Tweet
According to a new AARP poll, 79% of Americans (and 61% of Republicans) now favor the creation of a public plan.
This morning a commenter quoted Malcolm X’s "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech. It eerily evokes our present situation:
[A]ny block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that’s who gets it. You’re — You’re in a position to determine who will go to the White House and who will stay in the dog house. You’re the one who has that power.
[]
[I]n the House of Representatives, there are 257 who are Democrats; only 177 are Republican. In the Senate there are 67 Democrats; only 33 are Republicans. The Party that you backed controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and still they can’t keep their promise to you, ’cause you’re a chump.
[]
These Northern Democrats are in cahoots with the Southern Democrats. They’re playing a giant con game, a political con game. You know how it goes. One of them — One of them comes to you and makes believe he’s for you, and he’s in cahoots with the other one that’s not for you. Why? Because neither one of them is for you, but they got to make you go with one of them or the other. So this is a con game. And this is what they’ve been doing with you and me all these years.
[]
So it’s the — it’s the ballot or the bullet. Today our people can see that we’re faced with a government conspiracy. This government has failed us. The senators who are filibustering concerning your and my rights, that’s the government. Don’t say it’s Southern senators. This is the government; this is a government filibuster. It’s not a segregationist filibuster. It’s a government filibuster. Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate, that’s the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, that’s the government. Any kind of pussy-footing, that’s the government. Any kind of act that’s designed to delay or deprive you and me right now of getting full rights, that’s the government that’s responsible.
There are 257 Democrats in the House today, only 178 are Republicans. In the Senate, Democrats will soon have 60 votes and will not be vulnerable to filibuster by the GOP alone.
As you listen to leaders and to institutions in the coming days and evaluate what they are telling you about health care reform, and you try to discern who represents your interests and who does not, remember one thing:
Don’t be a chump.
104 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
Chump Change.
Not to sound like a broken record but the change I voted for was for real, not the chump change we’re getting.
I bet Malcolm X never thought his “Don’t Be A Chump” speech would apply to the present situation with a black president being the leading con-artist of the party.
Con-artist? I dunno about that. I see him more as chronically erring on the side of caution. I think he got that from being raised by white people. Had he had strong black influences he might be more apt to strut a little bit and show some bravado.
The more I look at Malcolm X’s picture, the more I think POTUS needs to get some horn rimmed glasses. (Seemed to give Palin some of her power. ;-)
The skinny kid and Malcolm kinda have the same eyes. It would be interesting to see.
Malcolm X told the truth.
He was killed by enemies of the truth.
Financed by enemies of the truth.
He spoke truth.
Chumpiness, change-iness.
Time to resume the push for UNIVERSAL health care that Ted Kennedy championed. All this talk of insurance reform has polluted our discourse.
I love that Jane brought up Malcolm X. He, like Kennedy had problems early in life(and into early middle life). Towards the end of his life he really did strive to improve the greater good. Don’t believe me? Read the autobiography he co-wrote with Alex Haley.
I think the “con artist” analysis fails in the same way that all personality-based analysis does: it ain’t one person. It’s a system. Everyone is playing their role, and no one person alone — even at the top — has the power to change that.
And why would someone who represents the pinnacle of that system, who owes their success to that system, be motivated to change it?
True progressive systemic change comes from the ground up. Anything else — even from the most well-intentioned — will be incidental and easily undone by the next not-so-well-intentioned individual.
I’m not ready to be a chump
“And why would someone who represents the pinnacle of that system, who owes their success to that system, be motivated to change it?”
True, but that realization makes me want to throw up, especially on the same day that Teddy died.
“True progressive systemic change comes from the ground up. Anything else — even from the most well-intentioned — will be incidental and easily undone by the next not-so-well-intentioned individual.”
Bingo!
“Incremental, halting change that will never be sufficient because it’s taking place within a corrupt system… that you can believe in”!
No wonder we never see truth in advertising.
Jane, the poll is tremendous news. It says that the deathers are having zero effect on public opinion on the public option, and might even be increasing support for it. Now if only Congress cared about what the people want…
Tell em, the difference between a champ and a chump is U.
One of the most vociferous opponents of Democratic health care legislation, led by former hospital executive Rick Scott, has pulled its anti-health care ads, saying that it wanted to respect the death of Edward Kennedy.
