OK, We’ll Call You ‘Progressives,’ but You’re Still the Same Old Liberals

Liberal activists – the political left’s extreme political left – ask that everyone stop referring to them as liberals. They now want to be called progressives. According to a June 22 Washington Times article, Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) co-director Roger Hickey says the word progressive “goes beyond the traditional concept of liberalism, which we also subscribe to, and it has an emphasis on empowering people in the political and economic sphere.” To paraphrase Billy Joel, everybody's talkin’ ‘bout the new label. Funny, but it’s still liberalism to me.

The liber – I’m sorry, progressive – CAF hosted a conference last week called “Take Back America 2007.” The group invited the Democratic presidential candidates to explain their now progressive policy prescriptions for the country. A close examination of the policy solutions offered by both CAF and the leading Democratic presidential contenders, however, reveals their solutions to be nothing more than the same socialist pursuits promoted by the left for over 40 years.

CAF’s website lists five issue priorities: Energy Independence, Healthcare for All, Revitalizing Education, Social Security and Take Back Medicare. Its “10-Point Plan” for energy independence includes very unliberal but certainly progressive points such as:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) would never have thought of those!

CAF’s solutions for its other four priorities also sound eerily similar to the rhetoric Reid, Pelosi and others in Congress – including the Democratic presidential frontrunners – have churned out for years. CAF advocates universal health care, increased spending to fix public education’s ills, no Social Security “privatization” and government control of prescription drug prices.

The Democratic presidential candidates are attempting to secure the support of the leftest of the left by repackaging their policies as progressive. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said during her speech at the CAF convention, “We’re going to send them packing in January 2009 and return progressive leadership to the White House.” Of course, whomever wins the 2008 presidential election will “send them packing,” just like President Bush sent Clinton and her husband “packing,” since Bush is constitutionally barred from running for a third term. Details.

Clinton’s website spotlights her seemingly progressive new ideas for the economy and jobs in a plan called “Innovation Agenda 1.0.” Her Innovation Agenda merely proposes a slew of new spending programs, increased government intrusion in the free market, and even throws in a sex and racial quota for education and research grants. Perhaps Clinton’s Innovation Agenda version 2.0 will include proven economic stimulants such as lower or no taxes on incomes, capital gains and estates.

The website of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is equally devoid of any policy proposals that thinking Americans would consider progress. Like the liberals who currently lead Congress, Obama advocates universal health care, energy “independence” that is somehow achieved by not utilizing our own energy resources and a “comprehensive” immigration policy that grants amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens. Progressive? As my grandmother used to say, wishing doesn’t make it so.

Robert Borosage, another CAF co-director, kicked off the CAF conference by telling his progressive minions, “The conservative era that defined our politics for the last quarter century is at its end…The right has failed. Their policies are bankrupt.” If only the facts were on his side.

First, a June 13 Rasmussen poll found that just 19 percent of Americans say the Democratic-led Congress is doing an excellent or good job. In the same poll, only 13 percent of American voters said that Congress has passed any legislation over the past year that will significantly improve life in America. So much for the Democrats’ vaunted “100 Hours Agenda.” If the conservative era is at its so-called end, then liberalism is surely receiving its last rites.

The second fact dispelling Borosage’s myth that conservatism has failed is found in the head-to-head poll results between the leading Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. The latest Real Clear Politics (RCP) national poll average shows Republican Rudy Giuliani beating Clinton by one half of one percent.

Further, the latest Rasmussen poll of likely Republican voters shows that the decidedly more conservative Fred Thompson now leads Giuliani by one percent. Thompson trails Clinton in the RCP national poll average by just 5 percent. Thompson’s conservative message is clearly resonating with an American public eager to return to legitimately conservative leadership.

In truth, leftist activists want to abandon the term liberal because it carries decades of worn, big government baggage in the psyches of American voters. The term progressive, the activists believe, sounds more focused and forward-thinking. In fact, progressive policies are no different whether they are labeled progressive, leftist, Democratic or liberal. They all share the same goals – eliminate individual freedom and liberty, secure government control of the economy and decimate our national sovereignty by dismantling our military and opening our borders.

The progressives may claim to represent the next phase and a new wave. It’s still liberalism to me.

