It took George Bush and his gang 8 years to destroy or demonize the "Republican brand" to the point that all Republicans in congress that voted almost 100% with George Bush wouldn't call themselves Republicans for the next 2 years (Magically transformed into fiscal conservatives).
President Obama being elected and there were celebrations all over the World, not because of people loved Obama so much or because of his color, but the whole World was celebrating that George Bush, the Republican right-wing nightmare was finally over, as if we had overthrown a World-Wide dictator.
How did the "Democratic Brand" go from World-Wide celebration, to losing an election 2 years later? .... The only answer I have is "Rightwing media monopoly" that ranges from extreme far right Glenn Beck on radio & TV all the way to the center-right NPR that gave 1000s of "un-biased" hours of airtime to the Teaparty.
That same media, attacked relentlessly, at different levels (With lies on Foxnews or Asking if the lies were true on NPR) for 2 years straight.
I keep on asking: WHERE THE H.... IS THE PRO-DEMOCRATIC MEDIA? (specially radio). I can drive through Texas and listen to at least dozens of Spanish radio stations and I can't find 1 pro-democratic station (only 1 in Dallas).
As long as we don't have "Pro-democratic" (liberal) radio in every major city in the US. Republicans are going to keep on ruling this country.
Comments
I somewhat agree (and I know I have been one of the biggest critics of the American media). But somehow I believe it is too easy to JUST blame the media for this outcome.
At the end of the day, voters are adults. Now granted some of them may not be the smartest adults, but essentially we are all grown ups voting for the best options for our nation.
So my understanding is the Republicans in the House want to stifle ALL spending. Okay, so now what? Meanwhile Rome burns...
If that is what people voted for, than I am not so sure placing all the blame at the media is correct. I say everyone has responsibility for the situation getting to this point.
Americans seem to be their own worst enemy. I think the media is only one facet of that nemesis
I say that ignorance and stupidity won the elections. Voters elected Republicans in opposition to Democrats even though the current recession and deficit spending were caused by Republicans. Americans are more than willing to cut their nose off to spite their face and so are going to get more of what they deserve, corporate domination of our country. To see how bad Americans are, just look at Louisiana. While they cried about what BP did to the environment they worried about the loss of jobs in oil. Don't underestimate the power of stupidity and greed.
<meljomur > Voters are adults, but 99% of people in the World are not smart enough to run a country... or to know what is the best economic policy for a country to prosper.
People rely on the media to get "the facts". You say that Republicans proposal is to cut spending.... that's just a political tactic used when a democrat is in power.
I could talk about that for a long time, but I can tell you that that's one of the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank when they give loans to poor countries... which takes government out of the way and opens the field for international corporations to take over everything.
Now, if Republicans really wanted to cut spending why are they in favor of farming, oil and gas subsidies? building roads, schools and other infrastructure in Iraq? etc, etc.
The only show on TV that can be considered pro-democrat is "The Daily Show" and the only thing they do is point out how ridiculously right wing all the media is (point out their hypocracy)
There are two problem components to this:
1. Republicans lie
2.Republicans don't research to find the facts
That Republicans lie is shown in the email message I was sent:
"Did you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it? That’s $3,800 on a $100,000 home etc. When did this happen? It’s in the healthcare bill. SALES TAX TO GO INTO EFFECT 2013 (Part of HC Bill) REAL ESTATE SALES TAX So, this is "change you can believe in"? Under the new health care bill - did you know that all real estate transactions will be subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax? The bulk of these new taxes don't kick in until 2013 (presumably after obama’s re-election). You can thank Nancy, Harry and Barack and your local Democrat Congressman for this one. If you sell your $400,000 home, there will be a $15,200 tax. This bill is set to screw the retiring generation who often downsize their homes. Is this Hope & Change great or what? Does this stuff makes your November and 2012 votes more important? Oh, you weren't aware this was in the obamacare bill? Guess what, you aren't alone. There are more than a few members of Congress that aren't aware of it either (result of clandestine midnight voting for huge bills they've never read). AND, there are a few other surprises lurking.
