New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is doing what he does best–traveling the world. In today’s column (3/28/12) he finds that other countries’ political systems– Australia and New Zealand–are well to the left of our own:
In New Zealand and Australia, you could almost fit their entire political spectrum–from conservatives to liberals–inside the U.S. Democratic Party.
And somehow both countries manage to confront big issues head on: a carbon tax and cap and trade. They have single-payer healthcare, income support for the poor, and so on.
So what’s the lesson for American politics? The same as always, according to Friedman. We need more of The Middle:
We lack any credible third party that could capture enough of the center to force both Democrats and Republicans to compete for votes there. So we’ve lost our ability to do big, hard things together. Yet everything we have to do–tax reform, fiscal reform, healthcare reform, energy policy–is big and hard and can only be done together.
Huh? From the sound of it, if you believe those are good policy ideas worth adopting here, we don’t need a centrist third party–we need to get rid of the Republicans.
Thomas Friedman earned the title of ‘self-hating Jew’ when he penned a column in the Zioncon flagship, the New York Times, in which he wrote: “I sure hope that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby“.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/whither-the-war-on-iran-zioncons/
so, because both the most liberal and the most conservative politician in Australia would fit into our democratic party the “solution” to this “problem” is a third party?
wow, that’s incredibly obtuse even by the “standards” of the mustache of mediocrity..
C’mon. You guys all know that David Brooks is worse.
I am an Australian wondering which other Australia Tom Friedman visited. Attached is a link to an Australian journalist’s website which encapsulates the facts a bit more accurately.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/climate_wonderland/
Last month, the Islamophobe Robert Spencer, blasted Australian foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, for allowing Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general OIC to deliver a speech at the National Press Club titled “Transition and Change: The OIC and the Islamic World”Â. Spencer called the event “the begining of Shari’ah in Australia”.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/zionist-lobby-stop-shariah-in-australia/
Friedman’s advice is correct under our first past the post, winner-take-all system, where third parties split the vote as spoilers and thus work against their nominal position.
I love the last line “and thats why we should get rid of the Republicans”.That pretty much wraps up any and every story the left believes in.First I would like to say that the Australian leaders speech in front of congress where she reminded America who we are far better than our own president has ,was one for the tea party books.2nd…..We dont need to take a lessen on getting things done from anyone.We simply need to push past the obstructionists who want to remake America in everyone elses image.The Eurocentrics who can now add Australia ,and New Zealand to their purse.Though I don’t feel we need to get rid of the Dems…..I do feel that this next election will( for a time) do just that.Republicans with all their faults have one thing you see Democrats lack. And If the wizard of Oz could reach in his bag he may even have one for the libs.It would be something that would
constitute a belief in America.An America that does not need to follow anyone.
@michael e: that’s not what the last line said — read it again. Better yet, read the whole article again, starting with the title. The point was that Friedman’s evidence doesn’t support the conclusion he wanted to draw.
TT yeah I got that,But I kind of think it was a subliminal thing .Still bringing the point across.You see on Fair I never have to even consider the fact that the article might be leaning right.It never is.
Rejmat me old bucko.Do you really in any way, shape, or form- believe this nonsense?
More Friedman BUBBLESPEAK.
He’s a shill for an organization called AmericansElect.com. He wants you to vote for the 2012 Presidential candidate via Americans Elect which is group of Wall Street billionaires and people like Christine Todd Whitman- he doesn’t care at all about a “third party” alternative. Other than that, he’s a Neanderthal idiot who is always wrong on every issue and every war he pushes.
Getting rid of the Republicans? I’m all for that. But could we also get rid of the Democrats, so the entire neoliberal/neoconservative experiment can go in the dust bin?
Never mind a third party, how about a SECOND party in the U.S. that doesn’t take corporate and military contractor money? Both Democrats and Republicans are beholden to their masters. Our democracy is but a sham if we can’t and don’t vote for decent, honest, patriotic candidates like Rocky Anderson, who is running on the new Justice Party ticket. We need to stop choosing the lesser of two evils. Do you approve of Obama widening the Afghan War and increasing drone-delivered hellfire missiles on the innocent people of Afghanistan? How about destroying your right to due process or to privacy under Obama’s Administration? How about his approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline and wanting to increase funding for nuclear plants– when the planet (your children!) just suffered the worst nuclear catastrophe in history at Fukushima. That’s who you’re gonna re-elect? The Republican is just as bad. We don’t have to settle for these unacceptable choices. Vote for Rocky Anderson. Do the right thing and get our nation back on track to justice, prosperity and well-being.
