticism will resonate with whom?) and that a GOP win would be a disaster because they are crazy.  Now if the left criticizes the President and pushes for more leftist positions that would result in what exactly?  It isn't reasonable to assume that criticism exactly gives the GOPers ammunition to use with their voters or likely voters to use on the President.  Maybe the thinking is that the dissatisfied will stay home and ensure that Mitt and his ilk will win. There is a common myth going around that lefties sat out the '10 elections and ensured the GOP wins, despite all evidence.  There are those few who think this country needs the lesson of having the GOP run it for awhile - I don't think it would work even though it would tear things up badly - but the left is not remotely in favor of screwing the populace beyond a few loose cannons.  The left is unhappy because the President is doing too little to address the screwing of the populace. (Hang his Congresses with that in spades)

What these critics of left dissatisfaction don't want to address is just exactly why the GOP is so damned scary today.  The GOPers didn't get there all on their own, they got there because it was allowed and became somehow acceptable in the national framework of politics.  I'm not saying something here that is speculation, these people got elected and get treated as sane in media, virtually all media, despite where they are at politically.  What has happened over decades is that the GOP's opposition, putatively the Democrats, has done very little that would qualify as opposition.  Opposition entails clear differences in point of view with those you oppose.  Actual legislation frequently means compromises are required, but compromise also involves having honest dealings and it doesn't mean appropriating those opposed point of view.  There is no meaningful push back when one side is going batshit crazy and your poitical campaign is to take half-steps in their direction.  The GOPers and plutocrats are not dissuaded when you assume some of their mantle, they are dissuaded when you make your case clearly and vigorously attack their craziness.

You may  lose Primaries against GOP and plutocratic enablers, you may lose a General against the GOP version, or you may not.  But you will at least have given the voting populace (and non-voters) something to measure against.  When large portions of the populace that could vote consider there to be no meaningful difference between the Parties or are simply voting against GOPer craziness you have demonstrated a loss of direction and convictions.      

No comments: