The Left's Rodney Dangerfield's schtick is just plain tiresome. I agree with everything Greenwald says, but so what? As he quotes David Frum regarding Gibbs's comments in his Hill interview: "More proof of my longtime thesis, Repub pols fear the GOP base; Dem pols hate the Dem base." The problem isn't that Obama and company hate the base, but that they don't fear it. It doesn't matter that the principled Left is right on the substance of the issues because the Left is toothless.
It's easy for power to dismiss what you're barking about if you have no bite. It's time for the Left to stop complaining about 'ain't getting no respect' and start acting in a way that forces Dem powers to take it seriously. That's the way politics works–always has and always will. It's as if people like Greenwald believe that politicians are going to do the right thing just because it's the right thing. The Left mindset: "We're morally in the right. We have the facts. We have the best arguments. We're smarter. Why won't anybody in power listen to us?"
If I ever had any doubts about it, I no longer do: Even politicians who want to do the right thing cannot do it and survive. Don't tell me about polls. It's not about what the electorate wants; it's about what entrenched insider interests want. The right thing gets done only when there are interests with teeth that demand it. The Right understands that; maybe someday the Left will, too. Right now the Left in this country is a joke. Frum is wrong that establishment Dems hate the base; that would suggest they take it more seriously than they do.
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