Rep. Dennis Kucinich's proposal to withdraw from Afghanistan was debated, heatedly, for hours in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. After the debate, dozens of Representatives cast their vote to end the war immediately. This was an unprecedented event in the history of the conflict, now in its ninth year.

Think about that for a moment: an unprecedented event, on the floor of the House, going on for hours, involving a question of supreme national importance. Regardless of one's position on the issue, is this not the very definition of "news"? But on Thursday morning, you could search high and low on the front pages (print and web) of both the New York Times and the Washington Post -- our national arbiters of serious newsworthiness -- yet find no mention whatsoever of this event. This, even though the web fronts -- unlike the paper versions -- contain headlines for dozens of stories, including sections devoted entirely to Washington politics.

You would have had to know about the debate already -- or else trawl diligently through piles of pixels or print -- to reach the small stories that our papers of record deigned to release on the subject. No ordinary newspaper reader -- someone who has a more than passing interest in current events but also has a life to live -- would even know that such a debate took place, much less learn anything about the powerful arguments against the war delivered on the floor of the national legislature. That is to say, it is entirely possible that a reasonably informed and engaged citizen of the Republic would not even be aware that dozens of elected officials at the highest level of government voiced their support for the most radical position on the war: immediate withdrawal.

But such is the way of our imperial system. Our ruling class does not want the citizenry to know there are any alternatives to the grand bipartisan consensus on the true aims of government: servicing the needs of Militarism and Money. And so what cannot be ignored entirely is buried "certain fathoms in the earth ... deeper than did ever plummet sound."

And as we noted yesterday, our rulers are greatly assisted in these efforts by "savvy" progressives who constantly belittle anyone who actually challenges this stifling and disastrous status quo. Anything that goes beyond a bit of mild tinkering and "tweaking" at the margins of the system is rejected by our savvy progs as "unrealistic." The modern "progressive" ethos seems to boil down to this: You must take whatever little thrice-chewed tidbit of cud the elite is willing to dribble out onto your plate -- and be happy about it. That clump of green viscous slime known as the health care reform bill? Why, that's a "great progressive victory!" Didn't you know?

The sad, degraded, destructive state of the "left" in modern America is clearly shown by this vignette from Seth Ackerman, writing of how a previous generation confronted health care reform:

The last big, ambitious measure [in social legislation], Medicare, was a government-run single payer program that displaced or preempted private health insurance coverage for about one in ten Americans. That’s why the AMA, Ronald Reagan, and the nascent conservative movement spared no effort to decry it as socialism.

Yet none of that prevented Medicare from passing in 1965 with 13 out of 32 Senate Republicans voting in favor. Nor did it stop the bill from winning the support of half the senators from the Deep South (5 out of 10, or 7 out of 14, depending on whether you count Texas and Florida). And what about the Mark Pryors, Blanche Lincolns, Ben Nelsons, Mary Landrieus of the world? In 2009, we were told they fought the Senate bill’s mildly progressive elements because they represented states that are “obviously” too conservative to support even such tepid liberalism. But in 1965, three of the six senators from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Nebraska voted for or pledged support for single-payer Medicare, a.k.a socialism.

Today? Dennis Kucinich opposes the corporate-coddling health care boondoggle pushed by the White House -- and he is called an accomplice in mass death by progressive paladin Markos Moulitsas. Kos even levelled the most dread epithet in the entire progressive canon at Kucinich's opposition: "It's definitely a very Ralph Nader-esque approach .. a very unrealistic and self-defeating approach."

So this is where we've come to. Ralph Nader, who has spent decades fighting corporate power, often successfully (which is more than Kos can say), is now a figure of scorn and derision -- his very name a perjorative term -- among our leading "progressives."

And why? Because Nader dared to offer an alternative to the bipartisan consensus of Militarism and Money in the 2000 election. And this, according to the unrealistic and self-defeating mythology of serious progressives, is what threw the Florida vote -- and thus the election -- to George W. Bush. This fairy tale persists despite the fact that the recounts carried out by the media consortium after the election clearly showed that Al Gore received more votes than Bush in Florida, regardless of Nader's total. It was Al Gore and his fellow establishment Democrats who "threw" the election to George W. Bush by refusing to challenge the result in Congress, by refusing to confront the transparent fraud and corruption at the very heart of the political process, and to use the tools provided them by the Constitution to uphold the will of the electorate.

What they did uphold with their timidity, however, was the true governing system of the country: not the Constitution but the empire of military domination and unrestrained money power.  And this system is precisely what the timidity of our progressive paladins is upholding today. Or as that evil old devil Ralph Nader put it just last week:

The twin swelling heads of Empire and Oligarchy are driving our country into an ever-deepening corporate state, wholly incompatible with democracy and the rule of law.

