Footnote to the preceding

Several commentators among the supposed progressive portions of the online community have reacted to some recent criticism of Barack Obama from other members of that same community by saying, in essence, "shut yer trap." Or, in the words of John Cole, "just please shut the fuck up."

Until when, you ask? Again quoting John Cole, "until he actually does something you disagree with, you WATB."

Which, if I may equal Mr. Cole's honesty of expression, is a really, really, really, STUPID piece of advice.

The other day, Glenn Greenwald quite properly pointed out the leaks such as the one I referenced about Obama being "centrist" on intelligence and torture

should be taken with a hefty dose of skepticism, as they are often used by people to push a President-elect in the direction they want him to go.

Indeed. But that is exactly the point. This is not the campaign, where Obama was surrounded by supporters, this is the transition, where he is surrounded by people with various ideas - and various agendas, both political and personal. Leaks such as this are often trial balloons designed to test the reaction to an idea. If that reaction is positive or muted, it adds political strength to that direction.

We know, we know, that Obama is getting pressure from the media, from the foreign policy establishment, from among his own advisors, to be and remain part of their post-Cold War, post-9/11 consensus. That would include abandoning his promises regarding wiretapping, executive power, and intelligence methods. He's getting pushback on closing Gitmo. Hell, he's even getting pushback from the military and the national security establishment on the one promise he probably dare not break: that of getting combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months.

We know he's getting that pressure. To refuse to respond to the leaks, the trial balloons, to remain silent "until he actually does something" is to wait until it is too late to do our own pushing back.

So, no! No limiting opposition to rear-guard, after-the-fact resistance, struggling uphill to reverse a decision already made. If we hope to see something approaching an actual progressive agenda come out of the White House, then when word is out that Obama "will do so-and-so" or "is planning take this attitude toward such-and-such," we should be, we must be, prepared to criticize, even attack, in order to make it clear that so-and-so and such-and-such are not our preferred direction - and do it before that course is set.

So those of you counseling silence and patience and (therefore) blind trust, can just shut the fuck up about demanding others shut the fuck up.

Footnote to the Footnote: I know that John Cole is fairly conservative; he voted for Shrub twice and says "I left the right because they were such assholes I could not stand it anymore." But I don't think that Whiskey Fire or No More Mister Nice Blog or Glenn Greenwald, to name three, are regarded that way.