I was talking to a libertarian friend yesterday who is a professor in the midwest, and we were marvelling at just how delusional many Obama voters seem to have been about what he was going to accomplish. Don't get me wrong--I certainly don't approve of everything Obama has done. But the guy got elected to be president of the United States, not Prime Minister of Sweden. Anyone who seriously entertained the notion that the procedural obstacles to enacting legislation in the United States would suddenly fall away--along with the essentially center-right politics of the American voter--is probably not mature enough to be driving.
Can she get through even one post without claiming superiority to most of the rest of the world? Probably not.
Yet Obama's progressive base is incredibly demoralized by the inability to pass sweeping cap and trade and health care legislation without input from conservatives, or special interest groups. To me, it seems obvious that they should still be strongly supporting Obama and Democrats, for all their flaws. But it doesn't seem to be obvious to them, and it looks like they're not going to mobilize for 2010 the way they did in 2008, even if Congress manages to pass some monstrous kludge of a health care bill in the new year.[my bold]
This is authoritarianism, manifesting itself through decisions and actions. You support your tribe no matter what, because they are your tribe. Without them you are alone and powerless, but with them you can feel protected, wanted and important.
But sometimes the tribe must rid themselves of one of their own if he is too corrupt, McArdle says. Democrats must toss Baucus off the back of the bus for their own good, something that she says Republicans are swift to do. Her commenters provide the plentiful evidence to counter this bit of delusional thinking, but to no avail. McArdle identifies with conservatives, so she conveniently "forgets" about the multitude of conservative politicians caught in horrible acts. My tribe good, your tribe bad. Any conflicting facts are flushed down the memory hole.
5 comments:
"Anyone who seriously entertained the notion that the procedural obstacles to enacting legislation in the United States would suddenly fall away--along with the essentially center-right politics of the American voter--is probably not mature enough to be driving."
Hell, anyone who assumed that is probably not old enough to be driving. Who is she even talking about in that first paragraph? Where are all these progressives and Democrats who thought electing Obama would bring unicorns and rainbows and make every problem in the USA just disappear that all these right wing nutters keep babling about?
She should stick to something she knows about.
Like salt.
Now that Megan's a flat out right wing teabaggin' fool, has she even noticed that her only followers are alternate reality morans?
"her only followers are alternate reality morans?"
I love this. I love how some idiot with a home-made sign has bestowed on the world a code word (inadvertently) for himself and his comrades in teh stoopid. Thanks, Internet!
There's a land of happy valleys and bubbling brooks called Libertarian Fantasyland, where mediocre people are destined for greatness and liberals are wee little pixies who ride unicorns.
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