Lobbyists steal your candy and leave you crying like a little baby by working incrementally.
Don’t be a chump.
Good one!
clever way to get free publicity.
If a person believes, I mean really believes, that no health care bill is better than a health care bill that doesn’t do enough, is it being a chump to fight it’s passage??
I ask because I’m for single payer. I accept the CW that single payer can’t pass today. I also accept, though this isn’t CW, that a strong, robust, public option as outlined by (Hacker???? Dammit, can’t recall dudes name) is a decent compromise and may lead to cost containment and eventually perhaps to single payer.
However, a bill that’s “reform” in name only, for example merely stopping the practice of non-coverage for pre-existing conditions, IMO does more harm than good because a) it will not help contain costs and in fact will raise premiums to pay for those pre-existing conditions, and b)more importantly, will delay real reform for another generation.
Would one be a chump than to advocate for passing NO BILL and instead advocating for the Democratic Party to make it THE ISSUE in the 2010 elections, in fact make single payer THE ISSUE, and then, if they won, there could be no question, no doubt, as to what the American people want?
Health care for all is my life long passion; I care about that more than stopping those two wars believe it or not (mainly because they will end on their own one way or another while disease and suffering never will). So I ask these questions because I’m just so damned unsure of whether what’s being talked about right now is really worth championing, and fighting for.
Does anyone else feel a bit conflicted also??
Brother Malcom:
But the poll question was dishonestly phrased as:
“Do you support or oppose “[s]tarting a new federal health insurance plan that individuals could purchase if they can’t afford private plans offered to them?”
when of course a sensibly centrist bipartisan formulation would have been:
“Do you support or oppose starting a new federal, genocidal, Kenya-nesian healtho-fascist, budget-busting plan to pull the plug on Granny?”
If I were to write my autobiography (the most boring book imaginable, to be sure), a good title would probably be “My Life as a Chump”.
But maybe there’s still time for me to de-chumpify!
Straight from the basketball court!
Good post. However, when counting votes, there really are only 58 Dems and 2 independents and we know we can’t count on duplicitous Joe to be with us anytime it counts.
blaming it on a system is a cop out, when the absense of bold, appropriate leadership is what is empowering the “system”.
Obama conned progressives into believing that he represented progressive change. The word “con” is fully appropriate, because it was a “confidence” game — Obama exuded “confidence”, and got people to invest their “confidence” in him. That’s why its called a “con” game — and he played it to the hilt.
So far this year 2009 has not presented the Barack Obama many of us thought to be the better choice than the other Clinton going into November 2008.
Thus far this Obama WH has disappointed often and has displayed a disturbing preference to not be — to not do — to not set forth — what candidate Barack Obama proposed or suggested during 2007 and 2008.
Why this is so still not clearly knowable — but if President Obama cannot or will not live up to Candidate Obama’s campaign rhetoric and suggested positions this Obama WH is in very real trouble going into 2012.
The kind of trouble that could make 2012 the last Obama WH year — not a middle Obama WH year.
This Obama WH has failed on and in several very hard to ignore ways as it is in not taking on Bush/Cheney regime legacy issues and putting stops to them — doing cleanup and demolition. Why this is so becoming a very troubling matter.
Growing failure of principles held and stood up for and shortfalls in execution and presentation seems to be framing this so called Obama WH proposed American healthcare reform.
The stench of blatant and rampant money politics — crass and craven closed door “club” politics — and just plain short visioned/expediency premised politics is a stench hard to avoid — to not smell.
Barack Obama so far is appearing as less Harry Truman and more Warren G. Harding in conduct and character demonstrated coming out of this Obama Oval Office.
A healthcare reform that is little more than cheap political stageset scenery that does not put forth clear pathways going forward towards an American Single Payer Plan is worse than no reform at this point.
Clearly the for profit premised healthcare forces are flooding this reform with money in hopes of sinking it and being able to keep doing business as usual.
If Barack Obama cannot see the monumental moment here — where it is time to be a FDR or Truman or LBJ — not a Harding or another Bush — that is a truly great failure — he has then declined to be a champion of the American people — forfeited any claim as being a great American President.
My contribution
By the way, DAMN. He was a fine writer, Malcom was.
