MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Yesterday Maureen Dowd devoted an entire column to why her Republican sister is angry that she voted for Obama:
One of the independent voters Obama will be trying to charm over the next two years is my sister, Peggy, a formerly ardent Obamican (a Republican who changed spots to vote for Obama).
Disillusioned with her beloved W. over Iraq and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the disdain for bipartisanship, she gave her affections — and small cash infusions — to Barack Obama in 2008.
Despite being a Washington native, Peggy believed that the dazzling young newcomer could change Washington.
But she has lost a lot of faith now, saying she might vote for Mitt Romney over Obama if Romney is the Republican nominee in 2012. (Sarah Palin shouldn’t count on her vote though. In Peggy’s words, “Are you nuts?”)
Give credit to Peggy for dismissing Palin as President, but really--what would a Republican who loved George W want from someone like Barack Obama anyway?
No credit, however, to her sister, who either panicked at deadline or thought another jab at Obama was just the ticket on 9/11. (I would say to Mo "Are you nuts?", but I don't want to be a copycat.)
I'm watching what's happening these days, with friend and foe alike turning against the president, and I'm starting to think like a fiercely protective mother here. Just as with my own children, when they did wrong I'd let them know, and I expected a ready fix, but I wasn't about to go out into the neighborhood telling everybody what rotten little brats they sometimes were. I didn't want the whole neighborhood to think they were rotten little brats.
Same with my president. I'm not happy with the way things are going, either. At risk of sounding like a broken record, I wanted a New Deal/WPA/CCC approach to fixing our nation. I wanted every leader in the Democratic Party to thumb their noses at the outgoing regime on Day One by coming up with creative ways of creating economy-sustaining American jobs, hang the cost or the damage to the Fat Cats.
I thought bank bailouts without gajillions of strings attached would fail almost as badly as they did. I hate the idea of still having a military presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I've never been happy about the Wall Street and Chicago guys Obama chose to help with his "Hope and Change" program.
That he reads from a teleprompter or acts "lawyerly", thus boring us to tears when he's explaining his plans to us, bothers me not, and I wish everybody would just shut up about it. It's the actions, not the delivery, that counts. Concentrate on the big stuff, and screw the small stuff.
Every time Obama's allies make fun or go on the attack they've put one foot into the enemy camp. There are enough enemies there already, but believe me, they'll welcome those they see as turncoats with open arms. And pretty soon they've won and we've lost and we'll be on the outside looking in, bitching about our loss more than we're bitching now about how Obama has let us down.
There are enough real issues we can use against the Republicans without wasting valuable time reinforcing the prevailing opinion that Obama is the baddest of the bad guys. Come on. We know better. Go on the attack against Obama's dithering and doddering and seeming bad judgment if you must, but do it as a family member--as an ally. He may be a disappointment, but he is the least of our enemies. Stop making him into one, even and especially from our side.
Just today Dick Armey ruffled his breast feathers and cackled to CNN's Candy Crowley about how the Democrats are "confused and demoralized" and are going to lose in November. That's the weapon the Republicans and the new Tea Party party are going to be using against us--that we don't know what the hell we're doing and we don't like each other much--and unless we prove them wrong it's going to work.
I want Obama and the Democrats to do better, but they can't do better if they don't have the chance. They have to win in November because it'll be just insane if they don't. So, yeah, let's knock their heads together and twist their arms until they holler "uncle", and then let's get this show on the road. But we have to get them elected first and we have less than two months to do it.
Here's a parting thought:
In the Nevada Senate race Harry Reid and Sharron Angle are running neck and neck.
Let me repeat that: Harry Reid and Sharron Angle are running NECK AND NECK.
In the California Senate race Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina are running neck and neck.
Again--Boxer and Fiorina, NECK AND NECK.
And so it goes.
So unless you want the Republicans to give you something really bad to bitch about, I would suggest you tuck any gripes you have about Obama and the Dems behind your left ear (as my Aunt Ingrid used to say--meaning they'll still be there, festering), and get on with keeping in place the only party in office that has any hope of getting us out of this mess.
It's not a matter of rewarding them, it's a matter of protecting us. All of us. Every single one of us.
(Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices here.)
Comments
Way to go, Ramona. You have to be blind not to know that I support your position 150%. He may be a disappointment, but he's OUR disappointment, and I'll take him over any repub any day of the week.