Oh come on, Ralph! Democracy and the rule of law? Don't be so unserious! Don't be so unrealistic! Don't you like the taste of cud? Here, try a little spoonful, just a taste ... You'll soon get used to it --  just like the rest of us. 

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Comments (21)

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jo6pac said:

	Yep I agree kill this bill it's nothing but welfare for corp health care companies. In fact kill all corp. welfare and there would be more than enough money to feed/house/provide health care for free to those that don't have jobs during this wonderful WS caused down fall.
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March 11, 2010
Votes: +6

par4 said:

	That post is a thing of beauty.
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March 11, 2010
Votes: +6

Jason Burdick said:

	... Booman at Booman Tribune has been just as despicable when it comes to kneecapping those on the Left. Here he is when Kucinich wouldn't pass the health insurance reform bill in the House: http://www.boomantribune.com/s...02444/3105 These access bloggers are nothing but hacks for the administration and a failed Democratic party.
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March 11, 2010
Votes: +4

john kelley said:

... From Robert Scheer's, 'An Oscar for America's Hubris': "Maybe a deeply unsatisfying home life is a necessary prerequisite for being all you can be in the Army." Or for being a politician. The descendents of Sodom and Gomorrah fester inside the beltway... "Finally, the moon rises over the fifth painting, 'Desolation,'" says Ferguson. There is not a living soul to be seen, only a few decaying columns and colonnades overgrown by briars and ivy."No attacking "brigands?" No loveable waste-collecting robots from Wall-E? (from 'Collapse of the American Empire: Swift, Silent, Certain', by Paul B. Farrell) ....... You're on fire, Chris. Smoke 'em out. .......... asylum cringes in troubled sleep organ dreams boom along the ancient deserted corridors clocktower knocks out hell dispersing the stars across a million million miles the binding silence cuts the ear & hollow cries are lost in broken minds songless the night unsteady as an old film escapes through freedoms keyhole tears lay dust low as the dead tireless eyes watch unblinking crouched figures still as vacuums line the halls the sound of weeping burns like acid mice groan behind the skirting (David Chaloner)

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March 11, 2010
Votes: +0

Jimmy Montague said:

Obama is, like, so OVER! Obama's administration failed when he nominated Joe Biden as his running mate. Now, two years later, Obama still doesn't grasp the fact. He's supposed to be a smart guy but in truth lacks the sense to know who his friends are (He doesn't have any friends) and where he came from (Behind the woodpile). His personal tragedy is that when his tenure ends, he will have amassed personal wealth that will carry him to his grave without realizing what he had and what he squandered.

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March 11, 2010
Votes: +4

..., Low-rated comment [Show]

Sean O'Neil said:

	Charlie Brown's teacher goes "wonh wonh wonh" build a straw man, knock it down: "...the fine Libertarian apologists who gather here." oh sorry there chumley, but I haven't seen anyone here flying the Ron Paul flag, nor the "little L" flag either. congratulations on construction and destruction of a straw-man! well done! next time try more humor.
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March 12, 2010
Votes: +1

Chris Floyd said:

... Who is "bathing" anyone in "nobility"? To point out the hypocrisy of "progressives" attacking anyone who offers genuine criticism of the system -- however mild that genuine criticism is, which I specifically noted: this is somehow indulging in self-congratulation, or hero worship? That seems a willfuly tendentious reading. And as Sean rightly points out, where in God's name does the "fine Libertarian apologists who gather here" come from? So first we're the "micrometer Left" then "Libertarian apologists" -- which is it? However, I knew for an absolute fact that the minute I posted these pieces, someone would jump in with the tiresome bullshit trope about "hero-worship" because -- as I was writing a blog post about a specific issue, not a three-volume opus -- I did not then go on to enumerate all the many ways in which Kucinich or Nader might fall short or even contribute to the system, etc., etc., etc. But I learned a long time ago that you can't worry about readers who have to have every single thing spelled out in triplicate for them to ensure that the writer is in lockstep with every single position they hold. Life is too short. As for Nader's "victories," I was referring to his successful battles with GM and others. Yes, these were long ago -- but the point being made (here's some triplicate for you) was that people like Kos have demonized Nader when they themselves have never done anything. There is a germ of genuine criticism in this comment -- i.e., that the entire system is irredeemably rotten, so the efforts of Kucinich and Nader to make changes from within that system are ultimately futile, and maybe even harmful, since they lend legitimacy to the system. That's a legitimate argument, and I have made various forms of it myself -- although in this, as in all things, I don't hew to an inflexible dogmatic position. But in any case, the point of the last two posts was to point out the hypocrisy of the mainstream progressives, and how they help stifle any genuine dissent, whether from within the system or without. What any of this has to do with hero worship or Libertarian apologetics is beyond me.

