Sam Smith - The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote a column in the Washington Post that would have made her a prime candidate for psychotherapy had she been talking about alcohol or sexual problems. Fortunately, she was just writing about Obama and how "progressives" were not really opposed to him: "What's happening on the left isn't the equivalent of the anti-incumbent anger on the right. Most progressives support Obama and want his agenda to succeed."
Leaving aside the distortion of the term progressives - properly applied to those tired of liberals in denial - the claim raises some precise questions that vanden Heuvel never addressed. For example, do her "progressives" support:
- The war in Afghanistan?
- The continued use of Gitmo and similar facilities?
- The continuation of unconstitutional practices in wiretapping?
- The harassment of government whistleblowers?
- The corporate-driven war against public education?
- The bailout of huge banks while foreclosure-threatened homeowners are left to fester?
- Increased funding for war on drugs?
- Obama's plans offshore drilling?
- His handling of BP crisis?
- The support Israeli apartheid and occupation of Palestine?
- Obama's plans to undermine the Miranda ruling?
- The extension of the Patriot Act?
- Obama's attempt to wrest more budgetary control from Congress?
- A commission designed to cut Social Security and Medicare?
- Plans to turn public housing over to corporate slumlords?
In fact, true progressives oppose all the above and as a result do not want Obama's agenda on these points to succeed. Vanden Heuvel best go back to calling herself a liberal, because for them, it’s an agenda, sadly, they can live with.
