A liberal is someone who supports liberal ideals: Peace, human rights, constitutional freedoms, eradication of the corrupt influence of corporations in American politics. That definition sounds obvious.

The problem is that many liberals aren’t liberals any more.

These days, many people who call themselves “liberal” support downright anti-liberal policies. In fact, a large number of people who describe themselves as “liberal” now support some of the most radically right wing policies of George W. Bush.

This sad new political reality is reflected in a new poll by the Washington Post. The poll finds that 53 percent of people who call themselves “liberal Democrats” support keeping the unconstitutional, extralegal prison at Guantanamo Bay open. 55 percent of these self-described “liberal Democrats” support allowing the President to perform long-distance executions of American citizens without criminal trial.

Glenn Greenwald calls this turn of “liberal Democrat” opinion to embrace the policies begun by George W. Bush “repulsive” – and he’s right. Greenwald is also correct in identifying the reason for the great liberal flip flop: Barack Obama has embraced these Bush policies, and many people who like to call themselves “liberal” really don’t have any ideology. They just love Barack Obama, and so they figure that if Barack Obama does something, it must be okay.

These people aren’t liberals. They’re blind partisans. They’re followers. They’re fans. They treat politics as if it’s a football game. They’ve decided that they support the Democratic team, and whatever the leaders of the Democratic team tell them is right, they will believe is right.

This lazy attitude is so low that it isn’t even immoral. It’s absolutely amoral.

Now, before I go too far, I want to make it clear that I do not believe that there is no difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There is a significant difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. The biggest difference, however, seems to be that Democrats think whatever Democratic Party leaders tell them to think, while Republicans think whatever Republican Party leaders tell them to think.

Liberals are supposed to be against the corrupt influence of corporate power in elections. Now, though, Barack Obama has openly invited corporate-run Super PACs to make independent expenditures of money that comes from nobody-knows-where on his behalf. So, many liberals are praising Obama’s move, saying that it shows that he’s strong.

Liberals are supposed to be against Presidents ignoring congressional authority and declaring war whenever they want to. Once Barack Obama did it, though, too many liberals rushed to defend Obama’s action, saying that anyone who thins that Presidents couldn’t take the nation off to war on a whim is an idiot.

Liberals are supposed to be environmentalists. But, when Barack Obama announced that he wouldn’t even try to pass legislation to deal with climate change, many liberals clapped loudly, saying, “President Obama sure is good at that long game!” When Barack Obama declared that he would expand offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, even though there are no new regulations from Congress to protect us against the kind of massive disaster that took place when the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded, large numbers of Democrats willingly pretended that they had no idea that the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history had taken place less than two years ago.

What about the rest of us? What about the minority of “liberals” who actually are liberal? We’re frustrated. We’re depressed. A lot of the time, we don’t know what to do. Sometimes, we feel like we just want to throw in the towel, and give up, because there’s no hope, and nobody that we can believe in, and nothing we can do.

But deep in our hearts, we know that’s BULLSHIT.

Here’s What We DO:

We replace our despair with anger, and we grow a backbone.

We rip that Barack Obama bumper sticker off the car. We toss that Barack Obama campaign button in the garbage. We throw that Barack Obama tshirt on a campfire and piss on it while it burns.

Then, we pick someone better. There are two good, really good, liberal choices this year: Their names are Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson. Both are running for President. Pick one to support. Support both, if you like.

Then, the next time you meet one of your “liberal” friends who starts talking about how wonderful Barack Obama is, you do not turn your head away sheepishly and change the subject of the conversation. You say to your friend, “I thought you were liberal, but I don’t understand how any liberal can support the terrible right wing policies that Barack Obama has been promoting. Many of them are the same policies that you told me you were against when George W. Bush promoted them. Why have you changed your values?”

Then, you pull a Rocky Anderson for President button or a Jill Stein for President button out of your pocket and you pin it on your chest.

You put a bumper sticker on your car for Stein or Anderson, too. You wear a tshirt to the protests that the Democrats don’t support anymore.