I wish liberals were not being such chumps. How they could look in the face of an economic collapse, near double digit unemployment, a middle class that has been absolutely ravaged over the last 30 years, but particularly the last 8 years, and still be willing participants in a private insurance, employer based scheme, with some vague notion of a public option, without even trying for Medicare for All, and all the economic justice it entails, is beyond me. Chumps indeed. I think Malcolm X would not have settled so easily for what the pols told him was “politically feasible”.
not at all. A bad bill is worse than no bill. If the young generation that came out for Obama and the dems is required to buy crappy insurance because there’s a mandate in a bad bill we will lose that whole generation. That is much worse than fighting against a bad bill and taking credit for killing a monster.
IMO, YMMV.
Wow!
Thanks, Jane, for a spoonful of hope.
Good post, Jane. Malcom X could see through all the BS. We at FDL have seen lots of BS, for the past 8 months, and the 8 years before that. I’m going to a town hall meeting tonight, our Repug rep’s having one at the middle school nearby. Gonna get all dresed up in a business shirt and tie so they can’t tell I’m a DFH in disguise, and try to get a good seat up front.
I’ll report on the meeting BS later. Bye for now.
Hooray for you! Look forward to your report.
Well, I personally, wouldn’t just fight for no bill. I’d fight for the right bill, like Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, yeah she’s a doctor not a politician. I’m with her:
http://www.correntewire.com/ma…..ealth_care
Seconded.
The system / government we have is like a car which has a wheel out of alignment is always pulling in this case to the right.
The right of course is what big business wants – it’s the lay off and let the “free market” get the job done because whenever it’s convenient they call the government is useless and wasteful.
Like a parasite they have their agents all through the government that they have so much disdain for, but from within which they drive the economic life of america and the world. The government is the enemy when it gets in the way of big biz. But it’s oh so cool for sucking on for no bid contracts.
Whether Obama wanted to change the “culture” or actually make the government more responsive to the people as he said in the campaign, he seems to be of the mind that he needs to work with the parasites and the power. He may have been a corporatist all along or had no real moral compass and has bent himself to fit it. He’s not leading in the expected way to get the government headed away from it’s slow but steady pull to the right.
Malcolm used his goddamn bully pulpit to ADVOCATE.
People power DOES need a leader or two. Thank gods we at least have President Hamsher. This Obama shit is damn near worthless.
Grassley: “Obama WILL murder your granny, you’re right to fear that.”
Obama: “Look, Sen. Grassley is a good honorable guy and we’re working together constructively blahblahblah .. “
I mean, srsly – what the FUCKING FUCK?!!
There’s not much choice when there are only two parties and one of them is ignorant and reactionary.
And the other one is merely corporatist.
Thanks be to god we “at least have president Hamsher” and thanks to you for making me laugh out loud on an otherwise sad day.
Malcolm’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech, 2 part audio, from the Malcolm X Research Site.
Sup brah?
Obama’s legacy may well be that the people have learned that a black male President can screw over the public quite as well as any white guy.
Doubtless we shall soon learn that a president of the fairer sex can screw us over as well as any guy.
This is progress.
“Progress” in that to be disabused of wishful, unrealistic thinking, painful as it may be, is a maturing experience.
If there is to be genuine change, then it must come from the people.
This, “people pressure” is often referred to as “bottom – up” pressure, when, in fact, in a democracy, it is actually top – down.
Remember, even if the Political Cla$$ does not, that they are public servants. Servants.
My neighbor, a traditional conservative, of the best type says of politicians, “They all, of whatever stripe, firmly believe that they are better than the rest of us.”
A “populist” screed?
Hardly.
It is the truth.
A strong majority of the people will, eventually, unite in common cause.
The universal disgust regarding the government’s “okay” to itself to torture children, which I have encountered these last two days, suggests that the Political Cla$$ mightily underestimates the genuine and reasonable anger which is building.
Such anger will not be easily diffused or deflected in the face of the people’s very real need of systemic changes.
Health care is the issue which will focus attention and open minds to other, equally serious problems and failures.
The “free” ride of the Political Cla$$ is just about over.
The New American Ari$tocracy had best take their spoils and head to whatever police state will welcome them, as the majority of Americans will even more clearly despise the arrogant, ignorant, and greedy folks who are still not able to understand when enough … is …. enough.
“Greed Is Good” has slunk off with Maddoff, and it won’t ever be welcome here again.
