The Progressive Pajama Boy Era Is Over

YWu6-4v8Obama’s approval ratings and MSNBC’s viewer ratings are in a close race to the bottom of Death Valley. It’s only a question of which set of obnoxious hipsters with a head full of bad policy ideas and no real life experience will be fired first; the Maddow crew or the White House staff.

The progressive pajama boy era is over. The asexual messenger bag toting wonk has met an ISIS Jihadist and run home to its non-traditional family. Liberalism isn’t over, but its contenders are trying to butch up their act. The second coming of Hillary is accompanied by bellicose rhetoric about Putin and Syria. Leon Panetta, her gnomish errand boy, is sneering at Obama as an egghead too busy dithering about what not to do to be able to actually do anything about ISIS.

Democrats are adjusting to a new reality of less nuance and more centrist politics. So is MSNBC.

If Obama loses the Senate, then his leftist backers also lose their death grip on the Democratic Party. And that’s why they’re panicking so badly. Progressives proved that money and media bias could let them get away with anything. But then they lost in 2010, barely hung on in 2012 and are heading for a beating in 2014. If they can’t buy the Senate now, the Democratic Party will have to correct its course.

A sober analysis of the Big Billionaire Left shows that they were good at getting Obama elected, but not much else. Like the USSR, they could pour a lot of energy and capital into inefficiently getting one big thing done, but they aren’t much good at doing a lot of little things. Their hijacking of democracy ran into trouble the moment they tried to push past the White House. It was only the White House’s hijacking of democracy by trying to function as a unilateral dictatorship of pen and phone that extended their influence beyond their initial defeat in 2010. And that came with its own price in popularity.

Obama’s arrogance isolated him politically. He insisted on running everything and is stuck with the bill. In countless speeches he demanded more power and authority; his sinking approval ratings reflect the growing willingness of even his own supporters to hold him responsible for his unilateral policymaking.

As the election approaches everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. Not only did Obama’s aggressive efforts to stoke racial unrest on the border and in Ferguson to turn out the minority voters who generally sit out midterm elections backfire, but the resulting messes deepened the popular impression that he was in over his head. Now instead of pivoting from Global Warming to a minimum wage to some offensive thing that some local Republican somewhere said, the media is stuck in an Ebola-ISIS cycle that reminds Americans on a daily basis that everything really is out of control.

The critiques from even friendly media outlets keep throwing around words and terms like “detached,” “in over his head,” “flailing” and “too smart for his own good.” That word salad adds up to the same message as the one being peddled by Leon Panetta; America needs strong experienced leadership.

And Obama isn’t it.

Obama is already receding into the imagination of liberals as the youthful folly of a political Age of Aquarius when millennials tried to levitate the Pentagon by electing a brash inexperienced community organizer to fix the world. They are writing him off as an act of political naiveté by a war-traumatized generation still unaware of the practical limits of the real world.

And that infuriates and terrifies the left worse than anything else.  The left can thrive on hostility, but it hates being dismissed by its fellow travelers as naïve idealists who don’t understand the real world.

But that’s the historical revisionism that had been prepped and waiting in the wings all along for Obama. What the right does wrong is always attributed to malice, while the left’s worst atrocities from the Gulags to the killing fields are put down to idealism gone wrong. Obama takes his place somewhere between Mao and Eugene McCarthy as the Democratic Party rushes to reinvent itself as the adult party of serious experienced political leaders like Hillary Clinton. Its message is that it’s time for the Obama pajama boys to grow up and compromise on their progressive politics by voting for Hillary in 2016.

The left has few options left. Money can only buy so many votes. If Obama’s base stays home, then the magical turnout operation starts looking like a lot of political consultants taking credit for the Oprah tilt of black women coming out to vote for Obama. And there is no obvious replacement for Obama.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio was supposed to inaugurate a new era of progressive politics by pushing so far to the left as to make Obama look like Bob Dole. Instead Bill de Blasio has been tagged by the same progressive incompetent moniker as Obama. The analogy is being drawn explicitly by liberals even in left-of-center publications like the New York Times and the Daily News.

Bill de Blasio didn’t extend the progressive lifespan. He was elected just in time for everyone to be primed to expect the Obama progressive cycle of self-righteous cover-ups, thin-skinned media wars and grandiose policy announcements that go nowhere. The political future of the progressive mayor has been Obamanized off the scene. And that leaves few great hopes for the progressive cause.

