Political realism

[randy_byers]

The Edge of the American West -- an excellent American-history-focused blog with one of the best, funniest group of commenters anywhere (see the recent post, "Pity the poor supremacists," for an excellent recent example), is offering a new bumpersticker:

get disappointed by
SOMEONE NEW
Obama '08

This is specifically in response to Obama's apparent capitulation to the Forces of Darkness on FISA (go, Sen. Dodd!), although it could just as easily be about his support for ethanol or "clean coal" or remarks to AIPAC about Jerusalem.

As the poster of this item says, "Look, this really is a pro-Obama bumper sticker. It’s just a realistic, not to say jaded, pro-Obama bumper sticker. And maybe it’s more than a little whiny. You really think you can win the presidency without courting or crafting constituencies that Good People don’t like? I don’t. Of course, I’m a notorious pain; to borrow from the great Michael Bérubé, the number of people whose politics I can wholly accept would fit comfortably in a phone booth."

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

It's really hard to tell if the FISA "compromise" has all that much popular support. It seems to be the unholy lovechild of those who believe in an imperial presidency and the intelligence agencies and the telecoms. I'm not sure that Joe and Jane Blow are even aware of the debate. I don't even understand all the issues that clearly myself. I'm just against giving the government more powers of spying and against giving the telecoms retroactive immunity for breaking the law at the government's request.

It's kind of weird to realize that I grew up on Watergate and the Church Commission. As little as I understood what was going on at the time, in restrospect it sure looks like a Congress slapping the Executive down for its over-reaching and criminal activities. It seems that others, such as Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, were taking notes on how to subvert that Congressional power.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I think we are seeing the trends beginning to reverse, but it will be a long process. Part of the significance of Obama's campaign is that it could spell the end of the dominance of white racists over American politics. It's arguable that racism has been the greatest obstacle to getting sensible things done like universal health care. Which is to say that its arguable that the racist parts of the white working class have been voting against their best interests -- i.e., for Nixon, Reagan, and Bush -- because of their racism. The demographics of the country are changing, and that almost inevitable means political changes. I'm optimistic. Which of course means I'll inevitably be disappointed when reality isn't so sunny. Stupid optimism!

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

The progressives within the Democratic party were clashing with the Southern Democrats (the racists) at least as far back as the FDR days. I have no regrets for LBJ pulling the plug on the racists. It's taken us a while to rebuild a coalition, but we'll be stronger for it. Meanwhile, the Republicans are turning into a regional party. They have the Old South, and Utah, and that's about it. Even Texas is going to be in play.