Thomas Franks and Bill Moyers on Obama and what he's faced with...Good Stuff!

[KoKo]

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01152010/watch.html

For DU'ers who need transcripts...there's one there at the site. It's a really good watch ...since I know many DU'ers are like I am and really feeling kind of down, these days. This one is one that doesn't "hurt" to watch for "folks like us." Just saying.

[gratefultobelib]

1. I watched it all. It is good stuff, like you say, but depressing as hell.

[KoKo]

2. I know...but I thought it was balanced enough..to keep us from suiciding ourselves...

hopeful enough in some way...but..yeah...I do understand what you say......sigh. And, Thomas Frank is such an upbeat fellow...it's hard not to be positive looking at him. And we must remain positive. So...I'm sort of "manic/depressive" or "optimist/pessimist" ....but then that's the times we live in...so we gotta look forward...and I don't believe in getting "so down" that one can't function. WHAT GOOD ITS THAT? :shrug: Just leads to defeat.

[Doctor_J]

7. Instead of suiciding YOURSELF, think of more constructive ways to

help the country.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. K&R and bookmarked for later perusal. Thanks for the link.

[Hugin]

4. KnR

Let's not let this go down the memory hole as well.

[underpants]

5. Taibbi may be the most entertaining writer but Frank is the best writer of this era

and Ron Suskind chronicled the Bush years with accurate (and attributed) inside information far better than anyone let alone the two tabloid "Game Change" guys.

Watching now.

[Uncle Joe]

6. This is an excellent interview, well worth the watch and while Franks

speaks eloquently of Republican demonization and castration of government while they're in power under the pretense of "hating government." I must agree with post #52 by "SomeGuyInEagan" on this thread re: Republican Power Players' true feelings toward government and their motivation for those feelings.

Basically it's all a dog and pony show, Republicans love government; because it can be used to shift money to their cronies; the wealthy and powerful.

SomeGuyInEagan (432 posts) Thu Jan-14-10 06:08 PM
Response to Reply #15

52. "Neither chicken nor egg ...
They don't hate "government" nor are they bad at "governing" ... that's just what they want us to focus on.

They see "government" as a big lock box of other people's money which should be theirs, either in the form of direct looting or farming out government obligations to their sleazy corporate friends, who will then pay ... er, make campaign donations to them.

They love it. If used properly, it works to transfer wealth to their pals and cronies.

And, if they can do it in such a way that they can blame the big, inflated, bloated, inefficient government (that they in part created), they can shout to high heaven just how bad government is (without mentioning that they in part created the problem). That is an often-repeated lie that their base loves.

Grover Norquist - with his "we're going to shrink government down until it is small enough to drown in a tub" talk was all misdirection. It was always about getting the power and then looting the people."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x422558#423092

Thanks for the thread, KoKo:thumbsup: