Eeyore Dems

The GOP has just  sabotaged itself with the American public. Their vindictive and destructive extortion plot to hold America’s government and economy hostage to force the President to let them override the 2012 election has turned the majority of Americans against them so strongly, they want Republicans out of power.

So how do some on the Left respond to what is unarguably good news for Democrats to possibly retake The House, end the madness and give President Obama a final two years that could be full of progress and accomplishment? Are these folks energized and dedicated to make that happen, encouraging others to commit to investing their time and energy in campaigning, voter registration and GOTV next year to achieve this now viable and critical goal?

Nope. They’d rather offer their impression of Droopy Dog on downers, “Oh wowsy, wowsy. It’s still a year away and Americans have such short memories. Republican districts are gerrymandered anyway, we’ll never win enough seats. The Obamacare site is messed up and people will turn on Obama. And a meteor could hit the Earth and destroy it before then, oh no, wowsy, wowsy…”

Aside from inspiring most reasonable people to want to slap them silly with a live, wriggling salmon, these Depressocrats need to be called out for their negative contributions to society.

For lack of a better name, let’s call it The Chicken Little Syndrome, the desire to play the role of warning others that the sky is falling.

So why is it that some people who claim to support something, are so focused on dwelling on the reasons it could fail? There are a few possibilities that come to mind.

1. The Loser Mentality

Plain and simple, some people are losers. They are far too familiar with reaching for the brass ring and seeing someone else’s hand beat them to it. Their way of dealing with a situation where they don’t achieve what they hoped or expected is not to redouble their efforts and be dedicated to success, it is to nod their head with the valuable knowledge that no matter how likely it looks that something good will happen, it won’t. These are the type of people who when they read Winnie The Pooh, related most to Eeyore.

2. The Know-It-All

There’s always that person who’s got to be contrary in a conversation no matter how unfounded or absurd their newly adopted position is, “Nope, it’s not Hitler’s fault that WWII and the Holocaust happened, they were bound to happen eventually, he just happened to be the one in power when they did.”

This kind of nattering nabob of negativity has an inferiority complex. They need to feel smarter than everyone else and their internal logic is that by taking a defeatest and contrary position to what most people believe, they are declaring that they are not one of the ignorant pack of “the many” which proves clearly that they are smarter…even if their track record of believing that Mitt Romney would win in a landslide and that people would finally conclude that chocolate tastes horrible isn’t so impressive.

For these folks, being right is not the priority and they rarely are.

3. The Regurgitator

Those who have been around for a while know that the mass media around us is less about reporting the news in an informative, unbiased way than it is about encouraging people to pour lighter fuel in their hair, bring a lit match to it and run around in circles in their house screaming.

This is old news for most but the corporations that now own our media naturally act like corporations, they want to make the most money that they can. That’s their mission, not responsibly informing the public. So of course, they repeat every bit of drool that comes out of the mouth of Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin or any wackjob Republican as a lead story every hour or 200 point font headline…because it makes people reach for the lighter fuel and keep watching or clicking on their stories, to be shocked and emotionally stimulated again.

The MSM appeals to the lowest common denominator in people, primarily gunning for their fear and hatred, to get more viewers and traffic because that increases the amount of revenue they reap from what they can charge advertisers.

This creates a perfect environment for the type of people who aspire to be internet versions of Cassandra, they rush to inform their peers of the doom and gloom awaiting them with such a sense of purpose. They are bringers of wisdom in their minds but in reality are just human Tivos. They watch tv, read blogs and just regurgitate the latest corporate manufactured meme thinking that equates to insight.

Of course most of what they say is about why we should worry about this or that, that’s what the news is today, a redundant cycle of worry-inducing “stories”.  Instead of being the oracles they think they are, they are just additional broadcast outlets for the exploitative MSM.

4. The Faux Progressive

Whether they are Baggers in Dem’s clothing or emoprogs who are self-deluded and like to think of themselves as Progressives while truly rooting for Democrats to fail, this type actually enjoys the pushing of talking points that are negative about Pres. Obama and Dems.

