The wages of so-called pragmatism

[Prism]

Pragmatism is a funny thing. We're relentlessly assaulted by self-described moderate Democrats who tell us that President Obama must be pragmatic and incrementalist in his approach.

However, think about Bill Clinton's major pragmatic, incrementalist approaches.

NAFTA. DADT. DOMA. Welfare "reform". The repeal of Glass-Steagall.

All of these pieces of pragmatism are now major banes of the average citizens' existence. All of these bits and pieces of pragmatism have destroyed or materially harmed millions of citizens' lives.

All of those policies we were told President Clinton had to support. "The votes aren't there! It's Congress! President Clinton must do this. Only the far left really opposes these things!"

If these things were so pragmatic, so necessary, the best possible approach for a Democratic President, then how is it we are now attempting to undo what are widely regarded as horrors a mere fifteen years later?

That is this health insurance "reform" to me - another corporate-friendly, liberty-eroding, economy-killing leviathan that we will have to fight to undo a decade or two from now. That is what these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are, as they drain trillions from the American treasury as a NAFTA-crippled economy sinks ever further beneath the global waves.

If only progressives could be pragmatic, we're told. If only the far, far, far, crazy, purist, wretched Left could get on board the moderate bus, why this country would magically get back on track.

But we tried it the pragmatists' way. We let them excuse us into increasingly damaging Republican-lite policy.

As a result, average working Americans have suffered and suffered and suffered.

We tried the pragmatists' way. Don't tell me I have to be pragmatic. Don't tell me we must continue bearing these Republicanesque outrages because it's the moderate thing to do. Don't tell me pointing to a pro-corporate right-wing policy and saying "No" is the irrational, purist thing to do. Because these moderate, pragmatic, incrementalist apologias played no small part in bringing us to this place from the very beginning.

The "pragmatist" credibility ship sailed long, long ago.

I'm tired of these so-called moderate pragmatists, because they look so very much like Republicans. Fifteen years have proven their failures, and it seems the next fifteen years will be another object lesson that seemingly moderate Democrats will have to learn again and again, long after the charismatic personality pushing these conservative, citizen-wrecking policies has left office.

Enough.

[upi402]

1. I'm a fucking retard!

:bounce:


and damn proud of it

[Echo In Light]

2. "Pragmatism," Dems are "cowards," Bushco was "incompetent," & more Orwellian spin

[glitch]

5. Like "Centrist" self-identifying with very little (or zero) reality backing them up.

Yet they do carry on with it, hoping someday their new reality will be accepted as Real. Doubleplus spiffy!

[Echo In Light]

10. Yep. And "teabaggers" are "a lot like" the "far left," and "9/11 truthers" are "terrorists!"

lol...quackies

[DirkGently]

3. Pragmatism is a great goal

... and it's what real progressive ideas have going for them. It's the use of the term pragmatic to mean, "a convenient, cozy compromise with monied interests" that's become a problem. That, and the idea that basic, effective liberal policies are some kind of impossible, moon-eyed fantasy. Which is why we sit in the only modern industrialized nation on Earth still trying to sell healthcare as a commodity on the open market.

Pragmatism is supposed to mean favoring that which works, not that which requires no effort and avoids upsetting the status quo.

[Prism]

6. Exactly. Pragmatism is becoming a euphemism for surrender

Whenever I see the word pragmatism, it usually means a Democratic politician has just done something a Republican would love. (Well, a non-partisan Republican). It almost always means that even a moderate liberal policy is now politically out of the question.

The public option. The renewal of the Patriot Act. The ramping up of the Afghanistan war with the acceptance of the Bush timetable in Iraq. The continuation of Gitmo. The jettisoning of civilian trials. The agonizingly slow pace of equality progression. The suicidal attachment to free trade and globalization.

Every time we accept Republican policy in place of Democratic values, it is immediately labeled the pragmatic approach. It signals that the Democratic politician in question has surrendered and will make no pretense of championing the liberal policy.

A year ago, had someone asked, I would have referred to myself as a left-of-center. Now, I'm considered a purist, radical Leftist because I am weary of the Republican-friendly pragmatism of a Democratic administration, because I remember that all the pragmatic compromises of the previous Democratic administration have been an unmitigated, inarguable disaster for the American people.

Pragmatism is the last refuge of politicians who have given up the very causes we sent them to Washington to advocate.

[DirkGently]

7. It's really just cynicism

at the core, isn't it? Like Dick Cheney chuckling about going to the "Dark Side?" These are people who really, truly believe that the worst of humanity inevitably wins. Greed. Violence. Deception. Cruelty. So there's no real point in not doing business accordingly. So what politicians are really saying when they trot the "pragmaticism" horse is, "Everyone's dirty and everything's a scam, so the best we can really do is try to help ourselves however we may, while making sure to appease the powers that be."

And they have nerve, on top of that, to be smug about it. Cheney and Woo and Rove STILL acting like they somehow protected the country by branding the U.S. as a torturer. The look on Max Baucus' face whenever the Public Option was brought up in committee. As though it's ridiculous to even try to bring integrity to a process like making law in the United States of America.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Pragmatism is the politician's way of screwing the people and telling them it's good for them.

[Starry Messenger]

8. Thank you.

"pragmatic"=magical thinking.

[Starry Messenger]

11. kick n/t

[Laelth]

9. Hear, hear! k&r n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. There are a thousand euphemisms for CORPORATISM.....