Elizabeth Warren still fakes left, but she seems to know her limitations. 2018’s midterm election without a president on the ballot and a different demographic makeup for the electorate could easily topple her. If she tried for the big chair, she would be run over by harder Democrat candidates faking centrist. And without Warren, all that’s left are clown acts like Bernie Sanders and Seattle Socialist Kshama Sawant.

The progressive resurgence was powered by leftist billionaires and non-profits chasing power. They have the money and the organization, but they don’t have the candidates. Six years of Obama produced compelling conservative figures like Ted Cruz, Trey Gowdy and Mike Lee. There’s no equivalent to them on the left. It’s why liberal billionaire election spending is characterized more by the candidates that they are against rather than the ones that they are for. They have spent so much time and money battling the Tea Party that they have failed to build a post-Obama political future for their movement.

The left isn’t going anywhere, but its current incarnation as the party of diversely wimpy progressives who compensate for their lack of experience with their enthusiasm and their political connections is. Obama has done a great deal for the political agendas of the left while doing a great deal of damage to the political ambitions of the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party won’t forget that. Obama was thinking about transforming America, but the Democratic Party is thinking about the next four years.

The liberal verdict on the age of Obama has been written. It may change with history, but for now the Hope and Change period will be praised for its idealism and its innovative political organizing, but dismissed for its policy incompetence and its inability to listen to voices outside its bubble. It was an elitist phenomenon whose diversity was faked with media imagery and the party will now work to try and recapture its lost position among the rest of the country, particularly among white Democrats.

The progressive will continue to haunt American politics, but his current hipster incarnation is headed for extinction.

*

Don’t miss Shillman Journalism Fellow Daniel Greenfield on The Glazov Gang discussing “ISIS Rising”:

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  • Texas Patriot

    I’m trying to figure you out, Daniel. Do you write to deal with your own paranoia or to deal with real dangers and real fears. I suspect it’s both. But the result is absolutely hilarious and sobering at the same time. You’re one of a kind, my friend. Keep up the great work!

    • JB Ziggy Zoggy

      Paranoid? Midterm elections are next month. Say bye bye to the Senate. This election is a referendum on Obama. The Dems know it, which is why you keep denying it.

    • truebearing

      Try figuring yourself out first. Who but you would find something “hilarious and sobering at the same time?”

  • steelraptor from Saturn

    Daniel, I wish you were right, but…

    Republicans are just – on the political front – not that much better, if at all, to Democrats, it will be the same fawning and grovelling before Arab and Muslim dictatorships, and the like. Immigration will not be addressed, corruption as usual across the board.

    And there is still hardcore support for Obama, his popularity does not continue to slide, it remains steady, in the low forties among DP voters. That’s low but it’s not catastrophic. Also the catastrophe in higher education, the hijacking of faculties and student associations by left-wing fascism shows no sign of letting up, the media remains an unfunny joke. I could go on and on.

    Republicans have no more credibility than Democrats. Allan West is unfortunately not the voice of the Republicans, if only.

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    • marlene

      Too bad you gave up. Accordingly, stop complaining and do something. You know we can’t vote these democrats back in, that would be sending the wrong message. So pull up your pants and vote against them. Only the parties have multiple choices. The voter has only two.

    • Bamaguje

      Indeed the real Republicans – the Ted Cruzes, Sarah Palins, Michelle Bachmanns – do not control the GOP and do not drive its agenda.

      • truebearing

        It will be up to the voters to change that. As a nation we are getting what we asked for. There are signs that many people recognize their mistakes. The question is, how many and how thoroughly will they reject the lies of the Left.

    • Harry_the_Horrible

      The ‘Pubbies show no interest in rolling back the damage done by the the Left. Instead they just want to “fix” the “flaws” and “mistakes.”
      And they wonder why we’re looking for somewhere else to go?

    • truebearing

      And what is your solution? We all know about the problems, but solutions are what is needed, not lists of insurmountable problems.

      There is right of entitlement attitude in expecting this nation to continue on the right path forever, without any sacrifice or effort on the part of the citizens. Having the right beliefs is not enough to keep a republic on the right course. Too many on the Right seem to think that “being right” is all it takes. Thomas Jefferson had a decidedly different take:

      “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”

      He clearly didn’t believe liberty was an entitlement.

