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Sell Me: A Distractedly Open Thread

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OK, so against my better wishes I find myself writing a diary.  It’s all Strummerson’s fault for getting me going, but I suppose I had a few pages stuck in me somewhere.

The topic is this: “Sell me on being concerned about the Democrats keeping control of Congress.”

I’m exactly the kind of person who was extremely motivated and involved in the Obama election who is today mostly sitting on the sidelines while – in theory – the Dems might get a trouncing in the mid-terms. I will vote in November and it looks like I will vote Democrat mostly, but I’m doing nothing other than my usual talking (here and elsewhere) about it.

Most of you know that I am pretty Centrist on average and hold views on different topics which are in many ways deep parts of both the political right and left. At first glance I put down most of my ennui to an “in power” as opposed to “out of power” situation combined with general up tick in busyness. The more I think about it, however, the more I realize that the answer is more:

“I already got everything I was after.”

So, assuming I am doing more than rambling my fingertips in late-night stupor, I ask my fellow Moose and any passerby who feels like chiming in to convince me that there is some urgency I should feel about November.

Consider this a “Short Attention Span Theater” Open Thread.

The Obama movement was it’s own thing.  A this-isn’t-working thing for almost everyone left of Bill O’Reilly (literally).  A hope-for-inspiring-leadership thing for everyone including some to the right of Bill.

Now we got what we wanted, myself included. Cranky righthanded friends often ask me if I’m still happy with Obama and I honestly say, “Yes. Completely.”  I don’t have any far-left or even deep-left beliefs, and I have no illusion about any president being some perfect creature.  He’s doing about as well as I can expect of a President: his hit-miss rate isn’t too bad; he’s at least very thoughtful and also often correct (the two don’t have as high a correlation rate as many expect); the world and the country are on average performing near the upper portion of the expectation scale I had in late 2008 and early 2009.

I’m not trying to achieve some big goal at the moment. Let me list my take on the issues at hand and see what other major leftward move I feel strongly about:

o  Healthcare: needs to change and my feelings on that are definitively lefthanded.

– We’ve spent all of the resources (temporal and financial) on this one that is prudent at this point. The only thing to do is wait while the new paradigm plays itself out and assess whether it is working and how/why/…

o  Equal rights: Sexual and Religious freedoms need some progress, and my views on that are heavily leftish.

– “Marriage” equality is moving down the pipe about at the best pace reasonably expected. Prop 8 seems to be setup to go for the team by the time it gets done with the Supreme court. A healthy discourse on whether “marriage” is a word the gov’t should get involved in is past the first stages of evolution.

– Discrimination in the military based on sexuality is never going to be stronger and will only get weaker. DODT is definitively now not a permanent stain, and time and tides will wash the shores of it.

– The very same extreme tenor of the rhetoric from the Religious Right that so grates on nerves is in my opinion working wonders to make the reasonable majority in the middle ponder the whole issue. The dialog really has not yet reached the point where the majority feels completely comfortable saying in front of their family and the whole world “this is not a Christian country”, but I can feel that public discourse burbling at the edges and think that we are advancing the topic. Abrahamic extremists of all three branches acting out in front of all of us (well, at least a few billion) in our information-soup world are achieving my goal by working on their own (which will fail miserably, and you can hold me to that).  During WWII there was literally nothing said about Churchill or any other Western leader talking about “Christendom”, and a scant few decades later the very idea is reserved to only the weirdest guests on 700 Club shows.  Nice. Obama being Obama is all one could hope for a president to do to contribute to the effort at this stage.

o  Education: Honestly, don’t care. My view of public ed is very much dead-center politically: I believe we absolutely must have it and should consider expanding it in some way into higher ed; I do not believe that more money is necessarily the way to go about addressing current issues. I am interested in seeing what Obama and the pols can accomplish on this during this period but my expectation for changing this (freaking enormous) structure over periods measured in less than half-decades is extremely low.

– I don’t think paying teachers more is going to save the world on this issue. Good teachers do imho deserve better pay in some places and situations but at the same time I also think there as sweetheart deals for people working in public ed (and public service, period) all over the place that no-one in the private sector get – whether in job security, compensation or retirement.  