I am nearly flabergasted that Firorina is doing so well in CA. After nearly killing off HP and leaving swath of unemployed people in her way out the door with 13 million after getting fired, I am almost speechless that Californians would want her anywhere near the Senate floor.
by stillidealistic on Sun, 09/12/2010 - 7:40pm
Stilli, I'm afraid you and I are in the minority. I know people are angry and frustrated and scared, but damn--aiding the enemy is not the way to get us out of this!
by Ramona on Sun, 09/12/2010 - 7:58pm
Hear, hear. Sometimes I wonder about just how much in the minority we are, though. True, a lot of people are disillusion about the President (largely on account of having such impossibly high expectations), but I don't know if the real anger towards him from casual Dems is really as hot as it seems in the blogosphere. Hard to say, though.
by Jamie Friedland on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 1:31pm
I know Ramona. I have attempted to send that message under the cover of attacking the striaght out evil.
If people will concentrate upon the evil, they will see that it must be stopped first.
And I think we are in a lot of trouble in 60 days or so!!1
by Richard Day on Sun, 09/12/2010 - 8:46pm
Maybe my favorite ex-Republican, John Cole, can have a word with Maureen's sister....
There is a bit more at John's Balloon Juice but above is the best part.
I live in Georgia where there are usually no Democrats at all running for State and Local offices. Voting for the lesser of has become routine.
by EmmaZahn on Sun, 09/12/2010 - 8:54pm
Emma, thanks for turning me on to Balloon Juice. I've added them to my blogroll. And yes--John Cole has quite a way with words. Perfect.
by Ramona on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 12:53pm
You're welcome. John is always interested and no one rants better.
by EmmaZahn on Tue, 09/14/2010 - 3:53pm
thanks for this, ramona. but don't you think the damage has already been done? what armey says is what people believe now, it's what they see. god knows i hope reid and boxer squeak through, i think they both have a chance to do that. but that they're in the kind of fights there in means we're in way deep trouble.
november 2008 seems a million miles away.
by anna am on Sun, 09/12/2010 - 10:34pm
Lordy, who would have thought, even a year ago, that Dick Armey would be seen as the voice of reason?? Who would have thought that even the moderate Republicans would be thrown overboard in favor of the Tea Party nutsos?? And who would have thought anybody would believe in that whole anti-Socialist/anti-tax/anti-government replay from yesteryear??
We are fighting an uphill battle here and it doesn't bode well if even our former allies are looking fondly at the other side.
"That's the problem with normal; it keeps changing on you." (Rody in "Rich in Love")
by Ramona on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 12:47pm
god yes. who'd'a thunk it?
love the rich in love quote.
by anna am on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 12:57pm
I have a simple question . . .
Why didn't Maureen just come out and say why SHE is disappointed instead of using her sister as her foil?
But in all seriousness... thanks for the post Ramona.
Paddlin' on . . .
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 9:39am
Good question. Maybe Peggy paid her to be in her column?? Or maybe Maureen secretly hates Peggy?? (More especially now that Peggy is getting so much press. Hee hee.)
by Ramona on Mon, 09/13/2010 - 12:51pm
Christine O'Donnell just won the GOP senatorial nomination in Rhode Island, sending another moderate Republican down the tubes. There are 49 days before the mid-term elections and it's looking more and more like the Republicans, even while embracing their crazies, may sweep back into power, leaving Obama to fend for himself.
So we either sit back and say "that'll show 'em", or we work to keep whatever successes we've accomplished in force so that we can build on them and move ahead.
Forty-nine days is a short amount of time to establish a new party. I'm not saying it can't be done (yes, I am), but I'm looking everywhere and not seeing any concrete solutions to our monster of a crisis.
Fun and games in the candidate department might be okay when times are good, but this is getting serious.
Ideas?
by Ramona on Tue, 09/14/2010 - 9:49pm
pray.
by anna am on Tue, 09/14/2010 - 10:30pm
Rhode Island?
Christine O'Donnell did win the GOP senatorial nomination but it wasn't in Rhode Island, try Delaware.
And yes she did send another moderate Republican down the tubes.
If you are looking for a silver lining in this outcome, the follwing from HuffPo may help:
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 10:23am
Are there really any differences between Rhode Island and Delaware? Other than Rhode Island being an island, that is, and Delaware being land-locked and in the midwest.
by Atheist (not verified) on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 10:31am
Geez ...
I hear an echo bouncing around here but I'll be damned if I can find where it's coming from...
Oh well, just another lonely tree falling in the quiet of the forest
Paddlin' on...
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 10:39am
OMG, OGD, How could I mix up Rhode Island with Delaware?? You caught it and I appreciate it. Wouldn't want such a blunder to go down into posterity--even in a comment.
by Ramona on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 8:51pm