Shut Up And Sing

by digby

Jonathan Alter has written a scathing column about the Republicans in congress in which he blasts them for obstructionism and predicts that the Democrats will likely lose the supermajority (which they have been unable to effectively deploy as yet.)

And then he concludes with this:

[W]hy don’t Democrats use 2010 to build on their 2009 accomplishments? You didn’t hear much about them because the Democratic base has turned into a bunch of pouty purists who can’t take yes for an answer. Instead of being thrilled about the most important piece of social legislation in a generation, Democrats are, once again, perusing their selection of fine whines.

It’s time for them to lift their chins and face the world as it is, not as Daily Kos told them it was supposed to be. Then sour can turn sweet this year on jobs, financial regulation, immigration reform, climate change—and the rest of the Democratic agenda.

The country is in deep shit. People are hurting financially and feeling afraid for their futures. The compromised health care reform, which is far less comprehensive than we expected, hasn’t even been passed yet, the war is raging and the Wall Street sharks and the banksters are rolling in thousand dollar bills while the rest of the country is mired in high unemployment and economic insecurity. Telling people to buck up and start cheerleading at a time like this is a waste of breath. Democrats are citizens too, after all.

But then Jonathan Alter isn’t exactly someone whose views on what liberals should do is very trustworthy. He is, after all, the guy who wrote this:

In this autumn of anger, even a liberal can find his thoughts turning to … torture. OK, not cattle prods or rubber hoses, at least not here in the United States, but something to jump-start the stalled investigation of the greatest crime in American history. Right now, four key hijacking suspects aren’t talking at all.

COULDN’T WE AT LEAST subject them to psychological torture, like tapes of dying rabbits or high-decibel rap? (The military has done that in Panama and elsewhere.) How about truth serum, administered with a mandatory IV? Or deportation to Saudi Arabia, land of beheadings? (As the frustrated FBI has been threatening.) Some people still argue that we needn’t rethink any of our old assumptions about law enforcement, but they’re hopelessly “Sept. 10”—living in a country that no longer exists.

I don’t think a person who has shown this kind of judgment is in any position to tell others to clap louder, do you?

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