Only a few months before I met you folks out here (Jan, 2008, Obama Rapid Response, MyDD…) I had moved from Ontario, Canada where many of my in-laws and friends are teachers. They are paid very well, have absolutely no risk of ever being unemployed again, have a pension plan worth $100B that owns most of the most expensive real estate in Canada (the fact that they own the Toronto Maple Leafs barely registers). For all that and the endless whining I heard from many of those folks, I have had to face the reality that these same schools had educated all three of my children about a year behind their new peers in US public schools. We have since made up the difference, but while that hangs in my mind I have a hard time pushing for any expensive “progressive” solution to demonstrably improve this extremely complicated issue and, again, will be interested to see how Obama’s impact works out over the next decade or two.

o International: Couldn’t be much more pleased if I were twins.

– Iraq draw-down going as planned and stated.  Odds of it working out as well as possible are as high as could be responsibly prayed for.  If it all works out as it seems it might, the very best possible outcome may in the very long term to some extent justify going in there in the first place.  As a Chinese leader once said when asked his opinion on how the French Revolution worked out: “It’s too early to tell”.

– Afghanistan is all-in-all working towards a resolution. I have no doubt that under this administration we will do what we have stated, and like Iraq we will be marking the beginning of the Big Goodbye in not too long.  The fact of that and the general way things are being handled gives me as much reason to believe the country will pursue as positive a path as reasonable to expect, and has potential to thrive during my lifetime even more than it did in my childhood.

– International affairs I am in general pleased as punch with the handling. I like Powell and Albright personally more than Clinton in that role, but I have no real measure of who is actually more effective (which is a good sign that Clinton is doing the job well).  Obama’s view towards international relations and mine jibe to as much of a T as I could wish for: fully grasp the nature and scale of this country; understand at depth the situation of all nations (much more than mine, and I would argue likely more than most anyone’s); understand the complex implications of America’s gravity-well. Always be willing to talk to anyone about anything with complete confidence in your ability to do so and in your ability to deal with them if they insist on resorting to violence (preferably with such massively disproportionate capacity for violence that you only have to worry about that with the real lunatics).

….

I dunno, name an issue that really requires a Democratic majority in Congress to push right now?  I have no reasonable doubt Obama will be re-elected, so any madness a GOP majority Congress could foist on us will end up in the dead-letter pile at 1600 Pennsylvania. I think there is zero (none, zip) chance of a Palin being elected and that the very worst case would be a very moderate and modern Republican winning in 2012 (and immediately being dumped by the Tea Party afterwards, much like the far left deserted Obama).

My main concern in the nation and the world today is that the Chinese economy continue to grow along the current curve for the next few decades. That the US, EMEA, APAC and LATAM economies all grow on average beyond the rate of inflation for decades.  That economic activity translates into jobs and wages and food and clothes and medicine and education and and and…

More than almost anything I am concerned that Western and Eastern technology developers have the opportunity and resources to create the science that will be absolutely critical to solving current global problems and continuing the curve of improvement in the human condition that we have all been living on for all of our lives. If we are to save ourselves much less the Spotted Owl we need to know way way more about everything than we do now, and for that reason alone we need to get peace and stability as many places as possible. We absolutely must have more folks in more places able to focus on writing the User’s Manual that wasn’t included with this damn planet, or the Spotted Owls will have it all to themselves one day.

Now, tell me again why I need to peel off hundreds (or even dozens) of hours making sure the Dems hold on to the House?


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 202 Comments

202 comments

  1. DTOzone

    name an issue that really requires a Democratic majority in Congress to push right now?

    the economy for one thing…we need a majority in Congress that’s willing to push money into job programs, no matter how small, and extend unemployment if that should fail, and not just pass tax cuts for the rich. We don’t need an endless stalemate between congress and the president.

    Healthcare, we need it funded.

    Also, what we don’t need, is endless investigations into Michelle’s trips to Spain and job offers to Senate candidates. The media is hungry for this. i think it’s possible that a Republican Congress can derail Obama’s reelection in a world where facts don’t matter to the media or the people anymore.

