Voters Remorse from the Left
The liberal base and far-left are unhappy that they’re not getting the sufficiently liberal president they wanted. Sorry to be snarky, but excuse me if I don’t give you my sympathy. If you’d been paying attention during the election, you might have seen that the man you thought was going to bring about a renewal of completely leftist domestic policy and dovish foreign policy never existed. Obama has never presented himself as a leftist ideoulouge and hardliner and it was quite apparent for a long time. So why are you whining now?
Fear not, though. Some elements of Obama’s domestic policy may shape up to be liberal enough to keep you just satisfied. In particlar, it looks like the Education, Energy, and Health posts could go to liberals. And there might be others. But to pretend for a second that posts like Defense were ever going to go to a liberal was wishful thinking at best. Obama has been singing the praises of Robert Gates since before election day.
So, next time you want a leftist for a president, pay attention to who you’re nominating. Just don’t whine after he was elected when you ignored the obvious signs before hand.
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You pays your money, you take your chances!!
Over at Obisidian Wings publius has a very interesting take on this situation:
“Obama ran and won on — and is promising — the most openly liberal platform in modern American history, if not ever. The fact that certain liberals are criticizing him loudly from the left simply gives his already quite liberal platform the appearance of a more centrist one. By gleefully echoing liberals’ complaints, conservatives are effectively strengthening Obama’s national appeal, and opening up political space for what is a very liberal agenda.”
He argues that both the leftists and conservatives are essentially being taken in by a “giant Kabuki theater”, that this may be an intentional ploy by Obama to look more centrist.
“Our country is facing the most serious issues of our lifetime. I am scared for myself, my family, my fellow Americans. Would all our common goals be better achieved by supporting our new President and debating the issues, rather then holding his feet to the fire when he doesn’t do things the way some want him to. There’s plenty of time for that later.
I don’t believe Obama has a nefarious plan to marginalize the left. But I do fear that by focusing on what, “Obama should/better do for me,” the left, could be marginalizing, itself. ”
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/steve_katz/2008/12/is-obama-marginalizing-the-lef.php
What I find stunning in the growing leftist backlash against Obama is that they object to his choices explicitly as being too pragmatic and not ideologically dogmatic enough.
Thus, by their own terms they give us the reason that they should be ignored as frankly deranged. A time of economic crisis where the word “depression” is even possible to be spoken is not the time to indulge in ideological purism and anti-pragmatist ranting, is it?