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Follow the Leader: We elected him to do the right thing—not take dictation ("I won!")
Newsweek ^ | January 29, 2010 | Anna Quindlen

Posted on 01/31/2010 8:27:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

By the time the current political cycle is over, the term "populist" will have become a buzzword so misused and abused that it will be leached of all real meaning. The dictionary definitions refer to the agrarian political party of the late 19th century, then segue into the use of the term that modern politicians have learned to embrace: "a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people."

But what those people might be trying to say is not always clear. The explanations for the current "populist rage" are almost as various as those legendary blind men feeling different parts of an elephant: big government, big banks, unemployment, and a health-care plan that went (choose one) too far, too fast, not far enough, not fast enough. In fact, the Senate election results in Massachusetts, in which a Republican seized the seat held by Ted Kennedy for almost half a century and threw the Democratic Party into a monumental tizzy, was a classic toss-the-bums-out event, neither specific nor illuminating.

So at the moment the problem in Washington is us, not them, or at least how they try to figure us out. Good luck with that. One poll of former Obama supporters who abandoned the Democrats in Massachusetts showed that 41 percent of those who opposed the health-care plan weren't sure exactly why. If elected officials are supposed to act based on the wisdom of ordinary people, they're going to need ordinary people to be wiser than that.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: 2010; bho44; birthers; economy; massachusetts; obama; obamacare; pantload; scottbrown; taxes; unemployment
Do they really feel that elitist snobbery sells magazines?
1 posted on 01/31/2010 8:27:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Check out this comment:

Posted By: jeanrenoir @ 01/31/2010 11:06:22 PM

As a strong, unrepentant Obama supporter, I very much agree with this column. That said, it’s highly unrealistic to expect the right wing public to “follow” Obama, just as unrealistic as it would have been to call for “patriotic” following of Bush II’s “leadership” in Iraq by the left. The American right-wing masses are even more “bitter” now than when Obama correctly called them that in the campaign. In their ignorance, helplessness, economic ruin, and bitterness, they are quite like the German mob in the Twenties, after their savings were wiped out by inflation. All they wanted was revenge then, and that’s all the American mob wants today. Too bad they’re just as self-destructively clueless about who their “friends” are as the German mob was which voted for the Nazis.


2 posted on 01/31/2010 8:30:42 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2 million for Sarah Palin: What will you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Was momentarily interested - until I saw that the article was written by a Newsweek writer.


3 posted on 01/31/2010 8:32:46 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Morning at the White House, "Hey, Michelle baby...be checkin' the mornin' news so I'll know which MASK to wear today.".

She answers, "Well, you wore the 'progressive' mask yesterday, but the way Beck is talkin' today, you'd best wear dat 'populist' mask today.".
4 posted on 01/31/2010 8:37:42 PM PST by FrankR (The ones of us who love AMERICA far outnumber those who love obama - your choice.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
JR: So demonizing those who disagree with you is acceptable??

Americans have always engaged in lively political discourse and sometimes it is divisive. Respect is normally found after the political term has ended and being solemn is for kings and tyrants.

Zero is being called on his “promises” to the American people which have not materialized. That is not related to the left wing party movement which became a Nation of Socialists or the Nazi's.

5 posted on 01/31/2010 8:40:54 PM PST by keving (We get the government we vote for)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
By the time the current political cycle is over, the term "populist" will have become a buzzword so misused and abused that it will be leached of all real meaning.

Much like the left has so abused the words "racist" and "racism" that they have leached out all real meaning. Now libs try to insult people by calling them racists and people just shrug and say..."whatever, fool".

6 posted on 01/31/2010 8:44:05 PM PST by highlander_UW (There's a storm coming - little kid at a Mexican gas station in The Terminator)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Works for me. The MSM hasn’t been bitch-slapped enough yet.


7 posted on 01/31/2010 8:44:37 PM PST by dr_who
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The American right-wing masses are even more “bitter” now than when Obama correctly called them that in the campaign. In their ignorance, helplessness, economic ruin, and bitterness, they are quite like the German mob in the Twenties, after their savings were wiped out by inflation.

