Chris Hedges: Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West

Posted on May 23, 2011
By Chris Hedges


The liberal class, which attempted last week to discredit the words my friend Cornel West spoke about Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, prefers comfort and privilege to justice, truth and confrontation. Its guiding ideological stance is determined by what is most expedient to the careers of its members. It refuses to challenge, in a meaningful way, the decaying structures of democracy or the ascendancy of the corporate state. It glosses over the relentless assault on working men and women and the imperial wars that are bankrupting the nation. It proclaims its adherence to traditional liberal values while defending and promoting systems of power that mock these values. The pillars of the liberal establishment—the press, the church, culture, the university, labor and the Democratic Party—all honor an unwritten quid pro quo with corporations and the power elite, as well as our masters of war, on whom they depend for money, access and positions of influence. Those who expose this moral cowardice and collaboration with corporate power are always ruthlessly thrust aside.

The capitulation of the liberal class to corporate capitalism, as Irving Howe once noted, has “bleached out all political tendencies.” The liberal class has become, Howe wrote, “a loose shelter, a poncho rather than a program; to call oneself a liberal one doesn’t really have to believe in anything.” The decision to subordinate ethics to political expediency has led liberals to steadily surrender their moral autonomy, voice and beliefs to the dictates of the corporate state. As Dwight Macdonald wrote in “The Root Is Man,” those who do not make human beings the center of their concern soon lose the capacity to make any ethical choices, for they willingly sacrifice others in the name of the politically expedient and practical.

By extolling the power of the state as an agent of change, as well as measuring human progress through the advances of science, technology and consumption, liberals abetted the cult of the self and the ascendancy of the corporate state. The liberal class placed its faith in the inevitability of human progress and abandoned the human values that should have remained at the core of its activism. The state, now the repository of the hopes and dreams of the liberal class, should always have been seen as the enemy. The destruction of the old radical and militant movements—the communists, socialists and anarchists—has left liberals without a source of new ideas. The link between an effective liberal class and a more radical left was always essential to the health of the former. The liberal class, by allowing radical movements to be dismembered through Red baiting and by banishing those within its ranks who had moral autonomy, gradually deformed basic liberal tenets to support unfettered capitalism, the national security state, globalization and permanent war. Liberalism, cut off from the radical roots of creative and bold thought, merged completely with the corporate power elite. The liberal class at once was betrayed and betrayed itself. And it now functions like a commercial brand, giving a different flavor, face or spin to the ruthless mechanisms of corporate power. This, indeed, is the primary function of Barack Obama.

The liberal class, despite becoming an object of widespread public scorn, prefers the choreographed charade. It will decry the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or call for universal health care, but continue to defend and support a Democratic Party that has no intention of disrupting the corporate machine. As long as the charade is played, the liberal class can hold itself up as the conscience of the nation without having to act. It can maintain its privileged economic status. It can continue to live in an imaginary world where democratic reform and responsible government exist. It can pretend it has a voice and influence in the corridors of power. But the uselessness and irrelevancy of the liberal class are not lost on the tens of millions of Americans who suffer the indignities of the corporate state. And this is why liberals are rightly despised by the working class and the poor. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_prophets_like_cornel_west_make_liberal_sell-outs_attack_20110523/

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Gravel Democrat]

2. Once again, Hedges nails it like a carpenter +10

[nxylas]

3. Reserve his place under that bus now

I predict little blue links in the future of this thread.

[Donnachaidh]

15. Hedges has been under the bus keeping it warm for others for a while now

and yes, those little blue links are shilling away, as predicted.

[liberation]

62. Your prediction came to pass

somethings are as predictable as the sun rising from the East ;-)

[sabrina 1]

87. Lol!

[nxylas]

106. Those too

No little blue link would be complete without a side order of :rofl:

[slay]

50. Agreed

i don't understand how others don't see it.

[w4rma]

4. neo-liberal sellouts. (nt)

[jaxx]

5. Is Hedges the old radical and militant movement?

The state, now the repository of the hopes and dreams of the liberal class, should always have been seen as the enemy. The destruction of the old radical and militant movements—the communists, socialists and anarchists—has left liberals without a source of new ideas. The link between an effective liberal class and a more radical left was always essential to the health of the former.

Seems he is lost in the 50s.

[liberation]

55. For neo-liberals, anything to the left of Mussolini has always been the "radical left."

Sigh... glad to see at least they're been consistent about that.

[mountainlion55]

6. Neo-liberal DLC sellouts

:smoke:

[NorthCarolina]

21. Yep. nt

[eilen]

7. Abso-friken-loootly.

"The liberal class at once was betrayed and betrayed itself. And it now functions like a commercial brand, giving a different flavor, face or spin to the ruthless mechanisms of corporate power. This, indeed, is the primary function of Barack Obama."

And that dear friends is the crux. This is why we pinch our noses and vote Democratic. We are without an alternative. But not for long.

"the uselessness and irrelevancy of the liberal class are not lost on the tens of millions of Americans who suffer the indignities of the corporate state. And this is why liberals are rightly despised by the working class and the poor."

There is your October 2010 -- people just stopped believing that the government had any relevance for them, they learned the agent of "hope and change" was another "fair and balanced" package of bull. Big government gifts to banks, insurance companies and the wealthy and no protections for the little people who after 2010 are further left bleeding with no champion. I don't know that 2012 will be much different. People may choose to stay home again. Obama killed the wrong boogieman.

"The corporate forces, which have taken control of the press and which break unions, run the universities, fund the arts and own the Democratic Party, demand the banishment of all who question the good intentions of the powerful. Liberals who comply are tolerated within the system. They are permitted to busy themselves with the boutique activism of political correctness, inclusiveness or multiculturalism. If they attempt to fight for the primacy of justice, they become pariahs."

I think I may change my signature quote to this one just to remind everyone when they start falling for that line of crap that is the current conventional wisdom as if the only thing stopping progress are the blue dogs. The only thing positive I can point to is the entertainment factor of the lengths the Republican party has been pushed to in short, becoming the party of Snidely Whiplash. One is tempted to put on some popcorn for the melodramatic pablum that has been passing for contemporary politics.

[xiamiam]

82. great post..nt

[ProSense]

8. What utter garbage

<...>

The liberal class, despite becoming an object of widespread public scorn, prefers the choreographed charade. It will decry the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or call for universal health care, but continue to defend and support a Democratic Party that has no intention of disrupting the corporate machine. As long as the charade is played, the liberal class can hold itself up as the conscience of the nation without having to act. It can maintain its privileged economic status. It can continue to live in an imaginary world where democratic reform and responsible government exist. It can pretend it has a voice and influence in the corridors of power. But the uselessness and irrelevancy of the liberal class are not lost on the tens of millions of Americans who suffer the indignities of the corporate state. And this is why liberals are rightly despised by the working class and the poor.

