The initial response from many Republicans to President Obama's second inaugural address was faux disappointment -- they told reporters they hoped Obama would be "conciliatory" to the right and do "outreach" to the GOP in his speech, and the president did neither.
But yesterday, the message shifted a bit. As media coverage of the address focused on Obama's unapologetic defense of progressive ideals, the Republican talking points moved to take advantage of the analysis.
This video was released yesterday by Karl Rove's attack operation, Crossroad GPS. If you turned the 44-second clip into a drinking game, and took a shot with every reference to the word "liberal," you might find yourself in the hospital.
Soon after, we heard arguments like these from GOP leaders.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) responded to President Obama's "disappointing" second inaugural address by declaring, "The era of liberalism is back."
Senate Republicans bashed the president's remarks one day after he delivered them, calling them far-left remarks that are out of touch with the American people.
McConnell added that the president's address was "unabashedly far left of center," presenting a "liberal agenda" to a country that Republicans "still believe is center-right."
I don't imagine this was the point McConnell intended to make, but his declaration that the "era of liberalism is back" may have been more appropriate than he realized.
To be sure, the Senate Minority Leader no doubt hoped for the phrase to be mockery. Though McConnell and his allies have long accused President Obama of being a radical leftist hell bent on destroying capitalism, after hearing his inaugural address, McConnell is now effectively saying those labels are suddenly true.
It's as if the speech inspired Republicans to say, "A ha! We knew Obama's a liberal! Now we have proof! "
And that's fine, as far as it goes, but it should also lead to some introspection among the president's conservative detractors. Because at this point, the news isn't that the president is prepared to champion progressive principles, but rather, that those progressive principles enjoy broad public support.
Or put another way, while trying to expose Obama as out of touch, it's Republicans who suddenly find themselves outside the American mainstream looking in.
NBC's Mark Murray noted yesterday that "many of the policies and viewpoints Obama articulated in his inaugural address are supported by majorities of Americans."
Take Obama's advocacy for gay rights, for example. ("Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law," Obama said in his speech yesterday). As it turns out, per the Dec. 2012 NBC/WSJ poll, a majority of Americans -- 51% -- favor gay marriage. That's up from a mere 30% in 2004.
There's also immigration reform. ("Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.") The Jan. 2013 NBC/WSJ found another majority -- 52% -- supporting giving illegal immigrants the ability to apply for legal status.
And then there's his defense of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. ("These things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.") Polls overwhelmingly find that Americans support these programs. [...]
[It's] hard to argue that these "liberal" ideas and policies are somehow far outside the political mainstream.
Quite right. For all of the efforts on the right to suggest Obama's vision lacks public support, the exact opposite is true -- on nearly every major issue of the day, the American mainstream and the president's positions are one and the same.
If the "era of liberalism is back," this should cause great consternation among Republicans, not relief. After all, most Americans in their "center-right" nation support gay marriage, higher taxes on the wealthy, a system of universal background checks before gun purchases, abortion rights, comprehensive immigration reform, efforts to combat climate change, protections for social-insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security, and greater public investments in education and infrastructure.
The question isn't why Obama supports this progressive agenda; the question is why McConnell and his party don't.
Leave a Comment:
So out of touch with the American people that they voted for it back in November. Pull yer head in turtle, it's the teapubs that are out of touch except for being a little touched in the head.
What Mitch McConnell believes is his political acumen, I see as his political dotage! -Kevo
Attacking Liberalism has been standard for conservatives for decades. Gingrich always relied on it. The tragedy is that liberals didn't fight back against conservatism. Liberals have the high ground and had it when Obama was elected in 2008. The problem is that some newly minted liberals had retreated to be progressives. Many of these progressives appear to have been asleep from 2009 to 2013 because I am now hearing that "the President is now on board" with the Progressive agenda. I have trouble with this part of the Progressive movement! Many of them spent the last four years sniping at President Obama even as he worked systematically to enact the central parts of the "progressive agenda." In any case, these Progressives seem to have awakened and I hope they will throw their energy behind the President's Organizing for Action initiative.
If these progressives now liberals want to use their energies effectively, they should attack the "conservative" label. Today's Koch inspired conservatism is totally changed from traditional conservatism. Today's Koch conservatism wants to destroy governments ability to protect the environment, the health and welfare of the people. to educate our people. Just look at the Koch agenda that the House has been pursuing the last two years if you want to see the betrayal of traditional conservatism.
The Kochs have profited greatly from their incursion into politics. Currently, Charles and David are worth 43.4 billion each or 86.8 billion combined. Check it out at: http://topics.bloomberg.com/bloomberg-billionaires-index/. The money they have spent in buying House and Senate members and state governors and legislators amounts to small change for them.
