the root of progressive despair

[Posted by Karl]

What causes the Democrats and the establishment media to hysterically accuse Republicans of being terrorists?

Perhaps it is the crisis in confidence we see from people like Kevin Drum:

Public opinion is everything. Ronald Reagan was successful because public opinion supported him: he wanted to cut taxes and raise defense spending and so did big chunks of the public. He was leading in a direction that they already wanted to go.

***

This is why I blame the broad liberal community for our failures, not just President Obama. My biggest beef with Obama is the same one I had three years ago, namely that he’s never really even tried to move public opinion in a specifically progressive direction. But that hardly even matters unless all the rest of us have laid the groundwork. And we haven’t. Wonks, hacks, activists, all of us. We just haven’t persuaded the public to support our vision of government.

http://patterico.com/2011/08/02/the-roo ... e-despair/

neptunechimney wrote: [Posted by Karl]

What causes the Democrats and the establishment media to hysterically accuse Republicans of being terrorists?

Perhaps it is the crisis in confidence we see from people like Kevin Drum:

Public opinion is everything. Ronald Reagan was successful because public opinion supported him: he wanted to cut taxes and raise defense spending and so did big chunks of the public. He was leading in a direction that they already wanted to go.

***

This is why I blame the broad liberal community for our failures, not just President Obama. My biggest beef with Obama is the same one I had three years ago, namely that he’s never really even tried to move public opinion in a specifically progressive direction. But that hardly even matters unless all the rest of us have laid the groundwork. And we haven’t. Wonks, hacks, activists, all of us. We just haven’t persuaded the public to support our vision of government.

http://patterico.com/2011/08/02/the-roo ... e-despair/

But public opinion was with Obama and the Democrats on the debt ceiling debate, the majority of Americans wanted spending cuts balanced with increased revenues. But no one on the conservative side of congress cared about public opinion, or even, it seems, about what would lower the deficit the fastest, they cared about how to lower the deficit without raising any revenue, kinda like fighting an 800 lb gorilla with one hand tied behing your back and a blindfold on.

Whether you care about the piece of not, I would appreciate some feedback on how it is formatted. It did not copy, but if you go to the link a lot of his points are hot linked to background articles. I have not noticed it before and am wondering if it is new or if the computer fairy changed one of my browser settings.

For example in the above "hysterically accuse Republicans of being terrorists", links to this, " http://www.verumserum.com/?p=27802

You mean Ole Drunken Joe Biden likened tea partiers to terrorists

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60421.html

Copy and paste will not pick up the underlying code required for hotlinks. If you wish to include the hotlinks in your quote, you have to link them yourself with.

Reagan is a little over-rated here. If he was truly able to move people to the Republican way, he would have seen a majority Republican Congress.

Obama? I think people will look back on him at how little he was able to lead people with his vision. He had majorities and was unable to get 90% of his agenda passed. Unable to persuade the public, Congress or the Senate to jump on board. And actually lost nearly all his advantage in 2010 when Congress slipped back to GOP control and 8 out of 33 seats in the Senate went back to the Republicans.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 2012, will Obama and the Dems take back those seats? Or will the TEA party prove they are more than a passing fad and continue to dominate grass roots politics.

Maybe the Dems need to develop a similar group? It used to be unions were good for that, but they have lost lots of power.