tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post4662156053808275916..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: Steve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-118530631621787152012-09-27T11:30:42.556-04:002012-09-27T11:30:42.556-04:00If Obama is to blame for the "failure" o...If Obama is to blame for the "failure" of "budget talks" on a "grand compromise", then I salute him. And if Simpson-Bowles shows any signs of rising up again, put a stake in its heart at once.J Neo Marvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16113077457194694608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-55313304793976391702012-09-27T01:09:24.121-04:002012-09-27T01:09:24.121-04:00So true, and so sad.So true, and so sad.Bob In Portlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06969665109260881650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-40428829200541128002012-09-26T15:49:13.126-04:002012-09-26T15:49:13.126-04:00Well said, BH. One must come to terms with realit...Well said, BH. One must come to terms with reality, no matter how much it diverges from what one wishes it were.Never Ben Betterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17814767173601107270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-62433041159585986982012-09-26T13:03:25.001-04:002012-09-26T13:03:25.001-04:00We don't have a "truly progressive" ...We don't have a "truly progressive" major party, as Fineman and many others would define that term; that's true. I suggest that the fundamental reason for that absence is the absence of a large enough electorate in the US to sustain such a party. It's not as if there haven't been plenty of lefty candidates, nationally as well as locally in some areas; but by and large, they simply haven't prevailed. One can argue that that's only because of the baleful, corrupting influence of money in our politics, and to an extent I'd agree; but, that influence is (for now, and for pretty much the entire period from 1865 to date, at least) a fact of political life here. Moreover, if the potential electorate for a lefty party is so susceptible to persuasion by the ads, etc., that money buys that it fails to push lefty candidates over the top time after time, then how much of a potential electorate was it in the first place?<br /><br />I could wish it were otherwise, but for lots of reasons - many of them going back to how and by whom the nation was founded - I'm afraid that there just isn't a large enough "market" for a party which would qualify as "progressive" under Fineman's criteria to subsist in the USA. Subtract the South, and perhaps there would be; but, like money, the South is another political fact of life. <br /><br />All this is to say, given the real-world possibilities as I see them, I'm vastly relieved that Obama and the Democrats - such as they are, with warts aplenty - look likely to prevail. I'm also vastly relieved that Obama didn't have to waste time and money fending off a primary challenge by some updated (and ultimately futile in terms of the national electorate) Henry Wallace. If that makes me a co-opted tool of corporate interests, well, so be it.BHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12991272246814476124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-21636404865442627582012-09-26T10:32:18.497-04:002012-09-26T10:32:18.497-04:00Them Democrats sold their souls to the company sto...Them Democrats sold their souls to the company stores donations.<br /><br />We wouldn't even still have a Republican Party as it currently exists, if Democrats hadn't already started to exit Main Street in the 1960's and 1970's, allowing Reagan to use Nixon's Southern Strategy and flip the angry white middle class man and wife to Republicans.<br /><br />Democrats would have won almost every major election if they hadn't abandoned Main Street for Wall Street.<br /><br />And until they start to embrace regular people instead of bankers, the Republicans can get crazier and crazier.<br />Who's going to stop them?<br /><br />And if we had a Progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Obama and the Democrats in Congress wouldn't be talking about making some Grand Bargain after the election, which will benefit bankers and bond salesmen, but not Joe and Jane Sixpack.<br /><br />The best friend the Republicans have, is today's Demcrats.Victorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06609452382111686086noreply@blogger.com