Only as progressives and the rest of us who believe in America take on the "conservatives" and undermine the label as a good, will the tide in this country change away from the divisive "wedge and win" strategy of the Kochs-Rove coalition to what Obama wants: equality and justice for all in the United States of America.
Republicans know the country is center right, the same way they just knew that the polls were skewed back in October and that Mitt was going to win big.
"...if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties... if that is what they mean by a "liberal" then I am proud to be a liberal."
~ John F. Kennedy
Dang TC, we cross posted And I had a similar thought but wanted to go after the possible failure of the overton window strategy. The GOP was trying to get everyone to believe that the country was center right. Now they want to define positions that many Republicans have as liberal. This does not confuse the true left- who understand that DEM policies regarding health care , wall street reform, and the drone war are at best center right.
What is becoming clear is that attempting to continually move the definition of political categories to the right is not free. To hear the GOP tell it, the same policies on gun control, taxation, and Social security/ medicare supported by Ronald Reagan are now liberal positions. The trouble is, the electorate is not as easily fooled as fooled by the DC elites' hall of mirrors. What you get are people saying is, I didn't leave the GOP. The GOP left me.
It is not a formula for success, but God bless their hearts- the GOP leadership seems more bent on the destruction of their party than the most radical anarchists on the left.
McConnell added that the president's address was "unabashedly far left of center," presenting a "liberal agenda" to a country that Republicans "still believe is center-right."
The country would not appear that way if most of the voting districts weren't gerrymandered to favor Republicans. If that were the case, there would be solid majorities in both congressional chambers and whatever the Republicans chose to believe would be less of an issue.
JohnMesserly, you say, "This does not confuse the true left- who understand that DEM policies regarding health care, wall street reform, and the drone war are at best center right." What are the "true left" positions? Please enlighten me.
False Left: anything that contradicts the advocated positions of the Rabid Right.
True Left: advocates positions that advance the cause of social empathy, social equality, and equitable distribution of resources.
Anyone who claims they own the official list of "True Left" positions is automatically suspect. It is a pretty old joke. Just for fun, next time you are around a some activists, trying asking which advocacy group is properly considered "truly" green, or true socialist, true communists, or true [anything]. Then quickly duck, because such "fidelity"/ "purity" questions usually provoke a food fight. I think Colbert once interviewed claimants to the title of Socialist Party- to lay ears, the distinctions appeared to be incomprehensible, petty, or mired in "dancing on the head of a pin" intellectual distinctions of little consequence to normal people interested in social change.
The Puritanism / Purity thing remains a strong chord in our national soul.
Um, yes, that's what the majority of Americans voted for. We kept the WH, and gained in the Senate. If it weren't for republican gerrymandering, we would have gained in the house too, as more people voted for democratic candidates than republican.
The era of Reaganomics and social conservatism is finally, thankfully, drawing to a close.
America in the 21st century is a different nation, and for those that can't quite wrap their heads around this fact, tough @!$%#.
This isn't for you specifically, citizen pain, but I would rather this not become a leftist talking point. Yes, the right is cheating, but to blanket the House Republicans in these terms wouldn't be correct. Many Republicans are in their seats today because their constituents wanted them there.
The next 2-4 years are as much about influencing more positive conservative voter decision-making as they are about actively working to prevent Republican cheating.
Well that's the conundrum then, isn't it? How do we know these republicans are in their sets today because they won fair and square in an equally balanced district?
I imagine the maps will give you that information, but if the majority of such an area were to actually vote outside it's predetermined party, what would happen to the Great Republican Plan then?
McConnell added that the president's address was "unabashedly far left of center," presenting a "liberal agenda" to a country that Republicans "still believe is center-right."strong (Emphasis mine)
Hey Mitch - Did Rove's polling tell you that? Romney is winning!!!
I say we take back the term Liberal and be proud of it! Liberal means good jobs, good education, good infrastructure, good healthcare and good workplace safety. I'll take that over more money for the wealthy, crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded schools, lower wages, unsafe food and workplace, and unaffordable healthcare that Conservatism has come to represent!
I was never ashamed of Liberal. I call myself Liberal all the time. I don't even say "conservative" as an insult. It's these nut jobs that think they can use it as a smear.
I would like to say one thing about something Steve said in this that struck me:
There is and has been for years a false argument from the right that equates "Liberalism" with "Communism" or any number of economic models different from capitalism. The problem with this is of course that there are LOTS of liberal Capitalists! (which is why people like Warren Buffett and George Soros make them grind their collective conservative teeth).
