When a Navy vessel is under attack or suffers a catastrophic emergency the ship’s captain declares general quarters. Without a second thought, thousands of individuals (conservatives and liberals) drop everything they are doing and come together as one cohesive unit to save the ship.
America is in General Quarters.
We have an All Hands On Deck evolution that is being impeded by people telling half the ship to fuck off. Our ship is taking on water at a rate that will sink us and half the damage control team is busy telling the other half to get away from the hole in the ship, they have it covered.
Is this metaphor to esoteric or am I getting through here?
If it isn’t clear enough, let me slow it down: The American Left is not enough to save the ship on their own. We also need moderate republicans and right-leaning independents who understand the severity of our plight to jump in and help. They may have different methods, but most are trying to save the ship, not sink it faster.
So what if they think the emergency was an accident and not deliberate sabotage?
Five recommends and no comments? I figured some angry progressive revolutionary would dress me down for advocating a cease fire with conservatives.
they’re too busy hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing over FISA, FBI’s, and firearms.
With all the demands for new conversations on TPM, the old ones always seem to keep people’s passions high. I guess we can offer that on this thread, but what would be the point? The crazier the Raging Left gets on these things, the more I channel my inner Teddy Roosevelt.
“Bully!”
Does that mean you’re going to become one of those Bullwinkle Moose guys?
Extreme Makeover – Republican Edition. Maybe I should switch from independent to republican and start a stealth campaign to reintroduce them t their past?
Well let’s don’t go too far — completee ceasefire? 🙂 We need conscientious (not contrived, frivolous) disagreement to keep us all on our toes.
However, I agree that we should change the combative tone. If we’re dismissive, condescending, or combative, we’ll only alienate the other party. And we need to persuade as many people as possible that, rather than spend (waste) all our time focused on where we disagree, we should work to make progress where we agree.
We can’t afford to keep wasting time.
Just because I advocate a cease-fire doesn’t mean I am surrendering the negotiated settlement talks to the neocons.
I think we are in a position to get every progressive change we could ever want and with the approval of most conservatives. We just need to incorporate their solutions into the mix. It’s not that they are incapable, just that they have been focused on the wrong goals.
We have a chance to set our national goals with a governing mandate for progressive change if we play the situation right.
Jason has an inner TR? I’m so purple with envy (or is it green? Whatever, both colors look good)!
As an independent, I have no problem working with conservatives and right leaning independents with a caveat, – I’m having a hard time not calling them Repugs. Seven years of conditioning, you know, cannot be overcome in a few days, but I’ll try. Will Repub’s be acceptable do you think?
I guess that depends on them. Do they find the contraction to be an insult. I know democrats went ballistic over ‘democrat party” so who can tell? As an independent as well, I find the whole notion of labels to be constricting and annoying.
What a great metaphor, Jason. You always delight me with your posts, haha!
And yeah, I completely agree. But I don’t think many on the far left are going to fall in line. Neither are those on the far right. People with such hard-lined ideologies have real trouble coming to any kind of consensus or compromise.
I have to say, in many ways, I was (and in some ways, still am) like that. But this election, for me, has brought out certain qualities I was never able to express before.
I’m a Democrat, and I’m a pretty hard liberal. I want our politicians to have liberal, progressive agendas, I can’t deny it. But this is not simply about me and my wants and desires. This is about us. That’s something that many people don’t realize about Obama’s rhetoric (and didn’t even with the sharp contrast to Hillary). He always uses inclusive vocabulary, i.e. “us”, “we”, “together”, etc.
This isn’t about one set of ideas. It’s about millions of them. It’s time we came together and started really accepting it. All hands on deck!
Glad you liked it! I agree completely. I think if we play our cards right we can have our cake and eat it too. I am super-duper progressive. I would love to re-engineer our entire society from the ground-up and the top-down.
I guess I have come to Obama’s position that such change is possible if we co-opt the agenda and shift the country back to the left. He seems to understand that it took 40 years to push us this far right and getting back to the left make take a little time and patience.
With a little finesse and reverse psychology, we can take the wide-spread disaffection with neocon policies among moderate republicans and right-leaning democrats and add it to left-of-center dems and super-duper progressives.
That kind of math equals a governing majority and allows the possible to finally equal the necessary.
Completely agreed. Ons issue I have with some people is that they seem unable to grasp the concept of “change doesn’t happen overnight.” We can’t go back on 40 years of Conservative Republican agendas and ideologies in the blink of an eye. The only way it’s going to happen is gradually, which, like it or not, is exactly the way the American people seem to do things. Gradually.
How long did it take after Brown v. Board of Ed. for the “separate but equal” doctrine to disappear? (I’m not talking about segregation, that still exists, but “separate but equal” was around for years after Brown). How long did it take for people to finally to start realizing our addiction to oil and truly, as a nation, call for alternative energies and fuels?
