It's the anti-Obama ultra-lefts who are aiding and converging with the ultra-right
........
Let's see where this thinking takes us.
Apparently when I, or anyone on the left, criticizes the President for his continuation and escalation of the US' war in Afghanistan, I'm an "ultra-left" who is "aiding and converging with the ultra-right."
When I criticize the President's economic triage program, which many attentive observers -- including our very own, lemon fresh listserv leader -- slammed for its speculation sector friendly design and its all rhetoric, no action regulatory scheme I'm an "ultra-left" who is "aiding and converging with the ultra-right."
When I criticize the President's insurance and pharma sector friendly "health care reform" efforts as being, well, primarily insurance and pharma sector friendly (with very little on offer for the supposed beneficiaries) I'm an "ultra-left" who is "aiding and converging with the ultra-right."
When, in other words, anyone, anywhere with any left leanings criticizes the Obama administration for doing any of the disagreeable things it's actually doing (I forgot to mention the persistence of Bush era surveillance methods and the ongoing care and feeding of that hulking brute: the Dept of Homeland Security) they're an "ultra-left" who is "aiding and converging with the ultra-right."
Let's review a moment from Doug's 1/3/2008 interview with Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford:
GF -
About four weeks ago, I was teamed up on Ron Daniels' show on WBAI with Charles Barron - and I'm sure your listeners are familiar with him - he's a former Black Panther, city councilman, quite progressive by any measurement and one of my favorite politicians because he's a black electoral official who is also a political activist so, to me he's the kind of model of what political folks should be if they seek office. Councilman Barron was on the show with me to announce that he had just endorsed Barack Obama for president. Ron Daniels knew our position on that. So I proceeded to outline what we have just talked about on your show point by point to say, how could you [Daniels] support a person who obviously is on the other side of the political line from you? And he couldn't answer...any of it. There was no coherent response. And finally, after ten or fifteen minutes of this back and forth - which actually turned into a debate - he finally says "I just wanna give the brother a shot." And that was it. And that sums it up.
It was pitiful, it was inadequate but it really was accurate in terms of Barack Obama's knee jerk support among black folks in general and more critically, among activists, progressives - life long activists and progressives who damn sure should know better.
DH -
White leftists like me depend upon the black portion of the population to provide a reliable base of social democratic and anti-imperialist policies...you guys are letting us down here.
GF -
Absolutely and that is why it is so important to understand that this not just an intra-black affair - that is very important to those of us who are black and care first and foremost about the health of the black polity. But if the black polity descends into incoherence - and this is already happening and Barack Obama has not yet won a primary [stated before Iowa: .d.] - but it is already underway. If committed,life long activists like Charles Barron can be paralyzed, put into a kind of comatose stupor just by the presence of this corporate funded black candidate then we are in real trouble. And if the black polity becomes fractured or just paralyzed then there really is no hope for anything resembling a progressive movement in the United States.
[...]
full at:
<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#080103>
CB, your blanket condemnations of "anti-Obama ultra-lefts" is lovingly crafted from precisely the sort of incoherence Ford described over a year ago.
And really, you're going a bit further, equating principled opposition to the very same sorts of things previous administrations have done (things you've criticized in the past) with extremism. The only difference between the bombs falling on Afghans now (which, apparently shouldn't be criticized) and the bombs that fell before the Obama era is the man in the command chair.
Any 'progressivism' which defines itself as adherence to a program of 'support our guy, no matter what!' is the playground of fools.
.d.