vastleft's blog

So long, and thanks for all the ponies!

2008-05-09T15:42:43-04:00

It’s been quite an experience commiserating and/or tangling with y’all throughout this slouch toward November 4, 2008.

While I don’t agree with Ian Welsh on the implication that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Hillary and Barack, he speaks for me when he says:

Within a year of Obama getting in power, progressives and liberals will feel about him the way they do today about Pelosi and Reid.

But at least he might stop torturing people; probably won’t invade Iran, and won’t appoint an Alito clone to the Supreme Court. You take what you can get.

If Hillary Clinton, who’s done so much to earn my respect in this campaign, can’t quite become the #1 Comeback Kid in the family, I’ll do what I must to put the X next to the D this fall. I hope you’ll join me in that.

Throughout this campaign, I’ve neglected my Bible Study, and it’s to the Good Book I return.

Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you.

"Creative Class" vs. "Special Class"

2008-05-09T12:28:00-04:00

Given that I’m pretty well convinced that Hillary doesn’t — as the MSM has self-fulfilled — “have a path to the nomination,” I thought maybe I could chill out and quietly watch this thing play out to its seemingly inevitable conclusion.

Look, I said it. Obama is going to win. But this continuing, nay escalating, triumphalist shit about how he’s transformed politics is just pissing me the fuck off. And ditto for his “we’ve got more runs in the 9th inning” bullshit. It’s no goddamned ninth inning. [Note: I see that Lambert has already expanded on the linked material in a most-interesting post here.]

But congrats, nonetheless. You’ve hacked the system, and you’re going to get your nomination. It comes at an extraordinary cost. What cost? Sorry, I’m going Laura Petrie on you here, myself: “If you don’t care enough to know, I’m not going to tell you.”

Actually I did try to tell you. And the sound of crickets tells me that the extremely classy olive-branch crowd simply doesn’t care to know.

Anyway, I haven’t seen any olive branches. Just more calls to “get the fuck out of the way, Grandpa!”

Cultural Shift: Out with Bubbas, up with Creatives: There should be a major cultural shift in the party, where the southern Dems and Liebercrat elite will be largely replaced by rising creative class types. Obama has all the markers of a creative class background, from his community organizing, to his Unitarianism [sic], to being an academic, to living in Hyde Park to shopping at Whole Foods and drinking PBR. These will be the type of people running the Democratic Party now, and it will be a big cultural shift from the white working class focus of earlier decades. Given the demographics of the blogosphere, in all likelihood, this is a socioeconomic and cultural demographic into which you fit. Culturally, the Democratic Party will feel pretty normal to netroots types. It will consistently send out cultural signals designed to appeal primarily to the creative class….

Why don’t you just fucking call it capitulation or Soylent Green and have done with it? I know why, because that wouldn’t be transformative and self-aggrandizing. It would just be stupid old honesty.

Obama’s gotten “hand” by:

Abusing the race card
Abusing the religion card
Gaming the caucus system
Duping a lot of people with vacuous rhetoric about hope, change, and ponies, creating a delusional class of fratboy cultists who freaked the shit out of a whole lot of fellow Democrats, strongarming the likes of Tavis Smiley and civil rights hero John Lewis, polluting major Democratic forums with misogyny and Ken Starr / Drudge sludge, and dropping C-bombs on Obama-leaning bloggers like Digby for daring to suggest that the infallible candidate had an imperfection or two
Somehow not freaking out a fair number of perfectly reasonable people (IMHO, this is his most transcendent achievement to date). I’m truly sorry we don’t see eye-to-eye on this. Perhaps Obama explained it best when he said “I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them.” The way I see it, I’ve just gotten disappointed a little earlier than you. Or maybe he and you will prove me wrong. In any case, I sure hope we can still, or again, be friends.

It’s come to my attention that Corrente’s references to the “creative class” have really struck a nerve, from creative types and the less falutin’, with both groups feeling we’ve created an elitist straw man.

Here’s a brief history of my introduction to the term:

A couple of months back, I heard Richard Florida on XM Radio (while I was in the McDonald’s drive-thru line, as it happens, to set the classism stage), and it was unmistakable the glee he had about how Obama had galvanized the kewl kidz, the “creative class.”

I can’t imagine how one could have listened to that and not gotten the impression that our social betters, our opinion leaders, were supporting this guy, and if we didn’t get it, we’d bought ourselves a ticket on the short bus.

