Barack Obama

or that the left is involved in a self-interested position to "keep the money rolling in". What money?

On the other hand, there is some basis for the argument. I think rather that the inability to support Obama or effectively work within the government is a symptom of "permanent minority" status. That was pretty well solidified during the bush years. When a faction or an individual has no power or responsibility, it is free to form its ideologies and worldviews without the need to ever work out or live with the consequences.

For instance, letting the banks and corporations fail was one desire of the left during the big recession. They could justify that by looking at the roles of some banks in creating the problem, and then that their failure would be just reward. But what would be the consequences? GM and Chrysler and several other US corporations would have been bankrupted. Their employees (union and otherwise) would have joined the unemployment lines. The void would have been filled by foreign manufacture. On the banking side, what would a complete financial meltdown look like, versus one that was turned around quickly by the stimulus programs? What was the real bottom for our economy in free-all? For the vast majority of people, it would be much worse than the slow recovery that we have had. Obama, in a position of responsibility, never had the luxury of advocating for "just let them fail".

I think of it as the difference between the freedoms of powerlessness and the responsibilities of good government. One can freely believe all sorts of absurd and ineffective things if one never has to implement them and live with the consequences.

Things could be better, especially if we had a congress that was in any way effective, but that itself is the result of the choices of people at the voting booths. Powerlessness breeds and spreads malaise and discontent (a habit of both the left and the right), both of which lead to poor voter turnouts and (in practice) more republicans in congress. The antidote is education, which the left has been particularly poor at providing.