Uhhh…that’s flat-out racist, and I don’t throw that word around like many people do. Hope you think about what you’re saying.
no shit, that’s some ofay shit there
!
Damn t-shirts
;~)
Mr Chuck
Right on. That’s why the Obama as “corporatist sell-out liar” theme has been so annoying to me. It’s community organizing 101 to not have leadership and “power” become too centralized, since it’s easy then for the opposition to simply neutralize that leader, or small group of leaders. Then the movement dies. He wants these big changes to come from public demand rather than a DeeCee politician.
Obama has referenced this many times as President, and it must be a difficult balancing act for him since being President is such a singular position in our society, while at the same time he has the organizer’s training. I’ve been keenly watching how he handles this and learning from him.
This is also why I’ve appreciated FDL’s recent action plans which help in the bottom-up organizing. Thanks, and let’s ramp it up!
Dang, and from all I’ve read here I just thought he was a corporate sellout bushlight evil suit oreo.
Dr. Raven
Possessed of one of the most finely calibrated B.S. meters at the lake.
(Seriously)
And appreciated.
(You will forgive my small annoyances, I trust)
DW
We just returnedd from attending Rep Donnelly’s Town hall Mtg in Delphi, IN.
Obama people had collected over 2000 letters of support for the public option to be presented to Donnelly. Not much was made of this. Everyone was asked to register with name and address and to pencil a question for Donnelly. None of these were read and answered at the meeting.
Mostly very angry and poorly informed people demanded the microphone and asked long and often weird questions. One lady had to have been reading from Sarah Palin’s facebook or tweeters. Many said evil and incorrect things, too many in one minute to address.
We heard the usual death panels, abortions allowed, illegal aliens will be covered, SS &mediacare are violations of the 10th Amendment… and a few new ones…Obama will make families pay for battle dressing and field treatment for soldiers wounded in battle…(My wife and I stood and yelled “BULLSHIT! at that one and were probably the most “unruley” ones there).
Anyway, our side scored few points at the meeting despite some excellent field work with the letters supporting the public option. No one started “Health care reform NOW!” chants. We just aren’t crazy enough.
Hell, I’m just watchin the stinkin Yankees and holding on till football starts! I like it when I gets engaged.
Way to represent!
Be sure if your wife goes she wears a Burka and walks behind you!
Especially when it gets real, and people reveal either grace or grump.
We is enjoyin’ it.
Yes?
Yea, I’m livin large!
Indeedy so.
Cutting edge!
thank you.
Do you remember a little while back when the Teabaggin was really getting going, and there were many threads dominated by some commenters who were seriously discussing how best to find “common ground” with the BagHags?
I mean, talk about f-ed up, especially seeing what these nutjobs are doing with the Town Halls now.
Plus, it’s been interesting to me today to see so many of the “Obama suckZ!!11!” crowd praising Teddy K, yet Teddy spent decades, by their definitions (at least applied to Obama), “selling-out” and “compromising” to the same corporatists. Teddy worked on this healthcare stuff for 40 years, and things have only gotten dramatically worse, and Obama’s about to reverse that course in mere months, and so many “Liberals” are “through with him?!?!” I’m so confused.
If only Teddy had more melanin in his skin, then maybe he would’ve had the “strut” and “bravado” to actually get major healthcare reform through, at least that’s what I learned upthread here.
Of course, maybe it’s just that major systemic changes take a long, long time in 95% of the cases? Nah….
You really think Hillary would have done better, Paul?
Keep your eyes on the road
your hands upon the wheel
We’re goin to the Roadhouse
Gonna have
A real
Good time
Exactly. Reminds me of the evolution of the term “useful idiot”.
Heh!
Indeed.
Let it roll, baby, roll!
You know what grama roseanna danna said
all night long. . .and with that I bids you goodnight!
I remember feeling concerned during the campaign last year when the Paylinpalooza got started. Having spent years out in my various communities the last decade or two working on various political issues and campaigns, I had gotten a little cynical and grizzled having to fight so much Crazy for so long.
But my better half, who isn’t very politically active, kept assuring me that the PaylinPeople, while making a lot of noize and getting A LOT of unchallenged BigMedia attention, were more likely turning off more people than they were winning over. That assessment proved correct.