You hold a house party for Jill Stein or Rocky Anderson, and you invite your liberal friends. You’ll find out which ones are liberal and which ones are “liberal”.

What you do is get active and stay active, because the fact is that being sad and silent about Barack Obama’s terrible embrace of right wing politics is just as bad as being an unthinking Obama loyalist.

For our country and for our world, we need better leadership than what Barack Obama is willing to offer. There’s only one way for us to get better leadership: We have to be better citizens.

In order to be safe places for people to put people’s money, current federal law requires credit unions to distribute their loans widely so that the failure of one recipient to repay the loan won’t topple the entire credit union. 12 USC Sec. 1757a reads:

Sec. 1757a. Limitation on member business loans

(a) In general
On and after August 7, 1998, no insured credit union may make any member business loan that would result in a total amount of such loans outstanding at that credit union at any one time equal to more than the lesser of –
(1) 1.75 times the actual net worth of the credit union; or
(2) 1.75 times the minimum net worth required under section 1790d(c)(1)(A) of this title for a credit union to be well capitalized.

To put it in vernacular terms, the idea is for the credit union not to put all of its eggs in one basket. But Rep. Corrine Brown, a relatively conservative Democrat from Florida, has introduced a new bill that would make an exception to credit unions’ careful lending practices: an exception for churches. Her bill, H.R. 3745, would insert the phrase “excluding loans made to nonprofit religious organizations” right after the text “total amount of such loans.” The effect: credit loans would be deregulated to allow a large portion of their capital to be loaned to churches.

Why, and to what kind of churches? Corrine Brown explains in her December 20 2011 remarks introducing the bill:

Mr. Speaker, today I introduced the Faith-Based Lending Protection Act of 2011. The bill modifies the Federal Credit Union Act to make it easier for credit unions to lend money to ministries. Specifically, the bill exempts loans to nonprofit religious organizations from the Credit Union Act’s caps on the volume of loans credit unions can make to businesses.

Mr. Speaker, many churches are in crises because they cannot get access to credit. In 2006, only two churches in the United States lost their buildings to foreclosure or short sale. Last year the number grew to 95.

Like many homeowners, they took out loans when times were good, but now their income has dropped and they need to refinance. Some have balloon payments that would be impossible to pay even in the best of times. The trouble is that many lenders do not want to do business with churches. Credit unions are in an excellent position to help. Credit unions get capital from their members and loan it to their members all of whom share a common bond. They know how to keep money in their communities and they want to do more. This bill will let them.

This non-partisan language has passed the House several times–sometimes on a voice vote. Now is the time to make it law. Churches cannot wait.

Rep. Brown wishes to draw a parallel between homeowners taking out loans and churches taking out loans. But unlike homes, churches are not residences; they’re not necessary for shelter. Churches are clubs, voluntary organizations that will have higher income if they have more members making donations to them, and that will have lower income if they have fewer members making donations. So what kind of churches does Corrine Brown want credit unions to do favors for? Unpopular churches.

What else characterizes the churches Corrine Brown wants to protect? They’re churches with bad credit, churches that banks don’t want to lend to because they can’t make their payments, partially because they aren’t getting the member donations they used to get and partially because they made the bad decision of taking out a loan with a balloon payment, letting the church pay small amounts at first and then have to pay a gigantic amount later. These churches can’t pay their current loans because they took out bigger loans than they could afford, and now want to take out more +loans. So what kind of churches does Corrine Brown want credit unions to do favors for by giving them especially big loans? The very churches that are unlikely to pay back the loans they get.

Remember that the law Rep. Brown wants to change is a law enacted to keep credit unions from collapsing from lending out big loans to bad creditors. This is in order to help unpopular churches that don’t have forward-looking leadership and that are more likely to default on those big loans. Rep. Brown’s bill therefore makes credit unions more likely to collapse, wrecking communities she says they’d be serving.

Turning credit unions suicidal to prop up poorly-run churches people don’t like? What makes that a good idea?

