[lbo-talk] Obama and His Discontents

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Jul 29 06:18:11 PDT 2011


On Jul 29, 2011, at 12:11 AM, // ravi wrote:


> The turnout makes Doug’s point, no? Youth vote came out in 2008 due to Obamania. By 2010 they were disillusioned enough to stay at home at greater percentages than they usually do for the mid-terms… they were no longer interested in politics (or they never were). The hero worship, as you note (“steady support”), lingers on, so each time Glenn Greenwald tweets in criticism a blatant Obama betrayal or ruthlessness, they retort with flames. I think this is why criticising Obamania and saying “I told you so” matters. Not for the pleasure/schadenfreude but to reinforce the validity of the initial argument. Conjectures, verifications, refutations, that sort of thing.

I'm also hoping that people will learn from this experience - not to get excited over some fresh Democrat who will not only disappoint them, but will even make fun of them so he can position himself as a "centrist." Of course they probably won't, but a boy can dream, can't he?

Doug



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