OK. The Left ignores the Right's best weapon.

[certainot]

We get beaten and have no clue why. We blame money in politics, stolen elections, the Tea Party, corporate Democrats, Obama.

We blame everything but the right wing's most important weapon.

It allows them to take free potshots at anything and anyone progressive, liberal, or Democratic. It was Karl Rove's invisible political 2x4. It allows them to swiftboat our candidates, politicians, presidents, and prominent citizens right under our noses. They do it with hardly a peep from us. All we do is react.

It allows Republicans and their corporate think tanks to 'message' over common sense and truth. In a day it can create the kind of buzz Madison Ave can only dream of. It allows the Right to create its own reality. It allows them to rewrite history and change language. It turned Democratic into Democrat. It is the main source of the Tea Party's 'facts'.

It allows them to create and mobilize made-to-order pro-corporate constituencies for any issue in days and label it a 'popular movement'. It enables politicians and media to ignore true citizens movements and protests.

It is the biggest political correctness cop and censor-by-threat that the country has ever had. It ensures that GOP politicians vote as they are told. It can determine what and who is and isn't acceptable in politics and media. It allows the Right to blame teachers and unions and scientists for its own corruption, greed, and ignorance.

It short circuits the feedback mechanisms between citizens and media and politicians that real democracy depends on. It makes national dialogue based on fact impossible. It makes real electoral, media, and drug reform impossible and has brought us to a point at which the politicians in one of America's major political parties are either too ignorant or too politically afraid to acknowledge the existence of global warming

Because it is invisible to the Left we continue to waste time believing we can message too. Because we ignore it we react after it's work is done, after the mainstream has accepted its version and its 'facts'. We analyze and strategize as if their most effective weapon doesn't exist. We evaluate our politicians' 'spines' and 'balls' in that same vacuum.

It is the main tool used to get us to this disastrous point in our history, yet there is no opposition to it from the Left's organizations or unions.

'It' is a giant soapbox made up of over a thousand radio stations. Its message is coordinated locally and nationally by the Right's think tanks. Its talkers are protected by call screeners and reinforced by paid callers. It blasts every inch of the country on public air waves, from radio stations licensed to serve in the public interest. University and professional sports teams that broadcast on those stations help make its racism and hate and global warming denial acceptable in our communities.

Real democracy is impossible until the Left recognizes the talk radio problem and stops giving it a free speech free ride.

Media reform won't happen in time to fix this. The main right wing radio stations need to be recognized as Republican and Tea Party headquarters. The Democratic Party needs to give the radio and it's main talkers the 'credit' and attention they deserve as an official arm of the GOP. Our Universities and professional sports teams need to find alternatives. Stations need to be picketed and their local and national sponsors need to be shamed and boycotted.

[aquart]

1. You buried the lead under a ton of scolding debris.

[ZombieHorde]

I agree. Unrec for this reason. nt

[Poll_Blind]

2. The President going behind Congressional leadership's back to cut deals with Repukes didn't help...

Just...sayin'

Reid: 'I'm the Senate majority leader. Why don't I know about this deal?'

PB

[msongs]

3. yeah keep blaming progressive/liberals for choices made by elected democrats. nt

[certainot]

13. they're politicians, making political choices partly based on

relative strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and their perception of what their constituents want

[Vanje]

4. No

This fucking shit is NOT MY FaULT!


I do not deserve this.
I did NOT wreck the economy.
I did not get my nation enmeshed in endless, ridiculous expensive pointless wars (3 of them now!)
I did NOT do a damn thing to increase the HUMONGOUS gap between poor and rich.

This shit IS NOT MY FAULT!

NOT MY FAULT !

[certainot]

6. i meant the collective Left.

[dbonds]

5. Who listens to talk raido... people stuck in their cars and trucks all day.

Many of these people already feel they got shafted by life and look for anyone to blame. The right wing radio plays to that. Progressive meme's won't get through unless they do it the same as the right wing bloviators, and it is harder to do that because you have to educate them in what really is going on first. It can be done, but it isn't as easy as just getting on the radio, and it will take years and years.

And while this may help, there is still all that stuff you mention "money in politics, stolen elections, the Tea Party, corporate Democrats, Obama" that is a real problem.

[certainot]

7. all of that stuff is related to that radio problem to some degree

"money in politics, stolen elections, the Tea Party, corporate Democrats, Obama"

progressive candidates beaten and swiftboated, reforms obstructed and compromised, tea party educated, etc.

[dbonds]

8. While it is worth pursuing, it has been tried with Air America...

And it will take a long time to change things. And do we really want to become a left wing Rush Lardball?

[ProDem4]

10. Many Progressives are on talk Radio

Lets not forget Rachael Maddow came from Air America, Ed Schultz is on everyday.

The Problem is Nobody listens so they are not as profitable, so not as widely syndicated.

One Problem we on the left have is we can have an elitists attitude.

Meaning we believe all R's are crazy,and Tea Parters are Terrorist.

But the TRUTH is that Take away the Northeast and the West Coast and most of the rest of the country.

Thinks a lot more like them than like us. And they do not like being called Rubes by Chris Matthews.

Thats why I am worried about 2012 because BO got a large number of working class white vote;s in '08

And he will not get those this time no matter how this shakes out.

If Romney or Perry win's the nomination I don't think Obama can win.

[dbonds]

11. I do remember them and air america

They don't actually talk to the hopeless person in their vehicle all day long though. That was the angle I was trying to speak to. And it takes a long time to change opinions. Rush has been at it over 20 years.

