oldschooltwentysix said...
Does it really matter, most of what is said there?
Lefty's main issue is that he has become a caricature. He's not alone playing the role, treating theory as if it were reality.
As bad, they go nuts over Israel, indiscriminately and disproportionately. They stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel's adversaries, and silently by at the massive mistreatment by adversary regimes of their own populations, millions of human beings, especially women and children.
And to think they lecture us.
I think the effective way is to convince Democrats that they should not listen to these people who contradict liberal principles for ideological gain, and who enable regimes that hate not only Israel, but our country and the liberal ideals it stands for in a largely dark world where, based on practice, those ideals do not matter, to the sadness of us all.
I enjoy the theater of DKos, but know it and the actors are insignificant and self-important. Far reaching discussions occur elsewhere.
The battleground on campus is where I think there can be a greater emphasis to help make change in the dynamics.
November 8, 2011 10:12 PM
I agree with almost all of this, but I would suggest that the reason that Daily Kos is significant is not due to their influence, but in the way that they are representative of the progressive-left more generally.
Some will say that Daily Kos is not representative of the left, but when you take that blog and add it to the Huffington Post and the UK Guardian than we're definitely looking at large well-known venues that do, in fact, represent the left.
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Oh, and by the way, thank you guys for all the content because there are just some days when I am not up for creating my own!
Daily Kos is where I started to realize that many of my fellows on the left were not only not so nice to Israel but damn nasty, antisemitic and insane. At least Kos outlawed the truthers and CT'ers who were blaming Israel for 9/11 and everything else. They are still there but they aren't allowed to talk that crazy talk even though they believe it. Instead they find other alleged progressive sites which do allow it and believe me there are tons of sites like that.
ReplyDeleteYup.
ReplyDeleteAs I am quick to remind people, it's not so much about dkos as about the left more generally.
Imagine, if you will, that you were a member of a club. And say that club had 100 members, but every time you went to a meeting 3 of those members would constantly berate you to such an extent that you could not really participate in the club.
And say the other 96 club members would stand around and watch while you were getting berated every time you went, but never stepped in to help.
And say that you were largely innocent of the charges that the 3 would level at you in a distorted and exaggerated manner.
How long would you stay in the club?
Not long, I do not think.
And that is how I feel about the Democratic party.
As I said, it's the way to go about it, not by demonizing, but by exposing the effects of what they support as antithetical to Democratic and liberal principles, despite their self-proclamations, then asking if these are people we should listen to or follow in their Orwellian approach to matters of reality.
ReplyDeleteYour club example is wrong again.
ReplyDeleteIt applies to the far left, for sure, but not the Democractic Party. The far left is not only tolerating those three bad people, it is telling them they are awesome. But the Democratic Party is constantly rebuffing those three bad people. It completely marginalizes them and gives their issue exactly zero play. Democratic elected officials constantly, unequivocally support Israel in Congressional resolutions and whenever else it comes up. They constantly state their support for Israel and their opposition to anti-Zionist schemes.
I would ask for opinions about Hilary Clinton gave the keynote address at the National Democratic Institute's 2011 Democracy Awards Dinner, and what it means for the Democratic Party.
ReplyDeleteschool,
ReplyDeleteI intend to write on that, basing much of the discussion on Barry Rubin's insights.
This is very, very troubling.
Over 30% of Democratic reps did not vote for the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 compared to 9.4% Republicans.
ReplyDeleteFifty-four (21%) Democratic congressmen sent a letter to US President Barack Obama in 2010 urging him to pressure Israel into alleviating the blockade on the Gaza Strip. They used the old collective punishment canard. "This concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip."
21% and over 30% are not insignificant numbers.