  • truebearing

    The Left is never effective when operating without the credible cover of hijacked causes and social disguises. Global Warming has highly unlikable windbags like Al Gore championing the doctored data, but little cooperation from nature — why has Gaia forsaken them? The hypocrisy of the so-called Women’s Movement and the maniacal fanaticism of the environmental Left have both become too apparent…and at odds with the needs or beliefs of average people. The Civil Rights Movement is a self-caricature, with greedy fools like Sharpton and Jackson showing up to protest every time a black man gets a parking ticket. The disguises have worn thin.

    Ebola and ISIS are stark reminders of human mortality, and the spread of both are directly the fault of leftist ideologues — primarily Obama. People wake up when faced with the prospect of dying in a pool of their own vomit, or being beheaded by members of an evil cult. People are paying closer attention now as another cold winter approaches. Flu seaeson is coming while Ebola is spreading. ISIS is unhindered by Obama’s idiotic Coalition Puppet Show. The fog has given way to cold, hard reality and the Left has no lies big enough to compete with the harshness of the current reality.

    The Left is reeling, but they have caused massive damage, and aren’t going anywhere. They will continue to destroy whatever they can, and we will feel the inertia of their destruction for decades, if not longer. They will take a new form to disguise their endless lust for power, but for now, they are outed and can’t avoid the immediate consequences of their massive failures. We shouldn’t rule out the possibility of a desperate lunge for permanent power, however. They don’t surrender power willingly.

    • MattBracken

      Two more years under the Traitor-in-Chief could be plenty of time to wreck this nation, no matter who wins in the senate. Especially with five black-robed tyrants supporting him on the SCOTUS.

      • truebearing

        I agree. As Obama and the Left lose cover, and popular support, they will get vindictive and desperate. Since nihilism comes naturally to leftists, more destructive policy is pretty much inevitable, but elections have consequences and Obama is the consequence of a foolish electorate. We will have to deal with it as best we can.

        I’m not suggesting we are out of the woods. Not by a long shot. Our schools are corrupted. The voters are poorly educated and getting addicted to handouts. There is great moral decay. There is still a real chance that Obama and his minions could decide to create an excuse for martial law and suspension of elections. Nothing they do surprises me.

        That being said, the Left is losing the advantage of hiding behind causes. They have been exposed by their own failures — though they may not see them as failures, the average American does. My point, and my interpretation of Daniel’s post, is that the Left has been weakened considerably. We have a chance to turn this around, but it won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight. As usual, it will take a good deal of sacrifice to reverse the nation’s direction.

        • odin2

          The left has permeated and politicized all aspects of government. It will be difficult bring back some sanity but we must do it.

        • I_Am_Me

          You’re a good guy truebearing. It’s a pleasure reading your comments.

          • truebearing

            Thanks.

        • Michael Garfinkel

          In 1776, only men who owned property were eligible to vote.

          Perhaps the Founding Fathers knew something that we have forgotten.

          • truebearing

            Yes, they knew plenty we have forgotten. They at least understood that those who have nothing to lose have little reason to respect what is earned. Those who have nothing to lose have failed to gain, which says something about their work ethic.

            At minimum we should require an intelligence test for voters. There is no benefit for a republic to have cretins, imbeciles, and idiots voting. The Democrats have irrefutably proven that.

          • Michael Garfinkel

            Single women are very much a part of the Democrat base, and I think it is fair to say that if the Congress of 1920 could have watched several hours of day-time TV, there would never have been a nineteenth amendment.

          • CapitalistPig

            Reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw….”If I knew then what I know now I woulda picked my own damn cotton”.

    • bigjulie

      Great post, TB! Your insightful back-ups to Daniel’s columns are thoroughly enjoyed, and this is yet another one. Thanks!

      • truebearing

        If I’m reading Daniel correctly, he is trying to encourage people. We risk falling into despair if all we ever do is obsess over all that is going wrong — there is more than enough to choose from. He is pointing out that there are signs of hope that the Left has overreached and discredited itself. We can throw off this yoke of oppression, but it won’t be automatic and it won’t be easy.

        I’ve been banging the drum of doom since Obama began his evil quest for power. It is a good thing to recognize indications of hope, regardless of how daunting the task of saving this nation may be.