Oh, and yes, I have a car and sometimes go to McDonalds. Flame away, whomever it may concern.

Hate us for noticing if you must, but “Creative Class,” and its implicit elitism, is not our construction.

Sez MTV:

Barack Obama’s hot streak in recent primaries has caught many people by surprise, and has led many to wonder just how he’s managed to mobilize such a large percentage of the population so quickly and so thoroughly. Two strong factors include his popularity on the Internet, and his ability to motivate not only young people, but also a voting bloc that other candidates thus far have not: the so-called “creative class.”

Matt Yglesias, a 26-year-old political blogger for the Atlantic Monthly, has dubbed the Illinois senator “The Cool Candidate.”

“The people who support him want to talk about supporting him [and] want to link up with people who are also into Obama — that’s why you’re seeing such large rallies,” Yglesias told MTV News. “And some of his user-generated viral content … Hillary Clinton supporters are older and less inclined to make a Web site about something they’re into, whereas Obama has a critical mass of creative-class-type people.”

Richard Florida, a professor of business economics at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business and author of the book, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” agreed. “I think this is the first creative-class election in American history,” he said. “The creative class is an online class; it’s YouTube, it’s MySpace, it’s music.” Based on his research, Florida estimates that 40 million Americans are members of this group. “They’re inventors, they’re entrepreneurs, they’re people who work in arts and culture fields. They design, [they’re] musicians, artists.

You see, he’s younger and he’s got better fonts.

To these ears, the moral of this story is unmistakable: get on the Obamawagon, or get on an ice floe… or at least take a seat at the dork table, cause the BMOCs and their Wacom tablets are comin’ through.

Finally, if you’re mad at C-list bloggers for ribbing this other-worldly candidate and his überclass supporters, doesn’t it bother you a little when he uses terms like “perverse liberalism” and “Chablis-drinking limousine liberals”?

It’s OK if you don’t. Because I have it on excellent authority that he’s better than us.

It's too bad that all these things can only happen in my dreams

2008-05-07T13:45:46-04:00

Barring a stunning reversal of fortune, my party is heading into November with a candidate who thinks the GOP is “the party of ideas,” who badmouths socialized medicine, progressive partisans, liberals (and their Chablis-soaked limos), and who says he was “called to serve” by Christ himself.

As Obama’s former friend and mentor recently noted, “he says what he has to say as a politician.”

Sure, I understand that to overtake a more-popular and more-experienced party rival, it’s necessary and appropriate to destroy her and her husband’s reputation via completely fraudulent charges of racism. Sausage ain’t beanbag, as they say.

But was it necessary to piss away this “change year,” this once-in-several-decades opportunity to repudiate the Reagan Revolution, selling a mere façade of change and propagating — as shystee so succinctly put it — “the absolute fabrication that the problem with Washington is excessive partisanship”?

Je répète:

Just where — besides the SCLM

”>, Rightwing radio, and Karl Rove’s lying piehole — did we get the idea that this country naturally tilts to the right?

In 2000, Al Gore got more votes than Bush

In 2004, John Kerry came incredibly close (if not closer, given another round of voting improprieties), despite Bush’s 9/11 and “War President” bounces, a massive slime campaign, and possessing the charisma of diet kelp

In 2006, the Democrats won handily

On a good week (for him), Bush’s approval rating barely cracks 1/3

So, isn’t it time to stop fearing our own shadow? If not now — with the wounded GOP practically holding our quivering boots to their necks — when will it be time?

When a candidate from your own party betrays your values and — more distressingly — your reality, you kinda start to wonder if he’s ever going to “ask for your vote.”

Et je répète encore:

The more I peel the Obama onion, the more I see his calculated disrespect of people like me (personally, and in terms of objectives).

The personal:
* Lifelong Democrats
* Baby Boomers
* Rationalists
* Secularists
* People with memories
* People who are angry at Bush and his forebears

The objectives:
* Fighting the Conservative Movement
* Convincing others to say “never again” to all that’s happened on Bush’s watch
* Having the criminality of the Bushies fully exposed and punished
* Having Bush’s incursions on the Constitution fully reversed
* Making the Democratic Party become more progressive, more popular, and more successful — and not a marginal party with one charismatic triangulator (i.e., not a replay of 1994, when the Reaganites re-revolted because Clinton’s third way didn’t kill or even tame the beast)

The Reagan thing is but one of countless examples, but his “W.O.R.M.” moment on Stephanopoulos’s show isn’t just “burnishing the Reagan show biz stategy.”

