Do you still give a crap?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
61 Comments
More than ever.
Same here. I have 5 grandchildren. If only for their sake I still do, and always will, give a crap.
Ditto. And I have to care more and do more from here on out to make up for the ignorant, the apathetic, the cynical, and the purists, to say nothing of the nutbags on the other side who are trying to destroy this country.
Give a crap? Sure.
Still have a flicker of hope? Well….
We gotta find a way to get together, get organized. Ignore the noise and speak the truth.
Yes, because I love my country, and we have to fight the evil that is the GOP.
It’s wearing me down. I definitely give less of a crap than I did in 2004, 2008, or 2010.
In part because the “problems” within the Democratic Party from 2004-2008 didn’t seem so intractable and losses seemed to be the results of poor candidates and/or campaign and not so much that the party leaders had no interest in being traditional 20th century Democrats. Like Republicans still voting for the party of Lincoln and main street, I’m a slow learner. The anti-discretionary stupid wars and pro-social democracy Democrats/liberals were trashed by the party in 1972 and it hasn’t stopped except at the very end of election campaigns when they demand our support because the GOP is really evil. I’m too much of a wimp not to tell them where to stuff it. But after forty years of constant undermining working class people in favor of the wealthy, regardless of Democrats winning or losing, never-ending military and covert action spending, and women now having less access to abortion than back then, I may be ready to concede defeat and join the ignorant but non-delusional that don’t vote.
Did anyone see Governor Nixon’s press conference? I didn’t see it, but I think the reaction on Twitter said everything there was to say. And given that, is it any wonder why the various groups of the Democratic coalition don’t turn out? Why should Democrats vote for pigs like Nixon?
What was the twitter response?
Dr. MLK, Jr. understood how difficult the task was for Blacks to get fair and equal treatment in this country and that non-violent protests were the only way to gain respect from the fair minded among the white majority, and that was the only way to make forward steps. He truly despaired when all the riots broke out. The riots did undermine some of the support that had been necessary to pass the voting and civil rights acts.
White people (I’m speaking of those that have the capacity to be fair-minded but are easily spooked and not the staunch bigots) have little understanding of how horrible the police are to minorities because that’s not their experience. They also don’t rally to the defense of white protestors as we saw in ’68 in Chicago, rumble in Seattle, and most recently when Occupy was broken up by local police in concert with the HSA and Obama Admin. The electoral backlash in all these incidents does come and for the most part favors Republicans. One reason why Hoover/FBI employed agent provacateurs.
I may be wrong, but I think Ferguson was a factor in the election results last week.
Basically calling Nixon out for the bigoted shitstain he is. I’m sure the video is out there, somewhere. Nixon should just don the white hood and get it over with.
What would you do in his place? He may or may not be a “bigoted shitstain,” but if he said nothing and didn’t put local and state police forces on alert in case violent protests break out in Ferguson (and other communities), he and other MO Democratic politicians would lose for at least the next to election cycles.
In a better world or country (not that there are many of those), law enforcement would maintain peace and not foment violence or aggravate tense situations. That’s not the training or skill level of MO law enforcement (and may not exist anywhere in the US).
Most white people don’t understand that the violence perpetrated in riots are the actions of a few people. They are intolerant of such violence and ascribe it to all the protest participants. Although more demonstrate understanding if the original police violence was caught on video as in the Rodney King and Oscar Grant cases. But even with that evidence, the convictions of the cops weren’t much demonstrating how much it takes to convict a cop; although the civil actions against the police fared better. Should also note that it was until after those two verdicts were handed down that the FEDs opened a civil rights investigation. The FEDs have been involved in the investigation of Michael Brown’s death since early on.
.. but if he said nothing and didn’t put local and state police forces on alert in case violent protests break out in Ferguson (and other communities), he and other MO Democratic politicians would lose for at least the next to election cycles.
Nixon and other “Democrats” like him are already toast. They’re not going to win statewide now. Not when shitting on one part of their coalition. And what violent protests are going to break out? I don’t follow Deray McKesson or Shaun King on Twitter but they get RT’d into my timeline a lot. Violence is certainly not going to come from the protestors. If anything it will come from the cops, and undercover cops, trying to sabotage the protests and demonstrations. Did you hear the words Nixon used today?