Their comments are easy to spot, there is an unmistakeable restrained glee that they get out of attacking Obama and Dems or expressing that the Republicans will prevail here or there. Such concern trolls often begin their comments on blogs by saying, “I voted for Obama but…” or “I’ve been a Progressive Democrat all of my life but…”

They can easily be spotted by their big “buts”.

However contrarily they represent themselves, they are in fact adversaries of Progressivism, Democrats and Pres. Obama. Their “clever” tactic is to put on sheep’s clothing, insert themselves in the middle of the flock then say, “Hey, I’m one of you, right? So take what I say is more legit than if I wasn’t one of you, right? And here’s the thing, I like us but…we totally suck, trust me!”

5. True Pessimists

There are people who genuinely believe the negativity they espouse, they really do look at most things in a pessimistic way, always seeking a dark lining in every cloud. Their motivation though, of focusing primarily on why people shouldn’t have hope and why they shouldn’t bother trying to make a difference is a destructive compulsion. These people seek out the most negative views they can in the media and feel a need to spread their pessimism like typhoid to others because of course, it’s lonely living in a cave all the time and misery enjoys company (and has planned a surely doomed dinner party for them).

Here are some of the negative things they are spouting nowadays:

a. We’re a year away from elections, people will forget how they feel about Republicans by then.

So Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Tea Party won’t do a single thing from this point forward to push for their agenda? They won’t keep obstructing Pres. Obama? They won’t threaten a shutdown or debt ceiling default again to blackmail Obama into giving into their demands (though just because they will threaten again, I doubt they’ll shut down the government again)? They won’t campaign in 2014 on their radical views in their primaries and GEs?

The takeaway from the shutdown for Ted Cruz and the Tea Party is that they won! And they need to fight even harder! Each week and month, the Tea Party Republicans will remind and reinforce in America just what extremists and anarchists they are, Americans will have no choice but to be reminded of the shutdown on and how much they don’t trust Republicans to be in power through election day 2014 .

b. Because of gerrymandering, Democrats can’t win The House.

It won’t be easy but if Democrats could win by around 7%, they could indeed win back the House. To arrive at that percentage, increased Dem turnout in an off year election, when Dems don’t typically vote as much, could make up some of that advantage but what can make up the balance of that is depressed Republican turnout. Will most Republicans, especially those who are Republicans solely due to their economic views, be energized to come out and vote for these wackjobs who are destroying their party and threatening the confidence of the economy these fiscal Republicans depend on?

There could be a very counter-intuitive election in 2014. Republican voters, aside from the Tea Partiers who represent a minority of Repubs, have many reasons to be discouraged from voting. The 7% target won’t be achieved by Republicans switching over and voting for Dems but a combination of an energized Dem voter base and an apathetic Republican base that isn’t motivated to vote could indeed make that happen.

It may not be a probability but mindlessly dismissing it as impossible is just being lazy and blind.

c. The problems with the Obamacare website will destroy the whole program and make voters support Republicans who oppose it.

It is important to get younger Americans enrolled for the ACA to keep rates down around the level they’re beginning at but the admitted incompetence in creating and launching the website is a temporary problem that will be resolved in a matter of weeks. No one will care that they had trouble with the website in October 2013 when they are covered at a lower rate in October 2014 because of Obamacare. Being delayed in getting a policy, which wouldn’t be going into effect anyway until months later, is not going to cause people to support having their health insurance taken away by Tea Partiers.

The whole point is, if people are upset because they can’t sign up for health insurance immediately, then they WANT health insurance! They’re not going to join the Bagger march to take it away again and in the process, get rid of protections for those with pre-existing conditions, reinstate lifetime limitations and take away insurance under Medicaid for millions of Americans.

People won’t be able to be covered anyway until January 1, 2014, even if the website was working perfectly. That’s the way the law works. Enrollment ends on March 31, 2014, that is five months away.

