Hippie Punching 101

Even WaPo's E.J. Dionne is going after liberals now and wondering why liberals aren't doing so well as a result.  Eugene Robinson should just go somewhere else so I never have to bother with these hacks again.

If you want to be honest, face these facts: At this moment, President Obama is losing, Democrats are losing and liberals are losing.

Who's winning? Republicans, conservatives, the practitioners of obstruction and the Tea Party.

The two immediate causes for this state of affairs are a single election result in Massachusetts and the way the United States Senate operates. What's not responsible is the supposed failure of Obama and the Democrats to govern as "moderates." Pause to consider where we would be if a Democrat had won the Massachusetts Senate race last month. In all likelihood, health reform would be law, Democrats could have moved on to economic matters, and Obama would be seen as shrewd and successful.

But that's not what happened, and Republican Scott Brown's victory revealed real weaknesses on the progressive side: an Obama political apparatus asleep at the switch, huge Republican enthusiasm unmatched by Democratic determination, and a focused conservative campaign to discredit Obama's ideas, notably his economic stimulus plan and the health-care bill. 

Yeah, welcome to January there, E.J.  What's your plan to fix this?  More Hippie Punching!

But if all the media talk about the "failure of moderation" is nonsense, this doesn't get liberals or Obama off the hook.

While liberals were arguing about public plans and this or that, and while Obama was deep into inside dealmaking, the conservatives relentlessly made a straightforward public case based on a syllogism: The economy is a mess. Obama and the Democrats are for big government. Big government is responsible for the mess. Therefore the mess is the fault of Obama and the Big Government Democrats.

Simplistic and misleading? Absolutely. But if liberals and Obama are so smart, how did they -- or, if you prefer, "we" -- allow conservatives to make this argument so effectively? Why do the mainstream media give it so much credence?

Of course, I think the conservatives' argument is wrong. But at this point, I have to admire their daring and discipline. Moderate and progressive Democrats alike have eight months before this fall's elections to change the terms of the debate and prove they can govern. Otherwise, they'll be washed out by a tidal wave. 

It always makes me laugh to see somebody from the Village complain that the Village is giving too much airplay to Winger lies with all the outrage that only somebody inside our broken media can muster, and then conclude it must be the liberal's fault.

Dionne's article is an absolutely classic example of exactly why the liberals are losing:  because Villagers like Dionne say they are losing and then he compounds the foul by acting like the media's opinion-makers like himself have no pull on the opinions of others and wondering why the opinions are shaped that way.

If it wasn't going to destroy the country in November, I'd be laughing instead of crying.