threevalued's Blog tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2009:/talk/blogs/threevalued//2853 2009-01-08T20:12:03Z Movable Type Pro 4.21-en We are the constituency tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2009:/talk/blogs/threevalued//2853.250930 2009-01-08T20:02:22Z 2009-01-08T20:12:03Z Josh asks whether there is a constituency for building green infrastructure as part of the stimulus. The answer is: we must be the constituency. This is precisely the moment when the careful movement building of the primaries and general must... threevalued Josh asks whether there is a constituency for building green infrastructure as part of the stimulus. The answer is: we must be the constituency. This is precisely the moment when the careful movement building of the primaries and general must begin to pay off, if it ever will. Every one of us must contact our representatives to let them know that we endorse these measures, and contact our friends to urge them to do the same (after due reflection, of course). We must not adopt the attitude (implicit, i’m afraid, in Josh’s post) that congressional action is a spectator sport for us to sit back and enjoy or despair about. Yes we can!

]]> What is Obama up to? The Warren Debate and all that tag:www.talkingpointsmemo.com,2008:/talk/blogs/threevalued//2853.249038 2008-12-21T04:19:11Z 2008-12-21T04:41:06Z This originated as a comment on Greg's post, which I couldn't get the system to accept. It seems to me that the discussion (not just here) misses a key point: Obama is not about "kumbaya" for the sake of... threevalued This originated as a comment on Greg's post, which I couldn't get the system to accept. It seems to me that the discussion (not just here) misses a key point: Obama is not about "kumbaya" for the sake of peace and love; he is about making government an effective tool to deal with the urgent issues that require governmental action, but don't necessarily involve people's emotional and ideological commitments.

]]> I was struck by the fact that at the end of Greenwald's post he says the following:

Ultimately, the reason politics is unavoidably "divisive" is because people have really divergent and irreconcilable views on passion-provoking controversies. That's what politics is. It's what it always has been. At some point, Obama either will or won't repeal DOMA and don't-ask-don't-tell; he either will or won't rescind Bush's anti-abortion regulations and appoint new Supreme Court Justices likely to re-affirm Roe; he either will or won't close Gitmo; he either will or won't withdraw from Iraq; he either will or won't investigate Bush war crimes; he either will or won't deliver on his promises to unions, etc. People feel very strongly -- and very differently -- about those issues. 
Notice that this list does not include: solving the economic crisis, dealing with global warming, or improving education, to name just three salient issues. Admittedly, people's ideological passions can intrude even in relatively objective cases like these, and one person's "pragmatism" may be another's "betrayal". But there is still a clear difference, imho. Obama seeks to build coalitions that can deal with problems of this order, without the intrusion of issues of the sort in the Greenwald quote above.

]]> McCain is NOT Bush III, he's ... tag:tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com,2008:/talk//17.188379 2008-04-11T03:59:36Z 2008-04-11T03:59:36Z threevalued ]]>