We live in a reality where time passes. Does anyone really expect that Obama won’t throw everything he has at this problem to solve it as he has solved so many others, including bringing on financial and private computer industry hotshots? Does anyone really think that in two months, nothing will have changed with the site and no problems will be fixed to make it run better?

When Medicare Part D, the prescription plan, was being implemented under a Republican, George Bush, it also had a very troubled roll out, people had a lot of difficulty signing up and took a while to work out. Anyone nowadays complaining about that? Anyone calling for the end of Medicare Part D because of it’s problems when it debuted? Any reason that those who complain the loudest seem wholly oblivious to even recent history?

Though Repub politicians are rooting for Obamacare to fail, it won’t. A vast majority of Americans see the value and American principles it represents (even if they have been poisoned against the name “Obamacare”) . The previous health care system in the US was massively failing, excluding tens of millions of Americans and costs were rising too fast for the nation to sustain. What is going to happen is that Obamacare will succeed in over half of America and as the Republican states lag behind economically because of the added drag of the uninsured, they will eventually come on board.

The naysayers and worrywarts can’t help themselves. If Obama discovered a cure for cancer, they would moan about how this will anger people with other diseases that he hasn’t cured who will then vote against him and for Republicans.

Negativity is a disease that needs to be cured. And though this saying was coined to refer to transparency, it also works in this context, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Though spraying some Raid on them might be even more appropriate and effective.

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jjgravitas
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jjgravitas

What Americans lack these days is something positive and inspirational to fight for. In the 60’s and 70’s we had civil rights and women’s rights. Today we have nothing like that. And the war we are winding down from now is not the quagmire that Viet Nam was, so no antiwar movement is possible or even necessary. I think my point is that, compared to the 60’s and 70’s, the problems we have to deal with today, though just as important, are not as easy to rally round.

Nirek
Member

jjgravitas, I dis agree.I think corruption is a huge problem that we can and should rally round. Afghanistan was just as much a quagmire as Vietnam.

I spent 1969 in Vietnam and saw corruption. I bet that corruption is even worse in Afghanistan.

There is no problem with being anti War, now or ever.

Our government has been infested with corruption due to greed and the SCOTUS ruling that money is speech and corporations are people.

Cheers, Nirek

KillgoreTrout
Member

Hey jj. One big aspect of today’s wars is that there is no longer a draft. When young people face the possibility of being forced to go to war, they will rebel. With an all voluntary military, young people can be as complacent as they want to be because their lives aren’t being put on the line, like so many during the Vietnam war. This is not accidental. The government knows that a draft would really stir up the masses against our needless war waging.
A slow or poor economy also motivates young people to join the military, just so they can have steady paychecks and benefits. Our economy is largely war based. Many, many of our states also rely on military contracts, to manufacture weapons and military vehicles such as ground transport, ships, jets and helicopters. These manufacturers employ a lot of Americans who would otherwise have only menial, lower paying jobs. I don’t agree with this, but this is a reality in America.

Nirek
Member

KT, I agree about the draft. After all I was drafted in 1967 when I was 21. I was an Army brat. Turned 18 and signed for the draft while living in Panama CZ. Senior in high school. The Canal Zone draft board always filled their quota with volunteers for the draft. Army brats ready to leave the family. I had returned to Vermont (my birth place) was working for the VT. Forests and Parks climbing trees and surveying boundary lines. One day a recruiting Sgt. called me at work. He said “why don’t you join the army , boy” I answered that “I’ll take my chances with the draft” (this was before the lottery).
Needless to say that was the WRONG thing to say to a recruiting Sgt. ! Tow weeks later I got a draft notice. “Report to Balboa, Panama, Canal Zone”! I was earning $35 a week and had no way to get to Panama. So , I went to the draft board in Montpelier and showed them the notice. They balled it up and tossed it in the trash saying “no problem”. I gave them a thumbs up! Two weeks later I got a second draft notice! “Report to your new draft board, Montpelier Vermont.”

