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all along, and it would be wise to analyze this in depth, and devise strategies to defeat it. I'm thinking of the Obama campaign's strategies--smart, flexible, democratic with a small d, mobilizing the grass roots on many fronts, and looking for the cracks in this actually fragile, rotting Corpo/Fascist edifice, to bring it down.
Back in Feb 03, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, NEARLY SIXTY PERCENT of the American people opposed that war (all polls). But the Corpo/Fascist 'news' monopolies failed to reflect, portray or even report on that huge anti-war majority. Instead, they produced copy, images and 'talk' that was pro-war, and that created a false picture of the country. This false picture had many purposes, and one of them was to convince members of the great progressive American majority that we were isolated and alone in our opinions, and that most other Americans were goose-stepping to Bush.
And that is just one case--one of the more dramatic ones--of the problem we have: that, basically, five, fatcat, fascist multi-billionaire CEOs control all 'news' and 'opinion' in the country (except for the internet, and, later in this junta, AAR). Their power over our national political dialogue--and its imagery--is used not just to set the agenda, but to demoralize the majority--to make us think we're the minority.
I think it's useless to "write letters" to Corpo/Fascist entities like MSNBC. I hate to discourage people from doing that--and I won't. It's important to express your opinion, on the off chance that it will affect some human being in that organization, and make him or her think twice about what they're doing. You can also publicize your letter, so that other people feel heartened. But it's like writing letters to a deaf Congress--a deaf Congress that is supposed to be Democratic. Something's going on there that we don't understand--possibly related to the fact that there is hardly a member of Congress who can prove that he or she was actually elected. They're virtually all in power as the result of election systems run on 'TRADE SECRET' programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls--an election system that was rendererd non-transparent by Congress itself (in a $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle bill, passed nearly unanimously by the Anthrax Congress in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution--Oct 02).
So, what do we do in this circumstance? We look for the cracks in the edifice. One of them is, although our party was being run by Corpo/Fascists at the top, it was still wide open at the bottom--local Democratic groups, grass roots activism. Anybody could join. Anyone could start working to change things, from the bottom. For example, the ouster of Terry McAuliffe, and election of Howard Dean, as party chair, was the work of grass roots anti-war activists largely from the Dean campaign. Another example--one pointing to the brilliance of the Obama campaign: The votes in the caucus states, in the presidential primary, are not counted by Diebold & brethren. This gave an opening to an insurgent candidacy, and Obamaites, who mostly represented the 70% majority in the country that opposed the Iraq War, took advantage of it, to jumpstart Obama's campaign against candidates who had voted for the war. A third example: The Progressive Democrats in California--a caucus within the party--got active, and managed get a really good Sec of State candidate nominated and elected in 06. It has made all the difference in California, which was being falsely and fraudulently turned into a "red" state, through the widespread cancer of touchscreen voting machines (with the collusion of the state Democratic Party leadership).
Barack Obama and his campaign has used this openness at the bottom of the Democratic Party to incredible advantage. It has--barring humungous Puke election fraud today--won back the Presidency with a PEOPLES' CANDIDATE!
As to the media, the Corpo/Fascists have a monopoly on the airwaves. There isn't much room for grass roots activism. The system is very closed. AAR and a few other efforts have made inroads. But we still have non-stop Corpo/Fascism dominating what are--need I remind anyone?--OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES.
And there's the catch, the crack, the termite swarm that could bring it down. Every one of these jerkwad Corpo/Fascist 'news' organizations has to be LICENSED to use our PUBLIC airwaves. And we can--we have the power, as the sovereign people of this land--to REGULATE our PUBLIC airwaves IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
Like Obama's path to the presidency, the path to TV/radio news/talk FAIRNESS is a difficult maze, with people power blockaded at every turn. And like the Obama campaign, to win, we need to be smart, creative, flexible and persistent. The path to victory is there. We just have to figure it out, and not give up.
We once had a "Fairness Doctrine" in this country. When any corpo TV/radio station presented an opinion on ANY public issue of importance, they were REQUIRED to give EQUAL TIME to the opposing view. This not only improved and widened the political dialog--and gave dissenters access to the public--it made the corpos who owned the TV/radio stations think twice about pushing Corpo/Fascist views on the public, and resulted in fairer and more objective coverage on all issues.
This is one possible crack in the edifice: These Corpo/Fascist media outlets are licensed by the public. We can require of them anything that we, the people, decide is in the public interest. Do we want free air time, in prime time, for all political candidates for two weeks before every election? We CAN require this of them, and write it into their licenses and contracts. We have that right. The airwaves belong to the public.
Of course, we're presently far, far from a goal like that (mere restoration of fairness--jeez). But if Barack Obama and his campaign and his determined supporters have proven nothing else, they have proven that the American people can do ANYTHING that we become determined to do. We WILL find the way.
And I would also add this--as my study of our non-transparent vote counting system has taught me: Stop complaining (about Bush, about Congress, about the war, etc.)--as if the Corpo/Fascists who are running things would listen to us (they won't, they don't, they are deaf)--and start looking to the MECHANISMS OF POWER, to force them to do the peoples' will. If they've rigged the voting machines (which they have), raise a holy stink at the local/state level--where ordinary people still have some influence--to get rid of the worst of them (the touchscreens) and restore some verifiability to the system (even if just a little more verifiability--say, with the optiscans). If you can't do it all, do SOMETHING. Edge forward. Make the Bushwhack voting machine vendors know that you are watching their every move. Make them too scared to steal it from Obama (which is what I think has happened, although they may well shave his mandate).
Translation, re the media: Take a petition (and a bunch of lawyers) to the FCC to pull all their licenses, dismantle their monopolies, and redistribute the public airwaves to small, independent production companies. Like that. Put the fear of God into them, and into whoever Obama/Congress puts on that commission, so that the "center" becomes "fairness." The "center" right now is Corpo/Fascist rule of virtually all public discussion. Move the "center"!
That's just one idea. Stop trying to get Corpo/Fascists to change, out of the goodness of their hearts. Look for the mechanisms of power.
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