I am a Liberal and have always been proud of it. I am also a Capitalist. The two are not mutually exclusive. I think at the root of this is the fundamental difference between the concepts of "Me", "Us", and "We".
"Me" is all about the individual alone.
"Us" is about the lucky few who are in a particular group (think the rich or the very religious)
"We" is all of the groups together and what their sum is not the value of one particular part.
The idea that the the whole is greater than the sum of its parts seems to alien to conservatives and I would suspect because in their mentality are afraid of what that means for them.
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, They don't like the idea of living on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam....it makes them feel very very small
You'd think ol' Mitch would be elated it's only "liberalism" he has to fight now. For the last four years, we were told it was a much more despicable enemy: Socialism (or Marxism, or Communism which mean the same in Wingnuttia).
And yes, say "liberal" loud and in their faces.
Reminds me of this post on The Rachel Maddow Fan Page on Facebook. The relevant line from Rachel: "Nobody can insult you by telling you what you just told them."
"...if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties... if that is what they mean by a "liberal" then I am proud to be a liberal."
~ John F. Kennedy
Mitch thinks Obama's speech was a little too "Liberal."
Would McConnell have rather it been a tad more "Conservative? "Still mired in his mangled mismanagement of making Obama a one-termer? Muddied by mindless mess-ups and missed opportunies in the last session, he still looks at things as if the Republican/Conservative mob had won the election.
I say 'mob' because they certainly aren't close to being a cohesive group... the only thing they do together is rant negatively and nastily about their President. But isn't it great? THEIR President. God how they must hate that.
One of McConnell's mindless minions said "We were reminded yesterday that this is a liberal President with a Liberal agenda." Shouldn't a liberal President have a Liberal agenda? She probably thinks that's illogical. Some day her bulb will light.
Logic is something Republicans don't care about... Conservatives don't bother with, and the Tea Party just doesn't comprehend...
Logic is almost exclusively a Liberal thing... kind of like common sense...
Let's see... Obama's vision, or Jindal's (previous post)? No wonder Republicans have to resort to sleazy tactics in pursuit of race-based redistricting (see Virginia) and vote suppression (too many to choose from).
Speaking of the VA fiasco, isn't it unusual that they decided to do this on a federal holiday? Don't state senators have certain holidays off like the rest of us? If so, wasn't it illegal to hold this vote on a paid holiday when the Democratic senator was away?
Not sure but I think MLK day is "unobserved" in VA and a couple of other States
With the exception of the gay marriage issue, I didn’t hear anything in Obama’s speech that would have sounded unnatural springing directly from the lips of Ronald Reagan.
And the era of Teapublican stupidity continues. ::sigh::
I envision Sen. McConnell, and his cohorts, living in an small enclosed fish bowl, floating and swirling through a vast ocean of diversity, with their little fish faces pressed against the glass, looking around not in wonderment, but in disdain.
Why am i not hearing the word "sedition"?" surely tea party knows what the word means.
Yes, but when it's practically the whole dang party...
Hey Mitch: If this is such a "center-right" country, why do Republicans feel they have to cheat like they did Monday in Virginia and with the efforts to change the electoral college? Seems like you folks would not have to do that if that was indeed true...
They're gonna be sad when they discover that the days when "Liberal" was an insult are over.
I hope Hilary takes the reins next. Republican heads would explode with stress and the rest of us could enjoy the peace that would follow.
Next time anybody tells you America is a center-right country, make sure to tell them they're full of shhit.
Just give them Steve's list:
Speaking of stupid partisan hack senators, Rand Paul (R-KY) just got SHREDDED by Secretary Clinton at today's hearing! That's our GRRRL!
Yeah Mama, Rand Paul said if he were President he would have relieved her of her duties. Thankfully he was'nt and never will be. He's just another wannabe VIP with a pea sized brain.
Don't be too quick to dismiss Rand Paul. He's young, gaining experience, and has ambition. We may have to fight him at the polls one day, the idea of which is worse than R&R....brrrrrr.
Liberalism is back and conservatis is nothing more than a vehicle to help old rich white men control our politics, government and economy
If these wankers would hear an actual left wing speech their heads would probably explode. Put them into the German Bundestag and let them hear a speech by Die Linke (lit. "The Left") party. They'd probably flee in apoplexy, dribbling about how the communists are back. I mean, come on! Either they are trolling, or morons.
Door number "both"
Well, by "people," they of course mean Real Americans, not the majority of Americans that actually support those policies. They don't count. It's tragic that they were allowed to even vote, really.
GOP are real Americans the way Spam is real meat. There's bits in there but it's so coated in grease you can't tell.