        • cree

          I got his encouragement and from you too.
          “Transformation” failures gives hope but with overwhelming consequences so far. You’re right, it isn’t over. The risk is still great. Recovery will be hard.

          Our American ancestors used their hope for posterity; saving the nation they gave us must not fail. Especially, leftists kids don’t deserve fail; their parents have no idea what they’d be missing.

        • bigjulie

          It will take a lot more than encouragement! Not enough Conservatives really understand the depths to which the Lefties have plumbed to get us to this point. They have carefully left few stones unturned and have their minions thoroughly established, in order to influence the opinions of current and FUTURE voters. Their skills at propaganda are well-honed, while we have stubbornly clung to a general belief in “common sense” and assumed that everybody has it and nothing more needs to be done.
          The left has their agents in everything, and they are well-established! They have them in the schools, from primary grades on up through university, especially in journalism schools. They are firmly ensconced in media. Government is chock-a-block full of them, firmly established in Civil Service, with supervisors who see to it that dissenting opinions don’t go anywhere in the advancement chain.
          2014 and 2016 may be our last chance to clean this rot out from the top, and that is what it will take! And what do we have for “leadership”? John Boehner? Reince Priebus?? Mitch McConnell??? All well-established “Inside-The-Beltway” regulars who could switch sides in a heartbeat (or a check-writing) and have no demonstrable principles at all, let alone Conservative principles!
          You can take a leave from banging your “drum of doom” because the Republicans have a whole band of Gene Krupa wannabees who are already doing a “bang-up” job with the idea that Government is intended to micro-manage every citizen’s life and that is the only way to happiness. Getting Government out of the Welfare business and the Education business will be two very good starts towards REAL progress!

    • Elizabeth Bennett

      Late I know, but very well-said I must say

  • marlene

    A good article, but i kept getting the impression that much of it contained a how-to for the democrat party. Nevertheless, it’s generally good news and, I hope, true.

  • Bamaguje

    “The critiques from even friendly media outlets keep throwing around words and terms like “detached,” “in over his head,” “flailing” and “too smart for his own good” – DG.

    That’s why Obama complained the media wasn’t celebrating his ‘achievements.’

  • Michael Garfinkel

    I see the point. It’s optimistic in some ways, but insightful, as usual.

    I’m thinking Obama and company are so mediocre, and so corrupt, that they were, and are, a bit ahead of the declining curve, much as President Carter was.

    Of course, Obama has been far more of a detriment than Carter ever was.

    It’s quite true that the Democrat party has been very badly damaged. They will meet with disaster in this mid-term election, but their wounds go much deeper than that.

    Unfortunately, events really are spinning out of control, and its not at all clear that the country will recover sufficiently, and in time to head off a number of impending catastrophes of a military, economic, and political nature.

    And Obama has two more years to inflict more damage, deliberately, and through acts of omission.

  • Douglas Mayfield

    Yes, the Republicans may win some seats based on general public disgust. But that is not the right approach for long term political success.

    Instead they should be opposing the dealers in socialist poison, the Democrats, on intellectual and moral grounds, but they scrupulously avoid doing so.

    The Republicans have had control of the House, and the federal purse strings, for some time. What have they done to oppose Obama? Nothing.

    They did not defund Obamacare. They did not do a damned thing about the deficit. They did nothing at all but engage in cheap silly verbal posturing and cling to their elected offices to keep their perks including special health care and inflated pensions denied to the rest of us but paid for by our hard earned money grabbed at gun point.

    Most current Republican office holders are cowardly useless scared ‘me too’ RINOS. If we get more Republican Senators in November, the result will no different than what we have now which, in terms of opposition to the Democrats, is nothing at all.

    • mtnhikerdude

      Doug you nailed it. Republicans need to grow some testicles or be forced to wear “I am a scaredie cat sign ” , so we can recognize them.

      • lostlegends

        You don’t need signs to recognize them. Just watch their lips. Trust me on this.

        • I_Am_Me

          All Republicans, or just chickenshit RINOs?

  • I_Am_Me

    2014 will be a blip. American culture is self-centered, anti-American, obese and entitled and is being hollowed out by a two-headed dragon. The Left still has its hooks deep in education, news, entertainment, and government to continue is subversive program to incite a Leftist revolution. The RINOs and oligarchs are the other head of the dragon burning down America. The Ebola-ISIS Axis will likely only generate a temporary, fearful anti-Left hiccup.