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March 12, 2010
Votes: +10

Sean O'Neil said:

	... the Kossacks have a long reach and this makes them feel powerful, their ability to dissemble broad-spectrum style. they're such Good Germans.
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March 12, 2010
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Sean O'Neil said:

I wish I were Martin White I could be paid by the word, not by the content, and I'd get rich. Everyone would starve for information after reading my posts, but at least I'd have typed a lot of letters, words, punctuation marks. I'd be a 2d stringer on the Strawman Building Team and a 4th stringer on the Strawman Destroying Team, but hey -- I'd be on a TEAM, baby. And that's what matters. Being part of something larger, even when that something larger is ineffectual or counter-productive. I'd have to wonder how it is, if I were Martin White, that I could think myself informed on others' politics simply due to short posts at Chris Floyd's blog. Surely I'd convince myself I knew Sean O'Neill, even if I didn't know Sean O'Neil, because I'd have read a post that made me project my own weaknesses, fears, and mistaken "knowledge" onto the hologram I've constructed as an effigy for "Sean O'Neill." Meanwhile, still I (I = Martin White) would not know Sean O'Neil nor what he thinks. But that wouldn't stop me from lecturing him, would it?!

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March 12, 2010
Votes: +2

Chris Floyd said:

... So let me get this straight: "anybody can and should criticize anybody" -- but when I respond to your criticisms with some of my own, then I'm some sort of high priest prima donna who can't accept criticism and is seeking to quash debate? Are your equal rights and free speech being infringed -- are you being "devoured" -- because I took issue with some of your comments? Comments which, I might note, were freely and openly published in the comments section. You made some criticisms of my post. I said, Hey, I don't agree with some of that, and here's why. And now you answer back to "spell things out for me." So what exactly is the problem here? Isn't this what is called debate? Isn't this what the free exchange of opinions is all about? I write; you disagree; you write; I disagree (although only in part); and so on and so forth. If my tone was out of line -- and it often is when I reply in comments, because I almost never do that unless I'm in a bad mood about something else -- then what can I say? I'm sorry. I will say I still don't understand the stuff about being in the territory of libertarians. There's nothing in my own writing that can be remotely tagged with that label (as I understand it); and as for "permitting its run," what are you suggesting? That I come in here and strip out any comments that smack of libertarianism? Wouldn't that be suppressing free speech and equal rights? Anyway, I'm sorry if you mistook a reply to some of your criticisms as some kind of attempt to trample your human rights. And, if I may be permitted one further reply, I don't think anyone familiar with my writings could possibly imagine that I consider myself as some kind of high priest, pouring out holy writ. Again, I may say so, that seems an almost willful misreading.

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March 13, 2010
Votes: +5

Martin White said:

... Chris, of course you did not "violate" my human rights. You do publish a "comments" section, and you do occasionally respond. My points are larger ones that seem to inhabit the tiny section of intellectual land that can be characterized as the "left." Problem 1: No public sense of futility. 2. Abject devotion to Names and gurus. This two-pronged failing leads to a terrible inability to debate, to do precisely what you set out as the goal in your second paragraph. For me, the comments sections of these extremely well-written sites are invaluable, helping to define for me the parameters of where my views fall, and what my views really are. I don't quite understand why you are "often in a bad mood" when you respond in comments sections, but that would go doubly, in my experience, for Paul Street, for Common Dreams, and for SMBIVA - peevish and churlish and haymaker-throwing seem to be the default responses when the hosts get challenged from their left. While understanding this is all small potatoes, I brought out a charge of Libertarianism based on a couple of past incidents, and will now retract it - but of course, as in the courts, the effect of raising the issue was all I really was after. After the conservatives and the liberals have been been dispensed with, and now the "pwogwessives," that leaves what? In the case of would-be "leftists," this cycle of political philosophy leads most often back in middle age to a libertarian conservatism, witness Alexander Cockburn, Michael Berube, Todd Gitlin - but not you, as you state. Lastly, in my little job, there is always personal criticism directed at me, from many, many sides. Unlike Richard Dawkins, who shut down the comments section of his huge blog because he was so mortally offended by being called a "suppurating rat's rectum," I think we have to have our views contested. Comments sections are in their death throes across the web, as is our political culture, and what was that you were saying, Sean? Do you not want me to read your comments? Okay - consider it done.