So I was drafted twice but only served once.

My Dad was a retired 1st Sgt. WWII and Korean War veteran. I could NOT disgrace him, so I went where I was supposed to and did what I was supposed to do. Then I got out after two years. Dad was proud and all was fine.

It is hard to explain how the draft affects a person, but many of the guys in Nam were draftees just like me. We could not wait to return to the “WORLD” which is what we called America at the time.

I have great respect for all my fellow vets and a bunch for the younger veterans who are all volunteers.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Thanks for your personal draft story Nirek. I was “drafted,” in a different way. Actually, I was a hippie in training (so to speak) and got busted for LSD possession. My dad made a deal with the courts so that I had a choice. That choice was to go into the Marine Corps (the war was still on) or go to trial and face a possible 5 years in prison. The Marines were the only one that would agree to such a deal. So that was my version of being drafted. Not really much of a choice.

Going into the Corps probably saved my life, and I look upon my service with a certain amount of pride. I don’t really regret it, but I do often wonder where I would be today if I hadn’t gone into the military.

choicelady
Member

That’s a fascinating story, KT. I did not know that about your history.

I’m awfully glad you came out OK! Too many men did not. The only other people I know who had that “choice” were a couple of Jewish twins who also got busted for drugs, got the choice to go into the military – and washed out. They then converted and became rabid RW Christians who led the anti-abortion movement in NY, made a ton of money, and now are national leaders of the most extreme of the extremes.

Thank you for NOT doing that! Really – I REALLY thank you for NOT DOING THAT!

KillgoreTrout
Member

Thanks for your kind words CL. There was never any chance of me taking the route your aquaintances took. I was too much of a rebel, both politically and theologically.

At the time, the only politics I was interested in was the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement. I was totally
ant-war. I remember cursing at one Army enlistment sargent who called me and tried to enlist me. Not long after that, I got busted. As anti-war as I was, I just didn’t have the courage to face prison. I would have rather been in Vietnam, than prison. Fortunately, Nixon’s Vietnamization program kept me from being deployed there. I lucked out, big time. Unfortunately, so many others didn’t.

choicelady
Member

You may be the ONLY person I know drafted TWICE. Sorry that happened to you! But it makes a GREAT story!

SallyT
Member

KT, you are so right about the military industrial complex in many states is their only major job creators. They keep making weapons that aren’t even used anymore because they have to manufacture something. I would add that we needed war in the middle east to control oil supplies, pipelines to shipping, and borders. Not for gas in the US but for the profits of the big oil corporations and private industry that includes weapons.

Glad you came away from your time in Vietnam with an attitude that you got something out of it besides your life but that it helped your life get on track. But, for me Buddy, I am glad you are here to tell your story and I am here to read it.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Hey Sally. I didn’t mean to be misleading about my military service. I didn’t have to go to Vietnam, due to when I went into the Marines. I went in Feb. 1973. It was actually a Nixon policy that kept me from going. Nixon began a program called Vietnamization, that gradually turned the war over to the South Vietnamese Army while halting all US troops being sent there. Though at the time I enlisted, I didn’t know about the new policy. I would be dishonest if I said I wasn’t sweating it.

It was a very close call. I did my service in North Caralina and Southern California, honorably and left when my enlistment was up. I would never claim to have gone to Vietnam. That would be a shameful lie and denigrate those brave men and women who did have to go.

Thanks for your kind reply.

SallyT
Member

Vietnam or North Carolina, still glad you are here to share your experience. If there isn’t a little form of war in one’s life, well, you ain’t livin’! It is all in how you handle the battle, not the number left on the field.

choicelady
Member

jj – what scares me is that if it’s not about “ME” it carries no weight. I know far too many people who fought against Vietnam simply because they hated the draft and its interruption of their own lives. It takes real maturity and a LACK of narcissism to pursue issues that are not affecting yourself personally.

