Serenity... refocus - seek joy - thrive » politics

it’s strange, but i am ready for election season to begin

Nanette — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:27:39 +0000

And I was, really, when I wrote this title last night. But I’ve been “politically involved” for approximately one day and already I am tired of it. Sigh.

I think, possibly, it’s because it seems to me that to get to the Teabag Republicans we have to go through all the perpetually disappointed Democrats first. And that’s the discouraging part. And, also, of course, the false part. And, I think, the wrong way to go about it.

When I hear the word “progressive” now, it sounds as one near-incessant whine in my ears and I get annoyed and want to slap at it, like a mosquito. But, I think, a better idea would be to engage them and talk about what they are planning to do in their local political races, if they are going to get people out to vote, and so on. It doesn’t matter if, as some say, they are not going to vote for Obama as the top of the ticket, as long as 1: they vote for the down ticket politicians, and 2: they are promoting Democratic policies in their own cities and towns.

The rest will take care of itself. The important thing is to keep the right wing out of the White House and any more of the House or Senate seats. However that is best accomplished, for each individual, is fine with me. Mind, the ones longing for a Republican victory so “things can get worse so they can get better” are still fair game.

living in a firebagger paradise

Nanette — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:18:38 +0000

So, the “true progressives” at FireDogLake have a front page post up about mounting a primary against President Obama in 2112. In order to… er… save the Democratic Party. (I guess maybe in one of those “we must destroy the village in order to save it” type things?)

Anyway, nothing new or startling, considering the source, but I did have to laugh at one of the comments. I have bolded the question asked by one of the commenters. The rest is the answer another commenter gave to oldgold’s question. I have also bolded a few things in the answer because they are just… well, you’ll see.

Talk about la-la land.

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December 5th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

link to comment

oldgold asks….

Black Americans are the base of the Democratic Party. How do you think this will go over with them?

Sebastos answers:

In which election cycle – the primaries or the general election?

In the primaries, realistically it’s likely that Obama will get most of the black vote, Cornel West to the contrary notwithstanding. (I would be delighted to be proven wrong about this, but that’s how I see it at the moment.) But if turnout (on which everything depends in any case!) is high enough, white progressives will be able to defeat blacks and white “moderates”/”independents” together, if it comes to that.

If Obama is defeated in the Democratic primary, he will no longer be a factor in the general election, and at that point, it’s likely that blacks (with Cornel West and others appealing to them as voices of sanity) can be persuaded to close ranks behind the progressive Democratic candidate. The Republicans, under Tea Party influence, are likely to make the task easier by nominating someone from the hard Right (ideally Palin – we can always hope – but even if they ultimately nominate a former “mainstream” Republican, he’ll sound like Palin in drag by the time the Tea Party is through intimidating him).

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So, let me get this straight. First Black president gets elected in the U.S. (Some) white “progressives” immediately throw a huge, continuous temper tantrum and now want to mount a primary against this same president. Included in the strategy of how to defeat President Obama in the primaries is… how to “defeat blacks.” (And white moderates,etc.)

And then, somehow, black and other minority folks – having watched (some – mostly the same “somes” throughout) white “progressives” declare Obama a “failed president” before he was even inaugurated, and then watched as they relentlessly savaged him, sometimes in the most vile terms, just about every day since… These folks of color are going now watch these white “progressives” er.. “defeat” their black selves in the primaries and then… um. Cornel West. (the heck? why him? Has he replaced Jesse and Al in white folks minds as the “black leader”?) Anyway, West does something or other and everyone smiles and hugs and runs to vote for the poor fool the true white “progressives” convinced to primary Obama.

Heh.

Oh, by the way…

Nanette — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:05:34 +0000

By mail, sent it off Saturday. Straight Dem ticket, except for State Treasurer, or something, where I voted for the Green and the unopposed, Republican-held congressional seat, where I wrote in luther blissett. Yes on pot and pretty much just followed the voter guide the unions sent out on the other initiatives. Left the judges completely blank – who in the world even knows who they are?

Humpty Dumpty Ruined Attack Ads For Me, Forever

Nanette — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:08:55 +0000

I think it was during the 2006 elections that NPR had on a couple of attack ad voice-over professionals. Anyway, if I remember correctly, one guy did the “positive-attack” type ads, the nice, reasonable sounding ones. And the other guy, Scott Sanders, did the dark and ominous sounding ad voice-overs. Anyway, the host had them do an attack ad about a nursery rhyme and here is Sanders on the evils of Humpty Dumpty.

I simply cannot listen to a negative ad now without thinking of this and laughing.

my polling station keeps moving farther away

Nanette — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:48:08 +0000

Which is somewhat annoying – or would be, if I wasn’t going to vote by mail.

At least, I hope my mail-in ballot gets here, otherwise… it’s to the polls I go! Sometimes it’s pretty funny there. I remember a few years ago I walked into the polling station and I was the only one there apart from the poll workers – two older white women and a white man who looked like Santa Claus. The women were sitting down with the papers to check everyone’s name off and the man was there to… well, I don’t know. Keep order?

A bit of a nervous sort he was though, it seems, because while he gave me a narrow-eyed greeting, as soon as my neighbor, a young Latina, came in he jumped into action! “Make a line! Keep in line!” he shouted at the two of us, hopping around and trying to corral us in. One brown person was bad enough, but two at one time apparently was a crowd! So my neighbor stood behind me and put her hands on my shoulders and made sure we two were lined up straight so the poor guy could relax. We got a good laugh out of that one.

Anyway, gotta make sure I do my part to keep Ahnold II (Meg Whitman) out of office, and of course to protect Barbara Boxer, our one lefty Senator. Which reminds me, one good thing (I hope!) with being just a cell phone household is not getting a call from DiFi this year encouraging me to vote. Soon as I hear her voice all I want to do is stay home.

Obama’s “killdeer strategy”

Nanette — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:39:58 +0000

You know, one of those birds that pretends to be wounded to provide a distraction from their nests and their young?

I could be wrong – I often am, after all – but I don’t think the midterms are going to be as bad as some predictions. I just remember during the primaries (and the election season itself) how often Obama was both the star… and the “sure to lose” distraction from what was going on in his ground game.

Anyway, we’ll see.