Joan Walsh:
Bye-bye, fake liberals: The Warren Democrats are winning!
The backlash against an inane Op-Ed bashing Elizabeth Warren shows that “economic populism” is the way forward
I am very late to the Third Way-trashing party, but that’s a story in itself. I didn’t need to weigh in; progressives erupted in immediate backlash at the group’s latest attack on “economic populism.”
By now everyone knows that the pro-Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party attacked Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York’s Mayor-elect Bill De Blasio in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, arguing that their “economic populism” was a “dead end” outside of the midnight-blue communards of Massachusetts and New York City.
Not only was Third Way’s argument immediately and widely debunked – Salon’s Elias Isquith did it very well here – but its domination by Wall Street became an issue in itself, thanks to folks at Daily Kos and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Warren herself responded by asking Wall Street CEOs to voluntarily disclose their think tank funding – without mentioning Third Way by name – suggesting it amounted to “little more than another form of corporate lobbying.”
And by Wednesday evening centrist Pennsylvania Rep. Alison Schwartz, a Third Way co-chair who’s running for governor next year, had disavowed the group’s attempted takedown of her party’s populist wing, calling it “outrageous.” (Update: Thursday afternoon another co-chair, Rep. Joe Crowley, joined Schwartz.)
Oh, and meanwhile, President Obama gave his best economic speech yet, calling income inequality “the defining challenge of our time.”
Is something going on here? I’d say yes. Wall Street’s domination of the Democratic Party is facing a genuine and sustained fight, and that’s a good thing for Democrats and the country.
[…]
Now, with income inequality continuing to worsen on Obama’s watch, he has to pick a different side in the class war if he cares about his legacy. I hope that’s what the speech Wednesday was about. I trust that an energized progressive movement, and its congressional allies, can hold him to it. We’ll see. But the energetic backlash against Third Way shows that economic populism isn’t a dead end but the way forward.
Let’s see, economic populists taking on their party’s monied establishment. Where have I heard that before?
Here is my question: Why is left-wing populism good but right-wing populism bad? Warren Democrats have just as much right to fight for the soul of their party as Tea Partiers have in the Republican party – no more and no less.
That’s democracy.
Answering your query, because Fauxahontas is smarter than anyone else. So there!
Timely post for this academic article, which I read earlier today. The shame of it is that there really is an argument to be made for thoughtful use of technology in advancing small-d democratic causes, but this article boils down to an embrace of Luddite-ism and a bunch of arguments against persons (i.e., these discussions are bad and untrue because the people behind them are bad and liars by virtue of their [speculated] political beliefs). It’s just ridiculous, but typical.
I think he’s right, technology doesn’t promote leftist values. It promotes democracy and ideas. Anyone religiously or cultishly wanting one set of values is bound to be disappointed if everyone has a voice.
Populist movements are fascinating. At their core is a group fed up with a corrupt establishment that likes things the way they are. More power to the movement on the left, and the tea party movement on the right. I like to see the establishment, both sides of the same uniparty, a little nervous. The problem with populists is they’re often either just politicians playing a game, or if not, they get absorbed into the borg eventually. But anything to make the powered wig uniparty nervous is good. Having said that, Warren is as dumb as a bag of rocks. Seriously.
The trite but accurate term “Warren Democrats” creeps me out. Group-think nincompoops eschewing even a minimalist ethical compass are a recipe for political disaster, IMO. Doomed! I say; we could be doomed!
“(i.e., these discussions are bad and untrue because the people behind them are bad and liars by virtue of their [speculated] political beliefs).”
******
After about 30 years of subscribing to Scientific American, I finally gave up for two reasons; more and more articles were written by “science” writers rather than people doing the science and articles seemed to be motivated by “agenda” rather than science. It seems that most of the crap published on “climate”, energy, economy, etc. have the conclusion/agenda as the starting point and the “facts” carefully selected to support it. That is what passes for critical thinking today.
Even among real scientists, there is politics and agendas. So you have to read wide and have a critical eye. I find places like science daily and other, less expensively polished and managed sources, are much better for watching what’s going on.
Unintentional humor:
MattY wanders into a Walmart and is amazed at what he sees.
He better watch out. He might accentually get deprogrammed.
Stuff like this is what gives sycophancy a bad name.
Spread ’em and be happy girls. There are worse things than a woman being raped and likely killed. A guy could get hurt.
What would be more threatening to a rapist–peeing my pants or pointing a gun at him? I’d pick the gun.
I’d rather get shot than see a woman piss her pants.
/sarc
no it deserves a ginsu circumcision knife so it does not happen again.
the Lorenna Bobbit penality
Please tell me this is a parody. Please?
Seems the Brady campaign is denying the ads and they have been removed from Facebook.
http://rightwingnerd.com/fake-outrage/
MOTUS has a good snark of the highlights from the Matthews-Obama “interview” ……
http://www.michellesmirror.com/2013/12/obama-fan-fiction-hardball-series.html#.UqJoGZs8t2Q
Looks like Tingles spent the entire interview humping Obama’s leg 😉
Jen Rubin:
That’s a very polite way of saying he’s completely nuts. When you think you’re superman and can fly, they lock you away. Unfortunately for Obama, he thought he was superman and tons of people said yes you are superman. Obamacare is his attempt at flying. He and his followers think he’s in flight at 20,000 feet in a wondrous and beautiful display of his superpowers. It must be a lovely delusional world they live in.
Obama is one screwed up dude.
..leading a humongous flock of screwed up dudes and dudettes running pell-mell towards the Abyss of Reality. Just hope the drop-off is deep enough the ensuing stink doesn’t ruin the environment.. #gotcarriedaway
He left out that Obama is a perpetual liar also.
stole this from a commenter at NO Quarter
http://nocompromisepac.ning.com/forum/topics/israel-psychologist-on-obama
backtrack is a pathological narcissist
very interesting read
ROFLMAO quote:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/12/06/krauthammer-obama-acts-he-wandered-white-house-tour-and-discovered-he
good one
About those min. wage “protestors” ….
http://nypost.com/2013/12/05/rent-a-mob-protests/
earned $75 gift cards
How long did they have to protest?
According to the article, until the media left.
backtrack bunch just hired some pro-amnesty lawyers to argue amnesty cases for the immigration dept.
is there anything this bunch does that would help the country? I have not seen it
It is on the Kelly File now
here is the video
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2903095880001/exclusive-j-christian-adams-explosive-new-claims/
“Why is left-wing populism good but right-wing populism bad? Warren Democrats have just as much right to fight for the soul of their party as Tea Partiers have in the Republican party – no more and no less”
The left as a whole isn’t fighting for their party. Warren seems to me to be a flake- she couldn’t even beat Scott Brown the first time around (not that she’s running for president). The Coffee Party (the left-wing alternative to the Tea Party) was a big flop, and there isn’t anyone being presented as an alternative to Clinton from the left. I’ve never experienced in my lifetime such a lack of interest in preserving the party ideals from the left.
Warren only ran against Scott Brown once, and she won. It was Martha Coakley who lost to him. They do look alike.
you’re right
Apparently the standard for acceptable presidential behavior these days is “Not as bad as X”
Yeah, Libya wasn’t a “war” because the press didn’t cover it.
And coming thisclose in Syria didn’t count either because the American public & France (FFS!) stopped him.
Warren aside, hard to object to knowing which think tanks, lobbyists, and activists are funded by Wall Street banks and hedge funds. They kind of run Washington these days.