One after another, people we thought were progressives–people we thought had the same values as we do–have shown themselves to be, at heart, cultural rightists who sympathize with the darkest forces of our society. Chris Dodd–I gave you fifty bucks during the ’08 campaign because I liked your stance on FISA. Now you’ve shown yourself to be a servant of the banksters. Can I have my money back please? Barack Obama: I gave you a LOT more than fifty bucks, in “hope” that I’d see real “change”. Now you’ve shown yourself to be a corporatist who hires the likes of Gibbs, Summers, Geithner, and Rubin; and the positions you take, deck chair here and there notwithstanding, are practically indistinguishable from those of Bush the Dimmer. Can I have that money back too?
But the most shocking thing I’ve heard recently is that Howard Dean, whom I admired and supported in his historic election campaign, has shown himself to be a cultural xenophobe who buys into the nonsensical anti-Muslim (and anti-Constitutional) world view of the likes of Sarah Palin and David Duke.
Et tu, Howard Dean?
Here is the whole disgraceful story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
There is much more here than a difference of opinion, or protecting the feelings of people who were traumatized by the criminal attacks of 9-11. To take the position that the proposed mosque somehow presents a problem because of the 9-11 disaster is to concede to the haters, liars, war pigs and racists that we are at war with Islam; that Muslims are somehow fundamentally different from and hostile to the United States; and that it is natural, normal and forgivable to hate and fear all Muslims because a few criminals who happened to be Islamic attacked us.
THIS IS INSANITY. There are about one and one half billion Muslims in the world. 99% of them are just doing what you and I are doing: Trying to live in peace and raise our kids with material sufficiency and hope for the future. This hysteria over the proposed mosque is un-American, anti-Progressive, unconstitutional, and a refutation of the principles of the Enlightenment. The people who are “offended” by the proposed mosque should not be catered to, and their hysteria should be met with a full-throated denunciation of their position and a loud and aggressive defense of our values of tolerance and diversity. There is no doubt that many of the Teabagger set really are anguished by this; but we should have no more sympathy for them than we would have for a Southern racist who is anguished because their little Suzy will have to sit in the same classroom as a black person. The anguish is real, but that isn’t our fault. They should be offered understanding, but their foolishness and hateful fantasies must be rejected out of hand.
Howard Dean. SHAME on you. And may the day come soon when the Fox matrix will break and elementary sanity will prevail again.
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they all sound just like republicans, hey?
well, not so much amazing anymore… they’ll be needing the republican vote in November, after all
Democrats who can’t kick their addiction to the phony war.
All politicians from the politics industry who dominate the American scene are defacto fascists. A democratic political system is not going to arise as a result of the present way politics are conducted. It will come from the necessity to govern after people rationally organize themselves in their own communities. Get working at home. Spend your time and money there instead of on the culture of for profit party politics.A democratic political system is not going to arise as a result of the present way politics are conducted. It will come from the necessity to govern after people rationally organize themselves in their own communities with a public commons.
As people demand their party to be more oppositional, they complain about a government that does not work. It takes more imagination than people are willing to invest in their own fate. Politically active partisans are unable to resist the hype generated to lure them into the mock battles. Keep cheering for your party to win partisans, as if it is a Texas high school football rivalry because the tornado of political opposition depends upon partisan hot air to keep twisting.
The best ‘progressive’ lawmaker has to spend as much time fundraising a worst reactionary lawmaker. They steal that time from us as well as provide accommodations that we have no control over, such as the recent deals with big Phrma and the insurance industry in return for the benefit of legislating a reform,at no charge, that was nothing more than a restructuring, much needed by the health insurance industry, as well as 30 million new customers mandated to buy insurance.
to Northern Ireland and the Middle East IP. “Everyone has a legitimate grievance,” sort of thing, so let’s re-negotiate the Constitution.
Asinine.
It’s Howard’s turn in the breach.
Via Salon by Glenn Greenwald and featured here on Docudharma by rossi awhile back:
At the risk of sounding like a defeatist (and I hate having to admit this) but realistically, I knew right then and there, when they finally got to Dennis Kucinich, that the chance of saving this thing called the Constitution was next to nil.