Please Mr. Sirota: Stop it with (1) the ad hominem attacks and (2) the gossip style of journalism. I hope you are well.
All 9 comments by...
francis frank
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The fourth-to-last paragraph also provides a useful insight into the problem. The image of a "movement" being "in the very air we breathed" has long stood as both a beautiful ideal and as not-entirely-realistic nostalgia. On the other hand, the overall historical success of "progressive" politics might explain the current lack of a galvanizing critical mass. For example: The draft having been abolished (plus plenty of propaganda), national feelings about war might be less visceral because fewer parents and children have to face the raw reality of war. Abortion (and birth control, divorce, etc.) having been legalized (despite recent erosions), images …
Posted to Does a Nationwide 'Progressive Movement' Actually Exist?
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Sirota's article reiterates an admirable effort to make us rethink uncritical notions of "centrism." His logic and evidence, however, should not be uncritically accepted. Sirota rightly criticizes mainstream media coverage placing recent Obama policy statements as efforts "'to appeal to the center of the electorate.'" Responding to such media coverage, Sirota writes that "empirical data proves 'the center of the electorate' is exactly the opposite." To support this claim, he cites poll results on three important issues. Instead of writing "empirical data proves," it would have been more honest to write, "statistical data suggests." Yet Sirota goes on to claim that …
Posted to 'Centrists' Running the Asylum
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Diciteco: Fair enough about my use of the term "serious progressive"; upon reflection, that could mean a variety of things. I need to think about it. That said, some topics I would like to discuss: (1) Clearly Obama is a politician, and a skillful one. Clearly Obama has alienated a variety of erstwhile allies over the course of his political career. (The New Yorker article gives an interesting bio on his Chicago roots.) I am not saying it's right to "prize winning [or money] over principles," but should it be surprising? (2) Which electorate is Obama disenfranchising, exactly? (3) The Green …
Posted to 'Centrists' Running the Asylum
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What The Heck: Thank you for giving me some research to do. I say this honestly, as the electoral commitments--and disillusions--that you describe fall both within and without my frame of reference. Personally, I suspect that most modern presidential candidates have found ways to successfully project a mass image of "general welfare" at the same time that they have been quite beholden to those "special interests" that made them nominatable in the first place. For what it's worth, here are three books that come to mind: Mike Royko's "Boss" WEB DuBois's "Black Reconstruction" Marx's "The 18th Brumaire" Such readings have informed …
Posted to 'Centrists' Running the Asylum
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Brociner writes a guy who sees the strategic big picture--instead of lashing out from the limited perspective of a defensive corner. I'm looking forward to more of his work.
Posted to Dogmatic Rhetoric is Self-Defeating
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David Moberg's article raises several pungent issues: (1) By focusing, realistically, on Obama's potentially conflicting "personae," Moberg highlights the degree to which national politics, even at the grass-roots level, hinges upon successful public relations. In other words (and I say this without cynicism), is it possible to imagine a presidential candidate nominated, let alone elected, without being "branded" successfully to a consumer-electorate? (2) Questions of authenticity--e.g., Is He Progressive Enough? or Is He Post-Ideological Enough? or Is He Black Enough?--have seemed to dog Obama more than the other Democratic contenders. Whether or not such questions are valid in the first place, …
Posted to Obama's in the Eye of the Beholder
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Dear Anarcho-Liberation: In broad principle, I agree with your critique of the U.S. electoral system. Yes: Powerful people exert power and get results. Yes: People who exert said power very often are ignorant and make horrible decisions. Your vote is pretty much as impotent as mine in directly causing those in power to be less ignorant or make fewer bad decisions. Nevertheless, Anarcho-Liberation, your sweeping rhetoric about "real difference" (as well as your more or less random use of pronouns) suggests that you have not yet formulated an organized thought about U.S. politics, let alone paid attention to the politics in …
Posted to Obama's in the Eye of the Beholder
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I do not contest the substance of Mr. Muwakkil's points. However, as several respondents have already pointed out, the process of "disenchantment" routinely occurs as the "product" (and let's face it: this term is objectively accurate for all Presidential Candidates) goes from local adoration to market saturation. Aging youngish people of my age group know what it feels like for "their" favorite musical acts to "sell out" by going "mainstream." Never having talked to Obama personally, and being a white guy, I cannot speak intelligently to the scope of Mr. Muwakkil's racial disappointment with the former's "handlers." However, as a lifelong …
Posted to The Squandering of Obama
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