Purely Piling on B. Obama
Recently it's been painful for me to write anything to post here, the reason being that the biggest ongoing story these days is the concerted attempt to discredit President B. Obama for any reason that can possibly be dredged up, and in particular the way that so many so -called "Progressives" are increasingly following the Republican lead in trashing him at every opportunity, so much so that I am no longer able to see much difference between the two groups. And this is despite the fact that, much as it might've been expected, I didn't vote for Obama in the primaries, though I did do so in the general election.
This piling on became clear to me almost from the day that Obama was sworn in, at a site called "Common Dreams." Once upon a time Common Dreams had been a truly progressive site, but as soon as Obama became President he came under severe fire from the authors and the commenters there. It quickly grew so vicious and constant that I had to stop reading Common Dreams. Still, once in a while I would check back to see if the barrages against him had eased up any, but there was never any such luck.
Recently there was an article in Common Dreams that was typical of this unfortunate bag in which so many supposed Progressives now -- if they but knew -- find themselves hanging by their tongues. It is titled "The Bad Deal", and was written by someone named James Galbraith. Though the article is mostly about the recent agreement made on extending the debt ceiling, Galbraith devotes the first few paragraphs to his proposition that the Europeans are now also following the U.S. Republican lead in trashing Obama, and Galbraith seems to be gleeful about stating this. He sounds almost as delighted as were the great majority of the numerous commenters who rushed to throw their two cents onto the offal pile that begins and fatally discolors what is probably otherwise a quite credible discussion of the debt situation.
This has all been seen before. In Obama's case it is caused mainly by badly concealed skin color bigotry, but in Bill Clinton's time the same thing happened, and it was caused by the common cause that the hatred of the Republicans for anything even remotely worthwhile coincides with the contempt that certain Progressives feel whenever the Democrats don't quite do all the things that they want to see done and with the desired speed. Plus it also involves the frustration that these Progressives feel at how remote the chances are of forming a third party that has any chance of furthering their goals.
I call this process of shooting one's self in their calf muscles the "Bartcop Syndrome." During the GWBush regime, while he was strongly against the Repubs, the proprietor of the longtime and highly entertaining weblog, Bartcop, spent more time castigating the Democrats -- whom you would think he would have seen as being his natural allies -- than he did the Republicans. In fact sometimes it was hard not to think that he was actually a closet Repub, because of the abundance of pictures he would run of GW Bush, much more than of Clinton or anyone else. Showing boatloads of pictures of someone is a sure sign of strong respect, isn't it? And a quick look at Bartcop's site nowadays shows that, while he doesn't appreciate the current Repub "heroes" nearly as much as he did Bush, at least graphically, he still hasn't escaped his old follies, as demonstrated by the numerous shots he now likes to take at Obama.
I think I know the reason for this barely hidden Progressive admiration for the Repubs. Not so deep in their hearts they would like to see Progressives being just like Repubs when it comes to unrelenting nastiness and unending aggressiveness.
These mistaken souls don't see the numerous Rocks of Stupidity and Insanities upon which those supposedly admirable traits have washed up and shipwrecked the Repubs, as is so clearly shown by their present crop of dummies who inexplicably see themselves as excellent candidates to be the next U.S. President, though they are mainly much better prospects for taking long hikes on the Planet Uranus.
This piling on became clear to me almost from the day that Obama was sworn in, at a site called "Common Dreams." Once upon a time Common Dreams had been a truly progressive site, but as soon as Obama became President he came under severe fire from the authors and the commenters there. It quickly grew so vicious and constant that I had to stop reading Common Dreams. Still, once in a while I would check back to see if the barrages against him had eased up any, but there was never any such luck.
Recently there was an article in Common Dreams that was typical of this unfortunate bag in which so many supposed Progressives now -- if they but knew -- find themselves hanging by their tongues. It is titled "The Bad Deal", and was written by someone named James Galbraith. Though the article is mostly about the recent agreement made on extending the debt ceiling, Galbraith devotes the first few paragraphs to his proposition that the Europeans are now also following the U.S. Republican lead in trashing Obama, and Galbraith seems to be gleeful about stating this. He sounds almost as delighted as were the great majority of the numerous commenters who rushed to throw their two cents onto the offal pile that begins and fatally discolors what is probably otherwise a quite credible discussion of the debt situation.
This has all been seen before. In Obama's case it is caused mainly by badly concealed skin color bigotry, but in Bill Clinton's time the same thing happened, and it was caused by the common cause that the hatred of the Republicans for anything even remotely worthwhile coincides with the contempt that certain Progressives feel whenever the Democrats don't quite do all the things that they want to see done and with the desired speed. Plus it also involves the frustration that these Progressives feel at how remote the chances are of forming a third party that has any chance of furthering their goals.
I call this process of shooting one's self in their calf muscles the "Bartcop Syndrome." During the GWBush regime, while he was strongly against the Repubs, the proprietor of the longtime and highly entertaining weblog, Bartcop, spent more time castigating the Democrats -- whom you would think he would have seen as being his natural allies -- than he did the Republicans. In fact sometimes it was hard not to think that he was actually a closet Repub, because of the abundance of pictures he would run of GW Bush, much more than of Clinton or anyone else. Showing boatloads of pictures of someone is a sure sign of strong respect, isn't it? And a quick look at Bartcop's site nowadays shows that, while he doesn't appreciate the current Repub "heroes" nearly as much as he did Bush, at least graphically, he still hasn't escaped his old follies, as demonstrated by the numerous shots he now likes to take at Obama.
I think I know the reason for this barely hidden Progressive admiration for the Repubs. Not so deep in their hearts they would like to see Progressives being just like Repubs when it comes to unrelenting nastiness and unending aggressiveness.
These mistaken souls don't see the numerous Rocks of Stupidity and Insanities upon which those supposedly admirable traits have washed up and shipwrecked the Repubs, as is so clearly shown by their present crop of dummies who inexplicably see themselves as excellent candidates to be the next U.S. President, though they are mainly much better prospects for taking long hikes on the Planet Uranus.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 7:55 AM
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