There’s a lot bile directed at folks like Glenn Greenwald, Digby, Marcy Wheeler, Jane Hamsher and even Daou himself these days. I don’t agree with these folks all of the time, and Hamsher seems to have gone off into some territory that I can’t fathom, but it’s clear that criticism from these and other lefty bloggers has been a thorn in the side of the White House for some time. When the president’s chief of staff calls progressives “fucking retards” and then the Vice President tells us to “stop whining,” it’s clear that somebody’s fee-fees have gotten hurt on the way to the midterm elections.
I think a lot of the Democratic Party assumed The Left was just, ya know, an ideologically liberal version of The Right. Which is so not the case. During the Bush years The Right were all about “clap louder” and anyone who disagreed with the president even the tiniest bit was the worst sort of traitor and a cheese-eating surrender monkey who spit on the troops and wanted America to fail. Ah yes, good times, good times.
That script was read everywhere from the pages of the Weekly Standard to right wing blogs to the Drudge Report to CNN to NBC Nightly News to the Sunday bobblehead shows. I vented a lot of spleen writing letters to news directors who I’m sure decided I was a crackpot but really, hearing liberals impugned on a daily basis in our mass media is what got me involved in politics to begin with.
So I’m sure the Obama Administration was really disappointed that when they took over, they didn’t get the same unthinking, unblinking warm hug from their base that the Republicans received. But see, this is what separates us from them. We have principles, and they have politics. The shit we say matters to us really DOES matter to us!
Unlike, say, the Tea Party, which claims to be all worked up over a tyrannical government’s overreach and civil liberties, yet none of those assholes has said one word about the Anwar al-Aulaqi case, just as they didn’t say one word about the Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010. I mean, this is the stuff these people should be waving misspelled signs over. Not your health insurance company no longer allowed to drop you because of a pre-existing condition. How about the U.S. government assassinating a U.S. citizen without due process? How does that fit into your view of the Constitution? If it does, you’re a fucking moron and I don’t have time for you.
So anyway, this is what Daou has to say:
From gay rights to executive power to war to the environment, the left increasingly believes the Obama White House lacks the moral courage to undo Bush’s radicalism. If anything, the Aulaqi case is an indication Obama will go further than Bush to “prove” his strength.
As I wrote last week, using policy to prove anything to anyone on the right is a wasted exercise.
I’m trying to imagine why Obama the Constitutional scholar would claim the state secrets privilege on something like this. I don’t think it’s just to look tough. Maybe he’s had the crap scared out of him and thinks he needs to actually be tough -- un-Constitutionally, totalitarian tough. Maybe when one joins that elite club of U.S. Presidents you do stuff like this because you can. I mean, I really don’t get it, but I don’t think “I want to look like a badass” quite covers it.
But it’s the kind of thing right wingers don’t seem to give a shit about. So once again that leaves the left to take up the real battle for civil liberties, justice, and the Constitution. And by the way, y’all can join in anytime, because in case you haven't noticed, the President and Vice President don’t seem to care what we think on our side of the aisle.
Some things really do matter to us. I personally don't care if the president is a Christian, Muslim or none of the above. I don't care if he likes Grey Poupon on his burger or can't throw a pitch or bowl to save his life or doesn't wear a flag pin. But I do draw the line at the president saying he can order a hit on anyone he likes and he doesn't have to tell anyone about it since it's a "state secret."
