Progressives ruin everything again (also, too, they don't matter)

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/allison-kilkenny/33206/progressives-ruin-everything-again-also-too-they-dont-matter

Charles Blow beat out a bevy of other hapless NYT columnists this week to win the Most Inane Column award by implementing a tried and true maneuver: point out ancient ritual and pretend it’s a new trend you, Wise Person, just discovered.

The near-apoplectic level of agita within the liberal screeching class over President Obama’s tax-cut compromise has exposed a seismic crack in the Democratic monolith — outspoken liberal Democrats on one side and barely audible moderate Democrats on the other.

Wow! What a keen observation, Charlie! Except, this isn’t a new phenomenon. The “seismic crack” has existed pretty much from the beginning of Obama’s presidency. That’s what that whole fight over the public option was about. It didn’t just start with tax cuts, but rather has existed for nearly a year - beginning when Progressives regained consciousness long enough to realize they’d elected a moderate Clinton 2.0, having erroneously believed him to be the Liberal Second Coming.

Blow then executes some impressive logic jiu-jitsu within the span of a relatively short column. He claims: A) Progressives are ruining the Democratic Party, but also B) Progressives are egotistical asshats because they think they’re Obama’s “base” even though they’re a statistically negligible percentage of the Democratic Party. You see, Progressives are the worst thing since cancer, but also, they don’t matter at all. Got it?

More at the link --

[treestar]

1. The progressives should decide that

1. Do they matter, and thus their threats are something we should be concerned about? If so, they must own the Republican congress they caused by staying home, not canvassing, etc.

2. If they don't, then quit the threats. Recognize they are a small minority and the republicans won because this country does not have many progressives in it.

[TheKentuckian]

3. Lame brained, corporate taint licking centrist should get a handle on that they are almost always

WRONG and implement failed and rejected Republican policies from yesteryear that have a whelks chance in a supernova of working for the broad prosperity of the American people.

[EFerrari]

4. Progressives didn't stay home and they are allowed their input

just as any one is.

[justinsb]

6. You Left Out

3) Leave. That's what I did. I realized that there weren't enough progressives in the United States and that both Republican and Democratic policies were going to take the U.S. over a cliff - rapidly in the case of the Republicans (think Evil Kenevil's attempt to jump the Grand Canyon) more slowly in the case of the Democrats (think Thema & Louise's attempt to jump the Grand Canyon) but the destination is the same (the bottom of the Grand Canyon). So, I moved to Canada shortly after the chimp was elected the first time. Here the Conservatives are (most of the time) to the left of Obama.

[L0oniX]

9. There's a warm dark place where you can stick that authoritarian crap.

[treestar]

10. Excuse me, what's authoritarian about it?

Unless you find logic to be authoritarian? Or mere facts?

What is it? Are the progressives a threat to the Democratic party by withholding their support, or not?

I see it changes depending on the effect.

Before the election there were tons of threats that we'll stay home, we won't work for candidates, etc. Then the election goes to the republicans (that'll teach those Democrats) and suddenly it's we poor, uninfluential progressives.

You get to decide which way it is. But then it stays that way.

[Hello_Kitty]

13. Wow, treestar. That is some mighty Orwellian rhetorical gymnastics there.

Good effort but no bronze medal. Sorry.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[obxhead]

11. I love it!!!

First you blame progressives for 2010 election results. Then you say they are a small insignificant force.

I love it!

:rofl:

[neverforget]

12. Progressives are all powerful except when their not. Then they just get the blame

with some good old hippy punching.

[sabrina 1]

14. Exept it wasn't progressives who stayed home. It was

Independents, almost the same % who voted for Democrats in 2008, did not vote for them or stayed home, in 2010. Also the youth vote.

In Blue Dog country, half the Blue Dogs were thrown out. It is possible that progressives heard the mantra that it was Blue Dogs who were to blame for Obama not being able to pass legislation such as the PO eg, and took it to heart, refusing to spend any more time or money or votes, on the people Obama supporters claimed were the real problem.

They can't have it both ways. On the one hand, they blame Blue Dogs when this administration doesn't fight an issue like the PO, but then on the other hand, blame progressives for accepting that claim and deciding there is no point in keeping them in office.

So which is it? 'We need the Blue Dogs' or 'It is the fault of the Blue Dogs that every piece of progressive legislation gets shot down'?

[EFerrari]

2. We should really stop that.

Or at least call an armed truce for the holidays. :)

[Warpy]

5. Agita means "it churns," so the form is a failure right there. In addition,

the term is most often applied to digestive upset after a big meal. It just makes no sense at all and the idiot who wrote this thing needs to stick to the language he best understands.

Other than that, he's a self contradicting idiot who is blinded by his own ignorant hatred. Phooey.

[lildreamer316]

8. See, I had to go look it up because

I had never seen it used in this context before and I thought I was missing something.
Hmpf.

[emulatorloo]

7. So how many people actually read "Charles Blow" and take his opinion seriously?