|
|
|---|
|
American Politics Journal Atrios Barry Crimmins Betty Bowers Buzzflash Consortium News Daily Howler Daily Kos Democatic Underground Disinfotainment Today Evil GOP Bastards Faux News Channel Greg Palast The Hollywood Liberal Internet Weekly Jesus General Joe Conason Josh Marshall Liberal Oasis Make Them Accountable Mark Morford Mike Malloy Political Humor - About.com Political Wire Randi Rhodes Rude Pundit Smirking Chimp Take Back the Media Whitehouse.org More Links |
Obama
and the 'Professional Left'
Gene
Lyons weighs in...
If nothing else, Gibbs' recent
attack on the White House's liberal critics demonstrates why frankness
often backfires in politics. Speaking with a reporter from the Hill,
Gibbs lampooned Obama's Democratic
detractors in unfortunately sharp terms. His remarks sounded more like
something a White House loyalist
might say after hours in a bar than in a formal interview.
When he hears Democrats compare Obama to Bush, Gibbs complained, "Those
people ought to be drug tested."
People who accuse the administration of cutting too many deals with
so-called centrists on issues like healthcare
"wouldn't be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president."
The Cleveland congressman and two-time failed presidential candidate
pretty much defines the Democrats'
left boundary. Praised by such luminaries as Ralph Nader and Gore
Vidal, he won no primaries in 2004 or 2008.
But what does Gibbs gain by lampooning him?
There's more in the same vein. Critics on what Gibbs called "the
professional left," he maintained, will only be
"satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we've eliminated the
Pentagon. That's not reality."
Concise, memorable and all too true. I've long referred to the
perfectionist wing of the Democratic Party as
the "anti-gravity left" -- educated idealists who confuse the American
electorate with the inhabitants of such
enlightened precincts as Berkeley, Calif., or Northampton, Mass.
They're living examples of the aphorism
Bill Clinton borrowed from Voltaire about letting the perfect become
the enemy of the good."
So, Lyons sees Obama's giving in to the Bitch and the Boner as
practical politics?
Am I reading this right?
They're usually on the illogical side of an argument.
"Wouldn't a world without guns be better?"
Maybe, but we live in THIS world, so wake up and deal with reality.
...but Obama moved to the Right - the radical Left hasn't moved at all.
I say the Left has a right to be disappointed and angry.