Time for Another Round of “No Shit, Sherlock”
UPDATED BELOW
sigh:
I simply do not understand the enthusiasm gap, and you manic progressives can figure out how you are going to change your script from blaming Obama for not being liberal enough, because this is Feingold we are talking about.
Really, John? You don’t understand the enthusiasm gap? Because I’ve been reading your site for a few years and you’ve announced several times how badly the Democrats suck. You even say so in your post:
Am I not a progressive? Or do I not spend enough time wailing about how the Democrats have let me down?
I’m kind of in shock. I can not, for the life of me, understand how anyone could think Republican rule would not be disastrous. Even if the Democrats suck.
Enthusiasm gap? Well let’s see (for the billionth fucking time).
How’s the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell going? Last I checked, the only real progress was made by the Log Cabin REPUBLICANS who got it overturned. Has the President signed a stop-loss order ending the discharges? That’s within his power to do, has that happened? we both know it hasn’t.
Or the Defense of Marriage Act: is that still being defended by the Department of Justice? Don’t answer, we both know it is.
John, as atrios reminded us for the sixty-billionth time:
I remember just before the ‘08 election – almost two years ago – betting a friend that unemployment would rise above 7.6%. At the time to many people 7.6% seemed to be a pretty crazy number, even in the middle of the unfolding crisis. Soon after the administration projected that unemployment would peak at 9% from Q1-Q3 2010, and then start declining without any stimulus. It’s now been above 9% since May 2009, including 3 months where it was 10%+. If I had traveled back in time to warn them of this state of affairs, they would have been more likely to believe the time travel part.
TEN PERCENT FUCKING UNEMPLOYMENT, JOHN. OLDER WORKERS PROBABLY NEVER RETURNING TO WORK. MILLIONS WHO HAVE RUN OUT THEIR 99 WEEKS OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND NO NEW MONEY COMING.
I’ll cite Atrios again, so i don’t have to write the same fucking things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again:
It’s the people who are unemployed, union members wondering what happened to EFCA, immigrants and their families who know that we got a bunch of money to militarize the border and stepped up deportation but no progress on immigration reform, and women who might question the administration commitment to reproductive rights for good reasons.
Oh I know, I’m a professional leftist and a firebagger and whatnot: the Democrats, by virtue of the country handing the presidency to a black man named Barack Hussein Obama, were given a mandate to make some pretty big changes. the biggest one so far, health insurance reform, is watered down and delayed for years. Hell, just read what your own commenters say:
The electorate is disaffected, uninformed, fearful, busy, dealing with all kinds of personal crap like unemployment, health care issues, fear for the future, grandma and grandpa’s inability to sell their home and move into assisted living, declining assets etc…etc…etc… and Obama and the dems are wasting time explaining that, really, the last two years have been very successful?
Again: the country elected a black man with a Muslim-sounding name who espoused unabashedly left-wing policies on the campaign trail. the Democrats made big promises, and then when we elected them, they pretended that incremental change was a “big fucking deal”, when anyone paying attention could tell that promises were being broken or distorted or gutted. And that’s when the Party wasn’t allowing divisive numbnuts like Ben Nelson, Bart Stupak, and the Blue Dog jackasses to undermine what little changes were coming down the pike, like when the DSCC gave Nelson a half-million bucks and he spent it on anti-health reform ads. And then there’s the President, constantly reminding Americans that many of his health reform policies are based on Republican ideas: way to blur the narrative, POTUS!
Hell for that matter, in Pennsylvania, the President and Party who promised “Hope and Change” campaigned for Senator Same-Old Bullshit, and actively tried to keep the real Democrat out of the race. That certainly sent a message to new Democratic voters, didn’t it? Not exactly sure how PRODUCTIVE the message was, but it was received all right. And this says nothing about the expansion of state secrets, the failure to hold the previous administration accountable, the ongoing unaccountable bailouts for the banks, the failure to close Gitmo, the semantic games between Gitmo and Bagram, the betrayal on FISA, and on and on. and yes, the democrats passed some good things too: watered down good things that won’t be as effective as advertised, but remember, as the Democrats like to say “it’s better than nothing”, which is what my mom used to say when I didn’t like what she gave me for dinner.
I also want to make clear, I have nothing against John Cole, who’s an excellent blogger, who i read every single day, and as a reformed republican has an intimate knowledge not only of Republican wack-jobbery but also the failings of the Democratic Party. however, today’s post is nothing but another tired exercise in “No Shit, Sherlock.”
Note to the Democrats: maybe if you’d governed the way you campaigned, you wouldn’t be in this boat right now.
UPDATE: I realize she was a strong Hilary Clinton supporter, and therefore now persona non grata among the Philadelphia progressive blog community, but as usual Susie Madrak, one of those older unemployed Americans who’s run out her 99 weeks on unemployment and faces the prospect of never finding work again, nails it:
those of us left living on a wing and prayer thanks to your “half full”, half-assed economic policies just don’t have a sense of humor about our continuing plight. I know it’s been a long time since your mom got food stamps, but you might want to give that empathy thing some thought.
