Re: Ishmael Reed: "What Progressives Don’t Understand About Obama" Keeping Cool & Caring" NYT

[David Morris]

Case in Point:

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/12/it-only-counts-if-your-party-cares/

Duncan Black: “I can instantly invoke, sadly, a looped memory of Cokie
Roberts uttering what was the beltway chant at the time, ‘up or down
vote up or down vote up or down vote up or down vote up or vote,’ a
phrase which only appears to be operative when Democrats control the
Senate.”

I sympathize with this, but I think this is an instance of blaming the
media for what’s really a problem of political leadership. Barack
Obama and his administration have made very little effort to
stigmatize filibustering. Nor have the key members of the Democratic
caucus in the United States Senate. Harry Reid has only mildly flirted
with criticizing filibustering, moderates have strenuously opposed the
use of the budget reconciliation process to pass key legislation, and
in general Senate Democrats have spent the majority of the 111th
Congress seeing the filibuster as a key tool for their own
empowerment.



On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 9:22 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Your breakdown of Reeds argument is accurate, except:
>
> 1.  What you call Obama's maintaining his "fragile coalition," others
> (his base: blacks & whites alike) see as capitulation to an enemy that
> would like to see Obama's political demise above all else (including
> this nation's welfare), unless they get their ransom money.
>
> 2.  What you call the "keep cool but care" strategy, others (his base:
> blacks & whites alike) see as unwillingness to fight, to lead with
> passion from the bully pulpit.
>
> He may, in the end, actually be achieving the most possible in this
> political environment,  but I wholeheartedly reject excusing his lack
> of achievement as the result of his race.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 6:06 PM, alice wellintown
> <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Reed argument is as solid:
>>
>> 1. The President cares about Progressive issues.
>> 2. The President's strategy, to keep cool but care, makes sense.
>> 3. White progressives who expect the President to get loud on issues should understand that were the President to take their advice, and abandon is "keep cool but care" stance, he would suffer counter punches that would damage his fragile coalition.
>> 4. Reed supports this argument with an analogy: the President would annoy a good many whites and they would either not vote for the President in the next election or vote against him; "most teachers [saw] me as an annoyance, and gave me the grades to prove it."
>> 5. While one can argue, and with a Black man in the white house one may support this argument with the obvious,   that the days of poor grades and racist assessments generally are behind us, they are not behind us.
>> 6. Even in academic debate, racist argumentum ad hominem persists.
>> 7. The same racist argumentum ad hominem persists in debates amongst progressives.
>> 8. White progressives, where these racist ad hominem are more latent than overt, are kidding themselves and need to understand that the President is a Black man; he can not act like a white man in the white house.
>> 9. The President, and his Black and Latino supporters understand that the President can not lose his cool and the they know his cool is the best strategy.
>> 10. This understanding of cool comes with the territory so the President should take the advice of those of us who been there and
>> done that.
>> 11. This strategy is not about excluding or white progressives; it is about keeping cool.
>> 12. Peace
>>
>