Heads up item of interest for those who haven’t seen it:

http://www.hillaryis44.org/ Says: “

Please Note: We are not affiliated with the Hillary For President Exploratory Committee, or any official Hillary Clinton organization in any way.

Hillary for President campaign http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=1872 “

5/31/2007 Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Katharine McPhee and Caroline Rhea to Join Hillary at Launch of Club 44 Event to Kick-Off Efforts to Reach Out to Young Women

http://www.hillaryis44.org/index.php?paged=5
Thursday, April 19th, 2007

Hillary Is 44!

Welcome to our website - Hillary is 44.

We started this website because we believe Senator Hillary Clinton will be an excellent 44th President of the United States. Senator Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for President because she is not only the best candidate running, but she is also the one candidate that will without doubt beat the Republicans and restore sanity to the White House.

For the next year, we will bring you news and commentary of the 2008 race for president. Our focus will be on Senator Clinton and the Democrats. Once Senator Clinton wins the nomination we will turn our focus to the Republican nominee.

Although we feel that Senator Clinton will be the nominee (we thought that way back in March 2006), the race, as always in a democracy, will be an exciting one. We will have lots to say especially with regards to the media and blog coverage of the campaign. We will keep an especially sharp eye on “progressives” or Democrats who repeat Republican propaganda to undermine Hillary or any of our candidates.

At the left hand side of our website we have posted permanent commentary pages on certain issues such as Iraq which we will continue to update.

Feel free to comment on our posts and to send us any tips, which we will keep confidential.

2 Comments » - Posted in Hillary, Edwards, Healthcare, Iraq, Obama, Polls, Scum, Fundraising, Republicans, Others by admin

One Response to “Music From Big Pink”

http://www.hillaryis44.org/?p=117#comments
Gorto Says:
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:20 am
Hi, I`m a fan of this site and has followed it for a while now, keep up the good job! Today I came across an article that mentions this site, in a not so flattering way, you might want to reply to it on your site, heres the link. http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010239 [ [ [ PEGGY NOONAN What’s Not to Like The soft side, and the underside, of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Friday, June 22, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
“...But there is another side of the Clinton campaign, and I found some of it this week. It is a new Web site called HillaryIs44.com. It is rather mysterious. It does not divulge who is running the site, or who staffs it. It is not interactive; it has one informative voice, and its target audience seems to be journalists and free-lance oppo artists.

And it reads like The Warrior’s Id. Hillary “took on” a journalist this week and “beat him into submission.” Bloomberg has “stripped himself of allies” in “New York’s cutthroat politics.” “Expect stormy days ahead for Bloomberg,” who will wind up “lonely.” Republicans “will attempt to rip him to shreds.” “A May surprise announcement will be met with mounds of research accumulated over the next 11 months.”

In tone the site is very Tokyo Rose.

Encouraging readers to send in “confidential tips,” its primary target and obvious obsession is Barack Obama. “Senator Barack Obama (D-Rezko) is busy lately lying about President Bill Clinton” and “attacking entire communities.” “We have written extensively on Obama, and his indicted slumlord friend Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko. We have repeatedly warned David Axelrod, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama that this story is not going away.” The Obama campaign is “still posing as innocents incapable of doing anything unsavory even as evidence mounts that unsavory is their favorite dish.” “Dirty Obama Smear” and “Obama’s Dirty Mud Politics” are two recent headlines.

This appears to be the subterranean part of Hillary’s campaign, the part that quietly coexists with the warm, chuckling lady playing the jukebox with her husband. It coexists with the Maya Angelou part, the listening tour part, the filmed parts.

It is the war room part. I suspect the site is a back door to that war room. Politics ain’t beanbag. It is not, generally, an ennobling profession. But if Mrs. Clinton’s aides want to understand better her likability problem, they should look at this site. It’s dark in there. [snip] ] ] ]

http://www.hillaryis44.org/?p=48

Friday, May 11th, 2007

When Nutroots Attack

Howard Dean was a good Democratic governor of Vermont particularly on issues of healthcare. Howard Dean also led the way when he supported civil unions for gay citizens - at the time a courageous breakthrough position. Howard Dean was a strong voice for Democrats against the war in Iraq. Howard Dean has also been an inspiring leader as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. For all these achievements we praise Howard Dean.

