I moved out of Mommy's house roughly twenty years ago. I figure I'm allowed to cultivate some imagination if I'm paying my own bills, even in political matters. :p For example, my Mom still thinks Humphrey was a great guy. I think he was a gullible, pandering sellout-- a dry run for the likes of Gore and Biden.
The finger-pointing at Greens and such as modern-day Hitler-enablers always dodges a crucial point: Why are the Communists in Germany held up for not wanting to work with the SD, and not the other way around ? Why must supposed extremism always crawl on its belly begging for an audience with supposed centrism --the latter having a superiority innate enough to be understood in these little historic parallels/tableaus-- that the former is not allowed, even once in awhile ?
The trouble with these parallels is that they excuse moderates who refuse to dirty themselves by dealing with the very same people they acuse of obsessive "purity"-- even as said moderates excuse themselves from any culpability for the downward spiral they're in, they stand tall and proud in their refusal to concede any point at all to the supposed extremists. Well, not those on their left, any way. Scratch the defiant surface of anti-Bush jokes or fuming at the hateful Bible thumpers, and it's all about the "strategy" of jettisoning various sub-groups of loyalists (gays, feminists, labor, blacks) in order to look godly enough to peel off a few swing voters in Peoria.
Well, if you ask me, both these things cannot be true at the same time. Either moderates need those on their Left to prevail, or they don't. If they do, they must address the concerns of those to their Left. If they don't, they ought to stop treating those on their Left as a wholly-owned subsidiary belonging to whichever DLC fuckwit they meekly help anoint in two years.
Which is it in Billmon-land, I wonder ? Has he decided, or is he just another liberal blogger determined to constantly re-enact that old joke about milking the cow and the goat at the same time, while peddling the results as ginger ale ?
(Smithee may recognize that last bit. A hint to any DP loyalists lurking about: It didn't originate with Mrs. Bush.)
Comments (6)
great stuff
like alan and j alva
you got blogtationability
galore
tried to coment at your site
but as usual couldn't figure out how
recall the gary larson cartoon
of a chubby
stripe shirted pug
buzz cut
of a boy kid
pushing with a full body lean
on the pull door entrance to the school for exceptional children
Posted by js paine | June 14, 2006 10:42 AM
Posted on June 14, 2006 10:42
Yeah, that second-to-last paragraph sounds a bit like me when the "centrist" demobots have me fired up. But I'm tucking away that boffo third paragraph for the next time I'm slapping around party-line voting androids on the Majority Report blog. Well put, ms_xeno!
Posted by AlanSmithee | June 14, 2006 10:54 AM
Posted on June 14, 2006 10:54
Ah, Thanks, Guys. There should be a "comment" option at the end of each LJ post, JSP. Adjust them bifocals, man !
Alan, if you're butting heads with anyone associated with Air America, you're made of infinitely stronger stuff than I. My husband got so sick of my snarling at the dashboard that he doesn't even play it in the car on our grocery runs anymore.
That cow/goat bit is from one of James Baldwin's film essays in his The Devil Finds Work collection. I hope that I quoted it correctly. He was delivering a volley of slaps to the film version of Porgy and Bess, IIRC.
Posted by ms_xeno (fka alsis39.9) | June 14, 2006 1:48 PM
Posted on June 14, 2006 13:48
Oooh. I see. No, I'm more of a Jerry Warren / Bert I. Gordon kinda guy.
But I can fully understand why your hubbie can't take AAR anymore. I started out listening to every show and now I'm down to Majority Report and the occassional Laura Flanders on the weekend. Their call letters might as well be WDLC.
Posted by AlanSmithee | June 14, 2006 3:07 PM
Posted on June 14, 2006 15:07
Air America makes me sick. In Portland (OR), it's combined with a big fat infusion of Ed Schultz, the centrist Rush Limbaugh. The entire concept of "liberal" (excuse me, "progressive") talk radio is a joke, because the talk show format is designed for use by authoritarian idiots who love the sound of their own voice. The only reasonable outcome of all this is turgid tribalism, whether it be for the right or the left.
Any station which touts Al Franken as their flagship commenter has no claim to the ears of... well, anybody. I say this having suffered through his books.
Posted by Djur | June 14, 2006 7:28 PM
Posted on June 14, 2006 19:28
Hey, Alan, you should at least see if your library has it. Not a long book at all, and it's a hoot to see him go after sacred cows like The Exorcist. I'm just sorry that he didn't get around to analyzing Night of the Living Dead.
Actually, mr_xeno loves the station;He just doesn't like my snarling. I agree with Djur, though. One hasn't really lived until they've heard Randi Rhodes shout down some caller who doggedly tries to insist that, yes, even public schools in "liberal" strongholds can be racist. And so on.
Even at eleven or twelve, I couldn't figure out why anyone thought Al Franken was funny. I used to feel that way about Roz Chast's cartoons, too, but I've matured into a fondness for those. 1 out of 2 isn't bad, is it ?
Posted by ms_xeno (fka alsis39.9) | June 15, 2006 12:23 AM
Posted on June 15, 2006 00:23