Obama Has Heard Us... He's Listening

[BeFree]

Steve Hildebrand who is being mentioned as possible chair of the DNC is quoted while responding to the furious Left wing complaints over Obama's cabinet picks:

The point I'm making here is that our new President, the Congress and all Americans must come together to solve these problems. This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making. Some believe the appointments generally aren't progressive enough.

The good news is that they heard us. We are not being ignored.

The bad news is that what they heard wasn't really conducive to being heard. It was just complaints. Complaints to which they responded very well.

It is early, too early. Obama will pick who he wants, not who the 'netroots' wants. After he is seated and he lays out concrete plans is the time to begin making our voices heard... about substantive matters. Later, if we see a cabinet member not producing, Obama will too and they'll be gone.

In short, we are being heard, it's just that we really don't have any reason yet to complain. And you can wager that Obama hopes we never really have to complain, because he'll hear us loud and clear.

[lostnotforgotten]

1. Not A Vote Confidence As I Interpret The Remark - I Read It As FY - Stronger Message To Follow!

eom

[BeFree]

16. I don't

I see it as a message that we are being heard. Hell, they could have ignored us and not said anything at all. But they didn't. They responded. In that response was the idea that Obama has picked these people to work with him day in and day out.

Questioning his personal staff pick is like your mother questioning you about the clothes you are wearing. Enough!

[lostnotforgotten]

19. I Am Glad That You Are Into Appeasement -Personally, I Am Not!

eom

[BeFree]

23. What

...are you trying to say, I don't understand. One line posts are like that.

[lostnotforgotten]

24. Some Of us Have Been Waiting Since Reagan To Be Heard - We Are Not Into Appeasement

eom

[BeFree]

26. Hey

....I'm not asking for a pease of you, so stop that!
----------------------------------

So when we are finally heard you want to yell and screem and be all ugly and shit? No thanks.

We need to be careful. We need to be appreciated too, and not depreciated by our nagging.

The fact that the left has been right about all the major issues does not mean we get to cram it down their throats. Especially not our man Obama's.

[madfloridian]

2. Put the rest of what he said.

"The point I'm making here is that our new President, the Congress and all Americans must come together to solve these problems. This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making Some believe the appointments generally aren't progressive enough. Having worked with former Senator Obama for the last two years, I can tell you, that isn't the way he thinks and it's not likely the way he will lead. The problems I mentioned above and the many I didn't, suggest that our President surround himself with the most qualified people to address these challenges. After all, he was elected to be the President of all the people - not just those on the left."


The guy being named as possible DNC chair is telling us not to question.

:wow:

[babylonsister]

5. Question all you want. Wait til they do something, or don't, before complaining.

When PE Obama makes up his mind, it appears his mind is made up and progressives, or rethugs, or anyone else, isn't going to change it. Real astounding. :eyes:

[MadHound]

8. Better to start being heard now rather than later when it's too late

I've been through this before, don't criticize Clinton until he does something. Well that really worked out well, NOT!

Better to keep our voices raised and our concerns heard now before everything is crystalized rather than later when all is set in stone.

After all, unlike the centerists, corporatist, DLC types, the left doesn't have highly placed people who trod the corridors of power. All we really have is our voice, so we might as well use it.

[babylonsister]

10. Cool. Keep complaining. I'm waitin' and seein' myself. nt

[political_Dem]

13. I second that. Never stay silent. We've got to actively work for change

now and after the Inauguration.

[madfloridian]

20. I am complaining about the putting down of the left wing of the party.

Why aren't you?

[BeFree]

29. That's cool

.... hell we have every right to complain. But just because we have the right doesn't mean that by complaining we will get our way. Politics is the art of the possible, and it is quite possible that now that we are not being ignored we will be listened too. It is also possible that we may have been complaining too much about too little: making a mountain out of a molehill, as it were.

Anyway, be glad, madfla, that we are being heard and even getting a reasonable response. Its a good thing, eh? That's a real Change.

