“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser
“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser
How you figure he’s blaming “the leftists” for NIMBY?
How do you read the paragraphs you quoted, if not that? Do you think he’s addressing the neolibs when he says “I don’t care how much you love working people” and then scolds them about housing?
I read it as “this is the political reality of the housing situation. If you don’t have a plan to overcome this reality, your ideology isn’t at issue.”
That’s not blaming the “leftists” for NIMBY. That’s stating that NIMBY and zoning laws are what the “leftists” or anyone else who’s trying to get housing for people has to deal with.
When he says “I don’t care how much you love working people” what I think he’s saying is, and I’m going to paraphrase here so bear in mind this is not his actual words but my subjective interpretation; “‘Leftists’ - people who are unable or unwilling to identify as Democrats because they are so pure of ideology and full of naïevite want to help working people but THEY HAVE NO PLAN TO DO SO that doesn’t involve magic hand-waving, or the immediate total restructuring of American democracy itself, and therefore ARE UNABLE TO DO SO. Therefore their very loud pronouncements of love for working people is irrelevant. People who actually love working people find ways to get things done for them.”
So to recap; NIMBY isn’t the fault of evil leftists, it’s just one of the hurdles anyone trying to get housing built needs to overcome, and so-called leftists can yap all day about helping the working class, but if they can’t do anything for them what’s the point?
Because they are the ones who care about shit like environmental regulations and not polluting our cities to make new housing, especially when so much property is being held and unused by an investor class who refuses to release it until they have a profit on the deal. I have lived in two northwest cities in the last 15 years where the downtowns are barren with empty buildings that could be sold, torn down, and built into apartments. But noooo in each city they’d rather clearcut the wooded areas and build there instead all the while whinging about environmental regulations making it costly.
Whatever the fuck happened to that Eminent Domain shit? Why aren’t we using that for the good of housing people?