The new Democratic member of the House of Representatives is Susan Bonamici. She will be representing Oregon’s first congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for the rest of the year, although the seat will be up for re-election, along with all other House seats, this November. Rob Cornilles, the Republican defeated by Bonamici in yesterday’s election, may well challenge her in this autumn’s campaign.

Bonamici is a lawyer, who has worked in private practice, and as a consumer protection attorney with the Federal Trade Commission. She brought that experience to her congressional campaign, promising to work in Congress to support consumer protection legislation.

Almost all of Bonamici’s campaign was economically-focused. Though Bonamici is a Democrat, her economic approach would best be described as center-right, not progressive. Rather than being pro-labor, Bonamici describes herself as being in favor of business interests. “More effective leadership in Congress will also inspire certainty and confidence in the private sector, which will be the source of our long-term economic recovery,” she wrote.

Bonamici’s candidacy coincided with the rise of the populist Occupy protests nationwide, including many communities in Oregon. During the campaign, Bonamici declined to support the Occupy movement, saying that she understood its motivation, without giving it her endorsement.

We can expect Susan Bonamici to vote with her Democratic colleagues when it is safe to do so, but to vote with the Republican Party quite often as well. Though Bonamici’s victory is an advantage for the Democratic Party establishment, it is not a great gain from the perspective of liberal activists.

Voters in Florida’s 22nd congressional district may now be hoping that they can get Allen West the hell out of the House of Representatives this November. But who would be his replacement?

There are two candidates running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Allen West in the general election this fall. Their names are Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy.

Lois Frankel is a former state legislator and mayor of West Palm Beach. She pledges to protect Medicare and Social Security from Republican attempts to reduce benefits, saying, “Our seniors have spent their entire lives contributing to these programs and they deserve to know that Social Security and Medicare will be there for them when they retire. Lois will fight to protect these programs for current and future generations and will resist any efforts to cut benefits.”

Patrick Murphy is Vice President of Coastal Environmental Services, a Florida company that specializes in cleanup of industrial pollution. In 2010, Murphy took part in the cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He hopes to bring insights from that experience to Congress, explaining, “Good environmental policy isn’t just morally correct. It’s good business for America, and especially good for Florida. It preserves the economy, creates jobs, and protects Florida’s fragile ecosystems and tourism industry.”

Either one of these Democrats would be a remarkable improvement over the erratic and extremist Allen West.

Occupy Congress, Meeting with Members of Congress, Warily

Tuesday January 17 is the day when Occupy Congress takes the Capitol Grounds and protesters assembling from around the country begin a series of meetings with their members of Congress. An anonymous senior Democratic aide in the House of Representatives is nervous:

“We would want to approach it with caution. I don’t know what we would do personally. It would depend on what they were asking. We never turn people away unless there’s a security reason, or if it is just going to be more of a mess than makes sense.”

They’re called constituents, Anonymous Senior Aide, even if they don’t wear three-piece suits.

Other members of Congress are not trying to run away from Occupy, but rather are trying to get out in front of the movement… at least rhetorically. One organizer reports:

Congresswoman Susan Davis’ office called. She wants to meet with us in DC on #J17. “I want to support OSD you while you’re here”

This is the same Congresswoman Susan Davis, by the way, who voted for indefinite detention without charge via the NDAA, who voted for the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, who voted to let the President go to war without congressional authorization, who voted to keep the war in Afghanistan going, who voted for big military contracts for corporations, and who voted to put God in government — all just last year! That’s rich.

Organizers are ambivalent about what’s been motivating politicians, declaring at once that “Just to be clear — we did NOT invite anyone except YOU, the People. Politicians have invited themselves to #J17” and also listing “Meetings With Representatives” as part of the official schedule.

Occupy Congress: Making Investments for a One Day event?

Here’s another interesting theme running through: building up supplies:

Food donations needed… Non Perishable goods can be mailed to
Occupy Washington DC
1233 12th street NW
Washington DC 20005

#J17, so if you get cold, don’t risk it, come get something to layer.

Essential Tips: It is strongly advised that participants bring their own food to consume throughout the day’s activities and overnight…. If you plan on protesting at Freedom Plaza, McPherson Square, or anywhere else in the city, overnight, please bring your own tent.