<...>

Everyone who criticized West is a "sellout." Everyone who supports the Democratic Party is a "sellout."

Hedges and West are all about destroying the Democratic Party. It's the continuing Naderite Gore = Bush bullshit.

Here's why West was criticized

[jaxx]

10. Very good conversation in the video.

West didn't get tickets and was miffed. So he calls the President names and whines. Doesn't say much for West.

[eilen]

13. Yeah, that's the reason Cornel doesn't believe in the mythos

He didn't get the tickets to the show after he made numerous appearances to fundraise for the campaign. However Rick Warren was invited as a guest of honor to say a prayer.

West saying he felt betrayed as a friend and campaign fundraiser is pretty telling that he is human. I think it says more about the Obama campaign that they did not provide some tickets for him. It smacks of pettiness.

But if this is what you choose to focus on in respect to what West talked about in his interview and in respect to what is in this OP, I think you are missing the forest for the trees.

[jaxx]

16. So 2 years later West is still incensed about the tickets and

now goes on to call PBO names...and that's ok? No it isn't. It's small and petty and that is exactly how West looks. I didn't miss anything, West took it all personally.

[Hawkowl]

121. Rethuglican much?

Seems like all you are doing is attacking the messenger peronally, instead of debating the points of the argument. You are employing favorite tactic of the right wing.

[AlbertCat]

63. Yeah, that's the reason Cornel doesn't believe in the mythos

The reason "dear brother" West doesn't believe in the Obama mythos is because he's too busy believing in his own mythos.... which is gigantic!

His kabuki theatre is much more grand but much shallower of much less consequence than Obama's kabuki theatre.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

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[truth2power]

24. ...

"And liberals, who have become courtiers to the corporate state, must attempt to silence all those who condemn the ruthlessness and mendacity of these systems of destruction. Their denunciation of all who rebel is a matter of self-preservation."

[mistertrickster]

26. Trying to improve the Democratic Party is not "attacking" it.

Trying to make democracy responsive to the people instead of to the corporations is not "attacking" democracy . . . it is the duty of true patriots.

[ProSense]

27. Hmmm?

"Trying to make democracy responsive to the people instead of to the corporations is not 'attacking' democracy"

Cornel West bullshit psychoanalysis is about "trying to improve democracy"?

Hedges piece is an exercise in distortion, ignoring the basis of the criticism in order to call out his critics as "sellouts."

[mistertrickster]

29. We disagree. nt

[Chisox08]

37. It seems like you are more interested in attacking the messenger instead of the message

Could it be that the message rings true? Could it be that the Democrats put money over people?
What happened to the Employee Free Choice Act? Where are the national Democrats when it comes to workers rights in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana were the Republicons are attacking workers rights? Why did the Health Care bill put millions of Americans in the loving hands of the vultures known as Health Insurance companies? Why is jobs still going overseas and our government is doing nothing to stop it, or at least slow it down? Why are we letting people in on H1-b Visas when we have +9% unemployment? I'm just asking.
I guess I'm attacking President Obama and the Democrats because I didn't get tickets to the inauguration either. I haven't seen any improvements in the lives of average American citizens. Our wages has stagnated, while the money is getting concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. The Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans was extended even though a clear majority of American people was against it. There is no job programs even though there are millions of Americans who are either unemployed or underemployed. We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time we are dropping bombs in Pakistan and Libya.
I'm not going after the Democrats because I want the Republicons to win. I want the Democratic party to represent the people instead of the multi-national corporations that has no loyalty to America at all. I want the Democrats to support the Johnson brothers instead of the Koch brothers. I want this administration to push through cuts in our military budget and corporate welfare instead of cutting programs the help poor and middle class families. I want the Democrats to talk about helping poor and homeless Americans. Instead of just talking about doing something to help poor and homeless American I want them to do actually do something to help them.
Reaganomics has proven to be a failure and yet we still continue down the path that got us in the mess that we are in now. We need real change not just tinkering around the edges. We need a fighter not someone who is starting off with a compromised position and in the end giving the Republicons what they want.

[ProSense]

39. "What happened to the Employee Free Choice Act?"

Did West mention that?

"I guess I'm attacking President Obama and the Democrats because I didn't get tickets to the inauguration either."

You're "attacking President Obama"?

"I want the Democrats to talk about helping poor and homeless Americans. Instead of just talking about doing something to help poor and homeless American I want them to do actually do something to help them."

Huh?

Clarity!

[Chisox08]

40. No politician talks about helping poor or homless Americans

I want to see them do something about helping poor and homeless Americans.

[The Green Manalishi]

47. The homeless and the poor don't contribute ($) to either party.

None of my friends who live/have lived in cars or are on assistance go to those 2500 a plate fundraisers, either. Admittedlty in some instances the Democratic party does manage to mobilize them to vote, but far too seldom.

[mntleo2]

52. But the poor DO vote

AND they are the highest taxpayers paying the highest proportion of their incomes in taxes than ANY other class. Many of the poor do not know this, but if there was more respect given to them by their fellow Democrats, who saw the truth about them, they would be a formidable force.

Ugo Chavez surprised his country winning by a landslide simply by getting the poor to vote. It was why he won. They had much a similar political situation there as we do: corporate owned media, FAUX on steroids, upper class people being the "main" voters, and a split country between conservative and liberal I am not endorsing the man, I am just saying that, under the radar he showed respect for the poor and this is what got him elected. The upper income voters were outraged because they always expected the poor to stay silent and apart from the process ~ and not vote.

Pitiful as it seems at this time, because only 30% of the eligible voters vote, we think a president won because he got 16% of the vote. If but 1/2 of the 30% poor voted, this would tilt everything.

This is why ACORN and other "get out the vote" programs are so frightening to the Right. The KNOW of the poor became enfranchised instead of disenfranchised it is all over for them. Unfortunately Democrats don't get it about the poor just ~ unlike their Rethug counterparts who do.

Just sayin'...
Cat in Seattle

[The Green Manalishi]

64. Oh hell yeah.

Anytime we get out the vote we win.
"Voter ID" isn't about making sure that only those eligible to vote do so, it is about making it as inconvenient as possible, particularly for that segment of the population that is lacking in the resources to wade through bureaucracy and/or suffers from most interactions with authority.

[Chisox08]

42. He didn't mention the Employee Free Choice Act by name.

But when he talked about standing for the American workers allowing people to unionize goes a long way to help workers have a voice. Union workers on average are paid better and has better benefits when compared to non union workers.
I guess I should have put a little sarcasm smilie after the attacking Obama because I didn't get inauguration tickets line because it went right over your head.