    The only way to eliminate the dragon is to starve it.

    • laura r

      100% correct, i dont agree w/ daniel on this one.

  • MichaelVWilson

    Daniel Greenfield makes a common mistake: he assumes Obama is trying to be a good President. Wrong.

    Obama is trying to become America’s first dictator. The only way to pull it off is to instigate one crisis after another until one of them escalates to the point of “justifying” a declaration of Martial Law.

    Obama is NOT naive, in over his head, unqualified, out of touch, etc, etc, whatever adjective you prefer. He is evil.

    • Crazycatkid

      I did NOT at all get the impression that Daniel was making that error or any excuse for Obama. He was repeating how others (mainly leftists and media) will describe Obama in days to come. That is, as inept and naive. I doubt he sees Obama as merely inept and unqualified. One of the strengths of Daniel’s views, as it is expressed in his writing, is that he does recognize evil in the hearts and deeds of some men yet remains hopeful for the rest of us.

      • laura r

        i am not hopeful. end of case. its over, except for pajama boys.

    • laura r

      thankyou. even major radio hosts agree. michael savage & jeff kuhner. saying OB is incompetent is sugar coating it. why do that? PJ boy is alive well & thriving btw.

  • wralford

    Leftist elites who are candid with themselves know that their policies have negative consequences on the economy, but their object is power for its own sake. They think they know better and their unworkable ideas will work if enough people believe in them. Those who do not are marginalized if not eliminated, because their mere contrary thoughts are a threat.

    They therefore have good reason to hope that a few generations of public school dumbing-down/indoctrination combined with media bias and propaganda will have acclimated the population to accept their benign tyranny — and to consider freedom to be something that only favors “the rich.” So the false security of dependency is more than seductive for a significant proportion of Americans.

    The problem then, isn’t just the Left; it’s the body of the American people, whose fundamental values continue to erode. An increasing number of us have been corrupted to the point wherein we are not only unaware, but unable — and perhaps even unwilling — to see reality. Remember, much of what drives the Left is what they wish could be so and think should be so w/o consequences or limitations.

    It is a juvenile mentality, but in the end, Nature brooks no disobedience to her Laws. If we construct a society with unworkable economic policy, social norms that select us for extinction and national security theory that is based upon appeasing those who hate us, our way of life — and We the People ourselves will not survive.

    It remains to be seen how far along the American people have been successfully resigned to [or distracted from] our ultimate demise. Others are already within our borders waiting to replace us and our way of life.

    • I_Am_Me

      Well put.

      Who are these replacements and what do you think they would use for their way of life?

      • wralford

        I’ll give you a hint as to who they are; there are two major groups who are currently in the process of replacing us within our borders. If the Leftist mentality is juvenile, the mentality of the other groups is infantile.

        They may be ignorant and haunted by phantoms, but this makes them easy to lead. Most importantly, neither group believes in killing their own babies. They feel duty-bound to be prolific, in fact.

        A superior technology and a relatively more prosperous economy does no good to stave off the barbarians’ final assault if we are not here in sufficient numbers to resist them.

        • I_Am_Me

          Got it. One last question. Is one of those two groups the barbarian’s fifth column itself?

          • wralford

            Not sure what you mean, please elaborate.

          • I_Am_Me

            More directly, is one of the groups all the tens of thousands of Muslims coming in from the Middle East and Africa?

          • wralford

            Does that group fit my description? Both groups are not only coming here, they are reproducing prodigiously promptly upon arrival — while we, as Pat Buchanan put it, build more coffins than cradles.

            Competition within the biosphere is a continuous process and our species is not exempt.

          • I_Am_Me

            I am not finding any real Muslim reproduction rates in the United States. Big surprise there.

            Let me ponder this a bit longer.

          • Scar

            I believe that Wralford is correctly referring to blacks and hispanics. Both groups are quite prolific from a reproductive standpoint, and a majority of them are what Limbaugh refers to as “uninformed voters” (i.e. “easy to lead,” as Wralford stated).

