It seems odd to quote Bill Clinton when it’s Obama’s recycling of Clintonite politicians that has helped get us into this mess, but there it is. "It’s the economy, stupid."
Americans are angry with the Obama administration, and the Obama administration is angry with—bloggers? The left-leaning media? What’s wrong with this picture?
The vice president says "Stop whining." Obama says "Buck up." Robert Gibbs rants about the "professional left." All of them seem to forget who put them in office. Last week blogger Susie Madrak told David Axelrod: "Liberals and bloggers feel like we’re the girl you take under the bleachers but won’t be seen with in the light of day."
And Glenn Greenwald noted to Politico, people’s anger "has very little—basically nothing—to do with what bloggers have been saying, and everything to do with the fact that there are no jobs and millions of people are having their homes foreclosed."
I wish it wasn’t the case, but it’s true: people would have much less time for Tea Parties and Glenn Beck if there wasn’t so much fear out there about the fate of the nation, and a more defiant fight-back being mounted by Democrats.
Bill Clinton knew that, though his solutions—deregulation, "welfare reform" and NAFTA—created a house of cards that staggered twice and then collapsed two years ago. Now we’re dealing with that fallout, and the fact that Obama put Clinton people in charge of trying to fix the economy. That’s the problem. It’s not Glenn Greenwald or Marcy Wheeler or Rachel Maddow or me. Thank you very much.
As Richard Trumka said, it’s jobs, jobs, jobs. The money media love the story that the lefty media are the problem because it preserves their place as the good guys. I wish we had that much power. The reality is, as we’ve said before, the best antidote to fake class solidarity is the real kind.
The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.