Okay — I wasted thirty-five minutes watching the whole thing. Plus the ten minutes my computer requires when stressed by long on-line videos. What exactly was I supposed to be outraged by? You’re probably not going to like this, but Nixon’s remarks and answers to questions seemed responsible to me. As were those from other members of the team. Reiterated several times that they understand that if there’s a protest, most of the protesters will be peaceful and exercise their first amendment rights. That any violence will be the actions of a few and if any violence appears, they will focus on those perpetrators. I’m a reasonably tough critic wrt both style and content, but honestly can’t say that Nixon hit any wrong notes.
I don’t read Shaun King because his writings read like polemics. And in one piece justified violence with a caveat that he wasn’t recommending it — but he really was advocating it. Stuff like that makes me very wary — it’s how agent provacateurs operate.
Here is something about today:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/11/1344155/-Five-observations-about-the-public-safety-press-co
nference-from-Gov-Jay-Nixon-and-team
Only in the most literal sense.
The big reason why I’m more motivated than ever is because I think we’re now approaching the junction of a major partisan realignment. The last thing the GOP needed at this stage was majorities in both houses of Congress. I expect to see proxy wars between the establishment and tea party wings of the GOP in advance of their presidential primaries unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. I expect Wall Street to see the writing on the wall and start putting big money on the Democrats — nobody ever bought influence through backing a loser. In short, I expect our politics to become very chaotic over the next 6-10 years. Out of that, some new order will arise from the ashes. What that will be is anybody’s guess.
We live in interesting times, per the Chinese curse.
There is no “tea party wing” of the GOP. It’s the Koch wing. Do you think Walker would have been re-elected or Ernst elected without Koch money? Even Ernst publicly admits as much.
Part of the GOP money set may not be fully on board with the Koch’s social agenda, but it doesn’t affect them or their families and they aren’t close enough to the Kochs on financial matters that they can live together for a long time. In part, recognizing that without the crazy regressive social agenda voters, they can’t win.
The economic GOP-lite not interested in god, gays, guns are already in the Democratic Party — and running it. Ruining the brand — but as long as they keep winning a few elections, they maintain their power.
Pick any name you choose, but it’s the wing that Ted Cruz aims to lead against the GOP establishment. The Kochs can pour money where they want, but it won’t put out the fires it starts. The base wants blood.
They practically built him a clone army. We shall watch his career with great interest.
That the mainstream ‘strategists’ of the Republican party are apparently idiots is also hard to argue against. The shocking revelation about the Kochs, who are each rich as Croesus, is that they are doing this for a hobby. Sheesh, try fly fishing guys.
Only because that’s the message fed to them 24/7. If the GOP elites cut the mics for Rush etc. and the Cruz’s weren’t seen on TV and their campaign coffers were limited to the chump change the base can provide, their firepower would be quickly and effectively doused. Big money has long known all the ways to disable one of their monsters that has gotten too big for his/her own good.
I think the resentment and, dare we say, racial entitlement were there to begin with and were woven into the narrative by others.
When Sarah Palin, for example, talks about “freedom of speech” if you listen carefully it seems she really means the ‘freedom’ to be slightly bigoted and entitled without being made to feel ashamed about it. At least that’s what it seems to me.
Call it the Tea Party or the Koch lobby it seems to me like sheep-dipped generational Wallace Democrats and John Birch Republicans. Sarah’s ‘gift’ from 2008 is now they are unapologetic and outspoken. Proud even.
Agree. Maybe if I’d grown up in a different time or a place other than CA, I wouldn’t find it so strange that not too bright and more or less ignorant people would not only be so unaware of their limitations and bigotry but proud of it. Then there was no shame in not knowing something — simply find a smarter person and ask.
OT: Shaun and Marie, thank you for your always thoughtful and often illuminating posts. I don’t always agree with you guys (though mostly I do), but I am never disappointed by what you offer.
The Frog Pond has a lot of excellent contributors; you two are among my favorites.
I think you’re right that we should stop talking about the “Tea Party” wing and call it what it is, the Koch Brothers wing. In fact it’s always been that, yet the Tea Party still has this air of “grass roots”. There was a small anti-Wall Street grassroots contingent at the beginning, and they’re still there and still believe in the Tea Party, yet effectively it’s always been controlled by the Kochtopus and most Tea Partiers are fine with Wall Street.
But the distinction TP/Koch is still useful because I think a lot of Tea Party voters don’t really know or care what the Kochs are or that they are being controlled by them.