He is building a fucking monument to the most cherished and valuable Republican meme, that Democrats are the party of taxes and bloat. You’d have to work pretty hard to structure a better picture for Middle America of why Reagan Republicanism is a better brand than the damned Democrat Party:

Well, I think that, keep in mind Ronald Reagan came in during the 1980s, at a time when, I think, Democrats still dominated Congress, when the view was that we were going to solve our problems, oftentimes, by expanding government programs, and he challenged many of those ideas.

I understand this recoiling from all-Obama-disappointment-all-the-time, but that’s what I’m experiencing watching this campaign, and that’s what I, for one, am writing.

Obamism has turned into a religion, and that religion is teaching precepts that we progressives know to be wrong (and a zillion endorsements from Democrats I genuinely like don’t change that fact, just like I don’t think their Jesus is the son of God, no matter how many times they say “God bless America”).

How much disempowering shit do progressives have to eat to put a relatively benign guy in the White House?

In my opinion, not nearly as much as he’s feeding us. Even though he’s feeding us that shit with friendly cooing and “here comes the airplane” talk, we need to grab that hand and tell him, as best our little voices can, to put some decent food on that spoon before we’re going to take another bite.

So, here we are, with it nearly certain that Obama’s Coalition of Red States We Can’t Win in November — plus his deal with Merriam-Webster to redefine the word “unity” — will pull him over the top.

And what becomes of a country that’s been hotwired, driven all night on a Robin-Hood-in-reverse bender, and smashed into a wall of torture and theocracy? Is the change we’re supposed to hope for going to materialize?

Even our dear friend Kos understands that we’re bringing arugula to a knife fight:

His refusal to acknowledge the political reality may very well be his greatest weakness. I hope it’s all an act. I can take cynical political rhetoric. I expect it. And it’s not like Clinton is offering anything different in that department. But if Obama actually believes it, then the Republicans will chew him up and spit him out.

In my assessment, the North Carolina vote was the clincher. We’ve all-but-officially got a truthy candidate who disrespects us, instead of a feisty warrior who’s got a real good grudge goin’ against the VRWC

”>. My hats off to the millions of Americans who turned out for Hillary, in spite of the unfathomably huge Clinton-hate campaigns from the right and what used to be the left.

What does this (probable) outcome mean for your humble blogger here? It means I no longer have a dog in this hunt. As best I can tell, I’m through talking about this campaign.

FSM as my witness, I will not fail to vote for the Lesser of Two Evils. Though McCain has been the victim of a racist smear, and Obama the perpetrator of one, I’ve seen too much of the evil heart of today’s GOP to fail to honor my word and scribble an X next to the D this foliage season.

No need to ask for my vote at this late date, Senator Obama. You have it. But you sure haven’t earned it.

Whatever happens, one thing’s for certain:

As faux-Yoko put it long ago… (click for audio)

Beware of sadness

2008-05-06T13:21:24-04:00

Lambert, I hope you don’t mind me sticking my nose in this, but I just read Sadly, No!’s bashing of your Rameny good post, and I wanted to say a few things in response.

First of all, there are too many good blogs on the internet. Some that offer damn good writing and humor and observation, and if only you could rob your real life of a little more time, you’d be reading them religiously. For me, Sadly, No! is one of those. Unfortunately _{must resist easy “sadly” puns}, I’ve just never found the time to maintain the habit of reading the gifted and witty HTML Mencken, Brad R., Gavin M., and company.

So, I couldn’t tell you if they’re in the tank for Obama or not. But I’m _{fuck it!} sadly unimpressed with this post and the ensuing discussion.

As that ole debbil real life calls, I must be brief here in my criticism of their criticism and that of their commenters (so less linky / quotey goodness than I’d like to bring to bear here):

