by Ebbtide
Ah, how used have we grown to hearing these types of comments, complete with the usual excellence in spelling, punctuation and grammar?
"Obama is getting exactly what he deserves – a thumb in the eye. Makes my day."
"Obama is coming across as a cross between a thug and a spoiled brat–and this isn’t the first time."
"I caught a glimpse of Joy Reid and Melissa Harris Perry today on MSNBC about to physically attack some poor Swedish guy from Wikileaks for daring to confront their personal attacks on Snowden, Greenwald and Wikileaks. Personally, I'd prefer if those two would go ahead and wear short skirts, sweaters with a big "O" in the center and do some good cheers. "Hey, hey, BHO, how many leakers did you screw today-o?"
"I hope like hell he (Snowden) can get to Venezuela just to stick it up the secret government's ass."
"Seems to me Venezuela is one of the safer places in Latin America for him to be. I think it would be a less likely chance there of getting snatched. Cuba would be best. Because rest assured, it will NOT be over. These assholes will try to snatch him. Count on it."
"Ha, my country spyin' on me, secretly. FU george bush and henry Obama! What a great country??????????"
"The hubris on display by the Empire and their minions reveal it and they to be the fools of the planet. The only people who take the Empire seriously are reactionary white men and Dimbots who can’t see past their appointed savior."(leading to the money quote)
"And people wonder why Rand and Ron Paul have appeal......"
OK—that’s all typical, right? What else would you expect from The Blaze or the Freepers or RedState or The Daily Caller or (heaven forbid) a Breitbart site?
Well, here’s the kicker--
All of the above comments are from Daily KOS, Democratic Underground, Fire Dog Lake and Crooks & Liars. (I won’t link to the specific posts because I don’t want you all to suffer the vomit-inducing feelings I had reading them. I will, however, say that these were not, as far as I could judge, people trolling on progressive sites. These were posts from long-time, regular posters, who actually took affront at anyone who dared to say anything against the dynamic duo of Snowden and Greenwald or in defense of the President, or even Democrats in general.)
One of
the posters at FireDogLake even gleefully posted a link to a Daily Caller
article where a Democratic politician was calling for Obama’s impeachment—
"Also, at least one Democrat has called (in The Nation) for Obama’s impeachment.
Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman of New York, who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate era, powerfully yet dispassionately lays out the case for the immediate impeachment of the president."
Initial reaction from a fellow progressive?
"yes to this"A while later, the poster realized that...
"It seems The Daily Caller was being deceptive, quoting from an article Holtzman
wrote for The Nation about Bush in 2006 and making it seem as though the
article was just written about Obama. There's even a photo of Obama above the
Daily Caller article."
Oops. Yeah, but still—quoting the Daily Caller
when they’re blowing bad notes on Obama and calling for impeachment seemed like such a good idea at the
time, right?
Some of the posters at KOS actually sound like
they could be C4Pers talking about Sarah Palin:
"Someday the president will be looking for a pardon from Snowden."
"Shades of Mandala."(sic)
"According to President Obama, he's a "hacker." Who writes this guy's material? Snowden knows more about the covert intelligence gathering operations of this nation than President Obama will ever be allowed to know in his lifetime." (emphasis mine.)"Such and eloquent and sincere young man. My political reaction is strong, but my
emotional reaction is far, far stronger. This man is a danger to the establishment
because he is so goddamn eloquent and concise at explaining what is wrong with
this country."
And inevitably, it’s not that long before they go Godwin.
"Must crush the rebel forces undt zen ve vill rule for a tousand yeers!!!"
HERE'S THE PROBLEM
After ranting at length about the evil
empire that is the United States, and more specifically, the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, many go on to state emphatically that they are DONE with this whole
voting thing, that Democrats are as bad as or worse than Republicans, and just
STOP THE WORLD, THEY WANT TO GET OFF.
Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald
aside (sorry Glenn, some of us just aren’t that into you), here’s the thing—you
don’t have to love Obama, and you certainly should stand up for your beliefs
and hold any and every administration’s feet to the fire on issues that matter.
But I’m starting to get really depressed that not only are many of these “progressives”
advocating throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but that their actions
might lead to replacing the bathwater with toxic sludge and the baby with a
zygote.
