Appearing on "Hardball," the Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky just said the oddest thing. The left, he said, isn't "fired up" over the midterms, but should House Republicans move toward impeachment--their lawsuit being maybe but a preliminary diversion--then watch out. The left would become motivated.
For starters, allow me to confess that I'm unsure who "the left" is these days. The term once meant something--unionists, university students, the intelligentsia, civil righters, the working class with a measurably raised social consciousness--but what it means today, I can't say. The Internet is partly responsible for my mystification; what in too many instances calls itself the voice of the left is largely a fringe, as loud and unpleasant and ideologically saturated as the right. Perhaps that's a generalization with little merit. But so is "the left."
At any rate, it's not "fired up" says Tomasky. And the sad part is, he's not wrong. Since we have no better definition, let's assume the left is that majority or at least plurality of Americans who agree with, say, increasing the minimum wage, and that same-sex marriage is the business of same-sex partners and not Ralph Reed, and that clean air and drinkable water are rather worth regulating, and that maybe the loyal opposition to President Obama should be loyal to its country and thus try to come to some compromise on what the majority of Americans aspire to.
Isn't that enough to be "fired up" about? More than enough? Are we as an electorate so jaded, so whipped, so resigned to the monotony and mediocrities of partisan warfare that only insane impeachment attempts can fire us up? Has it come to that?
If so, we're in bigger trouble than whatever Republicans can land us in.
I have been trying to figure out that for years. Without success I might add. I have had much dialogue with people who are certain that they are leftist with every fiber of their being and yet who propose policies that are daylight madness and toxic to the interests of the economically disadvantaged. Nativists, nationalists and every other variety of ist that confuse their desires with the good of all. Some are well meaning but foolish and some just seem malign. Some are just ignorant.
I provide a case in point: http://crooksandliars.com/2014/06/democrats-agenda-should-be-fix-trade
The person who wrote this understands nothing about trade or the US trade deficit. His conclusions are insane from any economic point of view. Devalue the currency in an attempt to correct the trade deficit? How's that work? It can only make the things that must be imported much more expensive. Open markets to more US goods? Good idea. Except you do that through negotiated trade deals which much of the left is against. They have the very strange belief that those are the problem rather than the cure. You cannot argue with these people. You will note that the author of that piece demands the Democrats address that issue yet forbids the policies that would. And he offers no hint of an alternative that would. Your president has but who listens to him?
Posted by: Peter G | June 26, 2014 at 07:55 PM