The Carnival of The Random

White House scorecard: MSNBC up, bloggers down - Keach Hagey - POLITICO.com

DING FUCKING DING.

I wish it weren’t the case, but it’s true: most Americans could give a flying fuck about civil liberties when they can’t feed their families. Most Americans would be happy for us to torture some brown people down at Gitmo if they had a job that paid a living wage. Or at least, they’d be happy to put those things out of their mind.

Hell, the Tea Party might even forget that Obama is black and has a funny name if more of them COULD PAY THEIR BILLS.

I hate Bill Clinton as much as I hate anyone who claims to be even slightly progressive, but he was absolutely right on one thing: It’s the economy, stupid.

Although he was entirely wrong on how to proceed, because he continued to build up the house of cards that managed to last magically about precisely as long as his presidency before staggering twice and finally collapsing.

Now we’re dealing with that fallout, and the fact that Obama put Clinton people in charge of trying to fix shit IS THE PROBLEM.

It’s not Glenn Greenwald or Marcy Wheeler or Rachel Maddow or me.

As Richard Trumka said, it’s jobs, jobs, jobs.

But the media loves the story that the president is pissed at the lefty media because it preserves the narrative that they have power.

I WISH we had power.

(via champagnecandy)

Bingo. Do I have problems with the Obama administration on civil rights/civil liberties? Yes. The egregious shredding of the US constitution that began in the Bush administration has NOT been repaired or undone - it’s continued. Quietly, carefully, and without the *appearance* of executive hubris that the Bush administration was known for. 

However, it’s really hard to focus on things that are ideologically important, (and yes - they are important in practical ways,) when every day is a struggle for survival. In the damn hierarchy of needs, guess what trumps the life of the mind? Yup - food, shelter, clothing and sex. We absolutely *need* to deal with these very real and very insidious threats to the foundation of our democracy, but first - we need to survive. 

I was incredibly pissed off that the administration AND the House/Senate, *didn’t* take even put Universal Health Care on the table, not to mention failing to do what I think would have been the best solution to the economic crash and environmental concerns - institute a, “Green,” WPA. Why? Because both of those things would have alleviated some of the worst immediate and long-term problems we face. Giving people an opportunity to work, backing green industry, and ensuring that every citizen has health care are all issues of both economic and social justice. In my opinion, those two things would have been game changers. If we weren’t still mired in matters of basic survival, I suspect that how we discuss matters of ideals would be very different. 

It’s a vicious circle, though. The very reasons we’re in this economic depression, (let’s not kid ourselves and call it a recession,) are matters of social justice and executive hubris. The Bush administration took the toadying to the corporate lobby that has always been part of the equation, to extremes most of us can’t imagine as possible. This is the fallout of corporate welfare and monopoly, double-downed with the waging of wars that bankrupted the national treasury. 

That deficit the Tea Party is screaming about - that’s the result of two wars we couldn’t afford, for the most part. The crash - that’s what happens when you let greedy foxes guard the hen house. 

Yet, we’ve got bloggers who largely ignore this. 

I’m not saying that they aren’t making legitimate points - I’m saying that in ignoring it, they make progressives look like the clueless elitists that we’re always accused of being. 

Which can be really hard to take, when the most pressing concern some of us have, is how we’re going to hang onto our homes and feed our families, or get to work, (if we even have jobs.) 

Justice, like charity - begins at home. Let’s deal with that, shall we?