First of all, not everyone who is not
in favor of sainthood/knighthood/Nobel and/or Pulitzer Prizes for Snowden and/or
Greenwald is an Obamabot or a tyrant-supporting veghead or a sycophantic loon.
Just because many of us aren’t
willing to shampoo with kerosene and then light our hair on fire, it doesn’t
mean that we are fake-progressives or secret teahadists or any of the other
idiotic things they’ve been calling us lately.
Even if you think
Barack HusseinLeninHitlerStalin Obama is absolutely personally responsible for every
injustice ever perpetrated on mankind, in order to square that circle you have
to ignore a whole lot of good things he’s been able to accomplish, even with the
most intransigent, combative, do-nothing Congress in recent history.
What makes me really sad is that just
when some people are finally actually waking up to the MAJOR difference between
the Republicans and Democrats—seeing that Republicans hate women and will do
everything in their power to keep them barefoot and pregnant…and that
Republicans hate gay people…and minorities…and voting rights…and feeding
people. Just when folks are finally getting really fired up about the
injustices that occur and will continue to occur if the Republicans regain
power nationally and continue their stranglehold on state governments…just when
there’s a glimmer of hope for the House in 2014 and a strong feeling about
2016, these people are saying that they’ll never vote for a Democrat again or
they’re just not going to vote period.
To them I say this: Every time you vote
for a non-Democrat or don’t vote at all, a Louis Gohmert or a Ted Cruz or a
Scott Walker or a Rick Scott or a John Kasich or a Rick Snyder or a Bob
McDonnell gets elected. (Let us not forget
that some serious non- and third-party voting during the Bush elections helped
yield the long-term effects of Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court.)
And then, as you stand on your pure
principles and stomp your little feet, women’s rights get trampled, children go
hungry and uneducated and get sick, veterans suffer, the elderly lose ground
and workers get shafted.
Here are some of the results of
electing douche-bag Republicans--which was a particularly heinous thing to do
on a state level in 2010 as it allowed them to gerrymander states that should
be true blue into islands of condensed blue surrounded by vast wastelands of
red. And remember, some of these states were (and are still) toying with the idea of allotting Electoral College votes by House district rather than by overall vote total. (See—Pennsylvania, and a national effort led by everyone's favorite, Ken Blackwell of Ohio for examples.)
Just in case you're wondering what losing state offices to Republicans means in terms of voting rights, Meet the Nation's Five Worst Election Officials.
WE LUV YOU WOMENZ
2011 was a record-breaking year for new abortion restrictions, with a staggering 80 different anti-abortion provisions enacted in the first six months. At this midway point, 2013 has seen the second-highest number of abortion restrictions signed into law.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the 2013 legislative session is on track to be yet another record-breaking year for state-level restrictions on women’s reproductive rights.
ALL OF YOUR GOVERNMENTZ BELONGZ TO US
I've written before about Michigan's utterly repulsive Emergency Manager law, which was rescinded through a referendum in November and re-installed by Michigan Republicans a week after that vote. Yeah, let's keep electing Republicans because Democrats are just as bad.
There are hundreds of other examples, but you get the point.
You don’t have to love Obama. You don’t
have to approve of everything he does. You can get mad as hell about the issues
that matter to you. And you don’t have to love or admire every Democrat either.
Some of them are kind of worthless, but even at their worst, they’re still
better than just about every fricking Republican. (Do I have to do another state-by-state review of Republican chicanery? Please don’t make me do that!)
But PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU—don’t take it
out on the rest of us who are trying to fight the good fight. Do whatever you
can to fight your good fight on the issues that matter to you, but please don’t
burn down the house while you’re trying to light that candle.
- PLEASE VOTE (FOR DEMOCRATS—EVEN IF THEY’RE FLAWED, THEY’RE STILL GENERALLY AT LEAST 99% BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS
- PLEASE ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO VOTE, AND HELP THEM DO IT
- PLEASE SUPPORT AND WORK FOR CANDIDATES WHO COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE
- AND PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP--STOP PROVIDING FODDER FOR THE RIGHT WING BY BAD-MOUTHING DEMOCRATS AT EVERY TURN
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