How real are the prospects for a genuine alliance against action in Syria between progressive anti-war Democrats and isolationist Tea Party libertarians?
Dem Rep. Alan Grayson, a leader of the anti-war wing of the House Democratic caucus, tells TPM’s Dylan Scott he is organizing across the aisle to create such an alliance by gearing up an “ad hoc whip organization.” This sort of right-left alliance is often discussed but rarely materializes. But this time there could be something to it.
Here’s a way to look at it. I compared the current whip count of Members of Congress who are firm or leaning No votes on Syria right now, with the Members who voted Yes on the recent amendment to end bulk NSA surveillance that corralled a surprising amount of bipartisan support. The vote on that amendment — which was sponsored by GOP Rep. Justin Amash and Dem Rep. John Conyers — was perhaps the clearest demonstration of such a developing alliance we’ve seen.
Nobody should be shocked by this. The Alan Grayson wing of the Democrats has wanted to put this President "in his place" since 2009, and now they have their best chance ever to do so. Ironic that the same people who accuse Obama of being as awful as a Republican are more than happy to work with the Tea Party for their own ends, both united over their sheer hatred for the man.
These are the same Democrats who will wonder why the country has become such an ungovernable pit of chaos, with Republicans running rampant at the state and Congressional levels, why no good legislation can pass the House, and why the Tea Party will suddenly turn on them as soon as it's convenient.
But when these Democrats have even less power in the House in 2014, it'll be all Obama's fault.
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8 comments:
Bombing Syria is a bad idea - doing so without a UN Security Council resolution is an incredibly bad idea. If we're going to claim to respect the rule of law, it behooves us to respect the law. Otherwise, we're like the police and prosecutors who railroad suspects into prison because they know that they're guilty.
We don't want to be the international version of this guy in the New York Times article:As Doubts Over Detective Grew, Prosecutors Also Made Missteps
The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, has ordered a review of nearly 40 cases investigated by Mr. Scarcella, who is now retired. The review came after Mr. Hynes’s office revealed six months ago that the detective’s flawed investigation had put an innocent man behind bars for two decades and news reports found further problems with his work.
An examination by The New York Times of some cases Mr. Scarcella handled indicates that prosecutors in the district attorney’s office itself either ignored warning signs in the detective’s work or made missteps of their own.
If you're looking to avoid blogs filled with the "Obama has failed us completely!" left, then I'd suggest staying away from Crooks & Liars completely. Niewert(sp?) and his merry band of bloggers and regular participants never had much love for Obama in the first place, but they've gone full-tilt boogeyman over the Syria thing, so much so that I now avoid any post that has anything even remotely to do with Syria... which, these days, seems to be literally every other one. (It was much easier to take under their old commenting system, where I could block the more annoying, foaming-at-the-mouth participants, but I can't do that anymore since they switched to Disqus.)
Don't like to hear those alternate opinions eh? Just put your fingers in your ears and say "nah nah na nah nah". That'll help your learnin.
Fine. Such interventions should only be started, when US business interests at in danger. Does that salve your savage soul? I hear a lot of fair-weather progressives saying "nah nah na nah nah" over gassing Syrian children. You one?
Asking for the UN's permission to punish Syria for the use of genocidal weapons on it's population is in effect asking their supplier's (Russia's,) permission! Russia will block any endeavor in that area! Remember that the UN stood when the people of Srebrenica were massacred IN THEIR PRESENCE!
It's just as Liberal and Progressive to want to end the genocide in Syria as it was when Clinton saved the population of Kosovo from Serbia!
I remember the American intervention in the Bosnian/Serbian War through the auspices of both NATO and the UN.....
Progressive doesn't equal "Worlds Policemen". I'm all for humanitarian aid, but all we seem able to do is some token bombing that's SURE to inflict heavy collateral damage on innocent civilians.
Show me ONE solid piece of credible (I.E. Not manufactured) proof (And to that effect, if Sarin HAD been used, all those doctors and nurses in the photos working without masks and gloves would be stone dead) that Assad ordered, authorized, and I dunno, danced Gangham Style to the use of, Sarin gas, and I'll consider some sort of action, as long as it's UN sponsored and supported. But you ain't going to make a civil war better by bombing the hell out of them.
100,000 people dead before this reputed chemical attack, and nobody gave much of a shit because it was just standard bombs and bullets. But report a chemical attack and suddenly it's an international crisis requiring the US to put it's sons, daughters and treasure on the line AGAIN? Not only no but HELL no.
You want a response? America, with UN and NATO support, supplies, protects, and maintains the refugee camps until someone ELSE either brokers a peace, or the civil war ends on it's own.
And no, as a liberal, I really don't give a shit about children dying in Syria. Theres children dying all over the world, some worse than Syria, so why is Syria so damn important? Worse, we have children starving and dying HERE, and have a nation that's becoming more fascist and falling apart every day. Lets deal with our own issues before we try telling others whats right and wrong, Mm'K?
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