Liberals View of the Democrats

[Jimmie Higgins]

Working class liberals and the Democrats... is it over yet? Any thoughts on the general mood of supporters of liberal politics now after the bailouts, failure of healthcare, and escalation of Afghanistan?

I feel like there is a lot of class anger out there but it still seems somewhat taboo for liberals to openly criticize Obama's policies. The one major exception I've noticed is among people active around gay rights. There a real and open sense (outside the mainstream lobbyist advocacy groups) that Obama betrayed gay people and is more interested in appeasing the right and business than the people who supported him. I was expecting the same kind of sentiment to generalize around healthcare, but apparently liberals expectations for real reform are pretty low and many are confused and support the BS plans offered by the Democrats. Maybe Afghanistan will be a turning point.

Are people generally demoralized or open to more explicitly left alternatives? What are your liberal co-workers, fellow students, family saying or feeling?

[RadioRaheem84]

Are people generally demoralized or open to more explicitly left alternatives? What are your liberal co-workers, fellow students, family saying or feeling?

Progressive radio is becoming increasingly critical. Same with the publications. Mainstream liberalism is not though, I don't think. They do not want to give fodder to the right wing and still live off the ego trip of not agreeing with Rush Limbaugh.

But yes, it's time for liberals and progressives to wake up and smell the coffee being slung at their face. Obama is another Clinton.

[GPDP]

But yes, it's time for liberals and progressives to wake up and smell the coffee being slung at their face. Obama is another Clinton.

Most Democrats are under the illusion that Clinton was a good president, so...

Anyway, there has certainly been some commotion in my campus, particularly after Tuesday's escalation speech. One of my professors, who just happens to be a Marxist, was utterly and inexplicably in love with Obama, but his Afghanistan speech seems to have brought him to his senses. Another professor tore down the Obama poster he had on his office door.

Of course, I'd argue there was never anything about Obama to get excited about, but hey, better they realize that late than never, eh?

[RadioRaheem84]

Most Democrats are under the illusion that Clinton was a good president, so...

Anyway, there has certainly been some commotion in my campus, particularly after Tuesday's escalation speech. One of my professors, who just happens to be a Marxist, was utterly and inexplicably in love with Obama, but his Afghanistan speech seems to have brought him to his senses. Another professor tore down the Obama poster he had on his office door.

Of course, I'd argue there was never anything about Obama to get excited about, but hey, better they realize that late than never, eh?


He was a blank slate on which you could write your hopes and dreams on. The strange thing is that is was well known what he was telling the public and what he was telling the more influential voters; financiers, other politicians, councils, etc.

Christopher Hitchens was right when he said that the left in this country has capitulated to Clintonism and that ideology has tipped over into Obamaism. They've both moved the party to the center right and have been convincing people that somehow these are progressive ideas.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Yeah honestly for most non-political folks or general liberals I can understand why they got excited (I'll never understand how well-meaning liberal workers somehow convinced themselves to get excited about Kerry or Gore).

People who are political and should know better (or at least can distinguish between the image Obama was presenting and the meat of his rhetoric), I don't give that much slack to.

[Tyrannosaurus Che]

One thing I will say in Obama's favor is that his administration could be a step in driving America away from the Republicans' extreme wingnuttery. A very small step, to be sure, but still a step.

[RED DAVE]

One thing I will say in Obama's favor is that his administration could be a step in driving America away from the Republicans' extreme wingnuttery. A very small step, to be sure, but still a step.This is an illusion.

Obama and Co. are quite comfortable with the Right as Centrists. They will cozy up to the Right instead of working with the Left because for the Center, the crucial issue is always the preservation of capitalism.

This was shown clearly in 2000 when the Center, with Gore, capitulated to the Right rather than raising a maas movement to oppose the Right over the outcome of the election.

The Left has to abandon both the Liberals and the Center and build indenpendent movements. Had there been a strong labor movement, a peace movement, etc., much of Obama's shenanigans would have been aboided. Remember that Kennedy was just as lukewarm a liberal as Obama. However, given the presence of strong movements outside the DP, he was, to a certain extent, dragged along.

When wishy-washy liberals, radicals and so-called Marxists abandoned the victory of 2000, when they held the balance in the election, and the Democrats defeated themselves, and supported Kerry and Obama, they opened the way for the defeats that have come since.

RED DAVE

[gorillafuck]

During a discussion in one of my classes the other day, someone who had campaigned for Obama and all that stuff expressed that he really didn't like what Obama's doing (and I've heard a lot of people think stuff like that) and condemned that he got a peace prize despite the escalation. I think sentiment like that is much more widespread than we'd think, but people just aren't too open about their discontent yet. The speach has also made a lot of people come to their senses about the illusions people had about Obama.