Hoping for Change is Hard

I don't want to tell the Firebaggers what to think, the liberals who find themselves at odds with President Obama, let alone that I should tell them what to write. They know well enough the consequences of their rhetoric. At least they think they do, and certainly have tried to justify not clapping loud enough to themselves and their fans that they don't think constant repetition has led to any sort of self delusion.  At least that's the propaganda they've been feeding themselves.

And it's hard.  It's hard when faced with constant frustration to turn your back on the only thing remotely capable of fighting the real enemies of the progressives.

It's hard when those true enemies to progress and prosperity, those that have morphed the very idea of social justice into a dirty word get all the attention, when they dominate the media and frame every debate in a rigged game.  It's hard.

It's hard to be the responsible ones, it's hard to be the grow-up in the room. It's hard to govern.  Much easier to criticize, to express the exasperation and disgust about negotiating styles, the lack of purity and dedication to the cause.  Far easier to turn your back and wash your hands of the entire enterprise.

Too bad the President doesn't have enough good sense to turn his back on us in frustration.  No wonder we don't understand him.  I don't know how he puts up with us either.

Some Science in the Politics of Obama's Negotiation Style

Direct from my Twitter Feed:

thinkprogress
ThinkProgress

by cbn2

NEW POLL: 47% have favorable view of Dems, 47% unfavorable http://thkpr.gs/nO5ToN

»

thinkprogress
ThinkProgress
by cbn2

NEW POLL: 59% have unfavorable view of the GOP, 33% favorable. Worst rating since CNN started asking in 1992 http://thkpr.gs/nO5ToN

»

postpolitics
Post Politics

.@PostPolls: 29 percent say #teaparty has a negative effect on Congress http://wapo.st/qdZoTl

I'm always looking for ways to put the science in Political Science.

What's the Difference Between Left and Right - 4.6 degrees

This chart illustrates the real difference between the left and right in American politics over the last 25 years. It's the effect of a lousy 4.6% change in the marginal rate millionaires (and half-millionaires) pay in income taxes. That's it.  That difference accounts for about a 12 point swing in the taxes collected from the upper echelon, the so-called job creators who are anything but.

HT TPMDC

[P]rogressives have long pointed out the drop in taxes paid by upper
income earners: in 1986 those making more than $1,000,000 paid 40.2% of
their AGI in income tax, and in 2009 that percentage was 24.2, after
hitting a low of 22.1% in 2006. The drop after the Tax Reform Act of 1986
is evident, then growth after the Budget Act of 1990 and the broken
promise of "no new taxes," the slight continued increase after the
Budget Act of 1993 under President Clinton, then a gradual drop in the
1990s until the more pronounced fall after the Bush tax cuts.

Oh sure, there's a lot more to the tribal nature of our politics. Undoubtedly the most influential element is the purity test required by anti and pro choice advocates. But in economic terms the fight has been in the margins between how low Ronald Reagan dropped taxes on the rich and the Clinton rates.  The fight has been between these margins, more or less, for almost three decades.

The Bush (II) tax cuts that Obama extended are the low point of the spectrum by just a tick under the Reagan rates, but if they were eliminated by the tiny uptick that sank "H.W." Bush's reelection when he broke his "Read my lips" pledge in 1991-2, we're half way to the Clinton era of prosperity.

In reality, the Clinton rates which reached it's zeinith in 1993 (39.6% on plus-$250k/yr earners) were a modest increase compared to the Reagan drop from 63% to 28% during his tenure, and left off at the end the Clinton years at about where Poppy Bush's rates were (much to the betterment of the overall economy) in the amount of revenue collected.

The elimination of the 90s era rates finagled by history's 3rd or 4th worst President (Buchanan's a no-brainer, Hoover and Harding still give Bush Jr. a run for his money, imo) to slightly below the Reagan rates is all this fight has ever been about.  But it's this fight, and the manner in which it's been waged, that makes all the difference between a better future and former Vice Presidents calling us out on to the streets.  It's this fight that stuffs the coffers of the Super PACs and funds the Right Wing Noise Machine.

More starkly put, for those who make one quarter of a million dollars a year, those who could make a million dollars over the course of one presidential term paid an oppressive 39.6% when Clinton left office, and only 35% today.  That's right, a 4.6% difference.

That's all this fucking fight is about. That's where the rates on the top 2% go if and when the "Bush Tax Cuts" are allowed to expire.

We've had our credit rating devalued for that?

We're going to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for that?

We're going to cut Pell Grants for that?

We're going to slash the Pentagon's budget for that? (I'll believe it when I ... nope, not gonna ever believe that.)

4.6%?

Really?

Krugman: Obama turned into the 2nd coming of Herbert Hoover

Krugman is just so mild manneredly shrill on Countdown with Keith (Thank you Al Gore for inventing Current TV, hiring KO, and inventing the Internet so everyone can watch a clip here and there:

What it's most like is actually 1937, when FDR was persuaded to pull back when he shouldn't.