But when Howard Dean, during his presidential run in 2004, shook the Democratic tree a lot of nuts fell out. We have been afflicted with these nuts ever since.

Yesterday, as everyday, we saw the destructive mold and mildew these vandalizing nuts have spread throughout our political house. Yesterday the detrius of their work was found on the Politico in an article called Bloggers Could Be Dead Link For Clinton. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0507/3933.html

Before we catalog the nutroots’ hypocrisy, and the damage these so-called “progressives” have caused, we will make some distinctions. We think the internet is a valuable communications tool. Many wonderful and thoughtful people have taken advantage of this relatively new medium and we do not impugn their contributions. However, we also think the political power of the internet has been exaggerated. Usually the exaggerations of the internet’s political influence come from those who wish to increase the value of their piece of internet real estate and thereby the value of their opinions in policy debates. While we believe the power of the internet right now is overblown, the internet’s potential for growth and influence in the political world is not exaggerated. The internet will continue to grow and prosper.

But right now, there is a danger that comes from a small core of Mayberry Leninists who believe they are the leaders of a “movement”. They call it a “people powered” movement but in reality what they envisage is a lot of people following their glorious leadership. They call themselves the “netroots”. We call them what they are, the “nutroots”. Again, we refer to the self-appointed, self-interested, self-important leadership at places like DailyKos (aka DailyKooks) and MyDD (aka MyDud) not the mostly well intentioned posters who are habitues of these websites.

The leadership of these nutroots sites crow that they are “reality based” and that they are there to fight the special interests which have taken over the Democratic Party. Never mind that these nutroots have themselves become a special interest even as they deride women’s groups and pro-choice groups. This nutroots leadership also delights in banning posters at their sites who disagree with their point of view (don’t even try to discuss the possibility that something was amiss in election 2004) while preaching that the Democratic leadership must listen to the nutroots leaders. Hypocrites.

Let’s read a nutroots post from June 12, 2006 and gain insight into the nutroots leadership mentality:

This is the first release form [sic] the BlogPac netroots survey that you raised money for last week. The graph shows Hillary Clinton’s favorable ratings according to frequency of blog readership among progressive netroots activists and compared to a recent Hotline poll of all Democrats: [nutroots graph not included]

This is what is known as a direct statistical correlation. The more frequently a netroots activist readers blogs, the less likely s/he is to have a favorable opinion of Hillary Clinton. While netroots activists who never read blogs have an opinion of Hillary Clinton roughly comparable to all Democrats, netroots activists who regularly read political blogs actually have an overall negative opinion of Hillary Clinton, at 45% favorable and 54% unfavorable.

Given these rather remarkable numbers, the $640,000,000 question is whether or not blog readers really are the influential, cutting edge of Democratic public opinion, or whether we are an isolated group that has little overall impact on the sentiment of the Democratic rank and file.

Considering results from the recent Iowa poll, the recent Connecticut poll, and the Montana Senatorial primary (among other things), I am strongly inclined to believe that the opinions held by progressive, political blog readers eventually come to be shared by a wide percentage of the Democratic rank and file. If that is the case, given these results, the question is not whether or not Hillary Clinton is the heavy favorite for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but whether or not she will have any serious impact on the primary season at all.

The writer of this silly self-important mindlessness is considered to be one of the best in the nutroots. The nutroots delight in the idea that they will tear Hillary Clinton down (they have not and Hillary is stronger than ever). These people really believe that, like some pre-soviet russian vodka drinkers, they sway Democratic opinion. They really believe that outside of their self-built, mud bedecked, echo chambers, sensible people listen to them.

Sensible people do not listen to them, but many journalists, desperate for something, anything, to write about use them as fodder for articles. These nutroots leaders will continue to attack the most likely Democratic Party nominee. Which brings us to the Politico article from yesterday. Here is how the article begins:

As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, her biggest opposition may not come from primary rivals or Republican challengers, but rather from the leftist blog community that often views her as a political punching bag.