To the writer who accused Thomas Friedman of being a “self-hating Jew,”
Tell me if I were a German, living in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, and I vehemently opposed the policies of Adolph Hitler, would you have called me a self-hating German. I’m no fan of Friedman’s, but the accusation you’ve leveled against him is the first refuge of someone bereft of intellectual weight or moral certitude. Being born in a religion or in a particular country–an act that represents nothing more than luck of the draw–does not obligate you to abandon free will, intellectual discernment or your own sense of morality. I’ve met many people who have hung the title of “self-hating whatever” on those they disagree with, and I’ve found each of them to be lightweights and cowards.
Perhaps you’re the exception.
Modern America does not have a two-party system, it actually has a modification of the old one party system. Instead of a single political party, in the manner of traditional dictatorships, America has an interchangeable party system in which both of the major parties “just happen” to serve the same group of masters. The only difference between the two parties is largely rhetorical. They actually cooperate with each other in order to limit and to prevent participation of third or fourth parties within the electoral process. Barring some sort of national or global catastrophe, which either loosens the death grip which the 1% has on the two parties or which, somehow causes them to implode or to otherwise self-destruct, we are stuck with the current parties and their dysfunctional behavior for the foreseeable future. “Centrism” as it is defined in the American context, doesn’t appear to offer much of solution to entrenched, long standing political, social, and economic problems, either. In America, all too often centrists are those who either do not have a personal interest in the outcome of particular issues, or those who are basically happy with the status quo, so they tend to always see the “solution” as being simply a matter of splitting the difference between what they see as unreasonable, competing factions of the “left” and “right”. This is a great model for equally dividing up a bag of marbles. It would not have been as effective at, for example, ending Jim Crow laws in this country.
Actually, Jack, I think Friedman really does believe that nonsense about the Third Way, the Vital Center, etc. That there is no evidence to support his fantasies doesn’t bother him at all. He’s in the grip of a world-view that’s constantly being put to the test by simple reality and basic observation and found wanting.
Everything IS actually relative. No matter how horrible Mussolini was, you were still better off under his jackboot than Hitler’s. Every time someone tells me it doesn’t matter which party you vote for, I want to puke. It may in fact matter little in the grand scheme of things, but in terms of human suffering on the individual level, the differences can be (and in the case of the the Republican and Democratic parties ARE) profound. Do you really think we would be as poorly off having had 8 years of Gore rather than Bush?
Rehmat, what exactly do your Israel-obsessed comments have to do with Tom Friedman’s economic ideas (such as they are) or the dismal state of American political debate on economic policy? Please don’t bring up his endless apologia for Israeli violence and oppression of Palestinians, because that has absolutely nothing to do with this. Do you have anything of substance to say about either topic? If not, kindly keep such off-topic rants to yourself. If you don’t understand why I’m chiding you thus, please for the love of God consult with somebody who understands American politics before you post any more comments here. This isn’t a website dedicated to shrill debates on the Middle East. Such behavior is embarrassing to real activists and ultimately counterproductive, especially on a rare American political forum that powerfully critiques Islamophobia, Neocon saber rattling and so on.
Robert Berenson – Read my comment and find out that I did not bestow the medal of “self-hating Jew” upon Friedman. It was the Israel Lobby which has given that honor to over 8,000 Jews – in the list entitled “Self-Hating, Israel-Threatening (S.H.I.T)” Jews. Google to find the link to the S.H.I.T. website.
However, I do have the honor of having one of the top Israeli Jew, Gilad Atzmon, as my blogger friend.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/gilad-atzmon-proud-to-be-a-self-hating-jew/
Under ordinary circumstances, the line about getting rid of the republican party wouldn’t make any sense. But this isn’t 1960. We now have a republican party whose only raison d’etre is to block progress and go back to pre Civil War or pre WWII days, depending on the subject at hand. Since the election of Pres. Obama they have shown absolutely no interest whatsoever in “everything we have to do–tax reform, fiscal reform, healthcare reform, energy policy–is big and hard and can only be done together.”
They have made it abundantly clear that they are willing to let the country go down the tubes if that’s the only way to defeat Obama. Remember “so be it.”? They have shown no integrity at all or interest in solving problems. They’ve gone back on their own agreements, the cut in appropriations for the Pentagon being only the most recent of many. They’ve denied their own positions, the mandate being just one of a plethora, the moment their position has been accepted by the Democrats.
As the first Godfather said, “I can’t reason with these people.” For that reason, the idea that getting rid of the republicans may be the necessary first step in getting this country going again isn’t quite as ridiculous as it may seem.
