‘Stop Whining!’

Posted on 11/24/2008 at 2:27 pm by Bob Cesca

BooMan on the lack of liberal blogosphere support for the Obama transition:

Obama’s agenda is farther to the left than anything we’ve seen since at least Lyndon Johnson, and Congress has never in its history seen a Democratic Party so united in its leftward tilt. It doesn’t matter whether Obama has centrists and moderate Republicans as part of his coalition. What matters is if he can unite (enough of) this country behind a common purpose to get things done.

People really need to stop whining and figure out how they can help.

Yeah, I really hope it’s not going to be four-to-eight years in which our fellow liberal bloggers are standing around defiantly — arms folded, incredulous glances — waiting to be courted and appeased by the administration. Barack Obama has always been our best chance for liberal policies, and, as BooMan also documents here, that’s precisely what the president-elect is planning so far.

(Incidentally, I’m exhausted with the whole progressive vs. liberal terminology thing, so I’m just going with liberal.)

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  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis Disaster

    I don’t understand where people want the line to be drawn. This reminds me of arguments I used to get into when I’d attend anti-Iraq embargo rallies during the Clinton years. Dissent from right-leaning policies is important, at least to the not-so-very-serious media who have kept this country honest for the past few years. I don’t understand why this has to change under the new regime. “Shut up and do what you’re told” isn’t really the kind of change I’ve been trying to believe in.

  • http://www.intoxination.net IntoxiNation

    Thank You! I always refer to myself as a “liberal”. Fuck those rightwing hacks and their attempts at demonizing the word.Hey I also was thinking about the blogosphere today. We always talk about the “mainstream media”, but should we also start talking about “mainstream blogs”. It seems like a bunch of bigger blogs out there all get on the same page of outrage in unison.

  • http://someofnothing.com slag

    “(Incidentally, I’m exhausted with the whole progressive vs. liberal terminology thing, so I’m just going with liberal.)”Good call. I do the same myself.

  • camel54

    There is a definite difference between “Dissent from right-leaning policies…” and non-stop attacks on every decision a person makes. The first point, and the one I would think should be the most obvious is that Obama is not the president yet and therefore hasn’t had the opportunity to engage in policy making with which we may differ.Second, attacking the prospective leader it makes a person look arrogant and after a number of explosive reactions it makes them look incredibly silly. Watching these people constantly look for reasons to be angry or disappointed or frustrated is like watching an emo teenager trying to impress a girl who nods in agreement but is really dreaming about screwing the quarterback.

  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis Disaster

    So we’re pretending that appointing Hillary as SoS will have absolutely no consequences, then? I’d count that as a meaningful decision, even pre-inauguration.

  • http://obamaproject.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    I’m convinced that Bob does something to force us to post. Comments keep racking up in the lead thread, but I can never see them unless I post myself!QT

  • Bob_Cesca

    *cups hands around mouth*Broader! Narrative!Travis, you’re sounding like you’ve got an understandable yet incurable form of post-traumatic stress from eight years of Bush. Honestly, I don’t see any signs of an Obama conspiracy against liberalism. Much to the contrary.

  • Bob_Cesca

    >>I can never see them unless I post myself!Did you try Shift-Refresh?This sounds like a browser cache issue to me.

  • http://obamaproject.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    Shift-Refresh? What ever happened to regular refresh?OK – I’ll try that next time… (grumbles)QT

  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis Disaster

    It’s not a conspiracy, it’s more like “thanks but no thanks”. The Lieberman thing especially smacked of “whatever you say, kids”.

  • GItheJOE

    I hate typepad

  • GItheJOE

    Holy Shit!!! I finally go this bullshit to work.

  • Bob_Cesca

    RE: TypePad…I’m yelling at tech support. If I can’t solve this, I’m turning off the registration feature. But if I do, be prepared for trolls and comment spam.>>”whatever you say, kids”.You looked at the situation using an old paradigm. As I wrote in HuffPost last week, it WAS a punishment. A severe one. Just not the brand of punishment that’s been doled out before.

  • http://obamaproject.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    Yes, the extra special Shift-Refresh worked!Can we start a petition for a new platform?QT

  • KatinWilm

    RE: TypePadI’ve taken to copying whatever I’ve written before hitting ‘post,’ so I can paste it as many times as necessary until it goes through. It took me like 4 tries this morning – very annoying. However, in my opinion, I’d rather deal with that than trolls.

  • http://obamaproject.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    ^^Ditto. I liked the fundraiser to get onto a new platform idea. Bob – any word yet about feasibility/cost?QT

  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis Disaster

    I propose Bob moves the whole thing to a dial-up BBS.

  • lame duck hunting

    Oh, Noes! Not Trolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • jane

    Question: How will we know there are trolls?

  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis Disaster

    They’ll have to pay a Troll Toll.

  • sdrDusty

    Obama is only left/liberal in relation to the extremist GOP/Fundie regime, including their media enablers. He’s vastly better– but really quite centrist in my view.And in truth, this is probably better for us liberals in a pragmatic sense– I think he’s more likely to be able to advance a progressive agenda this way. I hope!

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Let the trolls in. Me, Queen, and GItheJoe can be your three billy goats gruff.

  • sdrDusty

    and yes, the Lib/Prog, Right/Left, Centrist, etc thing is tedious. kind of hard for me to communicate certain things without it though.

  • http://www.ieatgravel.com/ Alaska

    I don’t even know what the difference is. I don’t know if I’m a liberal or a progressive or a leftist or a marxist or a socialist or a communist or a hippie or….Whatever, I don’t need to try and box myself into a single system of ideals to form an opinion.Che Guevara 2012!

  • ceu

    I see way more people telling others to stop whining about what Obama’s doing than people actually whining. I’m not seeing angry, pissed off liberals – am I just not going to the correct blogs for it??

  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis Disaster

    A lot of this is aimed at people Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald for not cartwheeling around their living rooms at the prospect of HRC as SoS and the Marc Rich guy as AG. The way certain people are talking, you’d think people were accusing Obama of being a Bush acolyte or something.

  • camel54

    Troll toll. Sweet. Travis, are you the Day Man? Master of karate and friendship?

  • Phoenicia

    My fellow Americans seems to be getting their knickers in a twist over centrist, right, left-of-center, etc. To what end? I was calling Ohio on my UK Skype for Obama pre-election canvassing and one resident said she would not be voting for Obama because he was a socialist. Sticking to my script I said that actually he was not but thanked her for her time. What I wanted to say was, “Lady I have lived in England and Sweden and you have absolutely NO idea what socialism is!” I know these political definitions are relative, but honestly, America is so conservative compared to much of Europe and Scandanavia that it seems a waste time trying to define where on the spectrum Obama’s policies lie, thus fashioning bullets for Republicans to fire.

  • katfish

    A lot of trigger-happy second-guessers out there. It’s okay to view Obama’s decisions critically, but it’d be wise – since he’s the President elect – to channel your input directly by sending it to the transition team at change.gov. Obama has more than enough adversity to contend with, enit? Bellyaching lefties, of which there are plenty – are not lending greater clarity to the situation. Let’s consider the possibility that, smart as we are, none of us has all the answers. Patience furthers.