Dude, just because you feel that way does not make it so. And while it’s too late to file for a primary challenge in the Dem party, the time to be building up the progressive wing is now. Just letting the center right Dems have their way is what is literally dumb … as in, too scared to speak.
Now, let’s not get carried away. Dumber ideas have been set forth, I feel sure of it. It would be immodest of me to claim this as the dumbest idea evah!
Modern conservatives have so thoroughly demonized the left that they are unable to make effective distinctions. To them, all of the left, be they center-left, socialists, communists, progressives, classic liberals, anarchists, social democrats, etc., are a group of demons prancing about in fright masks around a bonfire made of conservative ideals.
You will live to see American progressivism achieve the level of political hegemony that post-Goldwater movement conservatism achieved with the Reagan Revolution.
Not unless long lost Uncle Lazurus shows up with the twins to take me on board the New Frontiers.
Well, it sure beats Thanksgiving with Uncle Steve.
These are the progressives. This is their platform. You really don’t think that’s a message to resonate with rising American generations? It is. The Tea Party message, OTOH, appeals to the dying – there will be no next generation of Tea Partiers.
It won’t resonate with anyone that has any sense. It boils down to “gimme, gimme, gimme”. Completely out of touch with financial reality, naive, touchy-feely drivel.
I guess I don’t understand why Obama would be forced to engage a progressive primary challenger. Who is this person? Do they have a name? Have they held political office before? Do they have supporters? An organization? People excited about them?
Such a person would have to actually exist before Obama would spend a second worrying about them. Take a look over at the Republican side, there are all kinds of people running, but Romney doesn’t waste a second on most of them. It’s only when they, you know, go up in the polls that the front runner or incumbent has to spend an effort to tear them down.
So your hypothetical progressive would have to actually get somewhere in the polls. Which they wouldn’t do.
Anyway, this whole schtick is why progressives never amount to anything. It’s the same sort of nonsense that dooms OWS and every other progressive cause. They aren’t interested in fighting the Republicans, all they want to do is fight the people around them. Forget the Tea Party, fight the real enemy, which are the slightly less left-wing! You and your kind are exactly why there is not, and never will be a progressive political party in America.
No kidding. It makes them feel good though, and for some that’s all that matters.
True, though I believe the conservative movement’s brains are deliberately setting out to make that happen in their electorate’s mind through their discourse. Witness all the outcry about Obama “imposing socialism”, which fails to even considered he’s hardly been able to “impose” anything, nevermind his policies barely resemble socialism as most of the world understands it.
They’re not demanding anything that hasn’t been proven to work in other countries. They’re certainly better in touch with “financial reality” than the Tea Partiers are.
Bullshit. Small business simply can’t afford half the handouts progressives want. I’m thinking about hanging my shingle, going solo or maybe forming a partnership with another lawyer here in town. We might be able to afford one secretary between us. The margins will be slim, especially as we get the practice started. No way in hell we could afford the kind of benefits progressives demand. Neither can most other “mom & pop” style operations. You can’t pay people to not work and stay in business for very long unless you’re a big company. The revenue simply is not available, even if you were inclined to do it.
Have you considered cutting him/her in on the deal? Tie the assistant’s salary to yours, you make more, he/she makes more. Maybe get a hell of a deal on a paralegal at the same time. You may want to check, but I’m pretty sure egalitarian, collective work environments are legal in most states.
Ah, the old argument that America is inferior to all the other countries that somehow can afford such benefits. A warped form of American exceptionalism that holds America to be uniquely incompetent.
Obama isn’t slightly to the right of progressives; he’s slightly to the left of the Republicans. If he was white and this was ten or so years ago, he’d be a Republican.
The Working Families party has been active in New York for about 15 years and I’d be shocked if even 2% of the people of New York have even heard of them much less support them.
That’s hardly evidence that they “resonate”.
Moreover, I wonder how many of their members are actually the working poor vs. how many are well-educated whites who like to feel good about themselves by joining this political party and pretend they’re making a difference.
Remember the OWS movement has, for the most part, been as white bread as the Tea Party.
Again, you should talk to more minorities rather than living in your bubble.
It’s always hysterical to listen to progressives who supposedly care about poor minorities scream about how awful Obama is and then talk to actual poor black people about how they feel about Obama.
For some reason, the latter don’t seem to have the same sense of entitlement as the former and seem to have much more practical views of the world.
And what have you heard poor black people say about Obama?
More the latter, I should hope, because they have a much better chance of making a difference. All the working-poor can do politically is vote and (time permitting) march.
I suppose, then, that we should just shut up about it? Because our concern for justice lacks some sort of authenticity, some special insight and depth that only arises from victimization? We are not qualified to care?
I’m reminded that, when I was growing up in the 70s, my parents had a picture of John F. Kennedy in the front room, facing the picture of the pope. Paul VI, it was. Then it was John Paul I, and John Paul II, and now it’s Benedict. The popes come and go, but they always hang next to John F. Kennedy. My grandparents did too. Both sets. Also my aunts and uncles. Somewhere in my ex-wife’s house is my picture of John F. Kennedy. I should really get that back from her. I don’t know why I was reminded of that just now.