I keep hoping this same thing is happening now with the carefully manufactured Town Hall teabaggin, and there is some evidence already that this is true again.
So I’m thinking being more “adult” will deliver better results for us than getting more crazy.
There is only one answer; Fight the Power!
Well, I certainly hope so, but I don’t have a lot of faith in the thought.
Also, I do think that beneath all this is racial bigotry.
The crowd in Dephi wasn’t nearly as bad as what we have seen on the news, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.
The best movie ever made in my opinion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpDzd5Sw5HU
You’re buying into the very same cult of personality you decry. You see a “cop out”; I see a sad personal vendetta and hagiography in the service of someone who would have been no better.
You may not like Obama but he’s the most progressive President we could elect under the current system. Personal attacks may be emotionally satisfying to some but I just don’t see how they buy you any kind of structural change. They also continue to foster the narrative that a single transformative personality is what we need. That’s a sucker’s game, doomed to failure.
See, I’m really thinking now that those people you had to face-off with are a dying mentality, and they know it. Hence, their extremism. They’re like corned rats, and fighting back rabidly for their lives. Some wacky chump called himself a “right-wing terrorist” at a California town hall today and the Rep and much of the crowd cheered. Seems disturbing on an individual level, but overall, this is good for truth and justice. They’re alienating themselves, and yes I agree, it’s largely racial.
Like the campaign though, they can’t stop the wheels of time. Think about it – America’s President is Barack HUSSEIN Obama. There are some pockets left where their mentality dominates, but in America as a whole they’re diminishing….rapidly.
That’s my take at least…
Jane, you’re right.
I mean, we can all have our own personal assessments of Barack Obama. I’m sure I’m as disappointed as the next poster here.
But it’s so beside the point.
The time to definitively assess Obama will be after he’s no longer President. Why does the assessment of him matter now, except to justify a “fuck it, we’re screwed again” mentality of defeatism?
Just get out there and fight for what we need. Obama will either be with us or not. And then we can take whatever measures are necessary.
We need to get over both the irrational “hopetimism” and the “itoldyasoism”. Neither is helpful.
It may not be what you hoped for, but it’s what you got. Deal with it, people.
Your comment and Jane’s, together, pretty well describe the reality of our “situation”.
Well done!
DW
Obama would seem to be timorous and lacking in strong convictions let alone principles. Unless he has an epiphany while on vacation he could well be a one term President. The U.S. needs another FDR not another Bill Clinton.
Who in the Senate can pick up Ted Kennedy’s torch. Most if not all could barely lift it above their ankles. A sad and sorry state indeed.
Obama’s the best shot we’ve had in a long time. I think we just need to keep the pressure on, not only him but to quote one of my congresswomen “those knuckleheads”. Our voices can be just as loud but in a different way. We have to keep our reason and not abandon the principles we believe in. Our voice is in our numbers not crackpotisms.
Going to town hall tomorrow in Claremont, CA. It’s a pretty progressive area in So. Cal so I don’t expect too much craziness, but you never know. Next week is silent march at Barbara Boxer’s and Rep. Baca’s San Bernardino offices. Not sure what to expect from that. I live in a pretty conservative area but surrounding areas are more liberal. My big goal in 2010 is to campaign against our rep. Ken Calvert. We almost got him last time, this time it should work.
No it’s not a racist statement. I’m not a racist. Had I thought about it more I would have remembered from his book that his formative years were fractured between his mother’s marriages and being shuffled between her and his grandparents. Regardless of my lame attempt at pop psychology, the bottomline is he’s a good man.
I’m just saying I wish he had more Malcolm X in his personality because his actions post election are becoming more incongruous with his campaign rhetoric every day and it hurts.
I knew it was controversial when I wrote it. My error was assuming it wouldn’t be taken the way you did. It’s moot now as I believe Jane explained it much better. It’s a system problem.
I will say to you applying labels based on a single statement is something I’d expect on a Glenn Beck show, but not on this blog. No hard feelings, I call “bygones”.
One can be a chump in the way Malcom meant it in this speech, and one can also be a chump through attributing sytemic problems to individuals, as JH says above. It’s a mistake to personalize systemic problems. That’s a really good point.
But you can’t hold systems accountable for bad actions or policies, nor can you try systems in a court of law. You can only do that with individuals. The founders, for example, may have rebelled against a system, but they picked out the names of individuals, such as King George, as accountable, individual, people.