I am so fed up with these media types essentially promoting the FAR RIGHT agenda of the Republicans.
They come out with things such as this disparaging "liberalism", but have no problem giving time to the Michelle Bachmanns and Steve Kings of the country. So who is further out of the mainstream, Bachmann or President Obama?
It has amazed me that the pundits either have not read one biography or one history book, or even remembered their basic history that was taught to them in school. Then again, that would require listening, remembering and the retention of facts that were taught to them while going to the various schools of secondary and Colleges they have attended.
In the year 1948 there was an election that was far more contentious than the one that we just suffered trough this year. Truman won because he out campaigned all of his opponents The issues were almost exactly like today's. Continuing war between nations with the threat of the nuclear age and the Iron Curtain coming to our nation not long after a terrible war overseas.
This speech that was given Monday could have been given by that President. Inauguration addresses are with the thought of history.
I would have loved to see exactly how FOX-NEWS would have treated Mr. Dewey. How Carl Rove would been distressed when Truman pulled out that great victory. Would it be fun to reenact that election on TV?
MSNBC should give this idea real consideration, don't you think?
The GOP is counting of the belief that the word "Liberal" is as negative as when Frank Luntz figured out how to demonize it and associate it with socialism and communism in the 1990's. Because of what conservatives did for 20 years starting in 1980 - especially G.W. Bush - conservative is synonymous with incompetence, greed and criminal activity. The Iraq war was prosecuted based on blatantly falsified intel and Bush, Cheney, Tenant and Rice should all be in jail. All Clinton did was get a little "thrill upon the hill". These guys live in Romney's bubble.
Hilarious. I think they wanted Obama to apologize for winning.
What is the opposite of a "Sore Looser" an "Apologetic winner"?
The era of liberalism is back.
Thank goodness!
Not a moment too soon!
My thoughts exactly.
What always gets to me, when the dimwits use "liberal" as a dirty word, is that they always scream about "freedom" (as in: We want it! We're being deprived of it!). Yet, both "liberty" and "liberal" come from the same root...
Only had I known President Obama was a Liberal Democrat I so would have voted for ryan/romney. When will the deception of this Great Nation Stop ?
Well, thanks for the demonstration of what it takes to flunk the IQ test low enough to be a moron wingnut like you. Go back to Wingnut World and get busy fornicating your sheep, dimwit.
I have voted Republican and Democrat. I am in my early 40's. Why is it that there is so much defending of each's party that stupidity is just pouring out?! Most of the people that I talk to are financially conservative in the sense of if you don't have the money, then you don't purchase nor borrow. Also, the people I talk with believe that we need to have a very real and long discussion on solving the current illegal immigration that politicians are to scared of talking about because each party is more concerned with losing instead of actually working out the tough issues. We also believe in helping our citizens but do not believe that we should be providing financial aide to other countries when we have so many of our own here within our boundaries that are homeless, under-employed, with no benefits and feeling as though no-one really cares about them nor us.
It has been said many times that if the Government was a Company that they would go out of business. Well, we are going out of business. The reality is that a lot of our programs are to costly. Everyone has an opinion and no-one wants to see something that they hold as value to be reduced or eliminated. Did each of us always have our way growing up? Do we each have our own way now as adults?
Most working people in this country have not seen a pay increase for several years. How can the Federal, States, Counties and local governments expect that they can give themselves pay increases? Let us all work together on these issues. Also, if more people favor one option as opposed to the other option, why not simply bring each topic to a vote and truly let the voters decide?
The voters DID decide with who they elected. Unless of course the district was gerrymandered.
Do you think maybe that by building up the middle class that has been decimated by past republican agendas, everyone from the lowest to the highest might start doing better and THEN we can address the deficit issue that until THIS president, has not been much of an issue before?
Take it easy - people have been arguing that we are somehow going to perish because of overspending for the last 240 years and guess what, we're still here and stronger than ever. We are not "going out of business" any time soon, or ever really, that's just what they want you to think so you won't demand anything of your government.
Take it easy - people have been arguing that we are somehow going to perish because of overspending for the last 240 years and guess what, we're still here and stronger than ever. We are not "going out of business" any time soon, or ever really, that's just what they want you to think so you won't demand anything of your government.
Yeah Rusty, they sure are blaming America first these days, huh?
They sound as though if we do not pay all that debt off right away (compare to home mortgage-most folks have 30 years) we are doomed and cannot possibly pull ourselves out of debt without killing FDR.
This is the thing, we were called the greatest nation on earth, but now we have the RW trying to make sure to have the rest of the nations look at us and say, get together America, get it together.
I suspect that their main reason for finding the address "disappointing" was that it was President Obama giving it.