[L0oniX]

44. +1000

[spooked911]

107. well said, and good point about the H1B VISAs

we have a very distorted system, in so many ways

[joentokyo]

30. You should look closely at Chris Hedges's column. Mr. Fish drew your party's portrait and it

is shown at the bottom of the essay.

[ProSense]

31. "your party's portrait "

Which is your party?

[L0oniX]

45. You should limit yourself to 2 cups of coffee.

[ProSense]

48. Why? It

was garbage, similar to the garbage he always writes.

Chris Hedges: Curb Your Enthusiasm for Obama (September 2008)

Barack Obama's health care plan coddles the corporations that profit from the misery and illnesses of tens of millions of Americans. The plan is naive, at best, and probably disingenuous when it insists that we can coax these corporations, which are listed on the stock exchange and exist to maximize profit, to transform themselves into social service agencies that will provide adequate health care for all Americans. I wish we lived in such a rosy world. I know, and I suspect Obama knows, that we do not.

<...>

You think Hedges needed West's latest screed to write the piece in the OP?

[dflprincess]

51. The only thing to disagree with in this statement:

Barack Obama's health care plan coddles the corporations that profit from the misery and illnesses of tens of millions of Americans. The plan is naive, at best, and probably disingenuous when it insists that we can coax these corporations, which are listed on the stock exchange and exist to maximize profit, to transform themselves into social service agencies that will provide adequate health care for all Americans. I wish we lived in such a rosy world. I know, and I suspect Obama knows, that we do not.

Is the idea that corporations "profit from the misery and illnesses" - they profit from our fear of illness and by standing in the way of our actually being able to access health care when we need it.

The scam Congress and Obama supported will still allow large out of pocket expenses that will keep people from accessing medical help when they need it and will continue to maximize the profits of the insurance companies the bill will was designed to protect.

[seafan]

9. We are locked into a charade; those who describe it and oppose it are vilified.

Chris Hedges, the prophet.



(via Mr. Fish)


May 23, 2011

.....

The liberal class is incapable of reforming itself. It does not hold within its ranks the rebels and iconoclasts who have the moral or physical courage to defy the corporate state and power elite. And when someone such as Cornel West speaks out, packs of careerist liberals—or perhaps one should call them neoliberals—descend on the apostate like hellhounds, never addressing the truths that are expressed but instead engaging in vicious character assassination. The same thing happened to Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Dennis Kucinich, Jeremiah Wright and others who defied the political orthodoxy of corporate capitalism. The corporate forces, which have taken control of the press and which break unions, run the universities, fund the arts and own the Democratic Party, demand the banishment of all who question the good intentions of the powerful. Liberals who comply are tolerated within the system. They are permitted to busy themselves with the boutique activism of political correctness, inclusiveness or multiculturalism. If they attempt to fight for the primacy of justice, they become pariahs.

Leo Tolstoy wrote that there were three characteristics of all forms of prophecy: “First, it is entirely opposed to the general ideas of the people in the midst of whom it is uttered; second, all who hear it feel its truth; and thirdly, above all, it urges men to realize what it foretells.”

Prophets put forward during their day ideas that the mass of people, including the elite, denounce as impractical and yet at the same time sense to be true. This is what invokes the rage against the prophet. He or she states the obvious in a society where the obvious is seditious. Prophecy is feared because of the consequences of the truth. To accept that Obama is, as West said, a mascot for Wall Street means having to challenge some frightening monoliths of power and give up the comfortable illusion that the Democratic Party or liberal institutions can be instruments for genuine reform. It means having to step outside the mainstream. It means a new radicalism. It means recognizing that there is no hope for a correction or a reversal within the formal systems of power. It means defying traditional systems of power. And liberals, who have become courtiers to the corporate state, must attempt to silence all those who condemn the ruthlessness and mendacity of these systems of destruction. Their denunciation of all who rebel is a matter of self-preservation. For once the callous heart of the corporate state is exposed, so is the callous heart of the liberal class.

Not all liberals have sold their souls to the corporate state, and it remains a painful threat to the status quo.


Never, never give up this fight.

[Jakes Progress]

32. They will deny the truth until the party means nothing anymore

They will deny the truth until there is no Democratic Party, only the New NeoDem party, closely aligned with the neocons in sucking up the the power elite.

The will continue to blame liberals and progressives for the right wing movement in the party. Logic is not on their side.

[BobbyBoring]

111. I'm afraid you're right

It's already happened to the other side.

Todays Dems are what republicans were 20 years ago~

[Jakes Progress]

112. Yep. With all the seeming newcomers cheering it on.

Yeah for our side. The fact that that side might stand for nothing doesn't seem to matter.

[girl gone mad]

12. k & r

[Donnachaidh]

14. 'The capitulation of the liberal class to corporate capitalism, as Irving Howe once noted, '

'has “bleached out all political tendencies.” The liberal class has become, Howe wrote, “a loose shelter, a poncho rather than a program; to call oneself a liberal one doesn’t really have to believe in anything.” The decision to subordinate ethics to political expediency has led liberals to steadily surrender their moral autonomy, voice and beliefs to the dictates of the corporate state. As Dwight Macdonald wrote in “The Root Is Man,” those who do not make human beings the center of their concern soon lose the capacity to make any ethical choices, for they willingly sacrifice others in the name of the politically expedient and practical.'

:wow: nailed it to the wall!

'The decision to subordinate ethics to political expediency has led liberals to steadily surrender their moral autonomy, voice and beliefs to the dictates of the corporate state.'

political expediency -- pragmatism for some, capitulation for others.

[raouldukelives]

17. K&R

[Overseas]

18. K&R.

[msongs]

19. the "liberal class" are scum - well that is just one person's opinion, out of 7 billion nt

[TBF]

57. What is inaccurate in this piece?

"The liberal class... prefers comfort and privilege to justice, truth and confrontation." This is a very true statement. Even Sam Webb, of CPUSA, advocates patience.

Patience is the one thing I am out of - I am damned tired of republicans and their democratic enablers taking this country back to the "gilded" days of the 1920's. All the hard work unions accomplished is being demolished by this president and his supporters.

Who is fighting for the working class? Not liberals.

[GeorgeGist]

20. America couldn't have won ...

it's holocaust against the natives, without bi-partisan ignorance of human rights.

[chervilant]

34. And,

during Woodrow Wilson's grim tenure in the WH, the Democratic Party resurrected the KKK, marking a sad chapter in the Party's history.

When will we "democrats" stop this 'blame and shame' game, and obtain measurable progress developing a Party that represents the hoi polloi?