It is also true that part of the GOP money set is not fully on board with the Koch agenda, but they recognize that “without the crazy regressive social agenda voters, they can’t win.” However, what you call the Koch “social agenda” is not really that. The Koch’s are not religious, David Koch lives in an 18-room duplex on Park Avenue, NY. Their agenda is hard-line right economic and political. The Koch’s, in fact, are Birchers, their father having been one of the founders of the JBS. The Kochs are using the “social agenda” just the same as the GOP has been since Reagan, it’s just that they’ve wrested control of it from the Bushes and the Roves and the Romneys.
“The economic GOP-lite not interested in god, gays, guns are already in the Democratic Party — and running it.” Yes, but that has been true since at least the founding of the DLC. So who were the Republicans then? The Obama group are at least technically not DLC, but even in practice I see them as less DLC-like than the Clintons.
It’s like that English bus driver who was trying to explain American politics to his wife.”Well, there’s the Republicans — they’re like our Conservative Party. And then there’s the Democrats — they’re like our … Conservative Party.” That joke comes from “Beyond the Fringe” (early 1960s). On the one hand he was right, and yet on the other hand he was missing something.
The GOP still has significant numbers of Main Street republicans and non-religious libertarians. This is the establishment GOP, represented by Bohner. They are at least part of the old Wall Street, military industrial complex and country club types. They no longer control the rank and file, but they are still the most powerful sector in the country.
Lacerda is right. We saw these fault lines after the last shutdown and default threat. Romney also was not a Koch candidate, but the TP voted for him. But they’re not going to want a Romney or a Jeb Bush for 2016.
Finally, a lot of the money people in the Koch wing are just opportunists. The headline “Cruz Mega-Donor is Gay, Pro-Pot Billionaire” says it all.
http://www.texastribune.org/2012/07/03/ted-cruzs-gay-billionaire-donor-draws-criticism/
That the “major partisan realignment” brings us wall-to-wall neoliberalism? I agree that the GOP will put itself through a meat grinder in the next couple of years, which may be Obama’s genuine legacy to the party, but I wonder what the outcome might be.
Hillary’s son-in-law and Cruz’s wife both work for a certain vampire squid. Methinks the partisan floor show is increasingly illusory.
That’s my biggest fear, that it’ll turn out that way. I think, though, there are too many moving parts to this realignment to have it play out that cleanly. The growing Latino population is going to be a big, big player in the outcome.
Those last two sentences speak volumes about the crazy hall of mirrors we’re all wandering around in.
Well, I keep reading and commenting here. So I think that is my answer. But I am taking a bit of break from now until after the first of the year. For me, it seems like it has been non-stop since 2011. And, practically speaking, that has been the case. This election cycle was particularly gut wrenching for me, and I was left with a bit of a sense of hopelessness. I am going to take this opportunity to wean myself from some of the punditry that is out there, which has gotten so bad that it is simply intolerable for me and creates an unbearable dysfunction in my brain.
I am going to spend some time researching my genealogy and reacquainting myself with my guitar. The old six string and I have had a bit of separation period, and it has had a very negative affect on my personal contentment and peace of mind.
Howard Dean is dead-on —> you can’t win if you run “afraid”. Good God Democrats — grow up, grow a pair, and go for the jugular. Take the GOP down, lock, stock & f*cking barrel!! Use EMOTIONS & LOGIC — Intertwine them into a compelling & irresistible political pitch!!!
As much as I like to think big, I mostly just put one foot in front of the other. So yeah, I give a crap – enough to get out of bed in the morning, walk by open windows, and put one foot in front of the other day in and day out. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t at least do that.
That serious question leaves the context wide open. I’ve lived to long and been through too much not to keep caring for the fate of people. I’ve lost too much in the fight for justice not to keep fighting as best I can. And I’m much too curious about how the story comes out to retreat into a low-information cocoon.
And my experience is that caring is not something that one walks away from easily. It takes lots of effort to throttle that human response, and that effort is what is more exhausting than facing the real situation.
We have clarity now about the political leadership and the political advisers who are making the big bucks from Democratic campaigns–at both the federal and state levels.
We have clarity now about how many nominally Democratic office-holders betray their own consituents for their personal greater good. By far the poster child for this is Andrew Cuomo.
We now have more clarity about what spirits have been continuous in US history. It has not been the Spirit of ’76 or the Spirit of Liberty or the Spirit of Justice.
