Given the choice between a leftie-come-lately who used to be a Republican and someone who consistently supported progressive causes all their life, the media will fall in love with the newbie every time.
Progressive v. Progressive Come Lately
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
7 Comments. Leave new
You named it, Ted – and for good reasons : easy come, easy go !…
Henri
This “lefty-come-lately converted GOP-er” phenomenon must be seen as the contemptuous scam it truly is. I refer you to the 2016 Dem nominee, would-be queen and “former” Goldwater Gal. The proof is precisely the media acceptance of said candidates, if not actually the manufacture of the scam in the first place.
Warren, if elected (highly unlikely), would offer a tenure in office no more useful, for the regular US resident, then was that of Obumma.
Warren’s problem is getting the nomination, however, because she’s nowhere near as skilled in making semi-radical sounding campaign lies as was Obumma – who talked like a 13-D chess player but who never intended to deliver anything more to “the people” than political tic-tac-toe.
Ms Warren is popular with the 10% precisely because they don’t think she’s a dyed-in-the-wool leftist but rather a reformer who won’t touch their privileges and possessions. Such leftish ideas as she may have are safely superficial. She is also probably okay with the Deep State. However, she will find it very difficult to extend her popularity outside the 10% either toward the Biden set — frightened conservatives — or towards the Sanders set. So the main question is who will get her support when her campaign runs out of gas.
The media gravitates to these candidates because the business model demands it.
Article after article about healthcare “reform.” Article after article about “opioid crisis.” Article after article about yet another global war we’re involved in because we can’t get around to renewables, or artilces about the climate going to hell, or the infrastructure going down the toilet.
What the hell are they gonna write about after Sanders gets elected and starts fixing all this? They may actually have to start working, and reporters hate that.
Debates and campaign ads are BS.
I don’t want to know what the candidates SAY they are going to do.
I want to understand their decision process and what they HAVE done.
I want to see what they value and their history of compromises.
I am outside the US, so it is difficult for me to vote, and if it’s Trump against anyone except Sanders or Tulsi, I won’t bother, but for Sanders or Tulsi, I’ll make the effort.
So many say, ‘No one could be worse than Trump,’ but St Hillary promised regime change in Russia. So I’m glad Trump won.
M,
Even worse? The stupidity of the electorate. I don’t mean stupid as in “They don’t agree with me, so they’re stupid.” I mean this:
A bunch of people who pretend to be progressives have started the #votebluenomatterwho drive. They say they want change, but they have already “pledged” to vote for whomever wins the dem nomination. (I use “win” loosely, as the dnc will surely try to rig the whole contest at every stage.) So what possible leverage do they think they now have to compel the democratic party to shift to the left?
Yeah. They really think they’re the sharpest knives in the drawer. The dems will give us Biden and the votebluers will stand there, “As a progressive, I really have no choice. I have to hold my nose. Again.” It’s like Clintonian “Compromise” taken to the nth degree.
Pelosi did the same thing with the impeachment. She’s painted herself into a corner. Barring a miracle (or the plot twist of the century), she’s made Trump a winner in the eyes of his base AND shown him that she can’t stop him.
Reminds me of the scene in “The Shining” where Shelley Duvall keeps swinging at Jack Nicholson but keeps missing. (Except, in the end, Duvall does manage to crack him a good one on the noggin. Pelosi doesn’t seem to understand that part: waving the bat isn’t what stops the stir-crazy failed writer. Hitting him on the skull and locking him in the pantry is what does it.)