(Understand that I suspect we are like Sisyphus, struggling to push our boulder of Integrity and Compassion up the side of a teflon mountain, while the global economy crumbles at our feet...)

[NorthCarolina]

22. Nailed it. nt

[mistertrickster]

25. Wow . . . somebody gets it! k'd & r'd

[ProSense]

28. Here:

West defends himself

[Jakes Progress]

33. K&R. It will take a lot more Chris Hedges to save the party.

[MilesColtrane]

35. "The state... should always have been seen as the enemy."

Surprised Hedges didn't trot out that line by a famous dead politician, "the most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

[bvar22]

36. Harsh words for harsh times.

Thank You, Chris.
:patriot:

Latin America has given us a Blue Print for "CHANGE".

"The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that nation states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales

FDR said much the same thing in 1944 with his Economic Bill of Rights.
Bolivian President Evo Morales sounds more like FDR than anyone in the Democratic Party Leadership.

[BREMPRO]

38. oh pleeze.. "prophet"?

that's about all i need to read to be skeptical of his argument. Hedges, as West does, focuses most of the blame on Obama, when they should be firing real bullets at the actual enemy- corporate power and influence in politics and the republicans and their blame obama for everything insidious corporate propaganda machine. West may be right about his critique about the corporatocracy, but to continue to blame Obama in context of the chip on his shoulder for being "disrespected" and the knowledge of what Obama faces to overcome the pressure of corporate money and influence that is wielded against him, comes off as personal attack and retribution rather than honest objective critique.

[truedelphi]

46. An Administration rules by appointment.

Obama's appointments have been All Top of the Line Corporate Profiteers over common sense individuals. These individuals havbe helped put the middle class through the grinder.

The only decent person I know of (off the top of my head) working for this Administration is Elizabeth Warren. And soon she may tire of being the director of a Do Nothing organization.

We have the top Monsanto people overseeing our foodstuffs. Valsick,and Mike Taylor - Valsick heading up the Ag Dept, while Mike Taylor rules over the FDA.

We have Geithner - who should in any universe where fairness counts - be serving a long stiff sentence in a bad prison with a RICO conviction.

This for his rule in hand picking which of his buddies on Wall Street got the maximum from the Paulson/Bernanke nine to thirty trillion bucks worth of Federal Reserve pickings. (Geithner has also lied to Congress at least three times, any time of which is an impeachable offense - and again, in a world where fairness mattered, he would be in jail for those lies.)

The first six months Obama was in office, he not only appointed Geithner, he repeatedly referred to the sleaze bag as someone who is "my good buddy." Which tells us critics all we need to know. This pair of guys grew up with their parents in "diplomatic service" to the Big Foundations - undermining democracy and decent economic polities all over the world.

Geithner actually has his main office just down the hallway from the Oval Office - or at least that was the case about a year ago, when one of the main TV stations did a tour of the White House.

Then we have the BP fiasco, in which as Peter Fonda recently remarked, Obama let "the boots" of a foreign nation dictate to American citizens.

Examine the EPA - it currently is nothing but a rubber stamp organization that tells us that the radioactivity from Fukashima is of no concern. But then, The Obama Administration must make good on its pledge to fund the Big Nuke companies with some forty five billion s dollars plus of loans - those companies certainly cannot go to Wall; Street, which has continually made it clear that it does not want to expose its major players to the toxic liability of those types of plants.

The EPA also did a one week, "junk science" safety study of Corextit, and after finding no problems to marine life health after one week, allowed this crap to be sprayed over millions of acres in the LA and Mississippi and other Gulf regions, as well as all across the Gulf itself.

When a fisherman showed up to hand over the sick fish he had caught, when the EPA official took the diseased fish from him, the official said, "This snot oil related. This is black gill disease" as though we citizens who think about things are supposed to believe that oil encrusting a fish's body has nothing to do with it dying!

[liberation]

56. No, no, no! Obama can't do anything that is why he is without blame

except when he has done more than any other president in history, apparently, in which case the accolades are all his.

Doublethink, try it... it makes it easier to cope once you remove common sense and logic out of cognitive processes. Or so I heard...

[truedelphi]

68. I do try. However I was educated back in the days

When High Schoolers actually spent a whole year in English class with "rhetoric" as the topic of concern.

And before that, a year immersed in Poetics.

And after those two years of serious study, we had the study of Dialectics thrown at us.

I think it is much easier for people in the younger generations who haven't had to learn the concept of critical thinking. All that seems to matter these days is how well you adapt to computers, iPhones, and PDA's.

Computers have a logic that is basically ones and zeroes, on or off.

Tell them what thought is currently "on' and they will follow.

[Dragonfli]

102. AHHH You have touched on one of the deeper parts of the current dillema!

Bravo! Very few are left it would appear who are capable of the critical thinking needed to understand this part of the problem.

[blackspade]

41. Ouch.

Hedges hits hard with the truth as usual!

[disillusioned73]

43. k&r

:dem:

Pretty much nailed it... profits or people?

[Maven]

53. K/R

[jobycom]

54. There can be only one!

One opinion, one definition of liberal, one shade of disappointment and anger with Obama, one Prophet, one problem, one way to fix it. Dissent is unpatriotic, or disloyal, or unliberal, or... Well, it depends on who is defining the One, but dissent is very, very bad no matter who that is.

[Jamel]

58. Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges is a "cut off your nose to spite your face" type of liberal. He lives in a "perfect world" scenario. He wants loyal liberals to turn their backs on their reps if they are not PERFECT IN EVERY WAY. Never mind what will happen to us if a republican gets in the WH. Cornel West was "DISGRACEFUL". His accusations were baseless, and he came across as an "angry traitor". I'm ashamed of West's behavior. Chris Hedges, Adam Green, David Sirota, Glen Greenwald, are Obama's biggest critics. WHY? These people "LIVE IN THE PROBLEM AND HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. Hatchet men."PROFESSIONAL BITCHERS"! "Paycheck please"!

[DeSwiss]

59. "....moral cowardice and collaboration"

K&R

[fascisthunter]

60. Danke! (nt)

[mdmc]

61. as a liberal I feel that last paragraph

callin me out..

[The Second Stone]

65. West has a lot of respect from me

He has spent his whole life addressing injustice. Even if he were wrong (and he is not on the Obama Administration) he is entitled to be wrong a few times.

[Lorien]

66. They aren't "liberals" they're DLC Reaganites. nt

[democrank]

67. K & R

[PopeRatzo]

69. Recommended with reservations

Some good points, but Professor West is not a prophet.