There is an unavoidable elitism coming from the Obamas. I have never felt this way about a major Democrat, and I’ve bristled when a war hero like John Kerry gets called an elitist by a platinum-spoon prick like George Walker Bush. Hey, maybe it’s a good thing, a nod to the Kennedys’ kingly Camelot. But it is what it is. If people are having trouble seeing it, I suppose I could deign to arugula-up some examples a little later on, as soon as my bitter clinginess subsides.
“Creative Class” is not a construct of Obama bashers. It’s been used to elevate his specialness, by way of his association with our cultural elites.
There is a lot of Marie Antoinette going on in the comments thread, for example: “If you were that broke, wouldn’t a gas-guzzling commute be the first thing you’d rectify to save money?” and “…maybe double your food budget and go for something luxurious, like a can of Spam” and “Who exactly pays the medical bills for the guy who eats nothing but Ramen for a month?”
Several helpful commenters suggest home-grown food as an economical alternative. What a concept! Unfortunately, you’ve just made all the working poor sell their shitbox cars and give up their tiny yards so they could be close to work.
Even if you don’t give a shit about people for whom $30 is real money (and why should you?), Hillary’s proposal is brilliant. Frankly, I thought she was just pandering, too, when I heard she had a gas-tax holiday proposal. And then I saw her get Bill O’Reilly to start nodding about the idea of making the robber barons start paying their fair share. After decades in which any taxation — even, and maybe especially, taxation of the coddled robber barons — was treated as the highest blasphemy in America’s heartland, she’s making economic equity sound like not such a terrible idea. I know that’s not good as hope and saying that Republicans have better ideas about the environment, but perhaps it’s something you can forgive. Because you’re better than. Especially if you’re creative.

Laura Bush angry about poor storm planning, response

2008-05-05T21:26:56-04:00

Now, tell me. What could I possibly add to this?

First lady Laura Bush on Monday said the United States stands ready to pump more aid into Myanmar to help its recovery from a cyclone so devastating the death toll could top 10,000. But that help is conditioned, she said, on a U.S. disaster response team being allowed into the country.

Mrs. Bush also rebuked Myanmar’s ruling junta on other fronts in a rare appearance at the White House press briefing room. She faulted the junta for proceeding with a May 10 constitutional referendum that she described as a sham, and criticized government leaders for not warning citizens about the storm.

“We know already that they are very inept,” she said.

With these people, sometimes the irony affects the magnetic poles.

WWTSBQ Watch: New Yorker Edition

2008-05-05T18:09:37-04:00

From a piece titled “No Hillary Clinton endgame — Democratic hopeful soldiers on despite seemingly hopeless situation”:

Last week, even as the Wright episode was being ceaselessly rehashed, Clinton followed John McCain in proposing a suspension of the federal gasoline tax for the summer. The proposal was aptly described by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter as “the most irresponsible policy idea of the year.” As Clinton and McCain surely know, a gas-tax holiday would do nothing to address America’s genuine energy problems. It also would not alleviate the country’s economic problems. What it would do is encourage oil consumption—just about the last thing we need. Obama rejected the idea. Clinton immediately began running ads denouncing him for doing so.

I would have thought the most irresponsible idea was telling a country ready — at long last — to repudiate the Reagan Revolution and save its children, treasure, environment, and good name…

Well, I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea.

Strangely, I would have thought giving a little economic respite to the poor, working poor, and middle class by reawakening the nation’s appetite for putting some of our economic burden onto the pampered robber barons was a better idea than that.

But that’s just me.

Roger Clemens: Perfect symbol for Bush's Accountability Era

2008-05-05T10:20:10-04:00

msnbc.com headline: “Clemens apologizes, but doesn’t say for what”

Repentance. Without all the awful repentance.

I know Mary Hartman thought it all started with the waxy yellow buildup. But something went seriously wrong in this country a little earlier… when America’s Chief Executive was preemptively pardoned.

What's your pitch?

2008-05-05T09:37:58-04:00

Someone on DU says he’s an undecided NC voter, and he wants to hear pitches for each candidate.

How would you respond? Here’s what I rattled off…

Hillary:
* Prioritizes social programs
* Wonky, wants to make government work, and she gets down to details
* Committed to Universal Healthcare
* Tough
* Knows who the VRWC

”> is, and she’s pissed
* Proud to be a Democrat
* Despite all the slime thrown at her, unequivocally pledges her support to party unity if she’s not the nominee (and she gets shouted down by Obama fans)
* Has won the big swing states and states that add up to more electoral votes

Obama:
* Constantly belittles progressives (“bickering partisans,” “Chablis-drinking limousine liberals”) and praises GOP (“party of ideas”)
* Builds whole campaign on a soothing but disempowering lie — a claim that the biggest problem we face is partisanship. The biggest problem we face is conservatism/neo-conservatism.
* Cites “socialized medicine” as an extremist lefty position
* Truthy, glides by on vaporous catch phrases
* His “movement” is about… what is his movement about?
* Disrespects the separation of church and state (brochure says he was “Called to Christ” and “Called to Serve”)
* Won’t even stand up for his friend and mentor. Will he stand up for you?
* Trumps up charges that fellow Democrats are racists
* From “you’re likable enough” on down has fostered a kind of “unity” that only exists if he wins
* His biggest claim to fame is being against the Iraq war. Funny, since he got into the Senate, he hasn’t voted that way.
* His second biggest claim to fame is not bothering to vote against Kyl-Lieberman
* Tried to cheat his way to 50% of MI and FL delegates, even though he’s not very popular in those states
* Has built his delegate lead on gaming the caucuses, especially in states the Democrats can’t win. Won’t be much help against McCain.
* Has insulted working-class voters. Won’t be much help against McCain.