          • wralford

            Planned Parenthood is blatantly targeting blacks. It is very hard to find statistics, but I did find this chart showing Muslim vs. non-Muslim population growth projections in the Western Hemisphere:

          • I_Am_Me

            No pic/link is showing up.

          • I_Am_Me

            I give up. The PC Police scrubbed the internet. These must be “racist” facts.

  • Chester

    This world was never meant for one as beautiful as pajama boy.
    http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8987/qv20.jpg

    • I_Am_Me

      Hilarious.

  • tagalog

    I hope Mr. Greenfield is right, but I’m not betting the ranch on the death of progressivism at this point. About half of the country, enough to swing an election to the left, likes what Obama stands for even if they don’t like Obama himself.

  • technodan

    Speaking of Obama’s “Hope and Change”, I found an interesting old book available online in electronic form. Its title is “Communist-Socialist Propaganda in American Schools” by Verne P Kaub, and it was first published in 1953. It chronicles the Socialist roots and teaching of the National Education Association (NEA), and in a few places I have read so far, it talks about how the term “change” means a shift to the left, to collectivism, and is, according to its proponents, “inevitable and desirable.”

    Judging by the character and left-leaning political views of many young people, the patient incrementalism put to work by Socialist teachers for the sake of “change” has been paying off quite well.

    The book can be read online at https://archive.org/details/communistsociali1953kaub

    • zoomie

      yup, in 3rd grade, 1968 , our teacher told us the constitution was a living breathing document. in 4th grade mrs sanchez had us say the pledge of allegiance in mexican. i got kicked out of school that year.

      • laura r

        this must have been in the south west. could have been a sue OP.

  • http://www.clarespark.com/ Clare Spark

    Progressives didn’t believe in progress, but aped the strategies of European aristocrats, bonding with “the people” against the industrial bourgeoisie. I wrote about this portentous development here: http://clarespark.com/2011/07/16/disraelis-contribution-to-social-democracy/: “Disraeli’s contribution to social democracy.” Maintaining the agrarian interest against “the money power” was their aim. So today we have yet more populism, all of it manifestly or latently anti-Semitic.

  • bigjulie

    Another spot-on analysis of what is going on with the Ebola Regime, Daniel, and an accurate and truly traceable history of their numerous and massive screw-ups! I only hope that the Right, despite leadership in Washington that can only be described as “piss-poor”, will see the error of its ways in 2012 when President Ebola could have been sent packing except for about 4 million Republican voters who just “sat it out” in a disastrous snit about Romney’s woosiness (lesson: don’t let the NYT pick the Right’s candidate in 2016).
    We will still be hobbled in 2015 if we do not have a way to get rid of Boehner and McConnell. These two have already proven that their main interests are self-aggrandizement and setting themselves up for lucrative lobbying gigs. Neither have indicated that they have much, if any, interest in furthering the fortunes of America…they have both got to go!

    • JB Ziggy Zoggy

      I cant figure out why Kentucky Republicans voted for McConnell instead of the Tea Party candidate. Inbreeding? Boehner is even worse. Talk about stupid voters. Only somebody with a single digit IQ could’ve voted for those wimpy, self absorbed Rinos.

    • truebearing

      Exactly. Now our job is to turn our fellow citizens from the deluded thinking that got us into this mess. Not an easy task. Pouting because our guy didn’t get the nomination, then refusing to vote, like a narcissistic toddler, is a big part of what has led to our current situation. The Right has to knock off the self-righteousness crap and start approaching our political reality with some steely-eyed pragmatism.

      • bigjulie

        Right on, right on…RIGHT ON!! We need a Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and a Trey Gowdy in leadership positions RIGHT NOW!!

  • DontMessWithAmerica

    As the song went, “If I were a rich man, tahdahtahthathaathahda…” I would hire you, Daniel, to sing and recite by my window twelve hours a day. Your piece gave me a lift, gave me hope, gave me a feeling of health and then I came back to reality. As some of the others here voiced, there are no encouraging alternatives and the demon ain’t dead. The best we can look forward to is inept fools trying to salvage a rapidly declining nation with possible mini-civil wars in different parts of the country.

    • I_Am_Me

      There are alternatives to your best case scenario. None of them are pretty that I can see.

  • M2000

    The end is coming for Leftism, and even if Democrats somehow win in 2014, they know they’re vulnerable to the public, and they know it’s wrong to let a President go rogue like this.