We wrote in our initial post that “We will have lots to say especially with regards to the media and blog coverage of the campaign. We will keep an especially sharp eye on “progressives” or Democrats who repeat Republican propaganda to undermine Hillary or any of our candidates.” More recently in a post called Hillary’s Assassin(s) we wrote “We know we have to keep a sharp eye on these “nutroots” crackpots.” So here at Hillary Is 44 we know that what the Politico wrote is essentially true. The nutroots are, when teamed with Big Media, a threat to any and all Democrats who do not bow to their will, no matter how foolish or ill advised their will is.

Let’s continue plowing through the Politico article:

“Instead of being embraced by liberal blogs as the first serious woman presidential contender, Clinton has been labeled an “opportunist,” the candidate more interested in getting elected than in standing on principle. “Her model of doing politics is based on pandering to individual groups,” said MyDD’s Matt Stoller. He cited Clinton’s stance on Iran – “she’s giving cover to Bush’s strategy” – and her fundraiser with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch as evidence that she’d rather triangulate than play the role of progressive.”

“Much of the bloggers’ ire is directed at Clinton’s nuanced Iraq policy – from her initial support for the war to her hesitancy in moving away from that position. Even her condemnation of President Bush’s surge proposal, and her calls for troop redeployment, have been derided as ‘late to the party.’”

The factual errors in the above are many. We continue to discuss Hillary’s position on Iraq in our series of posts called Hillary on Iraq so we will not take time here to refute the factual errors in the 2 previous paragraphs. Let’s discuss the nutroots and their attitude to Hillary because of Iraq. Clearly, the nutroots are using Iraq as an excuse to attack Hillary. How phoney is Iraq as a reason for attacks on Hillary by the nutroots?

The very same Matt Stoller who now attacks Hillary as an opportunist and as wrong about Iraq, himself supported the Iraq war. Support is actually too weak a word. Stoller advocated a very tough U.S. attack on Iraq and denigrated those on the left who disagreed with him as weak.

Stoller does not like what we have known for years as “interest group” liberalism. Stoller finds the notion of being responsive to various communities (except for the blogging community of course) as a vile practice. As to Iran, Hillary, Obama, and Edwards pretty much have the same position. They do not want Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and they are not taking anything off the table. The only one that is attacked with vigor at every turn however, is Hillary.

As to Rupert Murdoch, the Clintons have been the #1 targets of Murdoch’s publications. Hillary reaching out and trying to neutralize the vile Murdoch is viewed as “triangulating”. It never occurs to the nutroots that neutralizing your opponents is a wise policy. What irks the nutroots is that Hillary will not be their marionette. She will not be a puppet dancing to their warped definition of “progressive.”

As with all things nutroots, the article then turns downright comic. Enter the least talented of the Gabor sisters, Arriana Huffington: “Hillary Clinton’s problem with the blogosphere is that she has been so calculating that you can smell it. Every thought has been processed through multiple channels in her and her consultants’ brains. It’s so fabricated.” Arriana Huffington criticizing anyone for anything is funny in and of itself. But Arriana calling anyone “calculating” or “fabricated” is actually self-evaluation.

Republican Ed Rollins (campaign manager for Arriana’s husband at the time, Michael Huffington, in his 1994 campaign for Senate from California) called Arriana “a domineering Greek Rasputin” who was “the most ruthless, unscrupulous, and ambitious person I’d met in thirty years in national politics.” Of course this was when Arriana was right hand to Republican Newt Gingrich. At some later date we will detail Arriana’s membership in that weird religious cult, her “marriage” to her husband whom she effectively forced to spend millions in his Senate campaign so that Arriana could be a Senator’s “wife” in D.C., and her ceaseless attacks on the Clintons when they were in the White House. Nothing changes with Arriana except her political bed partners.

After the Arriana comic interlude, the article stumbles into an interesting fact. “In an April 2007 Daily Kos poll, Clinton received only 3 percent of the site users’ support. And yet, a Cook/RT Strategies national poll around the same time had her winning 36 percent of the potential Democratic vote.” Nothing really has changed. The nutroots polls always have and still do have Hillary polling very low while national polls have her continuing to rise and to dominate the field. Yet, the nutroots love the claim that they are “reality based”. Yeah, right.