The Corporate State is not Barack Obama's fault. It's ours. We deserve the blame for the Corporate State, and for it's continuing growth in strength. We could stop it tomorrow if we could just explain the situation to a few of our neighbors, and we were all willing to temporarily give up a few of our luxuries. We could even stop it if we could get voter turnouts over 50%. But we're not going to stop it if we expect President Obama to do it, or if we whine and stay home on election day. Think about the Wisconsin workers who are facing disruption in our lives because 10% of Wisconsin liberals decided to stay home last November to "teach the Dems a lesson". Well, we didn't teach anyone a lesson, but we hurt our neighbors. On election day, I heard a lot of people sniffing and declaring how they were going to stay home. Six months later, a lot of them will no longer admit to staying home because they have seen the damage they caused. A lot of them are right here among us.

As long as you've got an account at Chase or BOA, as long as you've got a Visa in your wallet, as long as you choose to save a few bucks by shopping at Wal-Mart or Target (and there's probably not one percent among us who absolutely do not shop at those stores), as long as you feel the need to have an iPhone or MacBook with your latte, then it's on you, not on, as Professor West chooses to patronizingly say, "Brother Barack".

[tiny elvis]

88. cult of the self. are these personal or systemic problems?

the disruption which you call hurt is the lesson
no apologies
eat the rich
the ridiculousness of the cult of self shows when you begrudge a man a latte
while inhuman, immortal machines command our state to blast wogs out of their way

[Yavin4]

70. Neither Mr. West nor Mr. Hedges Has Never Won A Single Political Office

Never ran for one. Never lead a large organization where there are people hostile to your ideas and even your personhood. Never worked in an arena where you have to convince people who disagree with you.

In sum, both men have only known environments where everyone agress with each other most of the time and never have to worry about people who disagree with them.

If Obama did everything that Hedges and West wanted, we would be looking at an Evan Byah candidacy and eventual Democratic nomination in 2012.

[Bluenorthwest]

75. A servile argument in a representative democracy. Only pros

should have a voice? No opinion unless you are a candidate? That is a frightening view.
And where do you get the idea that in academia 'everyone agrees with each other'? Hariss-Perry and West are examples of the actuality, as opposed to the rhetorical fantasy you are foisting here. Do they agree?

[Yavin4]

78. Your Making Your Own Argument

I never said that only "pros should have a voice". Academia is not the real world. Never has been. Never will be. The fact that Progressives continually confuse academia with the real world is one of the fatal flaws of the American Progressive movement.

[sabrina 1]

104. You think the POTUS and his wealthy friends and donors

live in the real world? The fact that so many people confuse politics with the real world is the fatal flaw in this society.

Because of that confusion, many put their hopes in politicians, instead of issues, and fight for politicians instead of the interests of the people. And we all pay the price for that. They live in a different world, they belong to a club to which ordinary people do not belong. And they take care of their own 'class' first.

That will only change when the people have had enough. It isn't about 'progressive' or 'conservative', 'left' or 'right', it's about people. But as long as we allow those labels to divide people, politicians will continue to do what they are doing while the 'little people' fight over the labels.

[Creideiki]

108. However, Bernie Sanders has.

So has Dennis Kucinich. So did John Edwards.

There are good people in politics, and your prediction that Obama would be challenged from the Right is trollerific.

[Yavin4]

114. Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich, and John Edwards Have All Been Complimentary of Obama

and none of them are challenging Obama in the primaries.

Obama being challenged by conservative Dems is not "trollerific". It is fact. If he did everything that Hedges and West want, Evan Byah would be raising millions from corporate challengers to primary Obama.

I'm sorry if the truth upsets you, but it's still the truth. Not everyone in the world agrees with you.

[bread_and_roses]

71. K & R for Hedges, West, and the truth

I've no time right now for more, but thanks for posting this marmar

[westerebus]

72. Amen.

...a Democratic Party that has no intention of disrupting the corporate machine.

What's left to say?

[nashville_brook]

73. "He or she states the obvious in a society where the obvious is seditious"

in a culture where all pols are all courtiers in one manner or another, not to be a suck-up is pre-crime.

one basic truth, however, is that it makes it all the more easier to rebel against the machine...when the rules are so clearly drawn, every little deviation is noted.

[Number23]

74. Unrec. Wonder if the folks who whined that "this issue is over" when West was getting filleted

by black and white folks up and down America will continue to do so after this truly stupid "defense" of Dr. West.

I share Hedge's apparent disgust with many liberals, but he sounds as stupid as Cornel does when he does the "my calling Obama an Oreo and criticizing his ties with white folks and Jews and complaining about not getting tickets to the inauguration are not the real issues but I decided to bring all of this up 'cause I knew it would piss people the f*ck off" schtick. If the issue was truly to critique the administration's treatment of the poor and downtrodden, how in the sweet hell does "Obama fears free black men" wind up in there?

The recs will pile up for this one as they did the original and truly pathetic rant from Cornel. Folks here love to show utter contempt for reality.

[Bluenorthwest]

76. Wow. Show me a link to where West called Obama an Oreo

then one for the quote you attribute to him. I have great disagreement with Obama about my people's equal civil rights, which he opposes. Still, I do not put words into his mouth, nor stretch the rhetoric he uses to make it worse. Bad form. Very bad form. You would not like it done to the President, and it would be easy to do so.

[Number23]

77. Oh. My. God

Still, I do not put words into his mouth, nor stretch the rhetoric he uses to make it worse.

This, coming from you... all I can do is :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:. It's still early, but I do think you are in contention for my personal Laugh of the Day award.

[HisTomness]

79. Rambling polemic, nothing more.

1. Proffer a provocative thesis:
     Cornel West is a prophet (what?)
     and he is being attacked (attacked?! with knives?! oh, by words? in discourse?)
     by evil, inhuman beasts!

2. Set up straw man (The Liberal Class).

3. Endow the straw man with hateful qualities.

4. Insist the straw man is a real, distinct, coherent thing.
    Use unsupported assertions (see #3) to accomplish this.

5. Attribute to the straw man the behaviors of individuals that fit your thesis.
    Now it's not this person or that person disagreeing with your hero.
    Rather, they are part of a larger overarching attack by a hateful beast.

6. Congratulations! You have successfully demonized proponents of opposing viewpoints!
    They are not people representing diverse and nuanced points of view.
    Now they are components of a slavering beast bent on destroying good people
     (like you and your hero).

7. At the end of your essay, take a moment to conveniently "define" parts of your thesis
     (prophet?) upon which any grandiose yet shaky claims might rest.


I think my favorite part is this sentence:
"And when someone such as Cornel West speaks out, packs of careerist liberals...descend on the apostate like hellhounds, never addressing the truths that are expressed but instead engaging in vicious character assassination."

