An Obama statement I'd never heard…

That was a good one, WV. I agree with most of it.

Some minor quibbles, though. I knew Obama said that long ago, without watching Dore. It’s something I would bring up in arguments during Obama’s presidency, when some righty would call him a communist or a leftist of some other kind. I’d respond with, If only. I’d say I wish Obama were a leftist. Unfortunately, Obama governed from the center-right on most issues, and would have been a moderate Republican back in the day. This would invariably stun the righty and they’d either laugh, if it was in person, or write LOL if it was an online discussion. They couldn’t wrap their head around the fact that Obama’s policies were conservative, and oftentimes to the right of Republicans like Nixon and (definitely) Ike.

Which leads to another observation in a similar vein: Dore mentioned Donnie Deutch and asked if he represented mainstream “liberal” thinking. Um, no. He’s not a liberal. He’s a centrist to conservative, Madison Avenue/Wall Street guy.

I think too many youtube lefties seem to assume if a Dem is on MSNBC, they must be speaking for “liberals” because it’s supposed to be the liberals’ network. If they watched it, and read about its management team, they’d know that it has a lot of conservative hosts and guests, many of whom are Republicans or ex-Republicans . . . and the Dems it brings on? I’d say most are centrist to conservative. No leftists anywhere to be found, and not that many “liberals.” Overall, it’s a center-right network, like CNN. The real difference between the two is that CNN hires a lot of Trumpists and brings them on as guests. It seems to like the Crossfire atmosphere. MSNBC steers clear of that kind of conservative in general.

WV, got some questions for ya. I don’t follow Dore, beyond watching the videos you post, so I really don’t know. Does he go after Trump and the Republicans too? Not just as an aside, not just in the background of his comments, but, say, for an entire episode, as the major focus of his critique?

It goes without saying that both parties suck. They both stand in the way of social, economic and environmental justice and a sustainable planet. To one degree or another, they’re either a lump obstacle or at war outright against what’s best for us and the earth. I despise both of them, the two-party system itself, and especially the economic system that is killing the planet and has to be overturned.

But if I only watched Dore and no other media, I couldn’t help but conclude that it’s the Dems in DC and in the Media entirely at fault. I’d have to conclude they were responsible for all the corruption, venality, callousness and indifference to the suffering of countless people, and no other party. Like Assange going after just HRC and the Dems, exposing them and not the GOP . . . If I got all of my news from folks like Dore or Wikileaks, I wouldn’t even know what the GOP does in DC and elsewhere. I’d have to conclude they’re relatively innocent and benign, because they’re barely mentioned.

In short, Dore’s critique is pretty lopsided, in my view. And that’s not an argument from “whataboutismville.” It’s just an observation of the near absence of critique about the other party, which just so happens to hold the White House, the Senate and the Supreme Court, and has long dominated the military, police, and the various intel agencies.

Your thoughts on the above?

Thanks, WV.

That makes a lot of sense. Both your own rationale and Dore’s, if he shares that with you.

Orwell was similar. He was a life-long leftist, but he decided to focus most of his critique on “the left.” It was a given for him that the right was horrific. So he spent most of his time trying to get his own side of the spectrum to live up to its principles and stop its betrayal of those principles whenever that happened. Camus did the same.

Orwell and Camus, of course, literally put their lives on the line fighting fascists . . . in Spain and France, respectively.

It was also, I think, much tougher for them to critique their own “team,” because Europe in their day had a much broader political range and there actually was a vibrant “left.”

Anyway . . . thanks for the videos and the answers. Great points on McCain and family.