Hope is not a choice; it grabs you and keeps you moving in spite of yourself.
By far the poster child for this is Andrew Cuomo.
And Jay Nixon.
I wrote this before I read about his presser. Wow, the old George Corley Wallace would have been proud of him and the final George Corley Wallace would have been appalled that he was so boneheaded.
Yes but I made a commitment 5 years ago to work locally and its going very well.
Nationally it looks very bad and it is going to get worse before it gets better. I am hopeful that the GOP setting the agenda in both houses will hasten their demise.
In the meantime I am lucky, where I live the GOP has been marginalized.
And furthermore, it’s time we called out – In a BIG-TIME WAY – the f*cking “Angry-White-Man”. This Guy(s) have to be trashed for their ass-backwards thinking and perceptions. Tell them to take their pick-up trucks back to Rocky-Top and stay the hell out of politics. They are beyond Stupid. They need a good ass-kicking and done straight on – no rope-a-dope stuff. And lastly, they’re bigots — they need to understand that — in no uncertain terms — verbally!!!
Might as well name it the Black and Tan Democratic Party with an attitude like that.
I became interested in politics during the 1960 Presidential campaign. My elder brother loved California and was gulluble for Tricky Dicky Nixon, my choice was John Kennedy and the Democratic Party. The Vietnam War screwed up the nation and created a split in American society. Unnumerable atrocities and deaths put the US on a track of war and military/corporate interventions. The atrocities continued elsewhere in South and Central America.
A bit over 10 years ago I started blogging ahead of the 2004 Presidential elections, first at dKos and I followed Martin to the pond early in 2005. I have to conclude the State of the Union and the International world affairs are in worse shape today and I fear tomorrow. The US has become a fascist state with the power concentrated in oligarchs and corporations. The world is more divided and nationalism is on the rise to undercut democratic values.
I have been an optimist all my life … this has changed especially during the last two years. President Obama’s greatest achievement is the Affordable Care Act, a basic minimum of human values for The People. On many international affairs the Obama administration has dropped the ball, faulty strategy and using neocon advisors.
I am no Don Quichot and can find no motivation to continue the fight. I do care about America, however I see no perspective in the next decade. Age will be a factor to put my priorities elsewhere.
The globalisation by avaricious corporations has genuinely shifted the wealth around the world; literacy, infant mortality, upward mobility all seem improved.
What we didn’t realise is that instead of exporting democracy we were exporting our economy. And now we are beginning to understand ‘third world’ activists’ complaints about post-colonial neo-feudalism too. Yikes.
The future of the country is at stake. The radical GOP must be defeated.
We’ll probably nominate the first female President of the United States, a proud Democrat. She’ll do good things (and some we don’t like – so it goes).
There’s a rising generation inspired by both of those causes, and by the global civil rights struggle for women – and economic fairness at home.
Fired up. Ready to go.
Care? I suppose because a lot of people including me are going to get increasingly get fucked.
Anything that can be done about it? Nope
Been thinking about deactivating lately.
Been on high alert since sep 11th 2001. Before that i never cared about politics. Things got better when Obama was elected. Even if he wasn’t perfect, it seemed like anything was possible.
If Hillary wins that will be it for me. I can deal with last weeks losses. But i can’t go back to triangulation and welfare reform from “my side”. I’m not getting back on that corporate carousel.
Carlin may have had it right
I started out with Unions in MS in ’69
I joined the Marines in ’70
Helped found the first Battered Women’s shelter in NM in ’75
Gay Rights in SF ’82
Women’s Shelter in NW Minnesota in ’87
Pro-Choice, Pro-Palestine in Houston ’90
Active Democrat in Birmingham ’95
$$$ for Democrats and Progressives MA ’10
Yeah. I still give a crap. I just don’t have shoulders, knees, hips and ankles to do much.
Yes.
I used to.
But then Obama’s stimulus was too small, so I stopped.
When the Republicans don’t deliver, they will be voted out. It’s just a matter of time. So, yes, I still give a crap.
I’m 65, have diabetes, and am overweight. I don’t have a future to worry about so, no, I don’t give crap.
It’s a bitch trying to lose that weight isn’t it? “Forty five minutes to an hour daily of intense exercise.” What a laugh! I guess the prescription is really, “Exercise until your heart bursts, then you won’t have to worry about losing weight.”
