tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post7127678862694744615..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Establishment Media Deliberately Misrepresents Inspirational Conclusion of Obama's CBC Address As CastigationDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-66445932555055012402011-09-29T18:41:19.254-07:002011-09-29T18:41:19.254-07:00I already know the litany of things Obama has done...I already know the litany of things Obama has done I disapprove of, as well as a litany of things he's done that I do approve of, and even more that I like better than not -- not to mention litanies of flabbergasting ongoing and upcoming evil Republicans are up to. You know, it matters that everybody who sensibly IS criticizing Obama, everybody in power who sensibly IS struggling against what you and I disapprove in Obama, everybody who is NOT afraid to point out these abuses on progressive terms is a Democrat who will benefit from an Obama Presidency. You say nobody is criticizing Obama but that is patently false -- unless you are unwilling to count as criticism any criticism that does not amount to struggling to topple his Presidency. Do you think toppling the Obama presidency or demoralizing Democratic voters or losing the Senate or failing to regain the House will save a single person from Guantanamo or get us out of Iraq a single day sooner or end illegal spying? Do you really think that, Martin? Quite apart from all the complete shit you know Republicans will do if they can because they are already trying to do so right before your eyes! It's not that I am afraid or lack the guts to rail against Obama immoderately or indiscriminately, it's just that I have a brain and I am using it. Like I said, join the ACLU (I'm a card carrying member and donor, are you?) and fight for these issues, but also work to re-elect Obama or you're working to elect a Republican who will do nothing to support outcomes you claim to care about while doing incomparably worse in incomparably more.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-9857478663517876582011-09-29T16:09:14.306-07:002011-09-29T16:09:14.306-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-69572933717059544022011-09-29T15:39:27.322-07:002011-09-29T15:39:27.322-07:00I suspect I oppose much that you do, Martin. But I...I suspect I oppose much that you do, Martin. But I demand you actually specify what you mean by "oppose" if my own support of the President despite my shared opposition to these matters presumably invites these facile pseudo-psychological diagnoses on your part. If opposition enables Republicans who are no better on these issues and incomparably worse on most others then it is objectively reactionary, even when the outcome you desire too and in the name of which you want to shoot yourself in the foot is profoundly progressive. <br /><br />Again, this doesn't mean we should ignore these terrible injustices, but we have to find ways of doing so that don't only benefit those who are enemies of equity and justice otherwise. <br /><br />"Loudly" certainly won't cut it, especially if it is a loudness that drowns out awareness of the crimes and evil plans of the right or demoralizes the always skittish left into an inaction that enables worse outcomes in every way. <br /><br />I think we need to keep shining a spotlight on the administration where it is wrong, but not in ways that distract skittish voters from supporting the administration where it is right (already "enthusiasm gap" stories are already appearing -- just as they were this time before the literally catastrophic 2010 result -- with all sorts of claims about the advantages it confers for Republicans). I recommend you join and support the ACLU and Amnesty International, write your representatives to informs them of your issues (if they are Democrats they are likely to sympathize with much that you say), and then donate, phone-bank and vote for every goddamn Democrat you can. More, and Better, Democrats is our only hope. <br /><br />I'm not asking you to like it, I'm asking you to face it.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-54880147533051100812011-09-29T15:39:19.777-07:002011-09-29T15:39:19.777-07:00That the article demands we set "realism"...That the article demands we set "realism" aside as inadequate and leap feet first into the most appalling obfuscatory anti-intellectual pop psychology should make you more leery than it seems to have done. <br /><br />By the way, Obama's civil liberties policies include some unprecedented feminist and lgbtq victories, too. Shall we oppose all for opposing some?<br /><br />Some of what you say here simply flabbergasts me. If you really think Dems should be wasting energy and money on a completely quixotic primary challenge to Obama right now you should I have to wonder if you are suffering from a head injury (pop psychologist to pop psychologist). <br /><br />The DCCC and DCDC haven't even gotten candidates to challenge every congressional seat yet for 2012 for fuck's sake, at a time when winning back the House and keeping the Senate are desperate matters with little hope of success whatever their necessity. <br /><br />I must say I despair a bit at the level of a mind so cartoonish that it can only regard Obama as the best available option by making recourse to assumptions about Obama as some sort of celebrity persona. If you think I advocate more, and better, democrats because I have Stockholm Syndrome I can only assume you haven't noticed that the only people in power who advocate anything remotely like outcomes I cherish are all fucking Democrats while the fucking Republican Party is full of white-racist Christian-Talibanist science-denialist neo-feudal corporatists who want to dismantle civilization. <br /><br />Gee, DER, what side should I be on? DER! <br /><br />I agree that the Obama Administration has continued Bush Administration policies in too many areas -- I opposed his Afghanistan surge, I opposed the Libyan intervention (as I recall you didn't), I oppose undeclared war via drone attacks, I oppose Guantanamo (which Congress failed Obama on not vice versa), military tribunals (again Congress was little help there), on the Unitary Executive, Bradly Manning, wikileaks hysteria, trumped up terror-plots and so on.<br /><br />To support the President in spite of that is neither to support everything he does or even to say what I don't support matters less than what I do -- especially since I strongly believe that even on much that I do not support in the President the best way to empower those who might lend their support to what I do support instead (perhaps paradoxically, but not really) requires support of the President, and through that support of the President, support of the election and empowerment of more of the people of his own party like me who remain the people most likely to agree with me in NOT supporting the President on those very issues.<br /><br />It doesn't matter if thinking at this level of complexity breaks your heart or hurts your head. This is what grown up participation in politics requires, to the extent that this politics is partisan rather than, say -- educational via issues oriented organizations, organizational via campaigns toward better local legislation or lobbying for such at higher levels, or takes more revolutionary forms that disdain partisan reform. <br /><br />For many of these alternatives you know as a regular reader of mine, I have varying degrees of sympathy, so long as those who engage them know what they are doing and don't pretend what they are doing is something other than it is or has a better chance at a more progressive yield of outcomes than it really does.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-5704731227332680152011-09-29T14:32:16.291-07:002011-09-29T14:32:16.291-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.adminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01020701980607126113noreply@blogger.com