Comments on: CRYING WHEN THEY WANT TO http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/ An inkless outlet of poetry, politics and boneless sea fauna. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:15:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: papasquid http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/#comment-4167 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:23:15 +0000 http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/#comment-4167 The ironic thing about Chait's column is that he hasn't shown himself to be a partisan, yet here he is defending (or I should say, misconstruing) partisanship out of some sort of belief that it's integral to Democracy. Disagreement is, party-line ideology is not. And if you haven't noticed either Bloomberg or Obama going against prevailing party establishment then you must not have been paying very close attention. Just yesterday Obama touted merit pay at an NEA conference (which is about as ballsy a thing a Democrat could do in the middle of a primary). Last year he refused to rule out partially privatizing social security, right at a time when vice-like Democratic party unity insisted privatization wasn't even an option. Bloomberg, too, will go from touting gun control and pissing off the NRA, to bashing unions and ripping the MTA a new one over their "illegal transit strike." Neither one of these guys is a Chuck Schumer-Mitch McConnell type partisan, who live and breathe their respective party platforms, and to whom party unity is the ultimate goal. The ironic thing about Chait’s column is that he hasn’t shown himself to be a partisan, yet here he is defending (or I should say, misconstruing) partisanship out of some sort of belief that it’s integral to Democracy. Disagreement is, party-line ideology is not.

And if you haven’t noticed either Bloomberg or Obama going against prevailing party establishment then you must not have been paying very close attention. Just yesterday Obama touted merit pay at an NEA conference (which is about as ballsy a thing a Democrat could do in the middle of a primary). Last year he refused to rule out partially privatizing social security, right at a time when vice-like Democratic party unity insisted privatization wasn’t even an option.

Bloomberg, too, will go from touting gun control and pissing off the NRA, to bashing unions and ripping the MTA a new one over their “illegal transit strike.” Neither one of these guys is a Chuck Schumer-Mitch McConnell type partisan, who live and breathe their respective party platforms, and to whom party unity is the ultimate goal.

]]> by: Shawn Macomber http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/#comment-4166 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:00:46 +0000 http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/#comment-4166 I should clarify, I'm using your definition of partisan here, i.e. Chait is much more likely to go against the establishment than Obama. I should clarify, I’m using your definition of partisan here, i.e. Chait is much more likely to go against the establishment than Obama.

]]> by: Shawn Macomber http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/#comment-4165 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:56:00 +0000 http://www.thedailysquid.com/2007/06/25/crying-when-they-want-to/#comment-4165 On his absolute worst day, Chait is hardly as partisan as Obama. What he's objecting to is this idea that because someone says something doesn't mean we need to accept and repeat it as truth. Obama claim to be the Mayor of Purple America, but I've read both his books now--for work, not pleasure...thank God I'm not that desperate--and if there is a single position he's taken that won't meet the utter and complete assent of the average upper middle-class liberal, it has completely escaped my attention. And Bloomberg? The junior league nanny state enthusiast? Christ, he could not be easier to pigeonhole. There is absolutely nothing brave about these men. All they do is pretend to take both positions into consideration and than take a completely predictable DNC liberal position. I'm not always a Chait fan but he is completely right on this one. On his absolute worst day, Chait is hardly as partisan as Obama. What he’s objecting to is this idea that because someone says something doesn’t mean we need to accept and repeat it as truth. Obama claim to be the Mayor of Purple America, but I’ve read both his books now–for work, not pleasure…thank God I’m not that desperate–and if there is a single position he’s taken that won’t meet the utter and complete assent of the average upper middle-class liberal, it has completely escaped my attention. And Bloomberg? The junior league nanny state enthusiast? Christ, he could not be easier to pigeonhole. There is absolutely nothing brave about these men. All they do is pretend to take both positions into consideration and than take a completely predictable DNC liberal position. I’m not always a Chait fan but he is completely right on this one.

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