I also want to include Sorensen’s notes from this comic, which I totally agree with!
Let me start by saying I consider myself to be somewhat to the left of Bernie. I favor a Scandinavian-style social safety net — heck, I am Scandinavian. So this comic is not coming from the perspective of a milquetoast centrist Democrat, or even a strong Hillary partisan, as I’m guessing some will assume in our world of fun political binaries. What concerns me is that I’m seeing fundamentally right-wing concepts being adopted by those who self-identify as lefties or progressives. You might say I’m criticizing the left from the left.
To address a few points raised in the cartoon: I shouldn’t need to even spell this out, but as a gentle reminder, Russia is an authoritarian regime that crushes free speech, dissidents, LGBT rights, and now, apparently, my own health insurance. This didn’t just happen to Hillary; it happened to all of us. It’s pretty much the definition of what should be a non-partisan concern. Mountains of evidence exist for Putin’s attempt to swing our election (and others), and to minimize the problem is nothing short of laughable. And yes, I do think the interference had a substantial impact.
Hillary has certainly frustrated me at times over the years, but I came to admire her intelligence and poise over the course of this election cycle. Her performance at the debates with Trump was nothing short of heroic. She also ran on the most progressive Democratic platform ever, but since policy has become almost completely divorced from politics, she gets little credit for that. I could go on, but as my husband says, this was not so much an election as an exorcism, the culmination of a decades-long smear campaign by the right.
The term “political correctness” has been the cornerstone of conservative efforts to transform the ideas of civil rights and equality into something frivolous and stupid. The right loves plucking silly examples from obscure, powerless people and blowing them up into huge “culture war” issues that supposedly threaten the nation. “PC” is an insult that plays into their hands.
Along these same lines, “liberal elites” — long a Fox News favorite — is designed to shift attention away from the actual economic elites hoovering up the world’s wealth and resources, such as the Koch Brothers or Trump, and instead make one think of poodle-owning urbanites supposedly looking down their noses at everyone (while in reality voting to raise the minimum wage). It’s a frame, not a fact, and hides a deep anti-intellectual agenda.
Don’t fall for these con-job concepts! The world doesn’t need any Fox News Lefties.
15 Comments
Over six thousand people died in Iraq alone in 2016, many many in Syria due to the treatment of the reining Sunnis in Iraq due to the popular vote loser in 2000 in the US invading a sovereign country for no reason.
So when does PINO commit his first murder? Unlike BAby Bush who now knows what he did and has lapsed into guilt syndrome, this one has no guilt and no compassion.
Russian hacking aside, Hillary and the Democrats essentially lost this election in the Rust Belt, failing to effectively reach out or convince folks there who have lost their jobs to globalization, technology, or a combination thereof, that the government has a positive role to play in helping to turn their lives around, but not necessarily the be-all/end-all institution that Republicans like to paint Democrats as. Isn’t it ironic that Republicans rail against the impotence and evils of government, then get elected to demonstrate it first hand? Exhibit A: Brownback’s Kansas, formerly in the black, now deep in red ink (hey it’s their party’s color!).
The plight of urban areas in and around Detroit, Cleveland, Akron, Wheeling and elsewhere has only continued to spiral downward for decades now and handed Republicans the gift that keeps on giving – the desperation, fear and uncertainty that provides fertile ground for selling the propaganda of simple solutions to complex problems. Slash Taxes! Right to Work (but illegal to strike)! Immigrants Bad! More guns, less crime! More God, less Gays! Demonizing a government that doesn’t work perfectly and only wastes your money has been a staple of Republican propaganda, and Obama’s “hope and change” mantra became a handy weapon to use against her in the demographic regions that have continued to lose ground since the Nixon Administration. But it’s always the most recent one that takes the hit for anything negative that may have been incubating for decades, whether the failed War on Drugs or the failed War on Terrorism. (Incidentally, you can’t call something a “war” if it never ends. These are societal issues, with us since the dawn of…I guess you’d call it “civilization”. War is now just another loaded term for propaganda. But I digress again.)
Coupled with our failing public schools (hey, they’re godless, liberal enclaves just like universities, with incompetents in charge, say Repos, let ’em rot), the rise of Faux News and (anti)social media sucking up all the bandwidth, it’s no great surprise that many end up voting against their own self interests, convinced that a strong, patriotic, God-fearing, Family Values Party (yeah, with a twice divorced, egocentric, authoritarian, pecuniary tax-dodging gropenfuherer at the helm) is their only hope for change now.
We’re already half way or more to a plutocracy, if not a kleptocracy. Without an adequately educated citizenry and a strong middle class, democracy withers.
Or as my favorite philosopher once said: “Ignorant people elect ignorant leaders. It’s as simple as that.” – George Carlin
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to take away from this cartoon or the artist’s statement.
