Sometime around about April Fools’ Day, Joan Walsh jumped the shark. Since then, she’s got caught out and called out in remarks that were just the teensy-weensiest bit racist, although Joan, being Joan and a bona fide bastion of the Progressive Left abjectly and vociferously denied that she was racist in anyway, whilst at the same time just as vociferously resenting any claim that African Americans could have to being part and parcel of the base whom Joan declares the President has abandoned so callously.
One thing led to another, and Joan got more than a bit rude with several people who disagreed with her point of view on certain things – most notably the fact that since the President declared his intent to run for re-election in 2012, Joan’s been on a massive downer and appears to be suffering from DODS – Delayed Obama Derangement Syndrome.
In her last blog, usually written after an appearance on Chris Matthews’s Hardball, she admitted that Obama appeared to have a “mirage” of support – which means that he might have the appearance of support amongst his base (whoever and whatever his base may be), but it really isn’t support as such.
That confused me. Does that mean people will say they’ll support him and then vote the Republican ticket? Or that they’ll say they voted but in reality they stayed at home? Who knows? Still, that didn’t confuse me as much as her next assertion, made in a Twitter exchange on June 23rd:-
@dpleasant @LaurieInQueens I’m convinced some of the most vicious pro-Obama people are paid by GOP
Mouths closed yet? Chins picked up off the floor?
Yep, you read right. Joan thinks that some of the most “vicious” Obama supporters are paid GOP trolls. She was most likely referring to me, in our last direct exchange, when she accused me of working for Breitbart, simply because I disagreed with her gratuitous criticism. More apt were my accusations that she was climbing on the Obama-bashing bandwagon to prove her own relevancy and to fit in more as an “esteemed” (but unpaid, according to Joanie – yeah, sure) political contributor for MSNBC.
(If you think all those “political contributors” just sit around the table shooting the breeze with Joe and Cenk and Chris and Larry and newly-minted lyin’ liar Rachel just for a cuppa Starbucks and a camera in their face for nothing, you seriously need to get out more.)
I know Joan’s recently read “Nixonland” and I know the GOP are famous for their infiltration tactics as a part of their ratfucking techniques, but gone are the days of Donald Segretti. Instead, if Joan bothered to open her eyes and ears, she’d find that there are a lot of pretty intelligent, normal, hard-working, everyday people who see exactly what the President has done, how he’s done it and – above all – why he’s had to do things the way he has. Such people are these that they understand how government works, they know the President doesn’t legislate, and, furthermore, they know that in a democracy, one discusses, debates and compromises.
These people know that change that lasts is often incremental. Some of us might remember when FDR implemented Social Security and how it covered a fraction of the people it covers today. Others might remember Jim Crow, still more might remember when a female teacher got paid considerably less than a male counterpart.
These people are the ones who remember that the President has always said that change comes from the bottom up, which is a euphemism for the aristocratic FDR’s direct command of “make me.”
And these are the people who listened to Candidate Obama’s speeches and realised, if not from their content than from reading his work, The Audacity of Hope, that the man presented himself as nothing more than a Left of Centre pragmatist in the mold of his hero, Abraham Lincoln.
If these people are now vociferous to the point of vicious in their support of the President, it’s simply because we’re effing mad at the trust fund kids from the Progressive end of the political spectrum slamming the President on everything he does and doesn’t do to their specification. We’re sick and tired of being called Obamabots and derided on sites like Daily Kos, which was allegedly founded as a Democratic website and has turned into a den of hatred for people specialising in pissing on the President and pushing the meme that he’s done nothing, yet all the while proclaiming that this criticism is constructive and it’s purely done in the name of political policy.
My blue Democratic ass.
The Right walk around with signs of the President dressed like witch doctor with a bone through his nose, and the Firebaggers at FDL get a pass when they refer to him as “boogalu Bush.”
The Right accuse him of being a Kenyan mau-mau, while Progressives openly refer to him as the “Affirmative Action President.”
Joan would do well to remember that it was a fellow PUMA who started the birther myth in earnest, and she would do well not to forget the PUMA woman who stridently declared she would support no other than John McCain, when Hillary dropped out of the race, because she simply couldn’t understand why Democrats would set aside a well-qualified white woman in favour of a black man.
The Right assert that the President is a weak leader, and Joan obliges by pushing the same meme. The Right treat him with open disrespect, while the Left act like Miss Scarlett about to smack Prissy from sheer frustration.
His supporters are sick and tired of being referred to as sycophants for “Dear Leaders” and called “Obama-Lovers” by her newest pet blogger, Glenn Greenwald, who appears to be the tail wagging Salon’s dog to such a degree that Joan has to slavishly echo his critique.
In short, our “vicious” support of the President is simply nothing more than a reaction to an irresponsible, lazy, assumptive and downright untrustworthy media who like to think that the majority of Americans are totally incapable of thinking for themselves and need political action explained to them, but always with a spin. And if you’re canny enough to disagree, you’re deserving of the rudness thrown in your direction.
