The e-mail denigrated Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman (the only economist telling the truth about the recession and Washington's ineptitude in dealing with it) by calling him a "political rookie". He also struck out at the "Firebagger Lefty blogosphere" (evidently a combination of the excellent progressive blog FireDogLake and the term "teabagger"). I can only assume that he includes me as one of these "firebaggers", since I am a proud member of the lefty blogosphere and have been very critical of the president's debt ceiling agreement.
Is Sandoval trying to divide those who supported the election of Obama in the last election? Without the support of progressives, Obama would never have even been nominated. A spokesman from the national campaign quickly distanced the Obama campaign from the remarks by Sandoval, but I have to wonder if they are not secretly pleased. This is not the first time a representative of the president has slammed progressives. Just last year White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called us the "professional left", and said we were "crazy" and needed to be "drug-tested".
Maybe it's time to remind the president of the wise words of Will Rogers. He said he was not a member of any organized political party -- he was a Democrat. The fact is that Democrats do not as a whole drink the colored kool-aid, and dutifully spout the party line as defined by their leaders. Democrats, especially progressives, tend to think for themselves (and they are not afraid to say what they think). And the only way to change our minds is through reason and logic -- not name-calling.
Frankly, those of us on the left have been called a lot worse names and it hasn't fazed us. Being an older lefty, this sort of reminds me of the early sixties when a prosecutor (in Chicago, I think) called the anti-establishment people "freaks". He meant it as a slam, but instead of being insulted they took the word as their own and wore it with pride. From that point on they called themselves "Freaks" (not hippies as is thought -- hippie was a term used more by the establishment).
I know the term "firebagger" was supposed to shame those of us in the lefty blogosphere, but I suspect if it has any effect it will be to further unify us. It would not surprise me at all to see the term proudly adopted as our own. But one thing it will not do is make us toe the party line. When we believe the president (or anyone else) is wrong we will say so.
So I'm a firebagger. OK. Now what are you going to do to get my support and vote, Mr. President? Or do you even care that you are alienating many of those who helped put you in office?
(the only economist telling the truth about the recession and Washington's ineptitude in dealing with it)
ReplyDeleteahmm,
Richard Woolf, Michael Hudson, Manfred-Max Neef, David Harvey, and then a whole website called zerohead is documenting the atrocities and prevarications on an hour by hour basis.
There is perhaps one thing that can be said of the firebaggers: They lag the true zeitgeist, but have tended to show themselves as far more of an open minded bunch than most. It was once an activist pro Obama site, and now is rightfully merciless in their disdain for him. The management is still, though, very inside the beltway politics oriented, although the temperature in the kennel is showing the intellectual flexibility , and grasp on reality of the pups, as they are beginning to, I believe, correctly tilt towards Ron Paul, a cross-post-partisan "indignado", rationally tactical direction.
http://mosquitocloud.net/