[Zzlist-deux] History Lessons

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A new posting -
History Lessons <http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2015/05/history-lessons.html>
- from Zoltan Zigedy is available at:
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/


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Remember in 2009, when the then White house chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel,
labeled the “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party “f**king retards”?
Without Emanuel's notoriously crude bluster, President Obama expressed a
similar sentiment on April 23 in public remarks on the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

 According to MSNBC, President Obama said: “Some of these folks [opponents
of the TPP] are friends of mine. I love them to death. But in the same way
that when I was arguing for health care reform I asked people to look at
the facts – somebody comes up with a slogan like ‘death panel,’ doesn’t
mean it’s true. Look at the facts. The same thing is true on this. Look at
the facts. Don’t just throw a bunch of stuff out there and see if it
sticks...”

 Obama's comparison referencing the “death panels” concocted by the lunatic
right did not go unnoticed by his critics from labor and the left. Most
objected that comparing their opposition to TPP to the ravings of crazies
hardly suggests the sentiments of a friend.

 Of course this is an old story. Since the defeat of Walter Mondale in
1984, the founding of the Democratic Leadership Council and numerous
associated think-tanks, the Democratic Party has moved smartly and steadily
rightward, shedding any semblance of New Deal or Great Society
progressivism. During the Obama years, the process has reached a point
where the Democratic Party's meager left wing pretends to represent the
Party's soul while the leadership pretends to welcome its views. On
occasions like the TPP incident, the leadership fumbles the script and
reveals its true feelings.

 Sadly, few lessons are drawn from this experience or the pattern of
contempt and derision demonstrated by the party's corporate coddling
leadership...
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