So, sorry, Joan, “vicious” supporters of the President aren’t paid GOP trolls, but whiners, whingers, moaners, and relentless fault-finders and criticizers such as you and the mean girls and guys around you are the underminers taking the corporate penny of people whose agenda is to see the President fail.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the troll after all?
As countless of my comments on Salon.com can attest, I’m no fan at all of Joan Walsh and love taking her sorry ass to task. And when she says that the most loyal and devoted of Obama’s fedayeen are paid GOP hacks, her argument is as morally, ethically, and spiritually busted and bankrupt as it gets …
The truth is President Aceveda’s most loyal and devoted fedeyeen waste no time communicating it … and they’re predominately the hocking and pawning, rewarding and enabling Centrist Fence Jockey fedayeen of the DNC who’ve made it abundantly clear their intentions to hold their snotlocker, and cast yet another fuckin’ retarded vote because that’s all they’ve done the last 30 flag wavin’ years.
They’ve fallen — once again — for that boneheaded notion that Bullwinkle has somehow managed to pull that “Big Spooky Unacceptable ReThuglican Alternative” out of his hat to fear-monger Rocky the Surrender-Squirrel right back to the mindless voter-drone plantation that is, was, and always be the official religion of the DNC’s high church of Pragmatic Broderism that’s been permeating the party since Saint Rawny Ray Gun …
Just 3 years ago or so when the Republican Party couldn’t sell conservatism to the voters for dog food, I kept ripping their sorry regressive asses going completely Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, Dr. Laura, and Dr. Spew on ‘em by beatin’ over the head with quotes from Abe Lincoln and Sheik Limbaugh Al-Oxycontin and demanding one simple answer from them: Are they the “Party Of Lincoln” or “Party Of Pill Poppin’ Pundit”?!?
They voted for “Party of Pill Poppin’ Pundit” …
Today, President Moovsie-Forwardsie and his spineless Retard Rhamocrats couldn’t sell all their “hope” and “change” and fear-mongering “Gotta Hold Your Nose And Vote” BS to the voters for fertilizer because finally some progressives woke up and started going completely Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, Dr. Laura, and Dr. Spew on their asses clubbin’ em over the head with the most lippy, uppity, and activist-as-all-hell quotes from Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and Truman demanding a simple answer: is this the “Party of Hell-Raisers” or the “Party Of House Wiggers”?!?
The DNC has voted for the latter …
In its hunka-kunka burning love for their Republican stalkers, the DNC has opted for another 30 years of the same kabuki dancing co-dependency, paralysis, Learned Helplessness, and Stockholm Syndrome than an episode of “Ceasar Milan: The Dog Whisperer”, the DNC has demonstrated they don’t need nor deserve to be rewarded and enabled any further. Quite the opposite: they need to be dragged onto an episode of “Intervention” on A&E by their bottom lip and told not to darken our doorstep or our lives until they’ve agreed to rehab and really want to kick that Republican rewarding, enabling, and shielding monkey off their backs …
Until then, theyaretheveekustlink, g’bye …
When you speak of wars,lets not forget the ecological devastation that occured in Iraq and Kuwait which made everyone want to go in and take over. The marshes are gone, all those people displaced or dead and Kuwait is covered in tarcrete. Good thing we did go in and we are now drawing down. Get over it.
Has Obama lived up to my expectations?
No. He IS finally growing a backbone during this Debt Ceiling debate, but it might be far too little to late.
But I’m still going to vote for him, because a future with Bachmann, Romney, or Palin in charge is far to horrific to contemplate.
I believed candidate Obama when he said he’d end the wars. I believed him when he said he would walk the picket lines with labor. I’m no paid right-winger. I’m a lifelong Democrat and progressive. I will vote for President Obama again but I won’t send the contributions and spend the time I did knocking on doors.
BMM,
I agree with all you said.
I am not sure Obama has earned my vote this time, but I certainly won’t be making calls for his campaign this time.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
There is no Obama bashing “band wagon”. We don’t WANT to criticize Obama, it’s not popular, it’s not a trend and we don’t criticize him with relish. Those that defend Obama and the continued wars and retentions and torture and the failed Wall Street laden economics team would rather focus on the positive. Fine. That doesn’t mean the critics from the left, i.e. Tex Shelters, are wrong.
I have nothing to do with “trust funds” and your blatant stereotype of Obama critics sound like critics from the Radical Right of liberals. Can you site someone of the Progressives that have called Obama a affirmative action president, or is that just a figment of your paranoid mind? How many have said that? Can you find any?
You criticize Obama’s critics, paint them with one broad brush, but don’t mention what make Obama such a wonderful President.
Sure, what Joan Walsh said was stupid. That doesn’t make her other critiques of President Obama wrong. Or do you like wars and tax cut for the wealthy and continued human rights violations against Afghanis, Iraqis and other Muslims around the world at the hands of the US military not to mention the continued spying on the American people, something Obama could end without Congressional approval.
