Joe Biden's "Stop Whining" Remark Incites Backlash from the Left
AP
The White House's latest attempts to mobilize liberals ahead of the midterm elections have once again generated a backlash from the left.
Progressive bloggers and activists were up in arms after Vice President Joe Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser yesterday that the party's base should "stop whining." His remarks were echoed by President Obama in a newly-released Rolling Stone interview in which he says his supporters need to "buck up."
The liberal community is pointing to the remarks as the latest examples of the Obama administration's disinterest in listening to its core backers -- and they it's an unwise move so close to the midterm elections.
John Aravosis of Americablog.com charged that belittling the Democratic base is "now clearly a White House strategy."
"I can't for the life of me understand what the White House thinks it gains by continually poking the base - the people who actually vote in mid-term elections - only five weeks before the election," Aravosis wrote. "The President, rather famously, routinely refuses to stand up to conservative Democrats and Republicans, and it's likely the primary reason we're about to lose the House."
Aravosis contends that Mr. Obama should have made the economic stimulus package bigger but instead chose to compromise with moderates.
"The entire country, all of us with friends and family members currently out of a job, are paying dearly for this mistake," he wrote. "So for him and his to tell us and ours to stop whining is pretty pathetic."
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, suggested the vice president should be thanking, not chiding, groups like his, for their fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts. PCCC recently raised $100,000 for progressive New Hampshire House candidate Ann McLane Kuster and is organizing hundreds of thousands of phone calls to voters ahead of Election Day.
"The 'professional left' is busting our butt to mobilize progressive voters in 2010, picking up the ball that this White House dropped when they refused to fight for the overwhelmingly popular public option, refused to break up the big banks, and demobilized Obama voters who expected this president to at least fight for big change," Green said.
Salon's Glenn Greenwald, a critic of the Obama administration's record on civil liberties, took to Twitter to point to evidence that Mr. Obama has continued the anti-terror policies of the Bush administration. He then asked, "Do they really think 'stop whining' is an effective message? Apparently."
Marcy Wheeler, another critic of the president's national security policies, said on Twitter, "As much as I focus on torture & assassination, I'd buck up a lot faster if the Admin focused on helping people save their homes."
Mr. Obama's and Biden's recent remarks come on the heels of a confrontation between the White House and liberal bloggers, who accused the administration of "hippie punching." In other words, they accused the White House of relying on liberal voters to mobilize on Election Day while ignoring liberal goals like ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said on the CBS "Early Show" today that Democrats will have to mobilize the base but also appeal to right-tilting independents this November.
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Then, if you allow the GOP back into majority power YOU will really have something to WHINE about!
Yesterday, Joe Biden reminded us what's at stake in this election. He told us the longest walk a person can take is up a small flight of stairs to their child?s room where tonight?s hug goodnight comes with hard, sad news. "I'm sorry you can't go back to your school next semester, I?m sorry, you?ll have to move in with grandma for a while because I can't find work here.'
It was a walk the Vice-Presidents own father took when he was eleven, and as Joe Biden tells it, the second longest walk he took was back to the kitchen to ask his father in law if he could take care of his wife and their children while he looked for work in Delaware. He told us his father was proud, hardworking man, and he could only imagine what that cost him. Talk about feeling our pain. Joe Biden gets it, but he also knows we cannot afford to indulge it, not now.
The GOP candidates want to be known for what they undoes in Congress. They have somehow decided lowering the bar and demonstrating how they?ll crawl under it is a good thing. The ?Pledge for America? should read like a cautionary tale, but if we are too busy bickering about how the Health Care Bill could be even better to pay attention, this frightening work of fiction will become our reality. Our "can do" attitude created the greatest country in the world. Their "can un-do " attitude threatens not just who we are, but all we might yet become.
President Obama and the Democratic Party have a thorough, well-reasoned plan to rebuilt our economy, retool our factories, restore our moral authority in the world, and renew our commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as it applies to everyone of us, not the just very wealthy or currently healthy. We have the will and the talent and the verve to see this through. But we need the votes, and we need a unified voice.
So the question is, can we stand with each other so America can clearly see the choice in this election, the differences in policy on simple terms? Because when we do this, when we win the elections the world predicted we would lose, well, as King Henry told his troops at Agincourt,
Gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Even so, it seems that the members of the disenchanted left are more concerned with this administration fulfilling campaign promises that benefit the few at the expense of the many:
Work In Progress: Ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy," - Benefits the few, but should be done. Currently under military panel review as I recall. Has support of at least one Joint chiefs of Staff member if I recall correctly.
Work In Progress: Removing all troops from Iraq or Afghanistan - Benefits the few, albeit, 100K+ personnel in those wars. Although, it's not uncommon for the US to have an occupying post-war presense in any country where it has fought a war. So, this seems to be an unrealistic expectation based upon a lack of historical post-war military policy. We've got military bases all over the world in many countries where we've been involved in a war (Japan, Germany, etc.).
Work In Progress: Closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay - Benefits the few. Although, if I recall correctly, Obama's administration did try do it, but they ended up with a backlash of NIMBYism when it was suggested the remaining legitimate and non-legititmate prisoners be moved to secure prisons in the US.
Accomplishment: Passing a landmark health care bill - Benefits the many without affordable health care coverage. Although, I'm not sure how that bit about fining people who don't opt into a program is going to fly if these people were not well off enough to afford coverage under the pricey healthcare insurers. I guess this is one of those "wait and see" issues.
Accomplishment: Removing combat troops from Iraq - Benefits the many US military personnel and their families. Benefits the neglected war effort in Afghanistan due to the WMD bs claim and shell game distraction in Iraq. Has dubious benefits for the Iraqi and Afghani people.
Accomplishment: Reforming the student loan industry - Benefits the many and is quite possibly the next bubble to burst with student loan dept at around 850+ billion and climbing.
Accomplishment: Enacting an enormous stimulus package - Depending on who you ask, was a bunch of baloney, or kept it us from reliving The Great Depression - Part II. Since I've read about and follow the events of varioius booms and busts due to stupidity and greed, I'm inclined to believe the latter is true.
As nice as it would be for these "benefit the few" goals to be accompished, I think this administration has had its hands plenty damn full with trying to accomplish things that benefit the many while also dealing with damage control from the previous administration.
With all the crap that's happened over the last two years, before and after Jan 20, 2009 when this administration took office, I find it really hard to believe that some people on the vocal left seem to think smaller benefit goals should precede larger benefit goals. Personally, I think some of the left needs to get over itself and realize that they're not the only people in this country with needs, wants, and desires. If they take offense to this notion, they should run for office and see just how "easy" it is to get all your campaign promises fulfilled while juggling more pressing priorities.
We need to ban corporate lobbyists and get rid of ALL privately funded elections in America. What we have now is a corrupt cesspool of criminal activities.
It is true about some of the liberal websites are caught up in progressive ideas which do not appeal to middle America and hence have no hope of becoming law or policy in this White House or any other. Liberals can be just as unreasonable as right wing fanatics refusing to compromise on their hot botton issues and hence, throw the baby out with the bath water.