Suggested reading for the middle of the ‘roaders’ & right wingers posting here:
One of the curious realities of modern America is how many people – especially white males – have been propagandized into siding with a “free-market” power structure that treats them like tissue paper, to be used and thrown away….. Phil Rockstroh
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8229-nature-of-self-defeating-convictions
Maggincat
Yeah I read that article on OWS you posted.Let me paraphrase…….When the world has got you down only a strong empowered fed can turn things around by lifting you up and caring for you.They will do so by taking it outta the hides of the dirty thieving “banker”class.Well well we have heard all that before.It still smells bad no matter how well couched in prose it may be.The tea party types are your opposite.They don’t believe America is a poor beaten down simpleton just waiting for a government messiah.Just the opposite in fact.Americas best days are ahead.Her people are not and never were her problem.Government is the problem.The less the better.We in the tea party smell your gnawing debilitating negativism.We hear you whispering ,hissing ,cajoling voices attempting to drain the strength from the bodies and minds of our countrymen.So that the government can step in to save them.How transparent it all is.Begon before somebody drops a house on you..You have no power here :)
It is perfectly logical that republics responding to the popular will, would function more smoothly. Considering where the gluttons serving as our leaders would take us, perhaps it’s just fine that they are dysfunctional and conspicuously bipolar even on their better days.
No matter what one’s political spectrum may be, left, right, or otherwise, to believe that
the country has arrived at this point in a vacuum devoid of the human element is to also believe in the tooth fairy. To quote H. L. Mencken: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Government, any government, is made up and comprised of people, so only people can undo and fix whatever failings may be attributed to said government. If [we] cannot agree what the problem is how in God’s name can [we] ever arrive at a balanced solution?
“We in the tea party smell your gnawing debilitating negativism. We hear you whispering, hissing , cajoling voices attempting to drain the strength from the bodies and minds of our countrymen.”
You left out the part about their attacks on our precious bodily fluids.
The original Tea Party opposed the authoritarian policies of the British multi-nationals of its time. While the modern Tea Party which talks a good game about freedom and individualism, it is indoctrinated and enslaved by the corporate interests which created it and maintain it and which select its targets. Any political party which mindlessly worships Ronald Reagan and his policies as much as the so-called Tea Party does, is hopelessly out of touch with the realities of modern America and of the emerging multipolar system.
Pleasehead the Tea party came about for one reason.Their was a growing realization that the constitution was being ignored.When Obama came in it became blatant and obvious,and the whole thing exploded.The tea party is not a party.We are an ideal to be reinfused back into ALL the parties and ALL the candidates on both sides.Our beef with Obama has always been based on that.I have been in it since the first days and know many of the loudest voices(not leaders)in the movement.Um I must not of gotten that big corporate check.Though ‘We” do laugh at the notion.Look you create boogie men and try to go with that.We will stick with the constitution.As “out of touch with modern realities of modern America and an emerging multi polar system” as it may be.
the tea party was a corporate media creation…first inspired by a rant on cnbc, then quickly adopted and endlessly promoted by fox news…and bankrolled by all the usual suspects….
Well you may believe that.It certainly is the lie the left try’s to shovel.But i know i was a tea party member when i worked for Bill Clinton.It just did not have a name.We all know the first gentleman that thought up the name.That was beside the point.Was it promoted by Fox?Damn straight.I actually can’t imagine any American that would not trumpet the tea party ideals.Bankrolled?In what sense bankrolled?There is no party per say to fund.Legislators who say they are tea party are just conservatives who love the clarity that the tea party speaks with, in regard to the constitution.The tea party is just an ideal.Thats why people say it is gone now.In a sense it has.We go back to work.When needed we will rise up against anyone right or left ,who disregards the constitution.Obama could make it go away tomorrow.Follow the constitution to the letter,and we are gone.He picked this fight.He thought the constitution “a mean document that inhibits governments power”.Well we are here to say -you bet ya.We mean to inhibit your power.Stop its growth dead in its tracks.So far we have done a hell of a job.We “mean” to do more come November.We mean to give him the best gift on Gods green earth.We will allow him to be a private citizen of the United States Of America again.
Obama thought the constitution “a mean document that inhibits governments power”.
Obama never said any such thing…quit peddling bullshit
Dick you must be a google baby.Im guessing you are having a tough time finding it on google so it must not exist. It was one of his “sayings” in the class that he taught on activism against the government/ constitution.He also said “the constitution mostly says what states can’t do to you.But it does not say what the federal government can do on your behalf.”He felt it was a flawed document.What an amazing misunderstanding of our constitution that is.Now i don’t know if you can find that either to prove its existence,but there it is.Google on……….