  • Debbie G

    Mr. Greenfield, I wish I was as optimistic as you. There are too many complacent Americans who have short memories. Evenutally, they will vote in another leftist scumbag with destructive policies thinking to themselves, “Maybe it will work this time.”

  • mtnhikerdude

    President Ebola , the “King Tut ” of America.

  • mtnhikerdude

    Thanks Daniel , ya gotta love it when the Left is soiling their undies ! When insanity completely undermines reality the entire Planet is doomed to chaos.

  • ADM64

    I hope this optimistic take on things is true; I’d object, though, that Hillary Clinton represents “experienced leadership.” She is no more experienced than Obama, every bit as radical, and even more irritating and boring. Please, no more affirmative action Presidents.
    More broadly, though, progressivism is far from dead and the political right, while generating some good candidates and working through issues, is far from having a coherent message and, more importantly, the attendant discipline to stay on it. If we truly want to defeat progressivism, we will have to kill it, not merely beat it in an election. That promises a much longer battle.

    • I_Am_Me

      It’s gonna take 60 years. That is, if the whole thing doesn’t implode/explode in the next decade or two. In either case, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, and the entire world is going to suffer greatly because of what we allowed the commies to accomplish all across the West.

  • Douglas J. Bender

    Ever heard of that saccharine group or semi-movement, “Up with People” (from the late 1980s or early 1990s, I think)? The progressive version, with Obama in the lead, would be “Up Yours, People”.

  • hrwolfe

    I did not see in this column one more important factor. The infiltration of our bureaucracies by dedicated leftists and activists that have risen up as they are in power. They have enacted policies that will take years to undo if we can get the Country to go along with their demise as many have been convinced they are correct. We seriously have a fair amount of restoration to do, think not? Just look to California. One big Sh–ing mess.

  • odin2

    To paraphrase Obama- lies have consequences.

  • CosmotKat

    Progressives are the people who have contempt for the truth and common sense.
    Great article, Danel and delicious to read for your erudite analysis and scathing satire.

  • physicsnut

    well, i wish they would SHUT UP then – i keep seeing their comments all over the place !

  • Joel Cairo

    The difficulty of the above premise is that the population may have decided that BHO is not for them, but that someone else may be able to produce the socialist earthly paradise. Thus, they may be all too willing to vote for Ms. Clinton 2 years from now, forgetting that she is probably no better, but might be more militaristic in the international stage.
    I am of the opinion that despite the demise of PJ Boy, there are still a lot of people who will vote liberal because they do not understand the fundamental flaws in a system based on idealistic dreaming and power accumulation.

  • NJK

    Hillary Clinton can dream all she wants, but she will never be president. She is him in a pant suit. She has Benghazi to answer for. We will not let that happen. Ted Cruz 2016.

    • Atikva

      Her involvement in the death of 4 Americans in Benghazi is not Mrs. Clinton’s only accomplishment (actually, if two American heroes had not disobeyed orders and saved the rest of the Benghazi consulate unarmed staff whom “the government” had abandoned to the mercy of heavily armed al-qaeda terrorists, it’s not the death of 4, but of of some 20 people that she would have to answer for).

      But there are more feats that endear her to the American people. There is her decision to install at the heart of the American government such a specimen as Huma Abedin, a practicing muslim from a family recently implanted in America with close ties to the Egyptian muslim brotherhood, which inevitably evokes a fifth column of the islamic kind.

      There is also her attachment for “women’s rights”, as demonstrated by her successful defense in 1975 of the rapist of a 12-year-old girl, whom she argued had encouraged the attack. Oddly enough, she hasn’t been heard at all concerning the cases of “honor killings” in the USA and elsewhere.

      About her concern for the middle class that forms part of her electorate, just ask her entourage, particularly her bodyguards, how nicely and tactfully she behaves toward the little people who serve and protect her.

      And let’s not forget that all these accomplishments have left her practically penniless.

  • Hard Little Machine

    They don’t give up power without a bloodbath.

  • 1Indioviejo1

    The right needs to boil down its ideological message to sound bites with a punch to them. We need the young folks to understand that the real compassion comes from freedom, free markets which will raise people from dependency, and all the wonderful things which come from Capitalism and Democracy. If we are to reach new generations we have to embrace the ideological war, the culture war, and the clash of civilizations with gusto.

