I've made a couple of extensive comments the last couple of days to some diaries that i was esp. inspired by, and i copy them here (with small edits), to let folks who won't wade down to the 500th or 700th comment in a thread also read them if so inclined.. :->
---- First, to Femlaw's excellent diary that was on the Reclist last night (and still there this morn): Vote 2010 Starts Now & OFA is Training the Army
Femlaw- rock on! Loving these action diaries about the midterm election that are now coming up, they are making more psyched than all the doom, gloom, and miserable prognostications in the corporate media, and among those more faint of heart even on our side.
Sure, the meta-folks can discuss all they want about how much more PresO and folks could have gotten got done -- but my feeling about this kind of stuff always to some degree is hey folks, how about YOU run for Pres, or whatever you want, pour your heart and soul into the race, win and then effect the change? i mean -- it's one hell of a lot easier to sit and criticize from the comfort of an anonymous keyboard, you know, than win a race, and govern a divided electorate, with a big fraction of corporate media blaring lies through a loudspeaker all day and night (and so much of the rest being too weak-willed to challenge it).
I don't begrudge constructive criticism, if that's where it's coming from -- i will always continue to give my own, too -- but i also have better things to do than engage in endless circular firing squad discussions. i respect my Pres and his wisdom, compassion, intelligence, toughness, and humanity an enormous amount. as well as Speaker Pelosi, and many other upright folk in the Dem leadership, and in the rank and file -- e.g. Dingell, Grayson, Weiner, Barney Frank, and on the other side of the Mall Franken, Sherrod Brown, Barb Boxer, Klobuchar, Kerry, and of course Bernie Sanders (officially Independent, yes i know), , are some that i can name just off the top of my head. there are many, many others who rock too, are truly working for the American people, and a better world, as best they can in the face of massive Repub obstruction.
While i've had moments of sheer annoyance and real doubt in the last couple of years, since The Turnaround, as i see what happened starting with the SOTU in Jan of this year, i do feel PresO especially has found his groove, is willing to stand and fight, not just play too nicey and talk pleasantries about 'bipartisanship' (it would be great if the other side responded to this -- but they don't, perhaps less now than ever.. though perhaps it's always really this way cf. Frederick Douglass quote about power never conceding anything without a struggle).
To me, he is already now a Pres for the ages, for all he has done in his short 17 months in office. and i am willing to fight in the trenches hard for him, and all the Dems who rock so hard -- and really, for anyone who voted for HCR (as far is it goes, so far) -- this year again.
So -- thx to you and others who are inspiring me and others to get ready to fight this one as hard as we did the last.
Peace--
X
----------------- Shorter comment in the same spirit, to another
motivating and inspiring diary by WMTrialLawyer:
W- i'm completely with you -- deeds, not words
We can sit and discuss all the meta we want, but it's the shock troops on the ground that make the dif. in elections, as we really did see (among other causes) in the 2008 election. and that's what moves us incrementally forward in social progress, vs. taking steps backward like during the Dark Times of the first 8 yrs of this century.
I want MORE and BETTER Dems, and i'm willing to do the footwork to get there -- particularly for my Sen, B. Boxer who f'ing rocks.
Thx -- great and inspiring words. Count me in. :->
----------------- And from the 'other direction', a response to this sharp critique of PresO by Shiz, a diarist who is often one of my favorites (and, i'm glad to say, rec'd my comment, even with our disagreement in this particular case :> ):
Shiz- appreciate your sentiment, but can't agree fully. my comment is coming so low in this thread that i doubt it'll get read much, so i won't give links to recent diaries showing what the Pres has done, etc., but they're out there.
I think you are fully in your rights to push hard for the change you want to see -- but i do believe my Pres is doing the best he can, is not part of any machine but his own measured long-term vision for how to effect change in a bitterly divided country. (the tone has been very dif since Jan 2010 than before, in fact).
But -- i do appreciate your passion. in fact, i fwd'd your recent anti-rightwing rant to a whole lotta friends -- that was a DAMN good one. :->
[And here was my preface when i sent that rant to friends:
"I definitely do NOT agree with every single bit of this piece (copied
below), and certainly would not myself express things in this way in any public setting -- but i do agree with several of the essential points, even if stated more strongly than i would, normally.
But just like the "Fuck The South" rant that got passed around after the
2004 election (available verbatim and i hope forever at fuckthesouth.com),
they can be cathartic to read, expressing many of the angry emotions any
normal decent person feels when a law such as the AZ immigration one is
passed. so i hope you take it in that spirit, as you will, if it helps your psychological state. :> "
----- Finally, "bonus" comment, about my feelings on PresO, to an excellent BWD diary of a few days ago: He really can't be their president
I've come slowly to realize that he will most likely be the best Pres in my life..
Whether i live 60 or 80 yrs, stretching back to the 70's (and likely earlier) and forward for the next 30+ -- i have come to realize recently -- i very much doubt there will be any Pres that will inspire me with his words and actions as much as BH Obama. sigh. i don't know it for a fact -- but i just have come to realize we live in a special time and moment. and i appreciate that.
BWD - don't know if you read your comments at all, part of me hopes not - but like so many, i'm just so glad you're back and post, and exactly in the same way and with the same tone and words that you want. still the single diary i most want to read on any given day. :->
Peace.
X
----------------- And with that, i gotta get back to my 8 month old nephew who is demanding attention, and trying to add his own bit here to the diary -- later, laddie, much later!!! ;->