Now, we can discuss the good the bad and the ugly of Obama’s presidency as soon as you stop talking like a right-winger about progressives.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
If Obama supporters, especially “vicious” ones are paid trolls…
THEN WHERE’S MY FUCKING CHECK?!
I’ve been at the receiving end of insults such as “whining like little bitches” on Twitter just for posting my disappointment regarding issues on health care reform and war. I, too, plan to vote for Obama again, but that doesn’t mean that I throw away my right to criticize or disagree when the Democratic President that I helped put in the White House leans toward Republican policies. Joan Walsh has been attacked by the “twitter elite” for this, but there are many more of us average Democratic voters out here who are being slandered. When Bush was president, I couldn’t understand why his voters agreed with him lock step even though their principles were being tossed. The same goes here.
Theresa,
Here here!
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Here I thought I was the only one getting damn sick and tired of the pissing and moaning going on from the right AND left pundits. When I voted for Obama, I realized he could only do so much. I knew he couldn’t just push a button and make everything just the way I wanted it, nor do I think the president is some sort of king who has power to change all the injustices by a wave of his sceptre. It seems too many people actually do believe a president can just say the word and everything will just change. I am horribly disappointed by some of the left complaints that Obama has let them down, as if he is supposed to be working for them alone instead of every American, regardless of political leaning. The right is bad enough with their lunatic fringe, and now we have the left whining like little bitches. This is why I am a moderate Independent, and will again vote for Obama in 2012.
Thank you Susan – my thoughts exactly. Obama isn’t a barista at Starbucks making some 140 degree, soy milk, double cupped, extra foam latte for the high maintenance individual. He is running a huge country with lots of different people in it. Look at the big picture.
I mean GEEZ, he got Bin Laden and passed heath care reform! Those are both impressive and historic accomplishments. I don’t mind a little constructive criticism, but some of these pundits and bloggers out there really need to cut the guy some slack.
How about cutting some slack to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan and ending the drone attacks? You worry about people’s feelings while civilians are being killed by our military? Wow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/us-drone-attacks-in-pakis_n_657684.html
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/obama-s-hidden-war-u-s-intensifies-drone-attacks-in-pakistan-1.144343
And as I have often said, Obama has made some progress in some areas, but on the wars, same old story, and the economic policies have failed so far. And he has had enough time to get something done. But Giethner and Burnake are Wall Street lackeys that weren’t going to change the trickle up economic policies and Obama hired them. Stigliz and Krugman or even conservative economics outside of Wall Street’s influence would have been better choices to advice on our economy.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Catherine:
How about cutting some slack to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan and ending the drone attacks? You worry about people’s feelings while civilians are being killed by our military? Wow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/us-drone-attacks-in-pakis_n_657684.html
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/obama-s-hidden-war-u-s-intensifies-drone-attacks-in-pakistan-1.144343
And as I have often said, Obama has made some progress in some areas, but on the wars, same old story, and the economic policies have failed so far. And he has had enough time to get something done. But Giethner and Burnake are Wall Street lackeys that weren’t going to change the trickle up economic policies and Obama hired them. Stigliz and Krugman or even conservative economics outside of Wall Street’s influence would have been better choices to advice on our economy.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Susan,
So you like the wars and the Wall Street economics team that limited the stimulus and has failed to create a job’s program? You must, since you defend Obama without question.
You are tired of it. I am tired of the wars, and the US killing citizens of other nations and the lack of a jobs program. Aren’t these issues more important that your weariness?
And Obama’s not all bad, but progressives feel that too many have given Obama a free pass without challenging him. And if change starts from the bottom up, the Obama “love him or leave him” crowd that fails to push Obama is a big problem.
Wu Wei Wu.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
This is deeply unpersuasive. If Glen Greenwald is wagging anybody it’s because of his clear and persuasive arguments. There is no compromise with torture, war crimes, and assassinations. Obama’s lies and war mongering, and his service to the criminal financial industry make him unfit to be President. He has betrayed progressives in profound ways. I for one will not be able to bring myself to vote again for him.
So you’re saying that he shouldn’t have gone after Osama and killed him? If that is the case then why the hell did we go to Afghanistan in the first place? Don’t be mad just because he did what Bush couldn’t and wouldn’t do, troll. Don’t worry about your vote, we don’t need it. Enjoy casting your vote for Michelle “Batshit Crazy” Bachmann and Sarah “Moose Killer” Palin.
I didn’t read any mention of Osama Bin Laden Laurel. Those are your words, not tomk’s.
You will have to ask Bush why he invaded Afghanistan, but I assume it was for empire, for his MIC cronies and control of energy resources.
And Osama Bin Laden wasn’t in Afghanistan, was he, and the war didn’t help us capture him.
The war and killing Osama are two different issues. From the start I said we should hire the Mossad, who we help pay for with billions or dollars each year, to go after him and not start a war. It’s not either or, there was a third way. But President Obama continues the war even after he got Osama. Why?
Peace,
Tex Shelters