"This ain't no foolin' around"

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
this ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain't got time for that now

"Life During Wartime," the Talking Heads

Just for the uninitiated:

THIS IS NOT A SAFE SPACE.

Unlike Shakesville, I don't believe in that. I adhere more to the Balloon Juice style of commenting. Disagree, snark, call people mofo's if you feel like it (or think you have a good reason). Even me, if you so desire. In their comment threads, there are very few rules, and you gotta stand up for yourself. I appreciate that.

That doesn't mean you get away with whatever "isms" (by this I mean nasty ones: race, sex, et al) your little heart desires. For starters, the commentariat themselves will come down on trolls so hard they drive them under the rocks whimpering. I've seen it.  John Cole and company don't need long lists of rules that turn their blog into a vast echo chamber. (Unintentionally, to be sure, but that's the end result.)

What started all this was the fact that I firmly believe letting the Repugs win this next election would mark the beginning of the end of this country (although if we go over the debt ceiling cliff, the end might begin far sooner than that).

So Obama disappointed you. So-frakking-what? If you think you can get Russ Feingold or Howard Dean in there (either now or in 2016) you're certainly welcome to try. (Personally, I would fall down and worship at President Bernie Saunders' feet, but you and I know hell would freeze over before he could win the general election.) Truthfully, though, I think that ship has sailed. I think, between Citizens United, the ongoing deification of Saint Ronnie, thirty years of Republican malfeasance, and the Fake Noise Propaganda Machine, it is now impossible to get a true progressive elected in this country.

I mean, when Fox, Rush Limbaugh, and more than 50% of the newspaper columnists spread standard Republican lies like "Tax cuts generate revenue," "Republicans want to save Medicare, not destroy it," and "Maybe Obama wasn't born in Kenya, but he was raised there," and "Obama is a soshulist,"  and a great many people believe it, you're beating a dead horse. If this is what the Republican authoritarians are doing to him (and admittedly his race plays a commanding role in all this) when he's not a fire-breathing leftist, what would they do to someone like Feingold?

For starters, Fox, CNN, Republican talk radio, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post would become 24-hour Feingold smear machines.

What we need is a pragmatist...and Obama is certainly that.

More than that, constant complaining ain't gonna do crap, folks. Neither is threatening to sit the election out, unless you truly want Romney--or any Republican, for that matter--in there. I do not understand this...really, was eight years under Dubya so wonderful you want to revisit it?

(And don't give me this nonsense about "Bush's 3rd term." Rachel Maddow begs to differ. This segment was actually taped last year, and since then financial reform, the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell," and other accomplishments have been added to the list. Oh yeah, since that last video was taped...Osama bin Laden got offed, too.)

I commented with a truncated version of the above on Shakesville. This is what I said:

Because the stakes are...being disappointed and witnessing the end of this country. 

If Romney (or Bachmann or someone else) gets in and manages to ram through the Paul Ryan budget, what then? 

But by all means, keep complaining about Obama.

 Apparently, even if what you say is true, the "safe space" must be protected at all costs. I'd never heard of that particular comment restriction before, and could hardly believe it existed even after I'd read it. If that's the way you feel, fine, but it doesn't change the fact that in this country, with its firmly entrenched two-party system, if you vote for, say, the Green Party candidate--or, to use a more infamous example, Ralph Nader--you're simply wasting your vote. (If you want to try to change that to a parliamentary system, go for it--maybe President Saunders will sign the legislation.) Also, if you sit out the next election because of a fit of anti-Obama pique, and the Republicans win--in your own small way, you've helped bring that about.

(This is why, I just realized, the Pandagon discussion threads seem a great deal livelier...because Amanda Marcotte doesn't adhere to this counterproductive idea.)

It seems to me it would be more effective to regulate people on a case-by-case basis (or ban, if you feel like you have to) instead of a blanket exercise in rigidity.

Well, whatever. Shakesville is still a good blog, and I would urge all of you to read it.  Just remember that if you say anything, you gotta scrub it till it hurts.

(Also: don't mention "the blogmistress's vast echo chamber" at Shakesville, or the hammer will come down.)