Wow. I always wondered what vicious character assassination looks like. I imagine if I engaged in it, I would lean toward tactics like characterizing my target(s) as "hellhounds" and "vicious" and "assassins" and "pack" animals. That sounds like the kind of exciting, punched-up rhetoric that could get me published in any number of cheapshit rags!
Oh, I should also, in the spirit of full disclosure, inform all here that I am demanding the banishment of Chris Hedges. Banished from what, I am not sure, but banishment is certainly in order and I for one demand it. I'm not sure what sort of paperwork that requires, so if anyone could point me to a Liberal Class Banishment Demand Form link I would greatly appreciate it. Also, how do I report him as a pariah? Is there a phone number you call?

-HT

[OwnedByFerrets]

80. K and R

[eridani]

81. West was way too personal, IMO

If you stick with issues, some folks who prefer personalities to policies will still whine, but they won't have any logical basis for it.

[theFrankFactor]

83. If there s ever any real progress of the Left you can bet these circle D jack off's ...

Had not one fucking thing to do with it. So cowardly. So embarassing.

[xiamiam]

84. great post..thanks for posting this

i even like the thread although a few are on ignore. At this point I have to laugh when someone says people like me need to have a dose of reality. I friggin live the reality of this disappoinment every day. There have been ways to fix this economical freefall..AND.. the housing market. Right this moment we have the perfect opportunity to get out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I'm not gonna hold my breath for anything to happen..other than the fat cats keep destroying the middle class...and the war profiteers keep talking about terror and raking in more cash. I'm disgusted by all of it. I love this thread because it reminds me why I come to DU. Sometimes I think I wont come back, but I still come here everyday and read ...

I was thinking today that I dont know anyone..either personally or professionally who is gaga over any politician...ie. a groupie or fan or constant defender. No one. Except I find it here which is kind of crazy when you think about it. There are people I like, Alan Grayson for example, and I would vote for him for just about anything if I could, but that's because he stands up. But would I be a groupie for him? No. If he changed his mind, I would change mine. I would vote for him, the person and the principles, no matter what party he belonged to. I've voted straight democrat for almost 40 years but that doesn't seem to matter anymore.

[2banon]

85. I'm not a great fan of West, but I am of Chris Hedges

and it isn't difficult to understand why CH wrote an op ed in defense of his friend and colleague, hell his "comrad in arms".. This is to be expected.

As to the points underpinning that defense, I largely agree with yet I would (if he were to ask) have counciled him to give some consideration to how the POTUS (any) must operate on behalf of, and be responsive (solely) to the power elite and the Corporate State most often to the detriment of the citzenry.

Politically speaking in his critisism of the Liberal Class, Hedges is arguing for a new and different paradigm which recognizes the rights of the working class, the working poor, etc. To the critics of Chris Hedge's or Cornell West for that matter, why isn't that obvious to you? Or if it is obvious, why does pointing out the fecklessness and flaws of the Liberal Class anger you?

[certainot]

86. how the fuck can the left accurately evaluate, much less criticize their politician's performances

while completely ignoring the right's most important weapon? the collective left and it's brightest minds stupidly think fox tv is creating this alternate reality.

billionaires and corporations have always influenced democracy but by ignoring the talk radio monopoly, because it gives them headaches to listen to it, the left has given the right a free speech free ride on a buzz machine that madison avenue would kill for.

while we may do things individually to get progressive reps backs in their battle against corporate money and military industrial complex corruption their most effective weapon has been given a complete pass by the left in the sense that there is NO organized opposition to the 1000 coordinated radio stations that do the groundwork for everything the right does.

pols play a power game and what they want to do and what they can do rarely end up the same, and dems, whether they are forced by a lock step insane republican party or succumb to the need for campaign bucks and get bought out will continue to have to compromise or be enabled by the fact that the right wing think tanks have a 24/7 bullhorn that reaches every corner and stump in america with whatever they feed limbaugh and sons, and every day they call liberals thieves, and liars and traitors and the left has had NO response for the last 20 years.

you want to complain about torture? all you had to do was picket your local limbaugh station for helping him sell CLUB GITMO t-shirts and coffee mugs. the local sponsors of those stations might have noticed. raciscm? union bashing? teaher bashing? same thing. maybe the universities that give those stations community cred by broadcasting sports on those stations would notice. maybe all those students who voted for obama and abandoned the dems in 2010 because they had no fucking clue what he right's most important weapon is could make a difference.

as long as limbaugh and sons can lie and distort and excuse all day, to 50 mil a week and no one gets in their face, then it becomes acceptable.

[Doctor_J]

90. Picketing radio stations does nothing

Come on. The ultra-right has bought up every radio and TV station in the country, and don't give a shit if you picket them, as long as nothing but their propaganda gets broadcast. Please don't blame "the left" for the fact that every radio and TV station and newspaper in the US is owned by wingers. There is nothing legal that can be done about it.

[certainot]

109. what a load of bullshit- spoken like a troll- how do you know- it's never been tried!

i know for a fact that bugging ownership works to change stations- smaller ones anyway.

bugging local sponsors can get them to support prog stations.

and progressive orgs have never tried anything other than kissing limbaughs ass, lets them do anything they want on radio. left doen't even know what's happening there, doesn't care until it's too late, and have never attempted to shame local sponsors and universities for supporting the anti science and anti democratic propaganda that blankets the country and makes real democracy impossible.

[Doctor_J]

110. Speaking of trolls

progressive orgs have never tried anything other than kissing limbaughs ass

Troll, sleepy, in denial?

Media Matters, Kos, TYT, Olbermann, Franken - heard of them?

i know for a fact that bugging ownership works to change stations

Beckkk lost nearly all of his sponsors. Do you recall Fox "News" changing?

A troll is someone who issues rants full of lies that can't quite be disproven,

bugging ownership works to change stations

bugging local sponsors can get them to support prog stations

progressive orgs have never tried anything other than kissing limbaughs ass, lets them do anything they want on radio

and then rails against anyone who points out that the nonsense is nonsense.

