So you think you're a liberal

Bob Somerby, The Daily Howler, covers some very valuable ground today. First, he notes the importance of pro-Obama people, a group to which I belong, being careful about dumping on followers of Senator Clinton. Quoting Krugman from today:

More tirades from Obama supporters against Mrs. Clinton are not the answer—they will only further alienate her grass-roots supporters, many of whom feel that she received a raw deal.

Nor is it helpful to insult the groups that supported Mrs. Clinton, either by suggesting that racism was their only motivation or by minimizing their importance.

Somerby adds his own gloss, reminding us of the old term, “limousine liberals,” and why Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter can get a foothold by attacking them as out of touch with ordinary people:

But these presumptions and condescensions are deeply ingrained in pseudo-liberal culture—so ingrained that many white liberals don’t even seem to notice. Libs and Dems have long become quite expert at losing votes this way. We issue sweeping statements about vast groups of people, then wonder why they sometimes get mad.
Typically, white liberals avoid such sweeping assertions about African-Americans (good). But uh-oh! When it comes to sweeping assertions about downscale white rubes, sorry folks—not so much.

At any rate, we agree with Krugman on that point; Democrats would be well advised to avoid making sweeping statements about racist white rubes.

The second big point in Somerby’s posting today is about Hillary Clinton’s alleged “pandering,” as with the so-called flag-burning bill which is often used as Exhibit A for that conclusion. She has taken a lot of heat on it from the “liberal” pundits. Did Hillary “pander” on that one? Well, that bill had a critical pro-Constitutional purpose: to head off the very real possibility that a flag-burning Constitutional-friggin’-Amendment, which had already passed the House, would get one more Senate vote and be sent off to the states for ratification. That would have taken flag-burning completely outside Constitutional conduct. As it was, Clinton’s legislation, was a carefully drawn provision that had a chance of being upheld by the Supreme Court, by limiting it to situations where it was done to incide violence.

Oh, and by the way, who else voted for the flag-burning bill in order to defeat the flag-burning Constitutional amendment? Why, Senator Obama, Senator Durbin and most other Senate Democrats. Triangulating? You betcha, and thank God they were – all of them. Sometimes we need to grow up.

We hear a lot of stuff, sometimes from liberals about other liberals. The New York Times, Richard Cohen, and Arianna Huffington, among many others who proudly wear the “progressive” label, have used that episode to prove how lacking in principle Hillary is. Even if I give a wide berth for the practical necessities of law-making and governing, I didn’t know the real story myself, and presumed that was an example of her particular readiness to cut corners. It has been standard anti-Hillary lore -- part of the standard "narrative." It’s a valuable lesson: When you hear something from anyone, even those you assume are on your side and who mostly probably are, don’t bite on it. If it’s bad about Obama or Clinton, and probably especially Clinton considering over two decades of sordid press behavior towards her, be advised that there’s probably another story behind it.