With that jury-rigged ACA abomination kicked to the side way, true progressives from the left, and thoughtful conservatives from the right, can reach across the aisle, cut the mushy mandate-mongering middle right out of the equation. and finally usher in real health care reform, in the form of single-payer, or Medicare for all.

This is so obviously in the best interests of all Americans that there is no way it can fail to garner majorities in both Houses of Congress.

Now if we could just be sure that bastard Obama wouldn’t gum things up with his veto.

I am really hard-pressed to believe that the very rich and privileged on the Democratic side have very little ambition to stop the Republicans because they benefit from Republican policy.

Yeah, yeah, they are supposed to be bigger than that, but what’s the punishment? What’s the consequences of being a self-serving ass?

None.

The benefits?

Oh its so easy isn’t it? Too easy. Now if we stop thinking our congress people are saints, maybe we can start making a real plan to end this crap.

Hey, don’t blame me. I’m just trying to move all this ‘Kill the Bill’ stuff I had run up in ‘09 that didn’t actually sell… no sooner did the UPS guy drop it all off from the screen printers than Dean and Kucinich and all those other guys, people I thought I could count on, cut me off at the knees and endorsed the damn thing.

Bastards.

@kate:

What?

This “thanks progressives” meme you all have going on here at RR is getting kind of old.  It’s also pretty silly since there isn’t some group of progressives somewhere that got together and derailed the Dems.  The Dems lost the last election in large part because their voters stayed home.  Staying home is the default position for the vast majority of voters.  It does no good to bitch at voters for staying home.  This was a failure of the Obama Administration and the Dem. Party to do their jobs to inspire, enthuse and motivate their base. 

It is possible to do that without giving the base everything they want.  In fact, if you do it right, your base will even eat the occasional shit sandwich.  This admin has failed miserably at the care and feeding of their base.  While there haven’t been a lot of out and out shit sandwiches, everything this admin serves up is covered in a little shit gravy or has a side of shit fries.  And served not with a smile but a snarl.  After a while, it’s not surprising that people lose interest.

My bet is that if he continues down this path of preemptive acquiescence to the GOP in hopes of being first to the center and first in the hearts of the precious independent voters, he will likely have a damaging primary challenge but will be a one term president regardless.  I fervently hope that is not the case.  I also fervently hope that he stops this “let me compromise first” thing he’s got going on.

I am not optimistic about either hope.

This “thanks progressives” meme you all have going on here at RR is getting kind of old.

[Sniffs. Pokes.]

No, it still smells perfectly fresh to me. I think you’re confused by the stench coming from the leaky container of “We must give the ‘independent’ voters B.J’s and foot rubs or we’re doomed” lurking in the back of the crisper.

Well played, “Professional Left.”

Unfortunately, I don’t think mb is in on the joke.

he will likely have a damaging primary challenge

mb who the fuck do you think votes in Democratic primaries?  (Hint:  not Republicans and Independents)  Did you even look at assiangrl’s link?

This “thanks progressives” meme you all have going on here at RR is getting kind of old. 

Who’s been calling Obama the 3rd term George Busher and telling people to sit out the 2010 election to “teach Democrats a lesson”?  Do you seriously think we’re not going to lay the current Congress at your feet?  Maybe you didn’t completely create this situation but you sure the fuck didn’t do anything to prevent it.

It makes me sad that mb will probably never return to read those replies. But you know, he’s got a very busy weekend ahead pleasuring himself to those 8X10 glossies of Jane Hamsher…

This was a failure of the Obama Administration and the Dem. Party to do their jobs to inspire, enthuse and motivate their base. 

1) I’m the base. Fuck you.

2) If you need to be “inspired, enthused, and motivated” to do something as pain-free and stump-simple as voting to keep the GOP motherfuckers out of office (and in many states, you can now vote by mail so you don’t even need to wear fucking pants), then you’re pretty much useless for any adult endeavor of value and you should probably just put a plastic bag over your head now. If nothing else, it will spare the world the sound of your puling wheezing and sniffling about how the world of politics was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

The “Thanks progressives” meme owes a debt to a certain C-list neo-Puma blogger who would pen long, barely comprehensible rants about how Obama cheated in the primaries. And, thus, everything connected with Obama is the poisoned fruit of the tree. He would end these posts with Thanks “progressives.” Well done, all.

Think of Vogon poetry with lots of air quotes, all on the theme of Obama sux. And when he got bored he would pee on his tomatoes. No, really.

Since this blog was founded on the principle that Puma was a sad movement, but mocking them provides hours of enjoyment (like Sea Monkeys!) I would argue that RR owns the Thanks Progressives meme with a vengeance.

So Alt, “Crashing the Gates” has been replaced by “Pissing on the Tomatoes?” Yeah. I have such a hard time understanding why Obama won’t actively court the counsel and admiration of the leftiesphere.

And yeah, my “try to be nicer to asshats online” resolution has apparently already been shot to shit. But honestly—if VOTING is too much of a drain on one’s tender fee-fees and valuable time, then I’m not sure one should posit him- or herself as “the base.” It is, quite literally, the least you can do.

