Comments on: Obama Faces Impatient And Unhappy Rumblings On His Left Flank As He Straddles The Center

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:51:35 +0000

Greenschemes, when it comes to laying blame on those who foment and exploit partisan hate for their own gain, Limbaugh is still king, although there are others fast on his heels, mostly from the same part of the spectrum. Sure, it comes from the left as well, but attempts to create a false equivalence by ignoring origins and matters of degree won't fool everyone. That said, I wish all the fools who allow themselves to be motivated by those division mongers would someday realize just how much they are being used as tools in a bad business, and that bad business is the division and stalling out of America.

By: DLS

DLS — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:18:08 +0000

"what was happening when the South left the union"

Manifest Destiny!

The South was brought back in, and punished for leaving.

* * *

"they continue to wear their Broach"

Red camps, blue camps, red tents, blue tents, red war drums, blue war drums, red smoke signals, blue smoke signals...

[grin] Here's an alternative solution -- it could work here even if it couldn't work with Jews and Arabs. It's Red Nation and Blue Nation.

If they can't stand to be together, let them separate.

http://geosite.jankrogh.com/enklaver/CoochBehar...

https://home.medewerker.uva.nl/h.w.vanschendel/...

By: greenschemes

greenschemes — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:34:55 +0000

In my classrooms I have always tried to get the students to feel what was happening when the South left the union.

Feel it. Live it. Breath it. Dont just read about it.

Now for the first time in many years my students are beginning to feel what it must have been like when the North hated the south.

I do not think I shall ever like him as I do his brother Joe. Would you believe it, he is refined and cultivated, and yet he is a DEMOCRAT! Varina Davis commenting in a letter to her mother about her future husband Jefferson Davis.

Federalists and Whigs could not get along and yet. When you leave behind a few differences for the common good anything can happen. Varina wore a cameo with a watchdog crouched beside a strongbox. It was the symbol of the Whigs. One day she appeared without it and the union was complete. She left behind her political differences to marry the man whom she had been raised to treat as her adversary.

If we as a nation can just leave behind our adversarial differences to reach common ground then we can get things done. If not then I am afraid its a long, deep and dark road ahead for many years to come. This I believe is the Message of hope and change Obama seeks but no one is really hearing the message while they continue to wear their Broach.

By: greenschemes

greenschemes — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:19:11 +0000

As you sow, you shall reap…

“I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.”

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:14:12 +0000

It will be interesting to see how much Obama will be his own man and stick to his guns while in the midst of these conflicting forces, all of which (of course) claim to be operating in America's best interests (yeah right). Modern day republicans have shown themselves to be much less bothered with bi-partisan concerns than democrats, who continue to be a little naive in this respect, somehow imagining that reaching across the aisle will be meant with good will and cooperation. I wonder just how long any 3rd party president would last before he or she was demonized to the point of ineffectiveness by “leaders” who have been trained that demonizing “opponents” is more important than actual governing?

By: Don Quijote

Don Quijote — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:01:18 +0000

. The Democrats and the Republicans really do hate each other nowadays.

How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter

Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions

As you sow, you shall reap...

By: greenschemes

greenschemes — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:52:18 +0000

When the rumbling becomes louder and the heat is turned up politicians govern to their base. That is what I have said all along. Its what GWB did. The last 3 years of his administration he hardly even spoke because anything he said was screamed down with insults and slurs to the point that he literally quit speaking.

I predict that after a few months Obama will begin governing to his base as the heat from both sides is turned up.

No its not the way I want it nor is it the way I wish it. It is not Obama's fault. It is Harry Reid and Nanny Pelosi and congresses fault. The Democrats and the Republicans really do hate each other nowadays.

By: jeburke

jeburke — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:59:34 +0000

There is a lot here to agree with, although I suspect Obama is feeling his way, rather than operating from some brilliant master strategy -- and that's all to the good.

I doubt the left wikll have all that much to cry about in domestic affairs in a year -- except where security and counter-terroism are concerned. In foreign policy, Obama has already struck out on path of more continuity than change in policy, although he is making the most of a new "tone" tp take advantage of positive feeling overseas. In the end, American policies will be driven by American interests; they may differ from Bush but they will also differ from MoveOn.

I'm following these and other issues as a centrist:

http://thepurplecenter.blogspot.com/