We should never stop fighting for more. But we have to accept that we’re not going to get everything we want in one fell swoop. Doesn’t happen like that. At least not for now it doesn’t.
I also don’t think people truly understand the type of changes he can make by fiat once he is president. Things like getting rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and shifting budget priorities in the executive department.
He can actually require regulatory agencies to clean house of corporate stooges and to pursue their charters with new vigor. He can re-allocate defense spending toward new mission profiles such as green renovation and infrastructure improvement. he can close bases overseas and open up new facilities in the US. Most of this with very little over-sight by Congress except at the macro level.
There is a lot of federal money that is being spent on stupid shit for little or no return.
Jason, I agree. We have an opportunity now that we really don’t want to squander. However, after the last 7+ years, most of us are freaking out and wanting the pendulum to swing the other way – big time! Frustration has built up to a level that many of us are very reactive to every shift in the wind (to continue your naval analogy).
I’ve chosen my candidate, and I will work as hard as I can for him. I want him to win and I believe in his ability to make decisions for himself. That doesn’t mean I won’t question what I don’t understand, but it also doesn’t mean I will suddenly decide he’s the anti-Christ (who I think is already in the position he seeks) because he does something I didn’t expect and don’t necessarily agree with.
But it’s the nature of internet society that every message, every method, every idea is free to play here, and so we get measured responses, angry responses, endless justifications, links to all sorts of corroborating sites, and some passionate argument. And text is not the best method of communication, so we often can misinterpret someone’s intention, though in some cases our friends at TPM are very adept at conveying their intentions.
But there are ways to communicate that provide room for others to participate, and there are ways that slam the door. We’ll see them all. Thanks for bringing focus back on the bigger picture.
Thank you for the kind words.
I am with you on being super leftie. I call myself a Xippie or gen X Hippie. I started this campaign season backing Dennis before he dropped out. I liked Edwards, but didn’t believe Angry Guy wins the race and had already supported my protest candidate.
I saw Barack as perhaps being able to bring Kucinich’s idealism with regards to policy to the hard-headed pragmatism that got Civil Rights and Labor legislation passed during very racist and pro-business periods in our country.
I am excited by the possibility inherent in reintroducing the republican party to Teddy and Abe and Tom.
Set Condition Zebra. Traffic pattern is: Up & forward to Starboard; Down and aft to Port.
The smoking lamp is Out.
Now there is someone who knows what I am talking about, also indicated by your username. World War II fan or one of the more recent incarnations of the ship?
CV-43; ’81-’85.
WestPac & a World cruise. Spent more time in the Indian Ocean than I care to recall.
Well, at least it wasn’t the 70’s Navy! I did a single WestPac on the USS Constellation (CV 64) in 1997 supporting Operation Southern Watch in the Gulf – the last cruise on the last conventional carrier to decommission.
they…..come together as one cohesive unit to save the ship.
Clear Channel is betting $400 million that cohesion will be elusive, and they are probably and unfortunately correct. In what other country in the world would a Rush Limbaugh hold the position as the nation’s leading purveyor of political talk radio. link
I think Clear Channel will be suffering a huge loss on that investment. Unless, of course, Limbaugh has a progressive awakening. I have a feeling conservatives will expect much more pragmatic opinions.
“Unless, of course, Limbaugh has a progressive awakening.”
Now that would be believable! Can’t wait.
Well, he is already paid. Maybe Clear Channel says, “Green is in Rush. Here’s a snack.” They do have a bottom line and the listener rules.
Global warming couldn’t happen fast enough to inundate Rush’s 24,000 sq. ft. French rococo seaside mansion (described in the NYT today) into a National Marine Sanctuary, hopefully with him in it.
Yeah, I have to say, a year or two ago I wanted nothing more than total war with the Right.
But I’m just so sick of watching this country circle the toilet that I’m willing to work with just about anyone. And as you say, standing around pointing fingers just isn’t getting the job done.
This is the reality of what we’re facing, and your analogy is apt.
We saw a lot of that in the primary. I was guilty myself of turning that notion of war on Hillary, as a representative of corporate interests. My guy won, but it was a victory that came with lots of acrimony, which leaves me embarrassed. There has to be a better way.
Rec’d!
Rec’d.
Yeay, Unity Jason!;)
It’s true that many of the issues that are important to progressives are important to the majority of Americans. Things like the environment, energy policy and opposition to the war are now very mainstream. It’s important to focus on the similarities in the broader issues. The details can be worked out later.
Exactly correct. While the ruling class kept us divided with “god, gays and guns” they proceeded to rape and pillage this country, all while w kept sending them back to Congress. It’s amazing the amount pain people can cause to themselves sometimes.