[babylonsister]

30. I'm on ignore, remember? You had best. I'm trying to. nt

[madfloridian]

35. That seems to work intermittently.

I don't know why? No, you do not welcome dissent anymore of any kind....you used to be pretty open-minded in your posts.

That function does not seem to working tonight. I checked and am seeing many whom I should not see.

[BeFree]

12. Yep

Telling us not to question who Obama picks to work alongside him in the White House. Yep. You got that right.

Not telling us to shut up. But so far, really, questioning who Obama picks and wants to work with, is a bit much like the way Mom nags us, eh?

[political_Dem]

15. My goodness. That is indeed ugly. :(

[polichick]

21. imo the test will come with environmental posts - the "most qualified" people...

...where that's concerned are definitely on the left ~ my fingers are crossed.

[MadHound]

22. I'm thinking not just environmental posts, but labor and education as well

We'll see.

[polichick]

36. So you wouldn't want to see Colin Powell heading up education??

There'a rumor he's interested.

[stillcool]

33. funny...I just posted this down-thread...

it is taken from Ferdinand Lundberg's book "The Rich and the Super-Rich"..I think the copyright was 1965? Anyway..it cracked me up..

But the reason Democratic presidents must be sympathetic toward the big wealthy at all times, short of allowing them to upset the new synthesis, is simple: All these people, even if Republican, carry great weight in American affairs because of their intimate hereditary involvement through professional subordinates in complex enterprises penetrating into every comer of society. They may no longer be self-made they may have been sired by trust, testament or codicil out of holding company, foundation and monopoly-but they are independent power wielders. They aren't average citizens. And this is a political fact, not likely to be overlooked by any serious politician.

Any criticism of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for the nature of their top appointments should face up to this question: Where should they look for Cabinet officers? Kennedy and Johnson looked for them where Eisenhower looked for them, and where Roosevelt looked: in the large financial and industrial organizations. These organizations belong to the wealthy. They are part of their plantation, which in its broadest sweep is the market place itself.

Experts of greater if not complete independence of judgment are to be had, to be sure, from the leading universities, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy both drew heavily upon them for certain tasks. But scholars have neither the habit of command nor is their authority apt to be recognized by men practiced in the arts of expedient manipulation--Plato's men of the appetites. Any president has to look to the big enterprises, selecting competent men who are least compromised by egocentric self-service.

To be sure, it is not the quintet of Du Ponts, Rockefellers, Mellons, Fords and Pews that alone has supported the Republican Party in its struggles to protect and nourish big wealth and is now playing around the edges at least of the Democratic Party. They have had many collaborators among groups of lesser wealth, most of them strong Republicans in the past as now, even though some of them seem inclined to take fright as latter-day woozy fanatics come to the fore in the Republican Party.

[polichick]

3. He'd better be listening - we put him up on that pedestal, and we can yank him off too! ;)

[MadHound]

4. Yup, sounds like other messages that I've heard directed at the left

To put it bluntly, sit down and shut the fuck up. We got your time, money and votes, and now we don't need you until the next election. Besides, who are you gonna vote for next time anyway? A Republican? LOL!

Bad flashback to the Clinton years.

[political_Dem]

6. That's what I've been thinking about. Some voices on the left were so loud that he couldn't miss us

at all. That is good.

However, I believe that we can't stop there. Once his choices are confirmed, it is the duty of the left to remain vigilant, use constructive criticism to define our feelings and to always continue giving our input on whether he is going in the right or wrong direction.

That's what Change.gov is all about. And I don't think Mr. Obama would ask for anything less from the people he will eventually govern.

Personally, some of the picks were truly questionable in more ways than one. How can anyone stay silent with their misgivings about the people who are going to eventually represent the nation's interests one way or another?

[babylonsister]

31. On the left. Who does that encompass? All Dems, progressives,

who? Because we obviously all think differently, or have different ways of approaching issues with the same result. Or not, like cabinet selections.