What the nutroots want is a prominent candidate to drive with them over the cliff. Most of the leadership of the nutroots are discharge from the old Howard Dean campaign and the disaffected from the Clark campaign. The nutroots hope to recreate a campaign which emulates the suicide run of the Howard Dean campaign of 2004 in which they had a prominent place. Again, we admire Howard Dean. We do question the wisdom of spending $40 million and only winning home state Vermont. We also think that webcentric political campaigns are a recipe for disaster and we will have more to say about this in later posts.

At some point soon, Hillary Clinton will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. The nutroots will then have to stop attacking her or be confronted by the Democratic Party. It will be Howard Dean’s unpleasant job to put back in the tree the nuts he unwittingly shook loose.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 6:39 am and is filed under Hillary, Scum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “When Nutroots Attack”

grudin2004 Says:
May 11th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I don’t think it’s a good idea to use the word “nutroots” although I do understand how you feel.
There are many, many examples on the blogs of unfounded negative statements about Senator Clinton, but more and more, I’m seeing positive ones on at least 2 of the sites you mention - mydd and dailykos.
Instead of talking about “nutroots”, I suggest Clinton supporters add as many comments as possible to netroots sites and join the conversations there. Thanks!
Canaan Says:
May 12th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I agree that the negative term ‘nutroots’ is better left on Free Republic. But the corruption of the liberal blogosphere by ‘anti-Hillary profiteers’ is a very big issue. The increasing hypocrisy of lefty blogs is sickening to me because I expect more of them. The first signs I saw that liberal bloggers can lie/spin just like Rovian ratf***ers came in early posts that Hillary was ‘anti-abortion’ because she wanted to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. ‘She takes corporate money’. But recently called Obama on the massive amounts he gets from Wall Street. The deafening silence on DailyKos over the Nixonian ratf___ing past of their glory boy ParkRidge47. It goes on and on … it really is disgusting.

DCDemocrat Says:
May 13th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I am a very well established member of the Daily Kos community. I arrived during the early primary season in 2004, and it is a rare day I haven’t posted there since. A couple of months ago, I decided to come out at Daily Kos as a Hillary supporter, and there was a storm that ensued. With persistence and good humor, I wore them down. When I started, Hillary was equated with Lieberman on daily kos, and that was a very bad place for her to be. But as I started to trumpet her, more and more Kossacks stood up to support her. My guess is that there are about a dozen people who regularly hunt out anti-Hillary comments there. We could use some help. If you’re not signed up, please come and get an account.

admin Says:
May 14th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
We debated use of the term and think it is appropriate. We do not refer to the posters but rather to the bizarre leadership running the big “progressive” blogs. They will ban comments they don’t like but will allow, in fact, encourage the thrashing of Hillary. We don’t believe in unilateral disarmament. When they stop trashing Hillary we will begin to engage them in a respectful manner. As to everyone defending Hillary on the “progressive” Hillary trashing blogs we have to do a salute to these posters. We know of a few names and will create a Hall of Fame. When Hillary is the nominee virtual medals will be distributed.
And Canaan, ParkRidge47 was the kick in the ass to get this blog going. We know a great deal about that situation and will discuss it in due time. Comparing Hillary to Big Brother was an outrage that Obama did nothing to stop. And the fact that obama’s press guy was a roomate of ParkRidge47 cements the idea that Obama knew (or should have known by simply asking his top press guy) what was going on. We’ll have more to say.

Hillary Is 44 » Blog Archive » Hillary Can’t Win Says:
June 1st, 2007 at 3:54 pm
[…] After all, in the polls these Big Bloggers conduct on their own websites, Hillary usually garners about a losing 3%. Lately her numbers even on these Big Blogs have improved. Hillary is now polling about 4% to 6% on these sites. These Big Blogger sites by the way, take great pride in calling themselves “reality based”. In reality they are disconnected from reality. They rather forget the impressive leads Hillary has when real people are polled. These delusional Big Bloggers actually believe that they represent the vangard of the proletariat and that eventually the “people” will increasingly adopt Big Blog views. [For more on this, read an earlier post called When Nutroots Attack.] […]

Hillary Is 44 » Blog Archive » Hall of Fame Says:
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
[…] regularly chastise the Nutroots. By Nutroots we mean the self interested bosses of the Big Blogs. They are doing a great deal of […]