(np) big O, say it isn't so...

[David Morris]

What Laura see as a clear-eyed realism is actually ultra-myopathy.  If
she can't see the difference between Us versus Them, if she thinks
corporations are going to make Obama a shoe-in, if she can't see the
difference between an attempt at accommodation of some of Their goals
(misguided as it's been) and being in Their camp (and essentially no
different), then I rest my case...

David Morris

On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 11:08 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> I'm solidly in with Joseph and Ian on this one. Obama will win easily.  The Republican primaries are a side-show that have clogged news coverage at the expense of real stories.
>
> During the Dubya years, progressives fell into a noxious us-vs-them mentality. Believe me, I fell prey to it too.  Us: smart, hip, anti-war, anti-racist, anti-corporate-profiteering, pro-choice, etc.  Them: war mongering, rich, corporate, Christian-right, and totally uncool.   Instead of political analyses, all we had to do was compare Dubya to a chimp to score PC points.  What was the natural antidote (and antithesis) to the smirking, Republican idiot?  A quasi-hip Democrat, a black man who could inspire black people and soothe white liberal guilt, who could stand up in public and diss Bush just the way we did - how totally cool and PC.
>
> But here's where the us-vs-them mentality trips us up.  Because Obama straddles both camps. Which leg you're focussing on dictates how you feel about Obama.  I see the banker-friendly, insurance-industry-loving, war-mongering leg.  Obviously, Henry sees the other leg.  Obama's a shoo-in for a second term, given the love-fest with his corporate backers.  My greatest worry is that, just as only Nixon could go to China, only Obama can bomb Iran while keeping progressives quiet.  Oh for a wild, unrestrained progressive president - like Nixon!
>
> Laura