  2. GMFORD

    I’ve seen what kind of government we get when the Republicans have full control.  And that was the “old” Republican party before the social conservatives got more than a foot in the door.  I shudder to think what the country would look like if they ever get control again in the future.

    I believe in the Democratic Party’s platform.  Actually, both parties have similar goals, but the Democrats’ platform lists how they will accomplish them where for the Republicans it’s more of a wish list.  (It just occurred to me maybe the Republicans plan on praying them into existence.)

    Speaking of praying, I’m sick of the Evangelicals.  I want them out of government.  My fondest wish is I would never hear the expression “family values” again.  In my family, we do not shove our religious beliefs (or lack of) down everyone’s throat, we do not whine about being persecuted when anyone disagrees with us and we aren’t armed to the teeth.  But I digress (slightly).

    Last but not least, I believe President Obama’s vision of the future is the best one for our country.  I want to give him a Congress that will work with him to achieve it.

  3. jsfox

    want to go backwards? Do you really want to spend the next two years after the election watch the Republicans try and gin up one controversy after another against the Obama administration.

    And then there are the things that still need improving. The HCR could stand improving not repealing there is no chance of that if Republicans take back majorities.

    While Congress may be somewhat farcical now it will truly become a tragic comedy if we allow them to take back majorities.

  4. HappyinVT

    is the possibility of seeing Sarah Palin etc all over my tv crowing about how the 2010 mid-terms were a referendum on the Obama agenda.  “Speaker Boehner” is a close second.

    But, practically, if Dems lose either the majorities or, at a minimum, make significant gains, we will have a bigger stalemate than we’ve had at a time when this country needs serious action.

  5. Strummerson

    unintentionally goad anyone else into writing a constructive diary?

    To answer the question, if you agree with Obama’s initiatives, or at least think they are far preferable to what the other side has to offer, then he needs a legislative branch he can continue to work with.  

    The game on the right is pretty clear: obstruct and blame.  A GOP majority ensures a stalemate that would likely cost Obama any chance of reelection.  Then we’ve got a reliable regression to the failed economic and foreign policies of most of the last ten years.

    Finally, the Republican party has NEVER been dominated by ideologically minded apocalyptics like it is today.  Regardless of the which of their candidates win, you can be sure that the Tea Party will be seen as the victor.  I’m not ready to relinquish this country to them…

  6. spacemanspiff

    To answer the question, if you agree with Obama’s initiatives, or at least think they are far preferable to what the other side has to offer, then he needs a legislative branch he can continue to work with.

    It’s hard enough with the Blue Dogs. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to govern with a Republican majority.  

  7. jsfox

    Read this Vanity Fair Article Washington, We Have a Problem

    It is a fascinating and occasionally  frightening look at a day in the life of Obama and what with which he has to deal.

    Then please look at the comments from those on the right and tell me again how you are not concerned.

  8. Peter Jukes

    From my two years intensive crash course in US politics, courtesy of Senor Moose, there are two things that have struck me about US politics.

    1. On the Left Blogosphere, there are many unreconstructed egos who use quasi Marxist politics in order to bludgeon others with their apparently ‘higher’ morals. They come in different forms, the narcissism of Jane Hamsher or the weasly self exculpation of Jerome Armstrong, but their intent is the same: to increase their own power, publicity and capacity to bully. There’s nothing noble about these people, and having encountered such Left Wing demagogues throughout the 80s in the UK, I know that they are, for all their anti Repugs Rhetoric, mirror images of the power mongering they purport to despise.

    2. On the Right Wing Media Noise machine, there are many unreconstructed egos who use quasi Libertarian and racist politics in order to bludgeon others with their apparently ‘lower’ morals. They come in different forms, the narcissism of Glen Beck or the weasly self exculpation of Rush Limbaught, but their intent is the same: to increase their own power, publicity and capacity to bully. There’s nothing noble about these people, and having encountered such Left Wing demagogues throughout the 80s in the UK, I know that they are, for all their anti Marxist Rhetoric, mirror images of the power mongering they purport to despise.

