Dear President Obama, Please shut the f' up about TPP rainbows and unicorns...

[Maedhros]

89. I posted elsewhere a theory I'm formulating:

The Republicans have relentlessly, brutally attacked Obama for altogether imaginary things such as his alleged "socialism", secret Muslim agenda, etc. What they have not done is even mildly criticize Obama for the actual horrendous things he has done (expanding military ops in Africa by 217%, indiscriminate killing of civilians with drones, executing citizens without due process, etc.).

The net effect, as calculated, is to force both the Democratic leadership and the rank-and-file to circle the wagons around Obama and defend him from everything based upon blind partisan loyalty. This lets Obama (e.g.) push hard for the TPP - a Republican wet dream - while at the same time using the Democrats' own rank-and-file to defend it.

Look at all the crappy things that Obama has done (chained CPI/SSI reform, bombing Libya, trying to bomb Syria, reinserting troops into Iraq, criminalizing adversarial journalism, cracking down on whistleblowers, shielding torturers from the law, etc.). The same playbook has been used in each case: use Republican obstructionism and nonsensical character attacks to justify defending whatever Obama does, despite how contrary it runs to traditional Democratic ideals.

Brilliant. It's as if the two Parties were really working together to do all these things.