“Progressives” (whoever or whatever they are) may have done a lot of moaning and hand-wringing and outraged jowl-quivering over the last two years, but I’m not sure that meant they didn’t vote last November.  If the guy at George Mason U. is right, voter-eligible participation was slightly higher in 2010 than it was in 2006.

And, of course, the obligatory “Thanksralph!”

The dems loss in 2010 was not the fault of the voters who didn’t vote for them.  It was the fault of the dems for not getting their vote out.  Bitching at voters is pissing in the wind, but it’s apparent from the comments here you all like the feel of urine spray in your faces.

Each to his own.

As to those who insist that the dems didn’t lose their base in 2010, I guess you live in a world where the dems still control the House and have 60 votes in the Senate.  I’d like directions to the world you live in.

As to the douche bag who thinks he/she “is the base!”: three words—delusion of grandeur.

Yeah! You fools who vote because you believe it is your civic duty, or you want to take part in the democratic process, or because you realize that bitching on a blog doesn’t change jack or shit, or some other lame reason are complete rubes.

You should only vote when you’re completely jazzed and psyched because someone has given you ponies and handjobs on a regular basis.

1) I’m the base. Fuck you.

Nice, Oblo. I think that’s going on a bumpersticker. I’m just not sure whether to put that on my car, or on a certain troll’s mouth.

A certain troll seems to be under the illusion that Jane Hamsher + Paul Rosenberg = the base. Not so much.

Pissing in the wind, btw, suggests that we few Roasters are fighting some great movement by the cranky pants “leftists.” The evidence suggests that you are the pisser, trollface. Perhaps you’d enjoy some of Lambert’s tomatoes?

Listen, Twatwaffle Troll, I have voted in every damn election in my adult life, I have donated to many Dem candidates and volunteered for many more. That is the working fucking definition of “the base”—NOT “useless assholes with keyboards who can’t be arsed to do their fucking civic duty no matter how simple we make it for them.”

So no—it’s not “delusions of grandeur.” For that, you’d want to check out the “professional left.” You know—the portion of the internet where someone who produces a shit-tastic cinematic abortion like “Natural Born Killers” gets to play pundit on the tee-vee (Fox especially!) as long as she also plays footsie with Grover Norquist and is willing to bash Obama for each and every fucking thing he does—or might do.

Shorter Rumproast “intelligentsia”:

Somebody on the Internet today didn’t agree with me.  He is Stupid and a Troll!!!!

As to the douche bag ...

May I be the second on this thread to offer a hearty “Fuck you.”

Oh, I forgot:

“Thanks, Progressives!”

Oh, I forgot:

“Thanks, Progressives!”

Careful you don’t dribble down your leg again when you’re anointing your tomatoes.

I know it’s a troll when I hear the “failed to inspire, etc” line.  As someone who is quite de-base(d) myself, inspiration has never had a fucking thing to do with it, but self-defense and self-preservation instincts sure have. 

The dems suffered losses because: (1) the economy sucks, which traditionally leads to losses for the party in the majority, (2) Faux Spews is not even making a pretense of being anything other that rethug Pravda now, and (3) did I mention that the economy sucks?

Shorter Rumproast “intelligentsia”:

Somebody on the Internet today didn’t agree with me.  He is Stupid and a Troll!!!!
Comment by mb on 01/08/11 at 11:50 AM

Cool story, bro.

My very own troll on a post!  I’m so excited!  I don’t think he’s big enough to keep, though.  We’ll have to toss him back.

Shorter Rumproast “intelligentsia”:

Somebody on the Internet today didn’t agree with me.  He is Stupid and a Troll!!!!

Dunning-Kruger FTW.

True, Mar. We wouldn’t want the Fish and Game Wardens of the Bloggysphere issuing citations this early in the season.

It’s hard to say if mb is serious or just trolling but either was has completely failed here. If trolling I give points for coming in here and complaining about old memes and then following up his complaints by hitting so many tired notes in the emo progressive playbook, the historically ignorant election results analysis that just happens to make “the base” into a sockpuppet for his resentments.  The coprophilia is impressive too.  I’ve never seen the eating of shit discussed with such detail and such care.  There’s the preemptive blah, blah, blah and hoping for a primary challenge that won’t happen while pretending to hope for the opposite.  If he’s sincere he fails because there’s not a person alive likely to stumble upon this thread who hasn’t read all that before in at least a dozen different places.  If trolling he fails because if you’re going to so obviously plagiarize the comments of scores of of other comments section plagiarists why not steal everything?  Where is the negotiating 101 reference?  Where is the creepy sexual/rape imagery like “fellating Wall St.” or “unlubed anal sex behind the bleachers?”  And seriously, not a word about bully pulpit or Lucy and the football?  Not a single complaint to say about hippie punching?  For shame.

If the 2008 base staying at home was to blame, how come the only groups where the Dems gained in 2010 were among liberals and Democrats, and the lowest loss was among African-Americans?  If liberals and African-Americans, and more specifically Democrats more widely, aren’t the base, then who is?  Unless, of course, ‘the base’ suddenly = the loudest, most ideologically pure wing of your party.