Here is my pitch to Fair for next week…………….Write about the EPA dropping the case in Texas against Fracking, and the events that led up to it.Their retreat in wyoming and pennsylvania.
michael e: “Now i don’t know if you can find that either to prove its existence,but there it is.”
_________________________
How ’bout you prove it exists? You’re the one alleging it! You’re the one who is familiar enough with this supposed quote to write it verbatim. You didn’t hear it from him directly, so there had to be a source, right? Put that amazing memory and awesome education you’ve bragged about to work and think of it!
Otherwise, the charge of peddling BS seems spot on.
So if I don’t offer proofs of everything I write, that shows another side of the coin from the liberal spin that you so believe in……you will stay unconvinced?Hmmm what should I do, what should I do?John if I gave you that proof ,and worked as your unpaid fact finding clerk,would it make any difference to you.Remember Rev wright?First you said it was all lies.Then some of it was lies.Then ok it is not a lie but(wait for it)……who cares anyway?Be honest do you give a shit weather or not he said that?Would it change your view of the man at all?Actually I know a man who took his class.He has talked on several radio shows about the experience.He is not the only one.You seem to be unconvinced because Obama has sealed so much.Let me help you with this.Obama went to school and received grades.That is a fact.Show them to me or it never happened and is BS.Obama was published in Harvard.Show me his works.Obama had a senior thesis…show them to me or all that is BS.He had girlfriends….buds…..Where are they?Where is his SAT scores?nothing can be found on google,is it possible could it be,that like Jethro Bodine he never past the 9th grade?All google records seem to end there.oh well maybe it is all Bull.Unless you can prove to me otherwise
@michael e: I have no idea what you’re talking about with regard to Rev. Wright. As far as I can remember, I’ve never commented on anything related to that topic.
So does this guy who heard it firsthand have a name? Has he written anything on the subject? C’mon Mr. Awesome-Memory, let’s get some details!
I’m not unconvinced because his academic records are sealed. I’m unconvinced because you’re essentially saying that a little bird told you a controversial fact and you’re refusing to back it up with anything even remotely verifiable.
If you google the sentence Obama thought the constitution “a mean document that inhibits governments power,” you get three matches…and they all go to comments left at the FAIR blog by Michael e.
They can be found at these articles:
12/15/11 “Why the WaPo won’t cover Ron Paul”
5/16/11 ” More Evidence of Gingrich’s Idea-Spewing”
1/21/11 “GE Goes to the White House”
No conservative writer or blogger has ever cited that quote.
Odd, isn’t it?
I also was quoted(how silly that is to say that)as saying you cant find me Obamas grades.His publications within Harvard.His SAT scores.Damn near anything on his education.I will agree with you that the accounts that he said this are phony…..if you agree he never went to these schools.Or according to the lack of information …ever got much past high school.Your proclivity to accept one thing hidden within google searches over another is troubling.
@michael e: [sigh] Fine. I’ll agree that Obama never went to college if you’ll admit you’re making up a quote. Perfectly logical, right? Your inability to cite a source and continual irrelevant confusion of issues is what I find troubling.
And I found the basis for your supposed quote. Limbaugh discusses it on his website archives somewhere. You’re getting the quote wrong. He never said a mean document that inhibits government power. Nor did he call it a flawed document. He did say the Constitution reflected a flaw in society at the time; he was referring to slavery. He also said that the Constitution primarily concerns limiting government’s power over what it can do TO people, but wonders about the limits of government’s ability to do FOR people. Certainly, there are debatable issues there. But it’s not the profound misunderstanding nor the subversive viewpoint you wanna make it.
So, Mr. Awesome-Memory, you either forgot the quote or you were lying about it in order to bolster your point. The latter would explain your refusal to provide a source.
The reason Google can’t find President Obama’s grades is simple…they were never posted on the internet. Google can’t find Mitt Romney’s transcripts since they have never been posted either.
The reason Google easily found your alleged quote from Obama…it was posted on the internet. [repeatedly, by you.]
So here’s the question: Why in the tens of thousands of critical articles about Obama that have been posted online in the last four years hasn’t anyone other than you ever cited that quote?
Either you’re the only person on the entire internet aware of it or you simply made it up out of thin air.
Both your track record here at FAIR and the application of Occam’s Razor strongly suggest the latter.