Obama isn't done wiping out everyone's savings through inflation, but he'll get there eventually.

Too bad they’re just as self-destructively clueless about who their “friends” are as the German mob was which voted for the Nazis.

Just for the record, the Nazis were left leaning, not right. There are more similarities in Obama's admin to Nazi Germany than even Bush's...and Bush was a progressive as well.

8 posted on 01/31/2010 8:47:29 PM PST by highlander_UW (There's a storm coming - little kid at a Mexican gas station in The Terminator)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"All they wanted was revenge then, and that’s all the American mob wants today."

A member of the mob party calling those who oppose Progressive Democrats' destruction of the United States "the American mob".

Saul Alinsky pupil, through-and-through.

Go tell it to your co-conspirators at SEIU, Anna.

9 posted on 01/31/2010 8:52:35 PM PST by TheClintons-STILLAnti-American
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Populist (modern usage): political pimp pandering to the lowest common denominator.


10 posted on 01/31/2010 8:53:59 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (I think not, therefore I don't exist!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
No wonder Newsweek is going down the tubes.

They're paying people for trite tripe like this.

They can still feed this garbage to other elitists and union dunderheads, but a growing number of true Americans are getting sick and tired of their lies and mischaracterizations of the people who actually do work they look down on.

11 posted on 01/31/2010 8:57:07 PM PST by TheClintons-STILLAnti-American
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ah, yes. Democrats. The intellectual giants of our age:

Following the leader, the leader, the leader
We’re following the leader wherever he may go
Tee dum, tee dee
A teedle ee do tee day
Tee dum, tee dee
It’s part of the game we play
Tee dum, tee dee
The words are easy to say
Just a teedle ee dum a teedle ee do tee day

Tee dum, tee dee
A teedle ee do tee dum
We’re one for all
And all of us out for fun

We march in line
And follow the other one
With a teedle ee do a teedle ee di tee dum

Following the leader, the leader, the leader
We’re following the leader wherever he may go
We’re out to fight the Injuns, the injuns, the injuns
We’re out to fight the Injuns because he told us so

Tee dum, tee dee
A teedle ee do tee day
We march along
And these are the words we say
Tee dum, tee dee a teedle ee do tee day
Oh, a teedle dee dum a teedle ee do tee day
Oh, a teedle dee dum a teedle ee do tee day


12 posted on 01/31/2010 8:58:11 PM PST by Mr Rogers (I loathe the ground he slithers on!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m glad I do not pay to read this dribble from Newsweek. What slop!


13 posted on 01/31/2010 8:59:52 PM PST by BAW (I'm right.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Too bad they’re just as self-destructively clueless about who their “friends” are as the German mob was which voted for the Nazis."

If this were out of context of other rants by a Obamusim KoolAid addict, I'd think it was intended to describe the most Worshipful Master Obortion's blind lemmings.

14 posted on 01/31/2010 9:01:25 PM PST by TheClintons-STILLAnti-American
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

As for that comment you posted, we know that many leftists are ideologues who use their twisted imaginations to rewrite history to accomodate their ideology.


15 posted on 01/31/2010 9:03:12 PM PST by Canedawg (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
So at the moment the problem in Washington is us, not them, or at least how they try to figure us out. Good luck with that. One poll of former Obama supporters who abandoned the Democrats in Massachusetts showed that 41 percent of those who opposed the health-care plan weren't sure exactly why. If elected officials are supposed to act based on the wisdom of ordinary people, they're going to need ordinary people to be wiser than that.

You know what they say, Anna:

"Live by the specious slogan (Hope and Change)..."
"Die when the crowd figures out they've been suckered."

2ndDivisionVet, you might also enjoy this:

(Vanity) Chess, Tolkien, and the Return of the Republic: An Introduction

Cheers! Cheers!

16 posted on 01/31/2010 9:03:30 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: highlander_UW

And Hitler was a Vegatarian, Artist and liked small fuel efficient cars.


17 posted on 01/31/2010 9:09:53 PM PST by omega4179 (NOT TRUE.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We elected him

Speak for yourself, Kimo Sabe.

18 posted on 02/01/2010 10:07:12 PM PST by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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