[Pirate Smile]

7. They certainly heard and responded to complaints re Brennan.

[polichick]

11. That's true.

[brianna69]

9. In other words the man isn't even in office

yet and people are already whining and bitching. Give them a chance to do something first before the sky is falling chants happen. People have been biting at his ass from the minute he named his first cabinet pick and he isn't even in office yet.Right now our economy is on the verge of near collapse, these are not ordinary times. Give them a chance to try getting the place back in order and then make judgements.

[babylonsister]

17. Yep. This is DU. Big-g-g Tent! nt

[LaydeeBug]

14. "He sees you when you're sleeping...he knows when you're awake..."

I'm sorry. I just couldn't help it when I saw the title of the OP. :hi:

[BeFree]

18. The lounge is that way>>>>>>>>

Hey newb, welcome to DU. :)

[LaydeeBug]

37. "he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness' sake"

Thanks, hon. :)

[BrklynLiberal]

25. There was a mention on one of the NPR programs yesterday

that the "Liberal blogosphere" did not think that P/E Obama's cabinet picks were progressive enough.

I guess SOMEONE is reading the blogs..

[BeFree]

27. Yep

That is good news. We are being read. We are the proud left and we have been right all along, and now we have our president. Lets not blow it.

Ya know, I guess some feel as if that now that we have a president like us that we can shove and push and raise hell and all will be forgiven. And maybe we should. But that just isn't the way politics works.

[ecstatic]

28. Of course he's listening! I never doubted that for one moment. Furthermore,

he already predicted most of our responses (I don't have the link, but in an interview he talked about how some on the left might become very frustrated with his approach to dealing with the other side).

[stillcool]

32. I found this in Ferdinand Lundberg's..

book "The Rich and the Super-rich" published in the 60's...thought it was kind of funny..

But the reason Democratic presidents must be sympathetic toward the big wealthy at all times, short of allowing them to upset the new synthesis, is simple: All these people, even if Republican, carry great weight in American affairs because of their intimate hereditary involvement through professional subordinates in complex enterprises penetrating into every corner of society. They may no longer be self-made they may have been sired by trust, testament or codicil out of holding company, foundation and monopoly-but they are independent power wielders. They aren't average citizens. And this is a political fact, not likely to be overlooked by any serious politician.

Any criticism of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for the nature of their top appointments should face up to this question: Where should they look for Cabinet officers? Kennedy and Johnson looked for them where Eisenhower looked for them, and where Roosevelt looked: in the large financial and industrial organizations. These organizations belong to the wealthy. They are part of their plantation, which in its broadest sweep is the market place itself.

Experts of greater if not complete independence of judgment are to be had, to be sure, from the leading universities, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy both drew heavily upon them for certain tasks. But scholars have neither the habit of command nor is their authority apt to be recognized by men practiced in the arts of expedient manipulation--Plato's men of the appetites. Any president has to look to the big enterprises, selecting competent men who are least compromised by egocentric self-service.

To be sure, it is not the quintet of Du Ponts, Rockefellers, Mellons, Fords and Pews that alone has supported the Republican Party in its struggles to protect and nourish big wealth and is now playing around the edges at least of the Democratic Party. They have had many collaborators among groups of lesser wealth, most of them strong Republicans in the past as now, even though some of them seem inclined to take fright as latter-day woozy fanatics come to the fore in the Republican Party.

[leftofthedial]

34. "we understand the left has been complaining."

"shut up and go away."

"we're busy preserving the status quo."

[LanternWaste]

38. I'll wait for actual consequences to arise...

I'll wait for actual consequences to arise (positive or negative), and those consequences being predicated on his cabinet picks prior to making any judgments or voicing any complaints.

Anything else (at least for me, as I'm not as clever as most of you) would be nothing more than reading tea leaves before the tea's even been made...

[EFerrari]

39. It was just complaints?

Glad that has been all cleared up. :shrug: