"Why Obama’s Base Won’t Revolt" --- Eric Alterman

[KoKo]

Gay marriage, Israel, choice—talk is rife of a 2012 primary challenge to Obama from the left, but liberals’ support and fear of GOP extremism mean it won’t happen, says Eric Alterman.

So Obama’s base is “crumbling”, huh?

What’s the evidence for this?

Well, Bernie Sanders, the only independent socialist member of the United States Senate thinks it might be a “good idea” if the president were to face a primary opponent. And if Obama were the leader of America’s socialist movement, he certainly would be—but then he wouldn’t be president.

What else?
Click here to find out more!

There’s Obama’s job approval rating, which is awfully low, particularly on the economy. Then again, George W. Bush still gets the majority of the blame for the economy. What’s more, among liberal Democrats and African-Americans, approval for Obama’s record on jobs also has fallen—to slightly more than half among the former and slightly more than half among the latter. Given an unemployment rate of about 10 percent, that strikes me as pretty damn good. I’m not sure even Obama approves of Obama’s record on jobs any more than they do. What’s more, Obama’s won the argument for public opinion with Republicans over the debt limit with his “eat your peas” strategy, even if he has not won the hearts of liberals in doing so.

Sanders was undoubtedly correct when he explained that “there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president, who believe that with regard to Social Security and other things, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president, who cannot believe how weak he has been for whatever reason in negotiating with Republicans, and there’s deep disappointment.” But his suggestion that “one of the reasons the president has made the move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him,” is hard to countenance given how far right the Republicans have moved and how successful they have been in bottling up virtually every progressive initiative the president has attempted to undertake (and some he hasn’t.)

Much More from Eric at.....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/27/why-obama-won-t-face-2012-primary-challenge-from-his-base-on-the-left.html

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. Put up or shut up Bernie, seems to be an appropriate response here.

:shrug:

[Armstead]

8. I know you have your bus warmed up but...

...I don't think Bernie is going to give you the opportunity to toss him under it

[Big Blue Marble]

2. Eric is whistling past the graveyard.

Attempting to weaken the big three is having a bigger impact across the board. This will impact more than just the
liberal vote.

And just wait till the Republicans make their ads next year. They got the house back partially by demagoguing
the cuts to Medicare in the last election. Imagine what they will do to Obama nest year.
Yes, they will twist it so they look like the protectors.

For the first time in my life, I am getting emails form my very right wing brother that I actually agree with.
that we need to protect these programs, that they are ours and should not be stolen.

The right wingers are even complaining about the programs being called entitlements. LOL
Whoever seizes this issue wins the day, the next election. It may be the third rail after all.

[Mimosa]

10. That and the economy

People vote based on their circumstances and their perceptions of the economy. It's always been that way.

[styersc]

3. I have harshly criticized the president and will continue.

But in the end, why I (and I expect many others) will not "revolt" is the damage we know that the opposition can do without a foil to disrupt them.

The TEA GOP is why we will not revolt.

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. “ The craziness of the Republican candidates provides a strong corrective to any dreams of mounting

a challenge to Obama."

Of course it goes without saying that Eric Alterman is right. There is not going to be a serious challenge to Obama for renomination. Rightly or wrongly, to imagine there will be or to imagine that a majority of the base will abandon Obama in 2012 is truly a pipe dream.

We in are living in an era where the most reactionary elements of capital have unprecedented power and what would have been once considered even by conservative Republicans to be the right-wing lunatic fringe are now in the mainstream of acceptable political discourse among the political class and what would have once been considerate by the political class as moderate Republican thinking is now placed in the position of the left-wing lunatic fringe. The maddening frustrations is the simple reality is that there really is nothing we can do about it except ventilate, wait and pray that somehow this will in time pass. But I doubt that it will in any of our life times. I'm afraid we are walking into the abyss of a new dark age. The whole country and perhaps the whole world has become like the drama in Lord of the Flies and we are all Ralph. Except there will be sailors who will arrive to save us.

[totodeinhere]

5. What if the GOP puts up such a crazy and unacceptable candidate that we don't need Obama to beat

them? What if the GOP candidate is so weak that a Democratic candidate more progressive than Obama would win in a landslide? Then are you saying that we should pass up an historic opportunity like that?

[CakeGrrl]

6. Don't mistake broad support for a primary challenger on DU for what Dems want nationally. -nt

[totodeinhere]

7. The way things are going that could well change by the time next year's primary season rolls around.

n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Yeah, DU is not like 'the real world'. In real life, I've not met a

passionate Obama defender since early in 2010. Here there are at least a dozen or so. So that's different. In 'real life' Democrats defend Social Security and Medicare and favor taxing the rich. I meet none who feel otherwise, and none who agree with the President on his 'Grand Deal'. Not one.

[Douglas Carpenter]

16. hey I would back Bernie if he ran in a primary challenge. But it simply is not going to happen.

Sometimes one has to face sad realities. Of course most Democrats and a majority of the country want to protect Social Security and Medicare. Clearly the majority of Democrats and probably a majority of the country would rather expand the New Deal and expand social democracy - not destroy it. But the current political culture of the United States simply marginalizes progressives before they can even begin to mount a credible campaign. We have a political culture of themes and slogans - not issues where poor Joe Six-pack who might very well issue by issue agree with almost every single progressive position is bamboozled into voting for Madison Avenue manufactured style - rather than substance. So we are left with the choice of backing the professional politicians of the Democratic Party who believe in little or nothing and whose actual positions on most economic issues are well to the right of what was once considered moderate Republican policy. Or do we allow truly crazy right-wing lunatics who talk like the madman of Fox News to assume the reins of power. It is a depressing choice. But those are the choices we are left with in the sad real world of today's American political culture.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. for more than the past thirty years every single progressive candidate has been

completely marginalized as left-wing extremists by the political establishment and the mainstream media before they could even get off the ground. Even candidates who were not the least bit left-wing like Howard Dean were completely marginalized as left-wing extremist before they could even begin to amount a serious challenge to the power the structure. Now the most reactionary elements in modern American history have more power and influence than ever.

Of course even the boys down at the Yacht Club recognize that electing a nut like Michele Bachmann would not be in their interest. It is conceivable that the political establishment and the mainstream media might allow someone with a a bit more liberal imagery than President Obama to emerge as a serious contender, But that does not mean that the barons of Wall Street and their sycophants in the media would sit idly by while someone who challenges their position of privilege moves within striking distance of the White House. That is simply not going to happen.

[Mimosa]

9. Interesting article, thanks.

I *tried* to rec it. But you know how that goes. Some people seem to believe discussion of facts in time are bashing President Obama.

In fact his approval ratings are low. That could change.

[KoKo]

12. yeah...I know how it goes...thanks though...

seriously.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. The extreme Goopers are bad. So are the 'moderates' who

empower them, kneel to them, offer them the first born, the first fruits, the first choice.

[KoKo]

14. Long Ago...in a Progressive Push Back "Time Gone By"...Eric Alterman WROTE Ground Breaking Book!

http://www.amazon.com/What-Liberal-Media-Truth-about/dp/0465001777/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311900183&sr=8-1#reader_0465001777