Don’t Take My Word on It (Updated)

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

In this madhouse called “the blogs”, it is actually the bloggers who are getting it right.

One of the most consistent voices is that of Glenn Greenwald who wrote about the very problem I cited (here in July 2008; that the Democratic Party gaining 60 seats in the Senate would change nothing.  But, Greenwald goes further and totally eviscerates President Obama, the Democrats, and their apologists:

Rahm Emanuel, Tom Delay, and the Bush/Cheney White House have left no doubt that where there’s a will to influence the actions of Senators and House members in one’s own party, there’s a way.  But the Obama White House has done nothing in the way of attempting to change the behavior of the supposedly obstructionist Blue Dogs and centrists whom Obama-defenders are eager to blame for the health care standstill.  In fact, they’ve done the opposite:  Emanuel has repeatedly leapt to their defense and attacked progressives who sought to influence or otherwise put pressure on them to change behavior.   White House threats that “you’ll never hear from us again” are issued to defiant progressives only.  Not only are such threats never issued to “centrists” and Blue Dogs who are supposedly impeding the President’s health care agenda, but the White House does everything it can to protect those ostensible obstructionists and further entrench them in power.  Isn’t all of this fairly strong evidence that the White House knew, accepted and likely even desired from the start that — despite the President’s public assurances to progressives — the “public option,” understandably despised by the insurance industry, would be dropped from bill?

Nobody suggests that the President could easily or single-handedly change the behavior of Kent Conrad or Mike Ross.  But there are certainly things — effective things — he could do to try, including making it more difficult for those politicians to stay in office, exactly as they threaten to do with defiant progressives.  But they don’t do that.  They do the opposite.  The reason that Blue Dogs and “centrists” exert such control in the Democratic Party and are able to ensure the Party remains beholden to corporate interests is because that’s how Party leaders want it.  That’s how the Democratic Party has been built and it’s how they continue to maintain their power.

It isn’t like we couldn’t, and didn’t, see this debacle coming a mile away.  Well, point of fact, it was actually over a year ago, not a mile, when I saw it coming.

The minute Obama went back on his word to filibuster any bill that provided telecoms with civil immunity, the signal went out; he would cowtow to the corporate worlds wishes.  He would do so even if it was wrong.  He would do so even if it meant losing some of his base.

As I have detailed, and Daily Kos along with others have documented, that is now exactly the case; President Obama has lost the independent voters, the LGBT community, and is now actively looking to alienate the rest of the his base.  As Politico reports:

On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done.

“We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition,” an aide said. “There are lots of different ways to get there.”

Well, that should be political gold in 2010 for the Democratic Party!  Alienate the rest of his base so he can “get things done”.  Good move.  Too bad we already know that “getting things done” includes making backroom deals to insure that corporations maintain their huge profits.  In fact, what is currently happening is exactly what I predicted over a year ago.  

This is also why it is so important that the evil bloggers do what the regular media has failed to do since the 2000 election; hold people accountable.  

It is this new accountability that has media pundits throwing online hissy fits.  No need to go read it all, I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version; Joe Klein got trashed by Glenn Greenwald, started talking shit about Glenn online and at a party, it got back to Glenn (complete with Kleins emails) who posted Klein’s screed, and Klein threw a hissy fit on how nasty Glenn was being to him.  However, if you want to see the real beat-down, read the comment section of Klein’s screed.  

Not to be outdone, Karen Tumulty of Time shows how little she knows about politics.

Seniors, traditionally a reliable Democratic voting bloc, are emerging as the most powerful force against health care legislation. Kate Pickert looks at why.

Seniors are a Democratic voting bloc?  Point of fact, in the 2008 election the only demographic McCain won was the 65 and older bloc.

The only age group where McCain prevailed was 65 and over, and that by just a 10-percentage-point margin, 54 percent to 44 percent, the exit polls showed.

In fact, this wasn’t new.  Republicans in 1996 had more seniors vote GOP.

The GOP held an edge among senior citizens and tended to be better represented among affluent voters, with 11 percent of the $75,000-$100,000 income range, compared with 8 percent for independents and 7 percent for Democrats.

And, as noted here, it was only when George Bush tried to “reform” social security that he lost the senior vote.

Indeed Republicans lost their grip on the senior vote, splitting it with Democrats among voters older than 65 after Bush won voters age 60 and older in 2004.

In shorter form: Karen Tumulty is full of shit to claim that the senior vote was a consistent Democratic voting bloc.  But, media pundits being full of shit isn’t new, either.  What is new is that they are now being called out for it.

The same goes for politicians.  For the past 8 years, the media was nothing more than stenographer for George Bush and the GOP.  This was from almost every source, whether it be television networks, national newspapers, or cable.  The politicians grew to love the fact that they could say anything and nobody challenged them, so, they took the next step; do anything.

Well, welcome to the digital age where the average person does have a say, and, can be read as widely as the pundits.  The difference is, we didn’t have to sell our souls.

UPDATE:  

It didn’t take long for the revolt to begin.  Obama’s a one-term wonder.