Making Cenk's remarks and even Cenk personally the villain is a diversion, a clever distraction, a red herring. The implied message of some of the diarists and other critics of the left is that the left constitutes a threat for merely speaking out about public policy.
The real issue, in my mind, vis-a-vis the recent flurry of diaries either for or against Cenk is whether the centrist faction in this country will support or suppress the right to honest public debate of Obama's policies.
This tendency to attack dissent from the left is anti-American (well, it is anti-American, but I know, not the best term) and is really starting to piss me off.
There is much to be desired of the Democrat's recent behavior on the Hill, and much they have done that is worthy of criticism and debate. The Obama administration's continuation of Bush's trivialization of habeas corpus, 4th amendment rights, the Geneva convention, as well as the refusal of the current administration to minimally enforce the constitutional protections with at least minimal investigations of the former administration's violations, to the point that our European allies are now murmuring in the background about the possibility of arresting Bush if he deigns to set foot in the European Union, says it all: The United States has failed in its vitally important duty to uphold international treaties regarding torture and treatment of prisoners. How quickly we abandon human rights when it's our guys doing it.
Not on my watch, baby.
And now there is the ominous threat coming from the Hill, enabled to a large extent by Obama himself with his conservative-leaning Catfood Commission, to wage an assault on FDR's New Deal, as well as the failure to resurrect the dismantled regulations on the corrupt, LAWLESS, OUT-OF-CONTROL banking industry, which is threatening the very foundation of the world economy and the American democracy itself, all of which is the source of the criticisms from American citizens.
Add to all this the now chronic habit of advance capitulation to the Banana Republic's outrageous, blatant attempts to further weaken and oppress the middle class and the poor without even the slightest show of a dignified, strong stance for the People's interests, and we have a resulting horrid situation truly worth the deserved, loud reproach and outcry of the People, even when some make such dissent known in the inartful manner in which Cenk has indulged.
(Calling out the first lady, Cenk? Good fucking grief, man!).
Fighting against Cenk's crudely expressed but justified arguments serves only to throw up a smokescreen against the real problem. Don't shoot the messenger. Lord knows we have damned precious few of them allowed on the oligarchy's god-damned self-serving broadcast system of television and radio.
Ah, but I get it now: We should all remain silent on policy as long as we have a Democrat in control of the executive branch, because otherwise we are helping the corporations defeat him. Gee, that's brilliant logic.
Newsflash: This is an open democracy, not a fascist regime, and we value the freedom to have national debates about policy. That freedom defines us. If by some twisted logic it is thought that we must remain silent about the excessive domination of the wealthy class in order to, paradoxically, keep the corporations out of control, the powerful, moneyed, fat cat oligarchy has already won. If they have attained so much power that you cower in fear, not of the plutocrats, but of those brave few who dare voice their opinions in dissent, lest the corporate interests somehow miraculously subvert that speech to serve their interests, the game is over already (and in fact, some of us think that isn't far from the truth -- we live in a plutocracy).
This is not the time to be silent in the face of the advancing fascist (yes, I use the term in the classic definition) elements in our midst (and to be clear, no, I'm NOT calling President Obama a fascist - I'm referring to the goddamned power hungry Neoconservatives). Read the preceding linked article, and then consider my assertion that this is the time to stand and be counted. Most people who would be influenced by the corporate interests don't listen to Cenk. They listen to Fox, or CNN, or even more likely, they listen to right wing radio. Check out the ratings.
Frankly, I find the rationale to silence critics to be extremely offensive, manipulative, and even dangerous since that attitude undermines the very foundation of liberalism and democracy.
The critics of the left obviously have no idea what my "best interests" are, because my interests revolve around some very basic principles of progressivism, one pillar of which is to protect the right to free public debate over government policy, which is posited to be allegedly in support of the public interest. But if the public is discouraged from debating the acts that are done in its name, how can anyone argue such acts truly serve the public, unless we've become a fascistic regime while I was sleeping. How fascinating that the Orwellian excuse is erected by some that the use of free speech (by Cenk or any other who exercises the right of dissent), in the form of criticisms of policies that serve the plutocratic interests, somehow in themselves serve those same plutocratic interests.
Not fucking buying it, baby.
Let's not become a League of DKos OrangeShirts who seek to discourage open, free debate. As long as I have a voice, and the freedom to use it, I will speak out against the oligarchical interests to which so many are willing to submit.
Update#1: Thanks for making this my first rec list diary. It was unexpected. My apologies if I can't reply to all the worthy comments, whether for or against my remarks. I've never been the fastest talent with the keyboard. The sad fact is, I'm very slow, and my computer crashed in the middle of all this. My thanks to the DKos community.