    Both sides would be mightily pissed off with the Dems keeping power in congress. Need I say more?

    I also have to agree with others who say: for all the various, and varying, faults of the Democrats, the monolithic oppositionist stance of the Republicans for the last year and a half does not deserve to be rewarded with success.

    If the current vogue for populist nativism in the Repulicna Party isn’t defeated comprehensively this round, then centrists like you will never have a representative in the party ever again.

    Don’t reward failure. And the failure of the Dems, apparent that it is, compares favourably with the failure of the Republicans

  9. creamer

    They’ve passed healthcare with no help from the right. They pushed TARP through under Bush and the stimulus under Obama. The 1st is about social justice and long term economic health, the second about survival. It was all ugly, lots of misteps, lots of things to critisize, but it all really matters. They saved our ass.

     The one thing that intrigues me about them taking back the house is their dumbass moronic fiscal policy would be brought into full view.

     Some fast facts from the Tom Hartman show today.

    When Reagan entered office we where the largest exporter in the world, the largest industrial producer in the world, and I believe he said the largest creditor nation in the world.

      Conservatism as we know it seems to suck big time.

  10. Kysen

    Whether it sells it to you is a whole ‘nother matter. I just don’t cotton to seeing all that has been accomplished these past two years go to waste while we spend two years in a quagmire of Republican’s making.

    A) What a majority in Congress would mean for each Party:

    The Democrats: Continue working (albeit often rather ineptly) to see that the goals of the Obama Administration are met. Continue fighting to counter the damage done during the Bush years and continue the attempts to see the Country back on path.

    The Republicans: Continue working to see that the goals of the Obama Administration are NOT met….now with more power behind their record of NO!. Continue the damage done during the Bush years by fighting any attempt to repair it and continue their attempts to see the Country into the proverbial ditch.

    B) What each Party INTENDS to do with the Majority:

    The Democrats: Work with the President to accomplish legislation that keeps our Country moving forward.

    The Republicans: Tie up all legislation and stop any forward movement with an onslaught of subpoenas:

    At a recent speech to Pennsylvania Republicans here, he boasted about what would happen if the GOP wins 39 seats, and he gets the power to subpoena.

    “That will make all the difference in the world,” he told 400 applauding party members during a dinner at the chocolate-themed Hershey Lodge. “I won’t use it to have corporate America live in fear that we’re going to subpoena everything. I will use it to get the very information that today the White House is either shredding or not producing.”

    In other words, Issa wants to be to the Obama administration what Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) was to the Clinton administration – a subpoena machine in search of White House scandals.

    In lieu of constructive legislation…seek to stop any progress with ‘one hearing after another’:

    Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has a plan for what the Republicans should do if they win control of the House of Representatives: Spend all their time investigating the Obama administration.

    “Oh, I think that’s all we should do,” Bachmann told the Three Fingers of Politics website. “I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another, and expose all the nonsense that has gone on. And it’s very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership, because the American people’s patience is about this big. So we have to make sure that we do what the people want us to do.”

    Focus on finding any trivial thing to gin up as a just cause for the impeachment of Obama:

    Yes, Mr. Obama  is a more serious threat to America than al Qaeda. We know that Osama bin Laden and followers want to kill us, but at least they are an outside force against whom we can offer our best defense. But when a dedicated enemy of the Constitution is working from the inside, we face a far more dangerous threat. Mr. Obama can accomplish with the stroke of his pen what bin Laden cannot accomplish with bombs and insurgents.

    ……

    Mr. Obama’s refusal to live up to his own oath of office – which includes the duty to defend the United States against foreign invasion – requires senators and representatives to live up to their oaths. Members of Congress must defend our nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, that means bringing impeachment charges against Mr. Obama.