Sure, the “system” of the Bush administration was warped, but that doesn’t get Dick Cheney off the hook, or John Yoo.
I’m not equating Baucus or Obama or Emanuel with Bush or Cheney or Yoo. I’m saying that you can’t completely divest the human actors from the systems they’re inhabiting.
This is not contrary to what JH said above, but I do think that some feel that picking out individuals in govt. and getting angry at them and writing bad things about them is somehow missing the point, and non-constructive. If a citizen feels he or she has been “conned” by someone in office, I believe anger is appropriate.
I sure don’t see another FDR waiting in the wings. Let’s work with who we’ve got and maybe he’ll grow into the job. Lots of us are disappointed but I don’t really see what purpose it serves other than to motivate us to work harder. Maybe I’m still just giddy that the last 8 years are in the history books.
Today seems like a good day to re-define our goals and each of us individually figure out the best way to get there. I’m really enjoying the ride actually. I just hope progress is the end game.
This is exactly what Bush said–”you can’t judge me. only history can judge me”.
I totally reject that. If citizens don’t assess their elected government in real time (and not just in hindsight), democracy simply can’t work.
Yeah, no kidding, but what do you mean “most progressive”? I’ll assume you mean more progressive than McCain. And, this “I see a sad personal vendetta and hagiography in the service of someone who would have been no better.” is an unknown. There is no way you can state that as fact, so it’s rather ridiculous to assert so.
Obama is what he is.
At the very least, a “disappointment”, at worst, _______ (you may fill in the blank however you choose and add more tomorrow and the next day).
sTiVo’s “point”, as I understand it, is simply that it doesn’t matter what we think … what matters is what we do.
If Obama’s a whimp, then he’ll eventually decide that, legacy class or not, he doesn’t wish to be despised by the majority of the people.
If he is simply a political animal, then he’ll calculate that having the majority of the people pissed off at him doesn’t add up in his favor …
It really isn’t about the politicians any longer.
It is about the people and what they will HAVE to insist on.
IT IS UP TO US (Proposed change to motto on US coinage).
DW
Hello everyone – there seems to be a time/space/warp going on at FDL. There are a couple of posts on top of this one at the mothership; Cynthia Kouril is on top at the moment.
Whoops! Now it’s watertiger!
I do. I mean, clearly, people who supported Hillary thought she would have been the better President. Now, we don’t know because Obama is President, not Hillary, but that’s sort of a foolish question.
Further, there is something to be said for active leadership from a President. Otherwise, we may as well not have elections at all. Just pick a name from a hat. The con man stuff one could easily disagree with. But the idea that the style and substance of the President and where he or she pushes their weight doesn’t play a role in the outcome of a particular piece of legislation, is odd. The President need not be a single transformative personality to effectively lead a policy in a certain direction.
Thank you for this, Jane. Malcolm is as pertinent today as ever he was.
wow, am I hallucinating? Jane Hamsher approvingly quoting Malcolm X???
but, the conclusion is open-ended . . . are we to believe that to continue to vote (D), no matter what, is to be a chump, as so many have concluded?
Single Payer advocates can clearly see who is and isn’t representing their interests – but it would be a challenge for supporters of the nebulous, undefined, legislative sausage filling that goes by the name “public option” to tell with clarity who is ‘representing their interests’, and even if they did, how would they proceed to not be chumps?
“Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.”
V
I am a Liberal. Ted Kennedy was a liberal. And you?
Let’s review, shall we?
Um, that is in fact a racist statement. I reviewed my comment and it’s clear I was referring to what you typed and not you as a person, so not sure how I “applied labels” to you, as you claimed. I decided to comment about it in hopes it might inspire some introspection for you and perhaps some other readers in language usage.
And how odd to conflate the quote above with what Jane was saying. I see no connection whatsoever.
And since you’ve read “his book,” which I assume you mean “Dreams From My Father” and not the other books, a good deal of time is spent talking about his Grandpa’s friend, Frank I believe his name was. This is the same guy that some crazy wingnuts claim is Obama’s actual father, and who was a “black power” type. So between his Normandy Beach-storming Gramps and Frank and friends, he had a lot of “bravado” around him.
