Nate Silver just published a media analysis of Republican plans to impeach Obama which found MSNBC mentioned impeachment in July more than four times as much as Fox News. I want to use this story as a jumping board to analyze the biggest weakness of liberal and progressive media: losing the ability to control the national conversation and getting trapped in an endless cycle of echoing right-wing lunacy. Effectively, the GOP talks about Benghazi, and liberals spent the next five months responding to them. Same thing with impeachment, religion, immigration, etc. Nearly every single headline I see in my Facebook feed from liberal/progressive media like Salon, Slate, Alternet, and smaller blogs all quote the latest atrocious thing a Republican said. We mock Paul Ryans latest scheme to end poverty, but we arent even aware of the Progressive Caucus budget proposal. Progressive media even megaphones right-wingers who have lost all credibility and hold no official power, like Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin. This is why progressives have made almost zero progress in the socioeconomic struggle in three decades. I dream for a world where liberals and progressives talk about a $15 minimum wage, all day, every day, like its the only thing that matters--until the right-wing echo chamber attacks us and broadcasts our message to their fans, effectively ceding the national conversation within our frame. Why dont we repeat--Benghazi style--our demands for universal healthcare, universal employment, maybe a nutty idea like maternity leave, how about better worker protections, a universal basic income, subsidized clean energy, and cutting the military budget in half. Now that Congress is taking a long vacation, we can talk about why the US is the only advanced country which has ZERO days of paid vacation. The brief moment when Republicans completely lost their ability to control the conversation was when Occupy protesters seized the streets and the public imagination. Watching the 2012 GOP candidates respond to questions about inequality was awesome. They literally had nothing to say. Romney advised we should only talk about inequality in quiet rooms. You may say Im a dreamer, but Im in the vast majority.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 18:11:32 +0000
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