But it is true that you could take speeches that Herbert Hoover gave in 1932 and speeches that Barack Obama has given in 2011 and they look awfully similar. It's very depressing.

Because I want Obama to succeed, I think he's a good man, but somehow he's turned into the second coming of Herbert Hoover.

Paul Krugman on What's Next for the American Economy

One Change that Changes Everything

If you were a Wizard, would you grant Dick Durbin his wish ... Public Financing of Elections?

The Daily Show - Exclusive - Dick Durbin Extended Interview Pt. 3
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Really folks, this would do more to fix this nation than any other single piece of legislation.

Ahh August

Welcome boys and girls to that annual rite of sweltering nonsense where the shouting reveals that our tempers can rise as high as the temperature: The Summer Recess.

August is the only month without an official holiday, the only month when the Post office and Banks don't take a day off.  It is officially Back to School month, and (perhaps more fittingly) National Goat Cheese Month.

It was August when Dear Leader told a CIA briefer," Alright, you covered your ass" when told that Bin Laden determine to attack America.

It was August when the corporate antagonist organized the useful idiots calling themselves Tea Partiers to disrupt every Congressional Town Hall meeting in the country shouting "Keep Gob'mint's hands off Mah Medicare."

And now, it's August when Standard & Poors decided to downgrade the creditworthiness of the U.S. of A to that of a Tin-pot Banana Republic because the GOP still worships at the alter of Grover Norquist's sphincter and won't raise taxes - or even close loopholes to grab some much needed revenue to run things.

It'll start with sit-ins and shouting.  The end will be much uglier.  But this crap will end.  If the geniuses in charge of everything, those Masters of the Universe, if they don't get their collective heads out of their asses and do those very obvious things the country demands, requires, needs, the end will be very ugly indeed.

The Reverse Bullworth: Come On!

You've seen the historic abuse of the filibuster becoming standard procedure. Now the unprecedented economic blackmail we just lived through and are fated to revisit all too soon reveals a frighteningly undemocratic new normal for how business is conducted in the Nation's capital.

The thought occurs, why haven't we seen this before?  Why haven't we seen the radical right (or left for that matter) act so irresponsibly as to put the nation's economic vitality at risk just to score political points?

Part of it maybe what I'll call a "Reverse Bullworth."

Remember the 1998 Warren Beatty movie, Bullworth. Come On!  You remember.  Hum along to the Bullworth Obscenity Rap:

Bullworth:
Obscenity? The rich is getting richer and richer and richer while the
middle class is getting more poor/ Making billions and billions and
billions of bucks/ well my friend if you weren't already rich at the
start well that situation just sucks/cause the riches mother fucker in
five of us is getting ninety fuckin eight percent of it/ and every other
motherfucker in the world is left to wonder where the fuck we went with
it/ Obscenity?/ I'm a Senator/ I gotta raise $10,000 a day every day
I'm in Washington/ I ain't getting it in South Central/ I'm gettin it in
Beverly Hills/ So I'm votin from them in the Senate the way they want
me too/ and-and-and I'm sending them my bills/ But we got babies in
South Central dying as young as they do in Peru/ We got public schools
that are nightmares/ We got a Congress that ain't got a clue/We got kids
with submachine guns/ We got militias throwing bombs/ We got Bill just
gettin all weepy/ We got Newt blaming teenage moms/We got factories
closing down/ Where the hell did all the good jobs go? Well, I'll tell
you where they went/My contributors make more profits makin, makin,
makin, Hirin' kids in Mexico/ Oh a brother can work in fast food/ If he
can't invent computer games/ But what we used to call America/ That's
going down the drains/How's a young man gonna meet his financial
responsibilities workin and motherfuckin Burger King? He ain't! And
please don't even start with that school shit/ There aint no education
going on up in that motherfucker/ Obscenity? We got a million brothers
in prison/ I mean, the walls are really rockin/But you can bet your ass
they'd all be out/If they could pay for Johnny Cochran/ The constitution
is supposed to give them an equal chance/ Well, that ain't gonna happen
for sure/ Ain't it time to take a little from the rich motherfucker and
give a little to the poor? I mean, those boys over there on the
monitor/ they want a government smaller and weak/ but the be speakin for
the riches 20 percent when they pretend they're defendin the meek/ Now,
shit, fuck, cocksuker, that's the real obscenity/ Black folks livin
with every day/ Trying to believe a mothefuckin word Democrats and
Republicans say/ Obscenity? I'm Jay Billington Bulworth And I've come to
say/ The Democratic party's got some shit to pay/ It's gonna pay it in
the ghetto/

Yeah, it's written by that hero of liberal movie aficionados everywhere, Aaron Sorkin of West Wing and American President fame.  Who else?  