He also discusses in “Dreams…” how he had more radical friends in college who would stage protests and such, and how Obama started to feel this wasn’t terribly effective anymore. He talks about how these revelations inform the way he approaches things to this day.
I liked this part since I had similar feelings over the years as I got older. I’d say in some cases in my past, there were times when the “loose cannons” in our groups would stage loud and disorganized protests that would actually set us back, since they would be rude and say unfortunate things, thereby marginalizing us. I felt often it was more about ego-stroking for a few individuals rather than actual advancement of the cause at hand.
Malcolm X himself was questioning his tactics near the end, so I wonder if Obama had more Malcolm X in him, at least the most popularized parts of Malcolm, he might not have ever become America’s first melanin-enhanced President. Results, ya know?
Since you feel I’m being Glen Beck-ish, I’ll take my bravado and strut on out of here.
I think Teddy was one of the all-time great Senators. I’m thrilled with what he did for America and Liberalism as a whole, and the news today impacted me greatly.
So why does Teddy get a pass for the 40+ years of compromising and deal-making he did with the corporatists, and Obama just mere months into his Presidency (or before his Inaguration for many around here), and having already ushered in substantial changes and promising many more, gets told to “go straight to Hell” and “makes me sick,” as a frontpager here was saying earlier in threads about honoring Teddy?
Plus, in the 40+ years Teddy was making healthcare his signature issue, has the health insurance system gotten better or worse? We’re on the verge of the most significant changes to healthcare in many decades, and so many supposed Liberals are bonding over Obama-hate, even though he’s the one that’s pushing for it and would have to sign it. So strange…
I actually praise Teddy for the incremental gains he’s made to healthcare over the years (COBRA, HIPPA, etc.), and am completely understanding of why he was never able to get the job done on the big stuff. Same reasons I give Obama some benefit of the doubt for a while.
Further, after a quick perusal of the JFK’s wiki page, you see all sorts of massive blunders and non-Liberal policy. If many of y’all were around back in 1960 with this same technology, there would never be a Kennedy Legacy in the first place, since all three brothers had a whole lot of problems if put up to a Liberal litmus test, and I’m talking just about policy, not personal.
We cannot lose sight of the context here.
Seconded.
Jane, your genius is showing again. I had never even heard of the speech. Malcolm translates so effortlessly that a lot of black Americans probably felt they couldn’t post it on their blog. Maybe this will get some legs and wake up the Tri-Caucus?
As I’m sure you already know, there’s a thin Hollywood connection. Red Foxx, aka Chicago Red, knew Detroit Red, aka Malcolm, when they worked in New York.
Somewhere, Steve Gilliard, Red Foxx and Malcolm are smiling.
at least according malcom x, we already are chumps
and i concur
Hear Hear!
mad props to the commenter who linked to Malcolm
Jane Hamsher – I’m sure by now you’ve caught that Malcolm called out The Veal Pen – damn
now off to listen to/read Malcolm’s speech to the grass roots
Slow?
He didn’t compromise on lots of things. He wasn’t afraid to lose when he really believed in something, even if it was unpopular. That’s how he borked Bork. He ravaged the man who was soon to be confirmed in a speech on the Senate floor. It halted the debate. He activated liberals all over the country, and they brought the Bork nomination down.
If the next president(Obama) decides to push for health-care restructuring, it will be the fifth such effort since World War II, when the practice of getting health-care coverage through employers began.
-Mclatchey
The national health plans proposed by Presidents Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton failed.
I agree. I’m not arguing against accountability — I’m talking about missing the forest for the trees.
+1
factum est usque nos?
Far too long since I took Latin. Though perhaps the inscription should be in English for all to see and understand. Latin is a language of concealment from the masses.
I agree. I’m not arguing against accountability — I’m talking about missing the forest for the trees.
I understand you were not talking about accountability, and tried to contruct my comment in a way to show that. Probably failed.
I don’t know what you mean by the last part, post-hyphen. But also expect you don’t have time right now to enlighten me.
I think it is time for all the supporters who were at Obama’s rallies during the campaign chanting “Yes we can” to regroup and change the chant to “Yes you will” for passing single payer.
True leaders should not need their grass roots to push them to do what they promised to lead on.
I am tired of hearing that single payer would be too disruptive. I would consider dying from lack of affordable heathcare or going bankrupt much more disruptive.