[certainot]

118. talking radio not fox- that's the whole point - fox depends on radio

it serves only to reinforce the radio, and wouldn't exist as is without the unchallenged radio.

bugging ownership works to change stations-- yes i've helped do it

bugging local sponsors can get them to support prog stations --- yes, i've done it --- it's actually easier than you might think- just that few ever do it.

progressive orgs have never tried anything other than kissing limbaughs ass, lets them do anything they want on radio ---- this is a bit of an exaggeration but generally true--- media matters and others point out occasional outrages and occasionally sponsors are contacted but there is NO organized effort from the left to make a searchable database of the main transcripts available or in any other way get a readable comprehensive daily analysis of what is being pounded into the earholes of 50 mil americans.

that is why the left can't get shit done - the real function of the talk radio monopoly, to create the alternate reality that informs the dittohead teabaggers and those made-to-order corporate constituencies radio is uniquely capable of is invisible to them and they usually react way too late. sometimes, such as in the case of acorn or van jones or health care or immigration, months and years later when it shows up on fox and congress when it's too late and the blue dogs and other dems are already convinced their facing popular opposition to their 'socialism' and terrorist codling.

the 10 - 20% minority becomes 50% just because they have a giant megaphone and the left is too lazy or stupid to get in their face, thinking "we've got the internet, they can have the radio" and then blaming their reps for not standing up to the corporations, while the think tanks take free pot shots at them all day long from teh local radio station that also does college sports on weekends.

getting pissed at limbaugh for occasional racism and doing national boycotts isn't effective--- the think tanks can line up one national sponsor after another and it is the coordinated national and local messaging repetition that the think tanks like- the racism and it's backlash only endears him to large parts of his audience. but those stations rely on local sponsors to fill the gaps and pay overhead and when the limbaugh hannity ratings drop 30% like they just did and sponsors (and the unis) start getting shamed on a regular basis for supporting the racism and global warming denial, wherever their spots are placed on those stations, those stations will notice.

and no left org has or seems to even consider this, while they waste time protesting state capitols, getting ignored.

the only reason you can say it wont work is that it's never been tried large scale.

to continue to ignore it is like ignoring the jerk on the corner who calls your father a thief and you mother a whore all day- and that's what the left has done for 20 years.

[eilen]

113. The federal gov.could require a break up of monopolies

if they had the balls, I mean will.
We used to have a Fairness Doctrine as well.

[Doctor_J]

115. Yup

Repeal of FD and the Telecommunications Act (signed by WJC) were the last nail in the coffin of the US as a democracy.

[certainot]

117. IMO can't be done as long as they have 1000 unchallenged radio stations

they've already prepped for it, been prepping for it for 20 years and the outcry from the teabagger dittoheads would dwarf anything seen in the health care debate.

the radio may only be fixed if the left stops ignoring it and giving it a free speech free ride.

limbaugh and hannity's ratings just dropped by a 1/3 since october but there will be no press about it and it will continue to enjoy invisibility until the left orgs start tratign those limbaugh stations as the GOP and corporate corruption HQs they are.

[sabrina 1]

89. I agree with most of what he says, but I would dispute this

statement:

The liberal class, despite becoming an object of widespread public scorn, prefers the choreographed charade. It will decry the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or call for universal health care, but continue to defend and support a Democratic Party that has no intention of disrupting the corporate machine.

The party is split. The DLC wing of the party fit his description and block every effort being made by those who DO work hard to try to change these things. So the progressive wing of the party is fighting the rightwing and the rightwing of the Dem. Party.

If the party was united, we could be effective. But those who tolerate every swing to the right make it very difficult. No matter what the party does, they will support it. And that gives politicians the feeling they don't have to do anything to get the votes they need to stay in DC.

[tiny elvis]

92. it is the L in DLC that makes his statement true

those who tolerate every swing to the right will continue to say that it is you, personally, who makes unity difficult
rather than split, maybe the party is tiered
sycophancy and groupthink are not special to your party

[pnwmom]

91. West's nose has been bent out of joint since a bellhop got a ticket

to Obama's inauguration and he didn't.

Chris Hedges is one of the remaining members of his dwindling fan club.

[sabrina 1]

93. Is that how you interpreted what he was saying?

Really? What I heard was someone using an actual, individual experience to demonstrate how this president has abandoned those who got him elected. He abandons people, after he thinks he doesn't need them anymore.

And it's true. Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod, ACORN, Pastor Wright and on and on, not much loyalty in the man. As soon as the right throws a temper tantrum about someone on the left, BOOM! They are gone. Look at Bush by contrast, the more angry people were at people like Sanchez et al, the more he promoted them. He owed them a lot and I guess he had one good trait, he was loyal to those who were loyal to him.

And that willingness to dump people is a sign that this is someone who doesn't have deep connections to people, but will use them until he thinks he doesn't need them anymore.

Which makes him just another politician.

[pnwmom]

95. You don't think the bellhop's vote for Obama counted as much as West's? n/t

[Number23]

97. Bam!!

So good, it bears repeating:

You don't think the bellhop's vote for Obama counted as much as West's?

Ex-FREAKING-actly. :yourock:

[sabrina 1]

101. You're still missing the point.

Obama has abandoned the bellhop also, and that is what West is saying. It isn't what I think, it's what Obama thinks about them, all the people who voted for him.

[pnwmom]

105. Yeah, that's what West is saying. And of course he knows better than

the bellhop, right? And he knows better than the millions of others who voted for Obama and plan to vote for him again?

Yeah, what does a mere bellhop know about the real world, compared to a Princeton professor looking out from his ivory tower?

:sarcasm:

http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2011/05/why-cornel-west-is-beginning-to-rhyme-with-witch/

I’m assuming West is a pretty bright guy, which would explain why he’s a professor at Princeton. So then how did he miss what Obama is about so completely? What did Obama ever say to lead him to believe he was going to try and play the the lead role in “MLK goes to the White House”? What made him think Obama was keeping his inner Malcolm well-hidden until he got his hands on the wheel?

Secondly, does he honestly believe Obama is the enemy of the working man? Because if he does I’d like him to come to Detroit where Obama’s big corporate bailout of Chrysler and GM kept them alive so that they could do what they’re doing now, namely hiring back layed off workers and hiring new employees as well. If the Big Three auto companies had been allowed to go under, does West have any idea how many thousands of working people would have lost their jobs and joined the ranks of the poor and homeless? And as for those big Wall Street banks he saved, I’ll grant their behavior has been less than stellar after being thrown a lifeline. But would West like to speculate on what would have happened to the economy if he had let them go over the cliff? Doesn’t he know that the pensions and retirement funds of thousands of working people were under the financial control of those banks? So what would have happened to all those working people he loves so much if Obama had let them burn?

It must be a wonderful sensation to steer the ship from the back seat. Almost like steering for real, huh?


http://www.thenation.com/blog/160725/cornel-west-v-barack-obama

SNIP

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men.… It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation.”

This comment is utter hilarity coming from Cornel West who has spent the bulk of his adulthood living in those deeply rooted, culturally rich, historically important black communities of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Princeton, New Jersey. And it is hard to see his claim that Obama is “most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they” as anything other than a classic projection of his own comfortably ensconced life at Harvard and Princeton Universities. Harvard and Princeton are not places that are particularly noted for their liberating history for black men.

