[rad-green] Left Responds on Twitter With Viral #TooFarLeft Hashtag After Obama Tells Democrats to Tamp Down Progressive Ambitions

*https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/16/left-twitter-responds-viral-toofarleft-hashtag-after-obama-counsels-democrats-tamp
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/16/left-twitter-responds-viral-toofarleft-hashtag-after-obama-counsels-democrats-tamp>Common
Dreams          November 16, 2019Left Twitter Responds With Viral
#TooFarLeft Hashtag After Obama Counsels Democrats to Tamp Down Progressive
Ambitions"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."by Jon Queally, staff writer*

[image: Former President Barack Obama in the White House briefing room on
Aug. 7, 2013. (Photo: DoD/flickr/cc)]

*Former President Barack Obama in the White House briefing room on Aug. 7,
2013. (Photo: DoD/flickr/cc)*

If you want to see the hashtag #TooFarLeft
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/TooFarLeft?src=hashtag_click> go viral, just
get a former world leader—perferably 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
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us/politics/barack-obama-2020-dems.html>"
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
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us/politics/barack-obama-2020-dems.html> 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
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/TooFarLeft?src=hashtag_click> was trending on
Twitter.

Political operative Peter Daou, who took credit for launching the hashtag,
said <https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1195762028763332608>: "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
<https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1195706609189769217> 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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