"I launched the
#TooFarLeft tag," declared Peter Daou, "because I've had it with
Republicans, media elites, and corporate Dems enabling fascists while
denigrating those who seek economic and social justice as 'too far left.'
I'd like to ONCE hear them complain America is too far right."
Saturday, November 16, 2019
If you want to see the
hashtag #TooFarLeft go
viral, just get a former world leader—preferably one who is a Democrat—to
denounce Left Twitter.
After it was reported Friday
that former U.S. President Barack Obama told a room full of "wealthy
liberal" Democratic Party donors that voters ultimately won't go for
candidates offering political visions he suggested were too ambitious and
radical, progressives online reacted critically to Obama advising the party to
sideline "certain left-leaning twitter feeds" and what he termed the
"the activist wing of our party."
According to
the New York Times, which first reported on Obama's "too far
left" advice:
While Mr. Obama did not single
out any specific primary candidate or policy proposal, he cautioned that the
universe of voters that could support a Democratic candidate—Democrats,
independents and moderate Republicans—are not driven by the same views reflected
on "certain left-leaning Twitter feeds" or "the activist wing of
our party."
"Even as we push the
envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in
reality," Mr. Obama said. "The average American doesn't think we have
to completely tear down the system and remake it."
Specifically not mentioned by
name but clearly a target of the comments was Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has made
the phrase "political revolution" central to his 2020 primary
campaign. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, also running for the nomination, was likely
another candidate the former president had in mind as she, along with Sanders,
has used her campaign to argue that the U.S. political and economic systems are
rigged against working people in favor of the wealthy and corporations—a
dynamic that is going to need massive "structural change," the U.S.
senator from Massachusetts says, if it is to be undone.
Sometimes called "Left
Twitter" as shorthand, the broad moniker is characterized as Democratic
Party members more in the vein of Sanders or those who represent a progressive
flank of the spectrum that identify as democratic socialists, progressive
Democrats, or left-wing independents. Not an official club that has a
membership, any influential—or possibly strident—voices on the progressive left
who use social media to share viewpoints and engage with the latest political
developments, appeared to be the target of Obama's warning.
In turn, many who fit the
description were not going to let the former president—especially a Democrat
who swept to power in 2008 on the campaign promise of "hope and
change"—get away with the comments without a characteristic retort. On
Saturday, the hashtag #TooFarLeft was
trending on Twitter.
Political operative Peter
Daou, who took credit for launching the hashtag, said:
"I launched the #TooFarLeft tag because I've had it with Republicans,
media elites, and corporate Dems enabling fascists while denigrating those who
seek economic and social justice as 'too far left.' I'd like to ONCE hear
them complain America is too far right."
And so, a brief sample of
reactions:
"Obama telling a room of
wealthy donors to support candidates that protect their wealth, which comes at
the expense of helping everyday people, is [heartbreaking]," tweeted Melanie
D'Arrigo, a progressive activist currently running for U.S. Congress in New York's
3rd District against a more centrist incumbent. "This is exactly why
everyday people want a political revolution. Government isn’t working for
them."
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