Let me be clear, being an Ivy League professor does not mean that one has no room to offer critical engagement on issues of race. Like Professor West, I too make my living at elite, predominantly white institutions. For the past five years we were on the same payroll at Princeton. Like Professor West I supplement my income by giving lectures about race, politics and history. Like West, I hope to influence policy, inspire individuals and intervene in public conversations about race. My criticism of West is his seeming unwillingness to acknowledge how our structural positions within the academy and in public intellectual life can be just as compromising to our position vis-à-vis black communities as is President Obama’s.

As tenured professors Cornel West and I are not meaningfully accountable, no matter what our love, commitment or self-delusions tell us. President Obama, as an elected official, can, in fact, be voted out of his job. We can’t. That is a difference that matters. As West derides the president’s economic policies he remains silent on his friend Tavis Smiley’s relationship with Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo and McDonald’s—all corporations whose invasive and predatory actions in poor and black communities have been the target of progressive organizing for decades. I have never heard him take Tavis Smiley to task for helping convince black Americans to enter into predatory mortgages. I’ve never heard him ask whether Tavis’s decision to publish R. Kelley’s memoirs might be a less than progressive decision. He doesn’t hold Tavis accountable because Tavis is his friend and he is loyal. I respect that, but I also know that if he were in elected office the could not get off so easily. Opposition research would point out the hypocrisy in his public positions in a way that would make him vulnerable come election time. As a media personality and professor he is safely ensconced in a system that can never vote him off the island. I think an honest critique of Obama has to begin by acknowledging his own privileges.

SNIP

[wutangfan85]

100. Great point, what I took from Chris Hedges' critique

of "The Libera Class" is that he was speaking as observer from the outside, who understands the importance of an effective Liberal Class. His point is that the Liberal Institutions of the US turned their backs on the citizenry from the start of World War II to now by casting out the more radical voices from left with people like Noam Chomsky, Dorothy Day, Howard Zinn and the left's favorite punching bag these days... Ralph Nader. Why? Because they called out the Liberal Class for aligning with the Corporate State. The people that spoke out about the system were villified by the Liberal Establishment in this country. Hell, look at the Clinton Years where the left was so inept and was at it lowest point in decades. When NAFTA passed, all of the pillars of Liberal Institution should have said "to hell with the Democratic Party" and started a third party or at least organized in some fashion. But yet, these same institutions failed to use the anger of the people and defended their principles. Instead you see these groups happy to be alligned with power that the level of distrust that people in poor and working class communities is rightly earned. The failure of the Liberal Class has resulted in Poor and Middle Class people fighting with each other when they're getting bombarded with propaganda and we sit and wonder how is that a significant number of people of modest means could vote against their own interests.

[Johnny Morales]

94. West focus on Race is his undoing and wrong rendering his words worthless

Had he simply focused on his strong disagreements regarding President Obama's policy choices, then his points would have been understood and debated fully.

HOWEVER, he foolishly decided the best way to understand President Obama was strictly through the lenses of identity/racial politics.

This is even worse than that idiotic book that tried to explain his motivations as being the result of his Kenyan father's anti-western feelings.

It's worse, because West says he's on the Progressive side, but uses the tactics of the extreme right wing which we identify so easily by the use of those tactics.

Using them on our side to attack each other is NOT right or smart. It's absolutely wrong.

He simply had NO REASON or justification for using President Obama's racial heritage as a reason to explain why he does what he does as president.

In doing so he destroys his own arguments, and renders any point where he might be more right than wrong utterly irrelevant to the conversation his comments he spawns.

[Number23]

96. It's a shame that it's even necessary to post what you've written

Your comment seems like common sense to every person with even the most superficial understanding of this country's racial climate -- both past and present.

This whole controversy if nothing else, exposes the lie that racism is either dead or doesn't exist on the "left."

He simply had NO REASON or justification for using President Obama's racial heritage as a reason to explain why he does what he does as president.

This is truly the very heart of this issue and what so many have been saying since the beginning. Which is why it is very telling to see those breaking into a sweat to try to justify/excuse/explain what West was saying. There is NO reason and certainly no justification for his comments.

[pnwmom]

99. + a million. n/t

[davidwparker]

98. K&R

... for the title alone

[intaglio]

103. Since when has Cornel West been a prophet?

And since when has pointing out where he, and the "doom and gloomers", are wrong been selling out?

Of course stating the truth and noticing that the President is a politician who has to work with a hostile House (17 months) and a compromised Senate (41 months) is unimportant in this narrative. Indeed nothing would be enough for the left wing ideologues who seem to think that Obama should govern by fiat, ignore congress and only listen to flatulent left wing advice.

I observed a couple of months ago that I spent much of my life watching the left spending more energy on destroying Labour governments in the UK than they spent on attempting to end the hegemony of the right wing publicity machine and now I see the same happening in the USA. In the UK it lead to the factionalism that allowed Tony Blair to succeed John Smith; in the USA it will lead to the defeat of a sitting President and the inauguration of a Republican. Of course that will be fine for the Left and those who incite them because they will be able to continue bitching about how bad everything is.

I'll finish with the usual list, omitting the death of Osama bin Laden, to attempt to put a note of reality into the discussion.

Ended the Great Recession, health care reform, Wall Street reform, student loan reform, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal, New START, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the biggest overhaul of food-safety laws in 70 years, new regulation of the credit card industry, new regulation of the tobacco industry, a national service bill, expanded stem-cell research, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, net neutrality, the most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years, health care for 9/11 rescue workers, and the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices.

You can check this at Politifact

[yurbud]

116. and then they give us their standard slop of excuses: we're playing the cards were dealt

change takes time (unless it benefits the rich).

we have to represent ALL the people not just the ones who voted for us (something Republicans never seem to worry about).

and so on.

[Number23]

119. Wow! A bit of personal growth around here, perhaps??

I'm a little shocked. The original rant from Cornel got over 300 recs -- this one less than half that.

Maybe it was seeing the damn near unanimous responses from so many black and/or liberal pundits, journalists, academics and bloggers who were outraged by Corny's nauseating comments that caused the about face. Whatever it is, I'm slightly encouraged. Slightly.

[colsohlibgal]

120. Mostly Agree

There are liberals and then there are psuedo/fake liberals. The pseodo ones, combined with the out and out DINO/Blue Dog ones, are killing us. The head pseodo liberal, IMHO, is Obama. He has shown the ability to say the right things and has done a few nice things around the edges. But....in the end he's run straight toward what is now called the center, and the center has moved straight right over the last 20 some years, the baseline has totally changed.

People can argue the point about Obama but really, no progressive is going begin his/her term by bringing in people like Emmanual, Summers, and Geithner. No way no how.

[texshelters]

122. Too late to recommend, but

Hedges is correct.

Peace,
Tex Shelters