Taking liberals under the bleachers

[xerox78]

Liberal Blogger Accuses White House of "Hippie Punching"

The White House yesterday beseeched liberal bloggers to help the administration rally Democratic voters this November, but instead, the Democrats' liberal base decided to let the White House know just how disappointed they are in the administration.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod

Comments

[haruhiko]

Lmao, these arguments again.

Just because Obama ran as a moderate (read: what any other industrialized nation would call right-wing) doesn't mean that he didn't co-opt a lot of the rhetoric and talking points of progressives and liberals in order to win support. Nor does it change the fact that many of those who organized for him were progressives and have every right to call him out on his bullshit. Hell, people who didn't campaign for him have every right to criticize him. If he didn't ~need~ the liberals and the progressives Axelrod wouldn't be on a conference call with a bunch of bloggers asking them to pull back on the punches. Because that's what a good media source does: Go easy on a politician when they're fucking up because you like their party somewhat better than the other one, amirite? @_@

Besides, if he ran as a right-winger "moderate" and is truly a moderate at heart, that is all the more reason for progressives to hold his administration's feet to the fire and call them out on their bullshit and clamor for more NOW instead of expecting that Obama's Legendary, Yet-to-be-Seen-on-Camera Progressive Nature will kick in at some point late into his hypothetical second term and that he might actually fix things come that day.

Progressives from all sides -- leftists, moderates, Obama supporters, Obama ~hataz~ -- are not upset because things haven't happened YET. They're upset because a whole slew of truly BAD things have happened, things which the establishment Dems were happy to savage Bush over yet can't seem to muster the same critical thinking now, whether it's because one of their own is in power or because they don't want to get marginalized as downers/armchair analysts/harmful to the cause/crazy Pokémon Kucinichus just for speaking the truth.

The criticisms from the left have nothing to do with a perceived "betrayal" of some mythical progressive presidential campaign, or an inability to understand that ~things take time~. The criticisms come from a very real sense that the administration's priorities and values are not where they should be for a Democratic White House, let alone a progressive White House, which is all the more frustrating because a lot of things constantly dismissed as too progressive (read: politically unpopular) have strong MAJORITY support. As I said in another post re. DADT, no one's asking him to chain himself to a fence with Dan Choi, or to do the work of the House and Senate for them; we're just asking someone who says he's a ~fierce advocate~ to fucking act like one and make even a token effort on our behalf, perhaps calling a Senator before the vote instead of calling a sports team to congratulate them.

And as Glenn Greenwald stated in the link I posted above, and as this article is trying to point out, from a purely pragmatic standpoint surely the administration must realize that if it wants to fire up its liberal base for the upcoming election, the last thing it should be doing is focusing its bawwing and criticisms at its own base. You can't take a page out of the Republican playbook and demean progressive media types as some elitist, out-of-touch/ivory tower "professional left" and then conference call them and ask them to help you make your case with voters.

The bleachers analogy is a good one, and the only way this administration is going to win back progressive support is by making the case themselves, not by cajoling the media into doing it for them. No one in the media who has any respect for what they do is going to pull that kind of shit, though based on the very fact that these people had enough access to be on a conference call with Axelrod I'm sure that some of them already have in the past.

[free_spoons]

The criticisms from the left have nothing to do with a perceived "betrayal" of some mythical progressive presidential campaign, or an inability to understand that ~things take time~. The criticisms come from a very real sense that the administration's priorities and values are not where they should be for a Democratic White House, let alone a progressive White House, which is all the more frustrating because a lot of things constantly dismissed as too progressive (read: politically unpopular) have strong MAJORITY support. As I said in another post re. DADT, no one's asking him to chain himself to a fence with Dan Choi, or to do the work of the House and Senate for them; we're just asking someone who says he's a ~fierce advocate~ to fucking act like one and make even a token effort on our behalf, perhaps calling a Senator before the vote instead of calling a sports team to congratulate them.

this times a billion-million

[lizzy_someone]

I'll just be over here rereading this comment and admiring it.

[jugglingeggs]

Basically. Amazing comment!

[sasha_davidovna]

Amen to this!

[fruhlings]

this so much.

[keithmex17]

brb, fapping to this comment

[chesari]

You can't take a page out of the Republican playbook and demean progressive media types as some elitist, out-of-touch/ivory tower "professional left" and then conference call them and ask them to help you make your case with voters.

Oh so agreed. If the WH wants the "professional left" to be respectful, then the WH needs to take the first step and be respectful themselves. And actually LISTEN to reasonable criticisms of their policies and DO something about the issues identified in those criticisms, or if they can't do something, at least explain why. And when they screw up, apologize, and then do better going forward.

[julieannie]

Thank you for this.