Sometimes it stinks to be pragmatic/moderate/center left. It depends on who you ask as to what description you would get for where I am. I know some think of me in as one of those far-lefties from Daily Kos, but the irony is that I would probably be drummed out of existence by many of the commenters there. Notice I didn’t say that the featured (or Front Page) writers would yell at me. But a lot of the regular readers/commenters sure would. So while the Big Orange is still my favorite place to go for reading, I don’t participate there nearly as much as I once did.
Still, I read many places and I have watched President Obama take his share of criticism from the left on a variety of topics. Heck, on just about everything really.
The latest round starts up this week with his nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Cue to gnashing of teeth!
There are just so many people on the left who are blind idealogues. Purists. People who think that everyone must always think and act as they would. Otherwise they will unleash hyperbolic diatribes against you to dramatically display their anger.
(Let me just stop here for a minute to say that I am quite sure this kind of situation exists on the right as well, but of course I am not as aware of it since I tend to disagree with most of what they say regardless of who is saying it so I don’t know who their version of these purists would be)
I know it is good for the White House to feel pressure from the left. They need to be kept honest from all all sides. To be aware of even some of the more extreme points in their own party, but what really irritates me is when these folks undermine the process. When their arguments and anger do not ADD to the debate but start detracting from it.
Firedoglake, My Left Wing, & Glenn Greenwald – I shall not link to them any more than I would to World Net Daily – have all blown a gasket over this nomination. Because she is not 100% like them in her views. And that’s what they demand – someone JUST LIKE THEM. Or else..hell to pay! They hated the health care bill because it wasn’t 100% what they wanted so they actively worked against it.
The thing is that the right is going to flail on and on against Kagan enough as it is – do we really need our own side barking too? Because all the left is doing is giving the right something else to crow about. They are giving them more talking points. They love nothing more than to use liberal voices to make their own points. Why help them here? Up until the lefty arguments, they were using statements that made it sound like they think the Constitution in it’s ORIGINAL form is what we should follow (darn that whole giving slaves full rights things & shoot, well, all those other amendments), they were fussing about her lack of a marital status (horrors! Might she be gay?!), and heck, even yacking it up about her not having a drivers license until she was in her 20s (uh..since when is THAT a qualification for SCOTUS?). The point is, they were making asses of themselves with nothing remotely close to a substantive argument and then these guys just hand them those on a silver platter. Bravo! Now shut up please!
They have zero ability to see that the world cannot change in one day. With one bill. With one Justice. With one President.
UGH.
Pragmatic Progressive 