Don’t quite have diabetes yet, but one cup of pre-sweetened General Foods flavored coffee will put me to sleep.
If I didn’t have descendents, I wouldn’t give a crap either. Hey! The young people want us to die anyway.
I have to. I have children.
I’d like to think I would anyway, though.
If I did would it change the way you look at the state of our nation?
Actually, yeah. The election didn’t even bother me much. It was a 6th year mid-term, with an incredibly white older electorate, with a shitload of Dems running in deep red states WITH A BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE! Of course we lost big. Next election will be the exact opposite.
Moreover, it’s difficult to loose site of all that’s happened over the last 10 years. Go back to election night 2004. George Bush had just won re-election, we were doubting our combat troops would ever be out of Iraq, or if we would ever have the presidency again.
If someone told you that night, that over the next ten years a black man with the middle name of Hussein would win two near landslide elections we would get a functioning near universal health care system, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, legalized gay marriage in two thirds of the country, and multiple states with legalized marijuana, I think it’s safe to say you would have called that person fucking insane.
Yet all that happened. And more. So yeah, I still give a crap
I never stopped since the moment I first heard of something called “draft registration” just right around the time Carter’s term was ending (remember that my age cohort grew up in the shadow of the Vietnam War era). I’ll keep giving a crap if for no other reason than I am worried that those from my generation and older are leaving the world a worse place for our kids and grandkids. I may not quite have the spring in my step for activism like I once did, but I will gladly listen and offer my two cents for anyone who cares to listen.
Of course I do. I’ve never hyperventilated as much as many commenters on these blogs. There are plenty of good things happening when you don’t have sad-colored-glasses on. It probably helps I don’t hate obama, which many on the left have decided to do.
Plenty of work to be done, big challenges ahead, but onward we go. The kids are alright.
Of course. I don’t know how to stop. Moreover, I can’t stop, because I have kids, and I feel no need to stop, because those kids and their friends are amazing. We just have to keep the planet alive long enough for those kids to grow up and take over. We’ve managed this long, I think another decade or so is doable.
I honestly don’t know. It would be easier not to, but I don’t think I’m capable of that. At the same time, after this last election in WI, I think that I have to disengage to a certain extent to stay sane.
Sure thing. I wish the conversation the politicians have were more like the ones worth having.
Give a crap?
About what, exactly?
About which lying SOB is (
s)elected to be Frontman-In-Chief for the Permanent Government?No, not really.
Only a revolutionary change in one of the PermaParties or a third party movement that actually stood a chance could possibly motivate me to give enough of a crap to go out and really work for them, and I see almost no possibility of that happening while the Government Media Complex is still in the driver’s seat in terms of controlling a large percentage of public opinion.
Give a crap?
I keep trying to reach one person at a time and I keep working inside of the culture as an artist and sociopolitical commentator. That’s a 24/7 job right there…the best that I can do without copping out.
It’s all I have to offer.
So it goes.
Later…
AG
No. With the American government acting in a despicable manner even when run by so-called liberals, it is time to stop endowing it with power over our lives. It cannot, as currently constituted, do anything but hurt us.
No. My experience with following politics and public affairs has been a journey of understanding. Unfortunately, that understanding is one where hope is down-sized, something one might have about an upcoming social engagement, or a loved one’s struggles.
The forces of money and power are not merely entrenched. They have never been far from the ability to terrorize the rest of us into doing their bidding. The House of Have vs. the House of Want. The struggle has been going on for millennia, and by and large the forces of greed and corruption have won – hands down.
I see no particular reason to think things will change, except in the way they usually do. And that is that our corrupt and inept elites will once again decide that it’s time for some fighting and dying in order to keep themselves comfortable. And off to war we will foolishly go — yet again.
And in the aftermath of the destruction, death and despair, a few plucky souls will endeavor to comfort the afflicted, and from their efforts a brief respite can be had, until the greed once again and quickly re-asserts itself and begins the re-enslavement of the populous for its own ends.
So, no. No, I no longer give a crap. Simply hope to avoid as much pain as possible in the years I have left.
Having said all that, I couldn’t agree more with DemTarheel (?) above that hope is something that seizes you, almost involuntarily. I often find my basic optimistic nature coloring my thinking to the point where I genuinely believe in the possibility of productive change that doesn’t involved massive killing and dying…
… actuually – years — yep. I care, but recommend a hiatus.
Yes.