Most of the folks in the Civil Rights movement actually went beyond self interest. That is true to some extent among those seeking economic justice – we’re not steelworkers, auto workers, whatever – but trying to get people engaged in issues that are NOT about themselves is like pulling teeth.

The anger comes from safety. Nothing most of the Left whines about actually impacts them or their trust funds or 401Ks or any of the things that keep them safe, secure, happy. They were mute during the Bush spying. They weren’t Muslims. Now their phone number may be ( MAY be) in a list of billions – whoa. First Amendment Fourth Amendment Benghazi! Outrage.

I cannot discount the racist factor. Progs are impossibly racist. Always have been. I saw that in the 60s and it never changed. The real people engaged with anti-racism who are white are pragmatic, grounded, kind hearted, visionary. Those who though PBO would be a Superfly don’t deserve the title ‘progressives’.

I think the ‘politics of me’ is at the heart of progressive/Lefty disengagement and anger. They love being armchair critics. You cannot get those sorts of people to help out women needing help accessing abortions and other procedures at womens’ clinics, but wow do they expound (wrongly) on the Religious Right. They do nothing because complaining is their highest form of ‘activism’.

Part of the anger is guilt. They don’t DO anything. Part of it is a vision of perfection that they think they desire – but they really want a new society for the comfy, not the afflicted. So they complain, they rant, they criticize because building something real is just too much work, too much time, too hard.

I have a belly full of these people. They take symbol and show over reality. They are USELESS. And they will take the majority of Americans with whom they don’t share wine tastings and throw them under the bus. Here’s the dark and dirty secret – they are totally willing to see every social program destroyed because they care NOTHING for the disaffected. They can whine. But if they really cared for the poor and POC and homeless they’d get off their butts – but it’s too much damned work.

They are parasites on the back of progress. I’ve had it with them.

Kalima
Admin

Great post AdLib, you’ve identified the losers and agitators. This melodrama some have to play out in order to give validity to their negativity is just so boring. The drama queens abound like small kids digging in their heels when they don’t want to eat their spinach, and I believe that they feel like this about their own lives. They are miserable and want to make everyone else just as miserable. How can you say that something will fail if you don’t make an effort to try it first?

I was taught that there is no such word as “can’t” and even if I did not become the most proficient at whatever I wanted to conquer, at least I had the satisfaction of knowing that I tried my best. That’s not failure.

kesmarn
Admin

It’s past the midnight hour here in corn country, and I was going to write a word about the current intellectual fashion trend of political cynicism. But I see that ground has already been well covered by brighter (and wider-awake) heads than mine!

I’ll just note that I hope that there’s a new fashion in political thought that is just about to dawn in DC and throughout the country. The one you describe so eloquently here, AdLib: hope.

And it just so happens that today E. J. Dionne was really on the same page with you!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-hope-that-governance-will-return-to-washington/2013/10/20/673ff4fa-3842-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html

agrippa
Member
agrippa

What Dionne is saying leads to ‘bipartisanship’. There is not very much of that in the Federal Congress. What ‘bipartisan ship’ usually ends up being are a few of one party working with the other side. A Republican working with a Democrat on a common issue is ‘bi partisanship’. A few Democrats voting ‘yes’ on a GOP bill is ‘bipartsanship’

Basically, we do not do coalition government.
I think that what Dionne wants cannot occur.

KillgoreTrout
Member

In modern day America, cynicism is obedience.

choicelady
Member

Wow. That’s very insightful.

Nirek
Member

A Texas Judge (R) has denounced the (R) party and become a Democrat because the Republican party no longer represents his values.
I predict that more of the moderate , sane Republicans will come over to the correct side .

agrippa
Member
agrippa

I think that you may be right. I certainly hope so.

agrippa
Member
agrippa

Got it in one.
I have encountered on line and in real life all of those types.
And, we have people who are apathetic and do not, usually, vote.
I think that GOTV is the number one priority.