Tag Archives: The Left

The Difference Between Leading from the Left Rather That the Right

Tony Blair talked with Christiane Amanpour on Sunday on a variety of topics, but one that is germaine to some of the discussions (or really, lack thereof) going on here re: President Obama (the piece I’m talking about ends at about the 3 minute mark):

This obviously pertains to Labor politics, but this has lessons for our own. Especially in the difference in governing from the left vs from the right. Blair notes that the left isn’t especially good at helping their leadership — they just pile on. This is from TPM:

“I love my own politics and progressives and all the rest of it,” Blair told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour in an unaired portion of his This Week interview from Sunday. “But if we have a weakness as a class, when the right get after us and attack our progressive leaders, instead of defending them we tend to say, ‘Yeah, well, really we’ve got a lot of complaints about them, too.'”

Blair said that the tendency of the left to pile on rather than defend its own leaders can leave their politicians alone to face the right wing attack machine, which Blair says is merciless. “It doesn’t matter how well intentioned you think you are,” Blair said of the right. “They’re going to go for you completely.”

“And then the interesting thing is, the progressives say, ‘Hey you’re not being progressive enough! Why don’t you do more for us?'” Blair added. “And so you can end up in quite an isolated position if you’re not careful.”

You’d think that we’d get that piling on isn’t getting anyone anywhere. And, of course, it leaves our own leadership rather defenseless. Which is the usual Democratic behavior — there is nothing worth defending until it is too late to count for anything.

A special note to Jason who apparently needs this data spelled out specifically — this is not a post claiming that Obama is the greatest party leader ever. Or whatever it is you think I’ve been saying. But for all of the dissection of horserace and tactics and the like being done here, it is nothing short of remarkable to me that this bit of fundamentals isn’t even a factor being considered.

I Feel Like I’ve Been Here Before

If you haven’t read Kevin Drum’s article, please do.  He puts into words exactly how I feel.

The striking thing to me, though, is how fast the left has turned on him. Conservatives gave Bush five or six years before they really turned on him, and even then they revolted more against the Republican establishment than against Bush himself. But the left? It took about ten months. And the depth of the revolt against Obama has been striking too. As near as I can tell, there’s a small but significant minority who are so enraged that they’d be perfectly happy to see his presidency destroyed as a kind of warning to future Democrats. It’s extraordinarily self-destructive behavior — and typically liberal, unfortunately. Just ask LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. And then ask them whether liberal revolt, in the end, strengthened liberalism or conservatism.

The speed the left has turned on him is striking.  And it’s something that has puzzled me.  I remember questioning the speed of the Tea Party rally one month after Obama was sworn in.  I remember thinking that their timing had far more to do with who was in the White House than anything else.  And I’m beginning to feel the same way about the left.

I say this because a lot of what I’m hearing, and reading, is disturbingly familiar.  I’ve heard it all before, specifically during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary.  The disparaging twists on Obama’s name, the predictable name calling of anyone who supports him, and the never-ending references to Kool-Aid.

It’s almost as if we came together in November 2008 under false pretenses.  It’s as if some on the left were ready and waiting for him to fail, and even eager to pounce on every failure and set back as some sort of proof.  Proof of what, I’m not sure.  What I am sure about is that the level of Obama outrage is over the top given his time in office.  I also don’t believe that this extreme approach (Obama’s a liar, he’s as bad, or worse than Bush, etc.)  moves the Overton Window as much as it makes swing voters swing in the opposite direction.  Bernard Avishai says it best:  “Hell, if his own people think he’s a sell-out and jerk, why should we support this?”

And that’s because there is simply no balance in the left’s criticism.  Obama sucks, he’s a sell-out, he’s a liar is all you read and hear from one side.  There’s never any attempt to say something like, “I hate the HCR bill, but I’m pleased with the way he’s toned down the rhetoric on terrorism, the Lily Ledbetter Act, etc. They simply can’t stand him, and I sense they’ve always felt this way – that their views aren’t driven by disappointment, as much as they are driven by the anticipation of being able to say I told you so.

And while there will be plenty of blame to go around if Coakley loses today, some of that blame will rest on the far left – a fact I’m not sure will bother them, since they seem to be okay with scalp collecting to make their point.  My problem?  I still have no idea what their point is.  Perhaps they want to kill this bill Presidency and start from scratch?

Deep Thought of the Day

When critics of President George W. Bush raised the specter of fascism, they were out-of-control, anti-American radicals. When conservatives raise the specter of fascism — and mind-bogglingly socialism at the same time — they are patriotic dissenters channeling our founding fathers. Any questions?

h/t and stolen word-for-word from Blue Indiana

will this hurt or help him

Thoughts?  I don’t know how this hurts him when it comes to independents.  Personally, it is par for the course with Johnny.  All hat and no cattle.   When it comes down to it, he votes right in line with the party.  Sort of like Chuck Hagel, Warner and the rest of the pathetic lot of them

WASHINGTON – Senator John McCain never fails to call himself a conservative Republican as he campaigns as his party’s presumptive presidential nominee. He often adds that he was a “foot soldier” in the Reagan revolution and that he believes in the bedrock conservative principles of small government, low taxes and the rights of the unborn.

What Mr. McCain almost never mentions are two extraordinary moments in his political past that are at odds with the candidate of the present: His discussions in 2001 with Democrats about leaving the Republican Party , and his conversations in 2004 with Senator John Kerry about becoming Mr. Kerry’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.