Overnight? The official schedule doesn’t list anything overnight. And food donations? A “massive amount of winter gear”? Is it possible the official schedule isn’t the complete schedule?

Final hints: the name of the official account for Occupy Congress on Twitter is “ReOccupy,” and the Sustained Presence working group has been having a bit of discussion.

I think January 17 is going to be a pretty darned interesting day. Who knows about January 18?

“Darcy Richardson is the best way for Democrats sick of the past three – and 30 – years’ needless compromises to register their dissent,” says the New Progressive Alliance.

Unlike Stephen Colbert, Darcy Richardson is actually on the ballot – in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Activists are currently at work to get Richardson on the ballot in other states as well.

Since the day he became President, Barack Obama has been disregarding the wishes of the liberal Democrats who put him into the White House in the first place. In 2012, it’s time for liberal Democrats to return the favor. Put on this Darcy Richardson for President campaign button to show that you’re willing to make the change that Barack Obama could only promise.

“If you believe that America needs real progressive leadership, help us send Barack Obama a message,” says Richardson. Richardson’s policy platform includes the following positions:

- Against the XL pipeline from the Alberta tar sands across the Ogllala Aquifer down to oil refineries in Texas.
- For bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act
- For cap and trade climate legislation
- For a “capital levy on wealth”
- For a new, larger economic stimulus package
- For a new Works Progress Administration
- For the proposed constitutional amendment by Bernie Sanders to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, which allowed the current corrupt system of independent expenditures in campaign finance to begin
- For an immediate end to American involvement in the civil war in Afghanistan

Darcy Richardson is on the ballot as a Democratic presidential candidate in New Hampshire. If you’re a Democrat or a political independent looking for a solid, serious alternative to Barack Obama, Richardson would be a reasonable choice.

This year, he is promoting a mandatory tooth brushing law, in spite of civil liberties concerns about the “dental police” and the shadowy “preventive dental maintenance detention centers”. He has denied rumors of plans to use DNA splicing to create a species of winged monkeys to act as tooth fairies.

Unlike other presidential candidates, he does not mind admitting his ambition to become a leader with totalitarian powers like those of Big Brother. He explains, “I am a friendly fascist. I am a tyrant you should trust. You should let me run your life, because I do know what is best for you.”

There is some new controversy in his presidential campaign, though. He has been accused of flip flopping to a pro-zombie position. “Zombies are not just to run away from any more,” he says. In order to solve the energy crisis, he proposes hooking up zombies to giant turbines, so that as they stumble and shuffle, they can generate electrical power for American cities.

Also on his presidential platform is the unique idea of full federal funding for time travel research. Upon the completion of his time travel research program, he pledges to go back in time and kill the infant Adolph Hitler with his bare hands.

His name is Vermin Supreme, and he is running as a Democratic candidate for President, with a place on the ballot in today’s New Hampshire primary, in competition against Barack Obama. We’ll keep close track of the number of votes he gets tonight.

To learn how The Man wants you to think the Iowa Caucuses work, read the 1%ers’ Des Moines Register: How to Caucus

So, where is Congressman Peterson going to shoot wild geese a couple of weeks from now? Is he going to a field somewhere in Minnesota? Is he skipping over to Manitoba?

No, Collin Peterson is going on a big goose hunt way down in Texas.

Of course, Representative Peterson isn’t really going all the way down to Texas just to go goose hunting. Oh, he might pick up a gun and pull the trigger a couple of times, just to put on a show, but what Collin Peterson is really hunting for is money.

This goose hunt Peterson will be going on is actually just a fundraising event. Peterson will have special private conversations with lobbyists and the leaders of political action committees – in exchange for money. Congressman Peterson has sent out an invitation to this event that explicitly asks political action committees to give him $5,000 in exchange for their presence at the event.

The invitation doesn’t even give contact information for people in Minnesota who want to attend – people like Collin Peterson’s constituents. The contact information given is only for people who live in Texas and near Washington D.C.

Way to stay in touch with the voters, Mr. Peterson.