  • Nixonfan

    Losing Obama and gaining Clinton Part Deux will be very bad for the GOP. Obama was the gift that kept on giving, while Bill Clinton is a formidable political force, and he won’t make Obama’s stupid mistakes.
    “I hate that man Obama more than any man I’ve ever met, more than any man who ever lived,” Bill told pals.

  • MLCBLOG

    i am excited to read this news.Yes! i hope it turns out to be true.

    As we said when wee children, Good riddance to bad rubbish. Yet there are some of that trash with souls I am sure.

  • http://longhornproject.org/ Robin Rosenblatt

    Shalom Will the left help with this?

    Texas Longhorn cattle will teach respect for animals and in turn respect for people. Building peace and respect for each other must start at the bottom. So, I really need your help with this, please share it.

    Help Bring Texas Longhorns to Israel. Arab/Israeli cattle ranches and their
    passive European cattle are under attack by jackals, wolves and Arabs/Bedouin. They are stealing our ancestral pasture and grazing land.

    These cattle do not fit Israel’s hostile desert environment.

    The Israel Longhorn Project can solve these problems.

    Texas Longhorn cattle have a smaller carbon footprint; they use
    less water, less land and are adaptable to Israel’s very hostile desert environment. Texas Longhorn can defend themselves and their calves by simply threatening with their sharp horns.

    We are working with; The Israeli Border Police, the New Shomrim, Israel’s Agriculture Department, the Prime Minister’s office, Chaim Dyan of AMBAL, (Israel Cattle Breeders Association), and many Israeli ranchers.

    Help us reach our goal of $275,000 to start the project. A nominal donation of $250 from 1100 generous supporters will get us started.

    The problem: http://youtu.be/hMF12Ru–yw

    Texas Longhorn cattle will allow our ranchers to use less land, feed and water while at the same time producing the same amount of beef.

    Robin Rosenblatt M.Sc. Hebrew University, School of Agriculture
    The Longhorn Project
    22 Yarnall Place
    Redwood City, CA 94063
    Tel: 650.631.9270 / 03.722.6108
    robin@longhornproject.org
    http://longhornproject.org
    Nonprofit 501(c) 3 #74-3177354

  • DowntotheBone

    Mr. Greenfield:

    From your mouth to God’s ears….

  • DoghouseRiley9

    Not so fast. The grade schools are left, the high schools, colleges, non-Evangelical churches, non-Fox news outlets, non-NewsCorp papers, non-Koch billionaires, all entertainment, government and most corporate bureaucracies, etc. Until that changes, it doesn’t matter if they lose an election or two They own the culture. And they get their people living or dead to vote.
    Unlike Obamacare, their super durper technology (“Catalist”) for influencing voters works perfectly. Why is that? Priorities.

    • I_Am_Me

      Let’s say now was not the time to start fighting back. Give the Left gay rights, gay marriage, and polygamy. What is the line in the sand for us? The Houston Mayor attacking the 1st Amendment? The next massive violation of the 2nd Amendment? We know what the end game of Marxists is. Freedom through Slavery. Conformity for Harmony. What will the defining issue be to ignite the Freemen to start fighting back?

  • Biff_Maliboo
    • I_Am_Me

      If the Russians or Chinese see that they will attack at daybreak.

      • Biff_Maliboo

        And I wouldn’t blame them at all.

    • ylem

      Pathetic.

  • CapitalistPig

    Another “hit the nail on the head” column by Mr. Greenfield. Hope it proves to be prophetic for the midterms. But then again, I thought Romney would pull it out in 2012.
    The Democrats have done a remarkably good job of creating “lofovo’s”– low info voters dependent on government & driven strictly by emotion & modern mainstream culture. That’s hard to overcome & i wouldn’t bet against whether we’ve passed the tipping point of the long slide into national decline.

  • WTFUAMERIKA

    And may we send them the way of the Whigs in Nov.

  • andrewwhitehead

    Obama(PBUH) insisted on doing everything…but he’s proved to be extremely lazy. Problem for him is he doesn’t trust anyone else (rightly so, they don’t trust each other, witness Hillary and Kerry), which is good for those of us who believe in small government.

  • ylem

    Thank the Lord, it’s almost over. The last 6-7 years has been a nightmare.