Unless and until the Democratic establishment decides to pay attention to state and local politics – with money and ads – what happened this year will be the norm, particularly as we head into the 2020 census. Democrats have a powerful story to tell about how they would govern as compared to how Republicans govern – this blog often highlights aspects of that story – yet the Democratic establishment simply refuses to cash in on that story.
Perhaps Obama can provide some actual leadership to a party that seems only to care about inside the beltway issues.
” Mountains of evidence exist for Putin’s attempt to swing our election “. Still need to see that mountain, I am assuming that is mountain of feelings for liberals.
It is amazing (applies to both sides) how preferences and likes/dislikes change. Wikileaks/Assange, Snowden, Glen Greenwald were heroes of left and civil libertarians and republicans and neo-cons hated them. Now Hannity is having man crush on Assange, and liberals are hating all those three.
I see no evidence or reasons to change my opinions on those three. There is no reason or evidence to discredit any of those three. And frankly I trust Glen Greenwald over US intel agencies (propagated to be 17, which is wrong). I trusted Glen when he was against republican and Bush, I trusted him against Obama. I will trust him right now till there is evidence to discredit what he says is incorrect.
And may be this should not be needed saying, but I hate Putin, and he is no friend of US, but liberals/democrats are getting ridiculous here.
Same for Glen, I am no fan of many of his liberal stances (since I am not liberal), but I trust his journalistic integrity.
Hassan… If you “will trust (Glen Greenwald) right now till there is evidence to discredit what he says as incorrect,” why not give the same consideration to the CIA? Just wondering.
REDJON, wait what?? Are you serious? You want me to list 1000 things that has shown to discredit CIA or in general intelligence community? (not necessarily the intelligence part but rather motives) Did not James Clapper not long ago (not CIA I know) was being charged or considered to be charged with perjury?
The perfect answer to PINO is to laugh. If he speaks before a gathering such as the inauguration, laugh. Everyone who opposes him laugh very very loudly. It would get so he only preached to the choir. His statements and iterations are so risible.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/5/glenn_greenwald_on_dearth_of_evidence
The title of blog post “The Left Turns Right”, seems quite appropriate…
Hassan… Sorry; I should have been more specific. Yes, the CIA makes mistakes, as a lot (most) of what they provide are educated guesses based on what intelligence they can gather. They don’t have the luxury of being able to dial up Vlad Putin, for example, and ask, “Did you hack?” and expect honest answers.
With the hack specifically, though, is there evidence that the Russians did NOT hack the DNC’s emails? Because I’ve not seen any and it seems people who have it could be expected to provide it.
Same standards for everyone, is all I’m sayin’.
And forgive me if Conservatives buying anything Greenwald says seems a bit strange.
REDJON, is there proof that Martians did not hack into DNC? I have not seen any evidence that they did not.
As I said conservatives and liberals have done role reversal, the heroes of left Assange, Snowden and Greenwald have become their villain and heroes to right.
REDJON, I am not talking about best educated guesses, do you know CIA (or other intelligence agencies) history? Do you think I will trust NSA (who were exposed to be doing illegal spying on Americans) over the people who exposed them with good evidence?
Redjon remarks, “is there evidence that the Russians did NOT hack the DNC’s emails?”. With all due respect, surely you are aware that it is impossible to prove a negative. I suspect that is what Hassan was alluding to with the Martians.
Hassan – I’m trying to recall a time when Assange was a “hero” of the left. He’s certainly been no friend of the Clinton’s. Trump’s hero today, a traitor before. How someone feels about him tomorrow seems to depend on what side their bread is buttered on today. And isn’t it curious that, despite indications that the RNC was also hacked at the time (though proof is hard to come by here), he and Wikileaks were strangely silent on that front during and since the election? Russian fingerprints (a.k.a. cyber “breakcrumbs” as they are called) are all over this election, but admittedly, I’m no hacker.
Snowden’s admirers and detractors can be found on both sides of the aisle as well. Some consider him a traitor and eligible for lethal injection. Others consider him a true patriot who exposed the illegal widespread and indiscriminate spying the NSA was conducting into any and everybody’s privacy without due cause. Actually, Snowden didn’t publish anything. He provided all the classified documents he had en masse to Greenwald, a reputable journalist by any standard, because he didn’t feel qualified to choose which ones to publish that would make his case without jeopardizing national security. Vice News produced an excellent piece on him recently, including a personal interview he gave Shane Smith, Vice founder. Available on HBO, freely on the Vice website or YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRWyGKBVzo
Other films are out there that are also worth a look (the Oscar winning documentary “Citizenfour”, or Oliver Stone’s dramatization “Snowden”). We can argue whether Snowden was the right person or proper mechanism to expose these unconstitutional transgressions, but I’m hard pressed to imagine how else these unconstitutional excesses would have ever come to light. We all want to feel safe and secure from terrorism but, as Benjamin Franklin reminds us, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”.
RALPH, exactly you cannot prove a negative.
Here is James Clapper lying under oath to democrat Ron Wyden (most vocal opponent of NSA):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsmo0hUWJ08