There IS a Way Out of This Hell

[kpete]

There IS a Way Out of This Hell
by thereisnospoon
Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 08:52:13 AM PST

Anger. Despair. Loathing. Sorrow.

...............

The truth is that progressives have the time, talent and ability to work incredible organizational magic far more quickly and more nimbly than the Right has done over the last three decades. As Markos Moulitsas made clear in Crashing the Gate, the Right developed an incredibly expensive infrastructure designed for a 20th century media environment. And as effective as they have been, they haven't been nearly as effective as they could be. The Left can create a far more influential and deeply effective message machine speedily and at vastly reduced cost.

There are a number of reasons for this:

* The Internet has become a revolutionary leveler of the playing field. No longer need a talented individual or group of individuals purchase access to an expensive media platform, when the Internet increasingly provides communications platforms for opinion writing, video, and audio. And this revolution, hard as it is to believe, is only beginning. We don't need to invest money in buying newspapers or cable TV stations or AM radio bandwidth wholesale: all of those dying or increasingly irrelevant in an increasingly accessible and hyperlocalized media environment.

* The vast majority of America's creative capital and talent is liberal. One need only look to Comedy Central or Avatar to see the full force of this. The truth is that the Left has been winning the majority of the culture wars directly due to the influence of film, television and music. If the James Camerons of the world were to put 1/10 of that level of creative intensity toward winning the economic wars, we could move the needle in a major way.

* Though they have been exponentially superior to Democrats in this way, Republican political messaging has nonetheless remained stuck in a nearly century-old method of political communication. Examine the most effective corporate product ads, and you will find that the majority of the memorable messaging tells a story, rather than directly extols the virtues of a product. Only very recently has the Left started embracing this idea for political purposes, as shown by some of the ads produced by the excellent Courage Campaign in California, including this one, co-written and co-produced by my brother hekebolos and myself.

* Contrary to popular belief, the Left does have money available. We just don't direct it to the most effective places. Wealthy donors tend to give to Democratic politicians today. The fundraising for the Obama presidential campaign alone in 2008 was came to nearly $700 million. Put a minor fraction of that one year's money toward organization and media unencumbered by a careful need to maintain respectability or to court favor, and think of the damage we could do.

And that is merely the beginning. There are other good reasons why powerful organizational capacities can easily be within our grasp, but they are a subject for future exploration. It is time to begin mobilizing organizational ideas now.

more (plus lots of links):
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/27/819517/-There-IS-a-Way-Out-of-This-Hell

[Jamastiene]

1. I wonder how long it will be before the internet is censored

to hell and back.

[PDJane]

5. The only way the internet will be censored

is on pay as you go. The heavy hand of censorship would destroy the illusion that most people labour under, that the United States is a deomcracy. It isn't....and it wasn't meant to be.

[Recursion]

6. That's surprisingly difficult to do

The infrastructure treats censorship like damage and routes around it, for the most part.

[Greyhound]

2. K&R.

[BeFree]

3. Yeah

If we could just stop fighting other leftists for a couple of years and turn on the gop with unity, we'd rule the world. Of course the gop'ers wouldn't like that.

[omega minimo]

4. The way out of this hell is not LIHOP, lemming behavior of zombies for 30 years.

[HughMoran]

7. K&R

Organizing & getting the message out is what we should be focusing on.

[HipChick]

8. Duh..

we're too busy fighting amongst ourselves..

[HughMoran]

9. ;)

uh-huh

[walldude]

13. Too busy using 3rd grade playground insults on each other

to actually come to a consensus.

[bvar22]

10. The Internet gives us a chance.

The 2010 elections ARE HERE.
The Left needs to grab this opportunity to send a message to Washington that ignoringThe Left has consequences. We need to coordinate and FOCUS our efforts.

Republican Arlen Specter is running for a Democratic Senate seat in Pennsylvania.
Obama and his "Centrist/Blue Dog/DLC" coalition has pledged to support Republican Arlen Specter.

There IS an actual Liberal Democrat running AGAINST Republic Arlen Specter for this seat.
His name is (Democratic Congressman) Joe Sestak.

http://joesestak.com/Home/Home.html

Send Obama and the "Centrists" a message.
The LAST thing we want is another Republican in a Democratic Seat!

Evan Bayh (Senator, Indiana) is also up for re-election in 2010.
He is the leader of the Blue Dog "Centrists" in the Senate, often joining with the Republicans to impede Traditionally Democratic Issues.

Bayh has good support in Indiana, primarily based on name recognition and the record of his father Birch Bayh. Few voters in Indiana know how conservative Evan Bayh really is, and how often he has worked with Republicans to derail the Democratic Agenda.
Someone SHOULD tell Indiana voters that Evan Bayh was instrumental in blocking the Public Option that the majority of Indiana residents supported.

We may not be able to unseat Evan Bayh, but if we coordinate our fund raising on a nations level and target Bayh, we CAN make his Primary a Living HELL, and send an effective message to Washington that ignoring The Left has a PRICE.

[Cleita]

11. Simple, individuals should stop donating to the DNC, DSCC and DCCC, who

are heavily funded by corporate interests and therefore back DLC candidates instead of liberal ones. That money should be sent to individual candidates who campaign on a liberal platform in states that are low in population or have a majority of independent registrations. This way a worthwhile candidate can fight the big money backed candidates of the right and slightly left of right. I'll bet really red states like Idaho would turn blue because the majority of Idahoans are independents and when the Republican candidates campaign there, they scare them that the lefties are going to do all kinds of bad things to them if they win. If the lefties had enough money to campaign and blanket the air waves with ads explaining their platform and fighting the propaganda, I think you would see Idaho turn blue in a heartbeat at election time.

[starroute]

12. Policy points have to be distributed as well as generated

The right has two organizations, both tied to the Heritage Foundation -- the venerable American Legislative Exchange Council and the more recent State Policy Network. The job of both is to coordinate the right's policy directives and put them in the hands of conservative legislators and policy makers.

The left is never going to work in lockstep to the same degree -- but the basic idea of handing legislators ready-made talking points and even pre-written legislation seems sound. These people don't write their own bills -- they depend on lobbyists, on right-wing policy groups, or potentially on us. That should be our real target and not just moving the message around on the Internet.