Peter Beinart: on why liberals are down on Obama

[Nancy Waterman]

Very interesting article by Peter Beinart about Obama.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-12/peter-beinart-on-why-liberals-are-down-on-obama/

The more fundamental difference between the Obama era and its New Deal and Great Society predecessors is this: Back then, progressives did not define the left end of the political spectrum. In the 1930s and 1960s, America featured honest-to-goodness alternatives to capitalism, home-grown radical movements that scared the crap out of the American establishment and sent some of its denizens scurrying into arms of reformers like FDR and LBJ. Because our entire ideological spectrum has shifted right since communism’s collapse, reforms that once looked like centrist compromises now look like the brainchild of Chairman Mao

[xchrom]

1. I might not like Obama - and I don't - but I need

I need Peter 'bomb the Hell out of Irraq' Beinart
to explain it like I need a hole in my head.

I wouldn't piss on Beinart if was on fire.

[leveymg]

2. Dupe. This has already been posted and commented upon at length.

Just another Blue Dog hit-piece against progressives. Not a particularly accurate reading of history, either.

[Phx_Dem]

3. Uh . . . they're not, asshole. And please do not use the word

"liberals" when speaking of far-lefties.

[MadHound]

5. Oh, what, you speak for all liberals?

You get to define what the term "liberal" is? Who died and made you Grand Poo-Bah?

Sorry but the term liberal has always been associated with the far left in this country, just check out any basic poli-sci text. So please, stop trying to coopt the term liberal for the folks in the mushy middle, OK.

[Splinter Cell]

4. The biggest problem...

Is that so many of my fellow liberals today are naive, and when they don't get everything they want as fast as greased lightning, they take their ball and go home to pout.

Sadly, being realistic is no longer popular with many progressives in this day and age.