Clothes make the non-man

2008-05-04T11:52:23-04:00

“Nixon in a pant suit” is an anti-Hillary meme that Andrew Sullivan, longtime stalwart of Tricky Dick’s party, has successfully propagated. And James Wolcott, with presumably better intentions, has followed, um, suit.

Google this:

hillary pantsuit OR “pant suit” OR “pantsuits” OR “pant suits”

By last count, there are over 300,000 web pages referencing this candidate and garment choice.

What does this fixation with “pant suits” mean?

1. The candidate who wears them is a woman
2. The candidate who wears them isn’t sexy and chic

One more strike and you’re out. So, gratuitously throw in “Nixon,” and it’s hasta la vista, baby.

Sure, I wanted universal health care, genuine concern for the poor and middle class, resiliency, and a repudiation of the Reagan Revolution.

But not if it has to come in that pant-suited package! Anything but that!

WWTSBQ Watch: YouTube Edition

2008-05-03T19:38:40-04:00

“Obama brings us unity that you just seem to kill.”

Stay classy, Obamaites!

2008-05-03T11:31:55-04:00

Hillary and Obama appeared at a Democratic Party event in North Carolina. Guess whose supporters turned out to be dicks?

Clinton, attempting to show that there will be party unity, said, “If Sen. Obama is the nominee, you better believe I’ll work my heart out for him.”

The crowd erupted into a chant for Obama, leaving Clinton speechless for a few seconds while she waited for them to finish. During her speech, Clinton also mentioned Gov. Mike Easley, who has endorsed her candidacy, and she was momentarily rendered speechless while the crowd booed him.

Hillary is plainly wrong. There will be no unity in the party, given the juvenile divisiveness that has become a trademark of the Obama camp.

Sad to see how little difference there is between so many Democrats and the “iron my shirt” crowd.

Mickey Kantor does it again

2008-05-03T01:57:40-04:00

Stop making sense

2008-05-02T23:43:36-04:00

This week, Bill Kristol wrote one of the MSM’s wisest assessments of the Democratic primaries, and Peggy Noonan’s commentary about Reverend Wright is downright thoughtful.

Allen Funt is dead, so there’s gotta be an Ashton Kutcher in here somewhere!

Oh, Atlanta!

2008-05-02T22:13:29-04:00

Once just wasn’t enough, apparently:

Mr. Wee Wee is DOING IT AGAIN: OBAMA PARTY FRIDAY NITE at Wee Wee’s (Wee Wee’s)
Reply to: comm-663802249@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-01, 3:20PM EDT

Mr. Wee Wee sez “Yea! You go girl and Vote Obama!”
Mr. Wee Wee cannot wait to be under Barry’s loving commmand. He is sooo cute!

Join Mr. Wee Wee this Friday night for another WEE WEE PARTY FOR OBAMA. It all takes place at WEE WEE’s. Last week was AMAZING and WIGGLE WORM
Originally, a fictitious game show where such rationalizations are put forth.">

Originally, a fictitious game show where such rationalizations are put forth.”> featuring LIL PEENIE are coming back for another DELICIOUS performance. RUGGED BOY and POLE VAULT will be dancing ALL NITE LONG.

All are welcome and there will be plenty of wee wee action and OBAMA wee wee drink specials. HOPE AND CHANGE!! yEA! YOU GO GIRL!!!

* Location: Wee Wee’s
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

It’s all night, and besides, I hear there’s a midnight train….

Let's make up Clinton scandals!

2008-05-02T11:58:18-04:00

The Obama camp has the Scandalizer^TM cranked up to 11.

Today’s buzzword is “Mickey Kantor.” Yesterday’s was “Women’s Voices” (and you know how their voices are).

In the spirit of unity, maybe us paranoid holdouts should join the fun.

What Clinton scandal do you feel like making up today?