    C) With the Republican Party as it is…The Party of No would effectively make the last two years of Obama’s first term ‘lame duck’..and, as a result, greatly increase the likelihood of Obama being a single term President (“He hasn’t accomplished ANYTHING in two years! Throw the bum out!”). Fuck that noise. Americans said NO to Republicans in 2008…Republicans have been saying NO to Americans ever since. Does anyone REALLY believe that that will change if they hold the majority? Hell no, they will only dig their feet in further and halt ANY chance of ANYTHING of worth being passed for two years.

    D) As someone above mentioned (I think), I just plain do not want to see/hear the crowing from the Tea Party DoucheNozzles about how the Republicans taking the Majority PROVES that they are right and that their vision of America is what the rest of the Nation wants. Would far rather see/hear their shock at not taking the majority. I want to see a repudiation of the hate and ignorance they are peddling. Put more simply….I hate the ignorant fuckers and I don’t want them getting any validation of their myopic hate-filled views.

    Those are MY reasons. If the Republicans take the majority it will be a complete stalemate for 2 years as they do everything in their power to gin up a reason to Impeach Obama. This is not the Republican Part of the Clinton years…this one is infinitely worse. NOTHING would get done…and that fact, could well hand the Presidency to the Republicans in 2012. No thank you. There is as much reason to fight now….as there was in ’08. Perhaps even more.

  11. Strummerson

    Eugene Robinson, he of the most endearingly muppet-esque voice in the punditocracy, writes about “Obama’s Winning Streak.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

    It’s a bit overly rosy.  But, nonetheless.  And don’t read it on Politico, or at least stay away from the bile-soaked comments.  

  12. spacemanspiff

    The #1 diary on MyDD as we speak is by its resident racist Lakrosse.

    Things have really changed in Left Blogistan.

  13. sricki

    In terms of a thoughtful comment… well really, most of what I would have to say in brief has been covered by the rest of you.

    And what is needed, perhaps, is a full diary response to it, outlining the ways (with plenty of examples/sources) in which the kind of gridlock you seem to be perfectly okay with (and maybe even explicitly for) in fact harms the political process. And not only what harm it will do to Obama’s initiatives for the next 2+ years, but the problems it has caused in the past and the failures and delays we have seen as a result.

    I’m going out of town tomorrow — but when I get back, if no one else has written some sort of response, I suppose I will do it.

    Btw, I know there’s some pissed-off-i-tude at Blask here, who is to an extent goading (I think) and asking for answers which (in my humble opinion) ought be fully obvious and go without saying. However, is there any way we could tamp down the Independent bashing? I am an Independent, but I am neither apathetic nor a fence-sitter — nor even an uninformed, unprincipled flake whose convictions (or lack thereof?) fluctuate with public opinion. My views are very much aligned with the Left, and frankly lie a good deal Leftward of the current incarnation of the Democratic party. Still, between the two viable parties, I vote Democratic. Likewise, my loony far right father is currently a registered Independent, and however stupid his beliefs and politics may be, no one can say he isn’t committed to them. He is simply Rightward of even this wingnut Republican party. Still, he votes Republican. In my personal experience — and I can’t speak for the polls or statistics — Independents are not just wishy-washy poll watchers. I’m sure there are plenty who don’t really care about politics, but how many registered Democrats and Republicans don’t really pay attention or give a damn? It’s not exactly a disease of Independents, but of this country in general.  

  14. louisprandtl

    Despite the talk of double dip recession, and Bobswern’s DKos daily dose of economic nightmare, I just happen to feel that the economy is turning around. I also know that the same economists who couldn’t predict the onset of recession and were cheerleading the DOWJONES, are now dire predictors of economic calamity.

  16. jsfox

    has been said. So I will let Eric Cantor finish the conversation for me:

    http://www.politico.com/news/s…

    House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said a House GOP majority will focus on aggressive oversight of the Obama administration, will work to defund the agencies responsible for implementing health care and will push a “zero tolerance” ethics policy. He also said Republicans may roll back their ban on earmarks, as long as the spending items have “merit.”

  17. Hollede

    I don’t have a long enough attention span to have read thru all of the comments yet, so I apologize if this has already been stated, but my answer to your query is that I think we need leaders. I honestly don’t care if they are Democratic or Republican, I just want leaders who care for this country and yes, even the world in which we live. As of late, the only folks even resembling that definition, are Democratic.