I'm don't want Obama to be our candidate. We need someone that hasn't broken our hope. Lets hope for a good primary challenger.

[certainot]

16. obama didn't kill the hope

the left let the republicans kill it.

if he is so bad why are they trying to destroy him?

[dbonds]

17. Obama broke hope.

A broken hope is worse than never having hope. He didn't do anything I voted for him to do and did many things I would never have voted for him if I knew he would be doing them.

[certainot]

18. i'm more pissed at all those shits who didn't vote in the last election

and i think many now complain about obama

[dbonds]

19. I voted last election, even though it is pretty much pointless here in Alabama.

But the democrats didn't get very much done in the 2 years before that either.

[certainot]

28. (i didn't mean you) 20 years of talk radio made single payer impossible and town hall screamers were

screaming the talk radio lies- lies that take a while to beat in. the teabaggers are dittoheads, the talk radio republican base- they stopped public option because the left, once again, ignores the radio.

[certainot]

15. progressive talkers aren't on as much because the right has a monopoly, not because of market forces

thom hartmann, randi rhodes,shultz, can and do beat the limbaughs and hannitys on an even field- the problem is the right has a monopoly.

and the main reason a big part of the country believes their lies is because talk radio dominates

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[loyalsister]

12. You forgot one- unity

One thing republicans had going for them was a sick kind of unity.
One advantage we currently have is that they are finally splitting. But, we aren't holding together the way they did. Maybe it's a sign of integrity. I think diversity is a good thing.
So, it's a pretty difficult task given how many conservative house districts there are.

Seems like we're in a pickle and with media influencing voters so much I think that we should be working locally to fix this. It's the only way to get in on the national dialogue.

[saras]

14. No civilized human can use the Right's best weapon

The best weapon the Right has is that when you brutalize people to the point where their entire lives and their humanity appear threatened, that they often turn, in primate manner, to authoritarian leaders, or alpha males.

The way civilization continues to exist is by not allowing them to use this weapon in the first place.

[readmoreoften]

20. The Right's best weapon us the conservative, neoliberal Dems.

[TheKentuckian]

21. Fuckin A!

[certainot]

23. who beat out more progressive liberal dems in primaries because of the local limbaugh station

right wing stations are coordinated and instructed and fed on the national level to not only promote the chosen republican candidate but to swiftboat progressives in dem races and generally interfere.

[readmoreoften]

25. And because of attacks against progressives by Rahm and Obama in thenews.

The constant attacks from the DLC have done their fair share of destruction.

[certainot]

27. their attacks were miniscule compare dwith what

talk radio does, and part of their frustration came because the right has an invisible 2x4 and wasn't getting their back from the beginning.

[andym]

22. Talk radio is their best weapon, no doubt

followed by Fox and the right-wing news sites bringing up the rear.
The autocratic leaders of News Corp and rich contributors to Right-Wing think-tanks are also quite dangerous.

Left-wing talk radio is orders of magnitude less popular and consequently weaker.

Their message is also simpler and more unified: government is evil!
Their secondary message is maximum freedom for the individual and the corporation (except when it comes to social behavior such as religion or marriage) at the cost of the larger group.

Democratic messaging is more complex.

[ProDem4]

26. Intellectual Honesty

We have none.

The Answer is get our message out !!
Not shut down the first amendment.

We blame the right for hate speech.
But our so called network spews hate with the worst of them.
And you only need to read this website to see horrible vile attacks on both sides.

We complain the R's election machine is too big.
But the Obama campaign brags they will raise 1 BILLION dollars for the 2012 campaign.
Really 1 Billion for an election, Medicare could sure use some of that.

The Right is winning Fly Over Country Because we look down on them
Instead of calling them Idiots we should explain why our side is better for them.
Because our Ideas are better for them.

[certainot]

29. it's not about free speech. that's right wing bullshit

if someone on the corner screams your sister's a whore all day for a and you don't yell back pretty soon the neighbors believe it

[certainot]

30. left wing radio beats and competes with their best on a level field when given the chance

in blue areas.

they have a monopoly- it's really not about popularity

[andym]

31. What happenned to Air America?

seemed to be losing money before folding. It was in major cities and on the internet.

I assumed that if there was big demand they would have been OK.

[certainot]

33. it was set up- the main guy is on the lam in the phillipines or something

there was a movie about it too. undercapitalized, etc.

even if it was a good deal they had to compete with a monopoly. there weren't that many good stations out there. and RW radio , like fox, was heavily subsidized to start. fox lost billions.

[andym]

34. Do you have info on right wing radio (not Fox) beng heavily subsidized?

Wasn't Rush making money from the start? The conservative talkers in New York (eg Bob Grant) and Boston (eg David Brudnoy) in the 80s-90s seemed very popular from the start as well.

[certainot]

36. i know they were paying stations to put him on.

[readmoreoften]

24. .

[fadedrose]

32. They have two best weapons...

Lying and ridiculing - masters of both...


And us goofy dems almost always elect (mostly) truthful polite candidates. We'll never learn.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. "Professional sports teams" are now part of the left?

It's a stretch to say universities are - but pro sports teams are right wing pretty much by definition. They are corporations. You can't expect them to take a stand to bring down a right wing tool.

People all know talk radio is integrated into the RW nexus. That's why there was a big "Limbaugh is the real GOP leader" push a couple of years ago. And guess what? No-one cared that it was pointed out. They shrugged their shoulders, and the listeners said "so what? We like him".

Face facts. There are millions of bigoted Americans who like bigoted talk radio and want it to have power. And 'media reform' is the only way you'd stop it; the Fairness Doctrine needs to return.