Admittedly, my having been politically active for 40 years does not make me an expert on all things politics, but it does mean I have seen how thing were, saw the attempts to change what needed to be changed while keeping what needed to be kept, and am able to see where we are and what happened while getting here.
In, apparently, what some people see as my political dotage, although I am glad that people are stepping up and becoming involved, I get a bit frustrated with the newbies, well, not all of them, and not to the same degree.
Young people entering the political arena now without knowledge of political history and, who judge things as if this is the starting point and history either doesn’t exist or is of no consequence is one thing. They need to learn history and not just recent or current events. Older people who have finally decided to get involved since 2017, but had sat back throughout most of their voting life, annoy me more as their inactivity is a major reason why that to which they object came to be.
I have actually been told by more than one person over fifty that they are stepping up because they have been let down in the past by those of us who were actually trying to do things that could have come about had they been there.
I get the word “progressive” thrown at me as what I should be rather than simply a “liberal”, while they recite a litany of things progressives, not liberals want, even though the list is the same and in many instances not “new”.
It might be new to them, but not those who have been working on them and could have used the help.
They do not see that what we had wanted and could have had, had we gotten Mondale or McGovern, are many of those things that they think only began with Bernie.
Two years ago at the Massachusetts Democratic convention I was sitting with some newbie progressives in my delegation when it was announced that there were 1000 people at the convention that were first timers. Each time a liberal proposal was passed, these people would get all excited because, had the new attendees not been there, that would not have happened, and they saw themselves as having taken over the convention. They did not understand, apparently, that as there were 3,000 attendees who were not new, if it was only their votes, they would not have passed. They had, in fact, not taken over the convention, but had simply joined in with those who had wanted those things long before those votes.
They seem to dislike “liberals”, apparently because relabeling makes a difference, and have no use for “moderate” Democrats without taking into account that a moderate democrat while not being on the extreme end of the political spectrum is very far to the left of center.
I am having ball bearings surgically inserted into my eye sockets to aid in the rolling of my eyes.
Their new target is Nancy Pelosi who is “just bad”. But, when I ask for specifics for why that is so, most of the newbies have no specifics beyond her not being likable with no examples why that is.
And they are adamant.
If they do attempt to support their claim, their starting point is 2010 when the Tea Party took over congress, something that might not have happened had they voted in the mid-terms, and they become Fox News. That, to them, seems to be the beginning of her history.
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This did not go unnoticed by those who, knowing she was effective as speaker, saw they needed to demonize her and keep her out of a leadership position.
If she were that ineffective why all the effort to get her out of minority leadership in the last congress and prevent her from being majority leader in the next?
When Michael Steele, the former RNC chair and the architect of the get rid of Pelosi strategy was recently presented with this,
“You know, much of the reason that the wave happened in 2010, partly was the Tea party, partly was a real vitriol against President Obama, but you as RNC chair directed that energy against Nancy Pelosi. Ever since then the people who have bought into that anti-Pelosi feeling, the only people more fervent than the Tea party folks who bought into it are other Democrats,”
he responded,
“I know. Here’s my thing, my strategy in 2010 was not exclusively political –it was also respecting the center of power in Washington. I’ve watched Nancy Pelosi. I’ve known her from our political stage here in Maryland.
She’s from Baltimore, from a strong, smart political family. I have a great deal of admiration for her capabilities. I respect what Nancy Pelosi brings to the table.
She is precise. She’s very smart. She’s tactical. I say that out of respect as an opponent of Nancy Pelosi’s. And we reframed the argument in 2010 around her, because she was the architect — she structured that Democratic strategy in 2009 and 2010. She was the power center much more than Barack Obama. You play to the strength. you don’t play to the weakness. I played to the strength in 2010, and it still surprises me that Democrats are taking that strategy and using it.”
And he was so good at what he did, that those Democrats opposing Pelosi ignore her record, but accept the Republican rewrite of her when believing what they say about her, and are willing to prevent her being speaker, not based on her skills or lack of them, but on what the GOP convinced them was the case.
The proof of this is that while many newbies in Congress want someone else, they cannot come up with that someone else to replace her. They cannot find someone who matches the real GOP assessment of Pelosi, precise, smart, and tactical, She is the person that party really does not want in a position of power, but not being in a position to keep her from leading the new majority, the GOP has found they can get the Democrats in Congress to do it for them.
In a sense I am glad I am just a “liberal” as I know history as opposed to a “progressive” who got played and bought the lie because they don’t.