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March 13, 2010
Votes: -5

Sean O'Neil said:

	poor Blank Martini. not dry at all. nothing but vermouth and no olive. not even a glass. "...and what was that you were saying, Sean? Do you not want me to read your comments? Okay - consider it done." I said nothing of the sort. You can't read? Pity. But at least it explains why your posts contain lots of words but say nothing at all. Well done Mr Sock Puppet!
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March 13, 2010
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Grandma Jefferson said:

Say What? Chir Floyd a libertarian? An acolyte of...What? It would seem some persons comment for the sake of raising pointless arguments based on either deliberate misunderstanding of the article, or simple stupidity. Such people habitually frame all observations, or opinions as belonging to one "political" cult or another, a characteristic of box thinking, of a pedestrian mind. Here, I fear we have someone motivated to establish intellectual credibility, and failing. But gibberish really doesn't make for much discussion, so perhaps he should return to the drawing board, if he wants his ideas, whatever they are, "debated".

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March 13, 2010
Votes: +4

Grandma Jefferson said:

	Chris! sorry for the typo...;-)
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March 13, 2010
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john kelley said:

... "The vanishingly small number of Americans who genuinely desire liberty and peace, and who also understand what those great values require in terms of both political theory and political reality, have desperately grasped at any sign, no matter how miniscule, that a sufficient number of their fellow citizens might awake in time to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. There is no reason of any significance to find such signs any longer." (Arthur Silber, August 4th, 2007) .... mjosef said: "That is all that we have on the micrometer Left?" Martin White said: "My points are larger ones that seem to inhabit the tiny section of intellectual land that can be characterized as the "left."" .... Oh, give me nano shards of existential heft. .... "Will you, won't you, do you, don't you know when a head's dead?" (Ginger Baker)

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March 13, 2010
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chasm said:

Go away, house niggers Go home, Mr. White and mjosef, whoever you are. The folks who live here recognize a lickspittle when they see one. Take your self-aggrandizing bullshit back where you came from -- back into the big house where you can sit at the feet of the master and shine his boots and wipe his ass and bend over and spread 'em when he tells you to, all the time telling yourself that you are someone of consequence. Don't come out here to the fields pretending that you're something special. We're not stupid out here, and no one here is impressed by your insipid posturing or your pedantry. The whole of your thoughts wouldn't fill a thimble, let alone encompass the vast intellectual output of the Left. You are not here to contribute. You come to spew your hatred and bigotry, to punish the few remaining people whose very existence exposes your pretense. Few as we are, we must be made fewer, we must be ridiculed, emasculated, and silenced, lest we by our existence make obvious your apostasy. That is why you hate us, that is why you fear us, and that is why you have come to blunder about in our midst flailing your arms and legs hoping to do some damage. Go away, house niggers. Get back in the house and leave us to discuss matters of true consequence. Your masters are calling, and these ideas are beyond your ken anyway. Content yourselves with the thought that a fluffer to the fat cats is almost a fat cat himself. Just forget about us -- we're microscopic anyway, are we not? -- and get on with your big fantasy. What will it matter in the end? Seriously, scram. Go home.

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March 14, 2010
Votes: +3

Jimmy Montague said:

	Yeah! What chasm and Grandma J. said! I think it means "Go pee in yer hat."
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March 14, 2010
Votes: +1

woman of the woods said:

cud and complicity Catine@aol.com wrote: I only wish that I had the ability to express how Chris Floyd touches me. He is more "AMERICANESE" then say the general American. His perception level is so uniquely original...and I am not surprised that his own culture does not pick up on his spiritual frequency and insight. Also there is something writers and thinkers in Czarist Russia somehow projected that became classical to those who are somewhat familiar with Old Timeless Russian Literature. In fact, Pushkin's "Station Master's Daughter" is so contemporary today that one in our Uncle Sam's Land can see this pattern often. For example, I found a book some time back with some photography about Russia, along with the Station between Moscow and St. Petersburg, that Pushkin used as a background for this incredible short story. If my memory serves me, it was done by a New Yorker and two from Europe but what still gives me insights to the different family values that exist in Russia....even now, beyond smearing publicity...is that the conclusion by these writers was that.... no Big deal...the young girl, was taken away from her father by a spoiled rich man, became his mistress, had children and they would come to the grave during Easter...in a fine carriage, richly dressed children and placed flowers on the grave. To them, the wealth was foremost...never mind her broken heart and her father's...I am sure with the description that Pushkin gave her, she felt the whore status of her life WITH SHAME. Back to Chris Floyd...there is something that is akin in Chris Floyd that the Russians have in spirit....and I have heard that many Appalachia songs are much like the Russians expressing the suffering. I do believe it would take an unusual depth of thinking to understand this man, along with his ruthless truths ....that too many Americans '"sugar over" and suffer sugar diabetes of the soul.

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March 15, 2010
Votes: +3

Granma Jefferson said:

	... ..Wonderful post, Catine, and chasm & Jimmy--awesome! ;-)
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March 16, 2010
Votes: +2