    Oh and I want a big fat tax hike on millionaires and billionaires. Oh and I want a progressive employee payroll tax rate. Let’s pass a tax break for every working American in this country and stop taking payroll tax out of the first $20,000.00 we/they earn and start taxing the wealthy (did you know they hardly pay anything into payroll tax?) at a higher rate to make up the difference. Not my idea, but a good one, from a very smart guy. At least that is one of his ideas…he has a bunch more. I think he is dead on target most every time I read his work or hear him speak.

    In case you don’t feel like checking out the link, I will just post the product description from Mr Reich’s new book Aftershock due out September 21, 2010.

    Product Description

    A brilliant new reading of the economic crisis-and a plan for dealing with the challenge of its aftermath-by one of our most trenchant and informed experts.

    When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street. But Robert B. Reich suggests a different reason for the meltdown, and for a perilous road ahead. He argues that the real problem is structural: it lies in the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top, and in a middle class that has had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living.

    Persuasively and straightforwardly, Reich reveals how precarious our situation still is. The last time in American history when wealth was so highly concentrated at the top-indeed, when the top 1 percent of the population was paid 23 percent of the nation’s income-was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. Such a disparity leads to ever greater booms followed by ever deeper busts.

    Reich’s thoughtful and detailed account of where we are headed over the next decades reveals the essential truth about our economy that is driving our politics and shaping our future. With keen insight, he shows us how the middle class lacks enough purchasing power to buy what the economy can produce and has adopted coping mechanisms that have a negative impact on their quality of life; how the rich use their increasing wealth to speculate; and how an angrier politics emerges as more Americans conclude that the game is rigged for the benefit of a few. Unless this trend is reversed, the Great Recession will only be repeated.

    Reich’s assessment of what must be done to reverse course and ensure that prosperity is widely shared represents the path to a necessary and long-overdue transformation. Aftershock is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for both restoring America’s economy and rebuilding our society.

    To paraphrase Corporal Cueball; ‘It’s about the money stupid.’

     

  18. Hollede

    I think this is another good reason to support Democratic candidates:

    Huh, that is weird. Let’s try another one…

    Hmmm. Very odd…they all seem to be like that. I wonder why? I am not having trouble with any other tubes. Of course I haven’t been tubing much lately…Well anyway, my point is: another reason to vote Democratic, is the notion of John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Let’s see if we can find his latest brilliant idea somewhere else.

    Ah there it is…

    I am truly shocked that this is the only YouTube I could find that even would show this bit of news today. I wonder why? I may need to look into this further.

    Oh here is another reason we don’t need a Speaker of the House John Boehner…

    Heh, any questions? I am not normally fond of Chris O’Donnell, but that rocked…just us kids with teh computers;~P

    BTW, I didn’t seem to have any trouble with that tube. What is it about what Mr Boehner said today that is messing with the YouTube? I have been busy and haven’t had a chance to catch up on my online news sources. I just heard it a few times on MSNBC today and figured it would be all over teh YouTube. I guessed wrong…but back to your original question Chris; I can keep thinking of reasons to support Democratic candidates endlessly. But instead I will just work my way through the other comments, so I don’t end up repeating what others have said (or rather continue repeating;~? Heh. We shall see…)

  19. Hollede

    You must be doing something right. This diary has gotten almost 150 amazing comments in the past week. Kudos to you buddy.

  20. creamer

    is I would be voting for intolerance. Now I understand that every republican doesn’t believe homosexuality is a desease, or that Muslims are somehow the spawn of the devil. Or that American= white christian.

     But if I vote with them do I not validate to the hatred, incivility and intolerance that they preach.

    Here in Michigan a moderate bussinessman named Snyder won the GOP nod for Govenor. Michigan has been in trouble long before the current crisis, and from an economic standpoint I feel I have to at least listen to him.

     But then I find myself voting with those I fundementaly disagree with. Different tax policies, economic theroy, size of government, all debatable. Discriminate becasue of race,creed, sex orientation…..thats a problem.

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