No need to go to conspiracy theory to explain Liberal loss

The "progressive" left can't believe that Americans didn't come to adopt their agenda wholesale, and that their agenda would be rejected so completely by Americans. Typically for those who have always placed themselves as the moral superiors of their nation, the fault can not be theirs. Their truth.  Republicans have conspired  to thwart the greatness to which the progressive left led. Except for one glaring post election factoid. Numbers. Democratic Party numbers. That is not conspiracy. That is open and forthright rejection. Too bad Obama has to pay the price for jumping into bed with the minority left-wing of the Democratic Party. If Obama is smart he will shift his camp to the moderate majority and lead the path towards successful compromise with the new House and encourage the same behavior with in the Senate come January.

I think Michael Gerson is lamenting the fact that he didn't make Salon's hack 30. Obama has failed in his first 2 years because of his liberal/progressive tendencies? Really? Health care reform was a major giveaway to the private insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. This, is spite of overwhelming support for the public option.(A liberal position, negotiated away to gain support from conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate.) Banking Reform. Making TBTF institutions pay for wreaking havoc on the economy by demanding stricter regulatory restrictions on speculative investments? Expecting bondholders to suffer and absorb some of the losses? Too punitive, and the result was taxpayers footing the bill for corporate excess. How liberal of the Obama administration. Upholding the rule of law, and holding individuals accountable for possible war crimes? (You know, torture, indefinite detention, rendition.) "We're looking forward." And by extension, continuing the policy of the Bush administration.

Until the liberal/progressive community abandons trying to win based on facts and reason, no meaningful progressive reform is possible. The recent mid term election was a clear repudiation of results based on persuasive reasoning. We will now see a push to reel in spending, give more tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%, and make the middle class pay for the excesses of crony capitalism by slashing social programs. You want to talk about class warfare? The catfood commission is proposing that retirees wait another 5 years to collect SSI. (A 20% cut in benefits.) And there is talk of not paying back the SSI Trust Fund on bonds coming due. That's called stealing. The trust fund is every working class individuals contributions to the system, lent to the government, by law, and now they're telling us the government is going to default on an obligation? I can't wait to see China's reaction.

"Until the liberal/progressive community abandons trying to win based on facts and reason, no meaningful progressive reform is possible."
This could be your best posted comment ever.
I beat the catfish commission to the punch and filed for retirement with disability to get the cash flow started early while there still is cash to flow. I am stockpiling catfood. Can't tell the difference between the discount tuna package and the feline version.

I think Nanute's 1st paragraph highlights generally why the majority came to reject Obama's policies on reform. Nothing was really being reformed and the people saw through it and felt they were being "pieced off" with a health care bill they didn't understand so business could continue as usual behind the smoke and mirrors. Which is probably why the black community didn't come out in the numbers they did to elect Obama, and why the majority of Democrats got as much distance from the policies as they could to fight their own elections. The biggest or closest fight for Dems during the election had nothing to do with Obama's policies. They were fought over Latino interests and keeping the borders open. Harry Reid took home the trophy on that. The one case where the majority of Americans understood the situation and wanted the rule of law enforced but, have been denied for years.