Over a dozen years later, after enduring the worst Bush/Cheney and a GOP Congress could bring, and things ain't gotten any better.  Now they're in the process of doing to us what they couldn't even get done with that kind of power and influence controlling the entire government, dismantling the social safety net via extortion -- something they didn't have enough balls to try under the Clinton administration. Why?

Why don't they fear a backlash? Why didn't they try this before?  To me, the take-away money quote that sums up the whole movie's message was this:

Angry black woman:
Are you sayin' the Democratic Party don't care about the African-American community?

Bullworth:
Isn't that OBVIOUS? You got half your kids are out of work and the other
half are in jail. Do you see ANY Democrat doing anything about it?
Certainly not me! So what're you gonna do, vote Republican? Come on!
Come on, you're not gonna vote Republican! Let's call a spade a spade!

What's the reverse of that then? The thing that kept the GOP from complete radicalization for decades (if we only knew then how bad they could truly be when unleashed) was fear of a backlash.  Because unlike minorities who had been purposely vilified and overtly ostracized and insulted by the Republic party for more than a century of fighting civil rights and Jim Crow tactics who would never switch to the other side, the white Republic base could indeed turn their backs on a GOP (and occasionally did) who have always taken pains to spread the fable that "both sides do it" and there's not a whisper of difference between the two parties.

Now, with their uniting principle the failure and defeat of President Obama, they can afford the take one particular segment of the GOP base for granted.  The modern GOP can afford to act like terrorists, irresponsible children, just plain stubborn asshats and they will never alienate the willfully ignorant, bigoted backbone of the T-Bagger consortium no matter who they hurt in the cross-fire or how bad they make the economy.

Come on, what're they gonna do? Vote for the black guy? Come on!
Come on, they're not gonna vote for the black guy? Let's call a racist a racist.

Bend over so they can screw it in tighter

..
see more Very Demotivational

Thoreau notes that some of our most pessimistic and gloomy bloggers have come back to sit under the awning and complain about the rain.

I guess that means I'll be in fine company as I fire up the scripts and widgets to get this old jalopy of a blog back in working order.  I probably need to do more than look under the hood, and may take it into the garage for a full tune up, but I think it's still street legal.

I mean, it's not like anything's changed in the year or so I took off from serious blogging.

We're still screwed.  Just as screwed as we were when PrezO harshed our buzz the night he was elected, saying such nonsense that he was elected to be President of ALL of us.  How's that working out? 

“Obama’s support among Americans who identify themselves as both liberal and Democratic was 83 percent last week, little changed from previous weeks and slightly higher relative to Obama’s overall approval rating than it has been historically,” Gallup said.

“Although President Obama’s job approval rating hit the low point of his administration during the past week and is down among most subgroups, there are no signs yet that he has taken a disproportionate hit among his traditional base of liberals and Democrats. On a relative basis, both of these groups remain as loyal to Obama compared with Americans overall as they have been on average since he took office in January 2009,” Gallup added.

The president’s overall approval rating is at 42 percent, down from 50 percent at the beginning of June.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60471.html#ixzz1TteAFklL

The left still likes him ("love" is too strong a word at this point), but are freaked that not supporting him could lead to President Bachmann. The right can't fucking stand him. ("Hate" is a mild descriptor, as in "I hate spinach." They're way beyond hate and always have been.)

For those who insist that either his policies, his style, or his negotiating (for lack of a better word) "strategy" are all politically motivated, are designed in some nefarious way to increase his chances for reelection are deluded and stupidly buy the spin from his spokestools. The frightening thing is the realization that Barack Obama thinks he's doing the right thing.

FAIL: REPORT: Debt Ceiling Deal Will Cost 1.8 Million Jobs In 2012

As with most centrists/moderates/sheep he lacks an underlying ideology that can guide him when you can't see the shit right in front of your eyes because the shit-storm raging all around you has reduced visibility to zero.  It's not a backbone he lacks, but much like Poppy Bush the Elder, he doesn't have that "vision thing." Bureaucratic plutocrats like that are more than satisfied with getting something done instead of getting something they want.

When historic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities have presented themselves, like single-payor, a Stimzilla that REALLY invested in our future, or killing the Bush (II) tax cuts, we we told that the half-a-loaf was delicious.  Sorry, but it left a sour taste after seeing how much a minority faction of loons can get out of our system if you DON"T play by the rules and act like a grown up.

Whatever you want to call it, it ain't democracy.  Not when less than 10% of the country gets 98% of what they want.

So I'm back. Back because I'm angry again. Angry like I was when we went to war over a pack of lies and I started this blogging adventure.  Back because it's time. Back because the reason I stopped -- that I didn't want to bash the President but could no longer act the cheerleader when he extended the disastrous Bush tax cuts -- has come back to bite us all in the ass, because it revealed Barack Obama's fundamental weakness in negotiating with the GOP instead of breaking their back when they were down.