High minded liberals!
I was reading this article about Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. I, of course, don't think that the Nobel Peace Prize is worth anything at all. I mean, for fuck's sake, Kissinger got this dog. Kissinger. This guy is in part responsible for the deaths of around two million people, this unrepentant warmonger, and he gets the Nobel Peace Prize . . .
Okay, I've registered my disgust with the Nobel committee. Who knew that a prize made by a huge fucking warmonger, that'd be Nobel, who killed a lot of Americans with landmines, would be hypocritical? I wish that Nobel had soothed his conscience by getting out of arms dealing instead of making some silly, corrupt prize . . . oh, damn, I'm supposed to be done registering my disgust with the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm really done for this post. Promise.
Anyway, Mr. Kettle says that Obama recognizes politics is messier than high minded liberals in America . . .
Man, that was a full stop for me. I know a lot of liberals. I'm not one, myself, because somewhere to the left of Marx, but I know a bunch of people like that, and what consistently strikes me about liberals in America is that they're not particularly high minded. That they do not, generally, vote their consciences, that they will, time and again, hold their nose and press the lever for the Democratic candidate, no matter how much of a dog he might be. That they do not, in fact, demand of their party anything high minded at all. So, neither in the past two Presidential elections, neither Kerry nor Obama was held to actually being anti-war. A lot of anti-war Democrats supported these pro-war candidates. Neither Kerry nor Obama are being held to proposing a real single payer health care option, even though about 60% of Americans want one, even after hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising to convince them otherwise. Right now, we're seeing this intensely embarrassing climate conference going on in Copenhagen, where the US is torpedoing any meaningful reform . . . while “high minded” liberals don't say a word.
Indeed, probably my biggest problem with the Democrats is that none of them are honestly high minded. You see a bunch of that over on the Republican side of things - people who passionately believe in capitalism, even when they're on the fuzzy end of the stick of it. They have profound beliefs about the way the world ought to be and they'll hold their politicians feet to the fire to get their way. The current Teabagger movement (I can hardly type those words without a laugh, hehe, teabaggers, hehe) is merely the most recent incarnation of this, but you can go back to the Reagan revolution, Gingrich's Contract with America, so forth and so on, and see time and again the abiding passion with which Republicans approach the political process. I profoundly disagree with conservative Republicans, of course, even moreso than liberal Americans, though I often would rather talk to conservatives because, y'know, we can be clear: we disagree. With liberals, it can frustrate me intensely because we seem to agree but the people they vote for and support act almost diametrically opposed to their expressed values and they keep electing these people!
So, honestly, I have no idea where a person would get the least little impression that American liberals are high minded. I actually think the party would be better off if more of them were high minded, but I have trouble finding a liberal who doesn't talk about politics in a very realpolitick sense . . . a term coined by Kissinger, I should note.
Okay, I've registered my disgust with the Nobel committee. Who knew that a prize made by a huge fucking warmonger, that'd be Nobel, who killed a lot of Americans with landmines, would be hypocritical? I wish that Nobel had soothed his conscience by getting out of arms dealing instead of making some silly, corrupt prize . . . oh, damn, I'm supposed to be done registering my disgust with the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm really done for this post. Promise.
Anyway, Mr. Kettle says that Obama recognizes politics is messier than high minded liberals in America . . .
Man, that was a full stop for me. I know a lot of liberals. I'm not one, myself, because somewhere to the left of Marx, but I know a bunch of people like that, and what consistently strikes me about liberals in America is that they're not particularly high minded. That they do not, generally, vote their consciences, that they will, time and again, hold their nose and press the lever for the Democratic candidate, no matter how much of a dog he might be. That they do not, in fact, demand of their party anything high minded at all. So, neither in the past two Presidential elections, neither Kerry nor Obama was held to actually being anti-war. A lot of anti-war Democrats supported these pro-war candidates. Neither Kerry nor Obama are being held to proposing a real single payer health care option, even though about 60% of Americans want one, even after hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising to convince them otherwise. Right now, we're seeing this intensely embarrassing climate conference going on in Copenhagen, where the US is torpedoing any meaningful reform . . . while “high minded” liberals don't say a word.
Indeed, probably my biggest problem with the Democrats is that none of them are honestly high minded. You see a bunch of that over on the Republican side of things - people who passionately believe in capitalism, even when they're on the fuzzy end of the stick of it. They have profound beliefs about the way the world ought to be and they'll hold their politicians feet to the fire to get their way. The current Teabagger movement (I can hardly type those words without a laugh, hehe, teabaggers, hehe) is merely the most recent incarnation of this, but you can go back to the Reagan revolution, Gingrich's Contract with America, so forth and so on, and see time and again the abiding passion with which Republicans approach the political process. I profoundly disagree with conservative Republicans, of course, even moreso than liberal Americans, though I often would rather talk to conservatives because, y'know, we can be clear: we disagree. With liberals, it can frustrate me intensely because we seem to agree but the people they vote for and support act almost diametrically opposed to their expressed values and they keep electing these people!
So, honestly, I have no idea where a person would get the least little impression that American liberals are high minded. I actually think the party would be better off if more of them were high minded, but I have trouble finding a liberal who doesn't talk about politics in a very realpolitick sense . . . a term coined by Kissinger, I should note.