1. snopes.com: 3.8% Tax on Real Estate Transactions •••• A provision of health care legislation imposes a 3.8% sales tax on all real estate transactions? ...Real Estate Tax Claim: A provision of health care legislation imposes a 3.8% sales tax on all real estate transactions. Example: [Collected via... ...3.8% tax on real estate transactions Under the new health care bill - did you know that all real estate transactions are subject to a 3.8% "Sales Tax"?... ...home, this will be a $15,200 tax. Remember Obama’s battle cry take from the workers and give to the drones. TAX ON HOME SALES Imposes a 3.8 percent...
Why am I sending you this? The same reason I hope you forward this to every single person in your address book. People have the right to know the truth because an election is coming in November!"
That this was a lie could have been seen if the conservative had googled this. But no, it was accepted as true because it was anti-Obama and anti-government. For the facts see:
http://factcheck.org/2010/04/a-38-percent-sales-tax-on-your-home/
and
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp
Of course facts aren't of any interest to conservatives.
Couple of responses.
The media is not liberal in this nation, the mainstream media is a circus of spectacles controlled by corporate managment for profit. That much is the case. They are participating in maintaining an oligarchic control where corporate agendas and the government predominates. They "win" an election either way, it's a circus performance and in this election we saw even more money being spent than the 2008 election. Part of the method of control is getting everyone upset about the choices between two corporate parties. Now we get to be upset about the ubstructionism of a Republican House.
I particularly enjoyed this headline from Britain's Financial Times this morning:
Obama confronts setback to agenda
Followed by:
Ambitious government agenda? WTF? I thought the Financial Times was savvy....
The election was "lost" because the people that got out to campaign and vote in the last election didn't all get out there this election, many independents who did probably switched back to Republican in disgust because they were disappointed. I think Tom Engelhart sums up the mood of many this election:
Ballot Box Blues: The Most Dispiriting Election of a Lifetime (Mine)
Congress has been pretty much worthless as a responsible governing body in our tripartite balance of power government for some time now. I would say that we will now get to see why Obama did nothing to rescind the powers grabbed by previous presidencies (including Clinton) under the Unitary Executive Theory. Count on the Republicans in Congress doing nothing about it either, scream in mock horror as they do about Obama, they are hoping to get the seat of primary dictatorship back in 2012 and they do not want their past thirty years of advancing the Unitary Executive diminished. I see they managed to defeat one of the few outspoken Senators against it during the Bush Administration... Feingold.
This election was a vote against incumbents. This Congress has behaved badly, just like the one before it.
I have to agree with Ren... special interests are running the show. I have little faith that this new round of Congress people will behave any different that the last.
I think you will see two years of partisan gridlock, with another round of voter disgust with incumbents in 2012.
Well actually PeeWee, two years of partisan gridlock is different to what we have just had. Some pretty significant (albeit watered down) legislation has been passed. Whether you like it or not, think it went far enough or too far. It ONLY passed because the Democrats had control of the WH and Congress.
Two years of gridlock is going to the final push to take the country over the edge. I hope you are wearing your seat belt.
PS. And yes, I think this is what the nation needs. No, I don't like gridlock and think its pointless. But you can't keep falling when you finally hit the bottom.
.ren wrote, "The media is not liberal in this nation, the mainstream media is a circus of spectacles controlled by corporate managment for profit. That much is the case. They are participating in maintaining an oligarchic control where corporate agendas and the government predominates. They "win" an election either way, it's a circus performance and in this election we saw even more money being spent than the 2008 election. Part of the method of control is getting everyone upset about the choices between two corporate parties. Now we get to be upset about the ubstructionism of a Republican House."
A well said insight into the way things actually are. Further is the media bias shown through omission. I am anti-war. It is glaringly obvious to me that the media has most of it's clout in what it omits from it's coverage. There is no voice for the progressive movement. There is no voice for people who are anti-war. there is no place for a social movement against the present corporate rule. Dancing bears, clowns, each on their own chain. There is no voice for outrage, because I am outraged and I just don't see it. Sad, but entertaining.
Sure special interests are runing the show but as meljomur says "At the end of the day, voters are adults." So voters didn't like government spending, such as in the bailouts. But what do they do? Did they demand a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall and repeal of Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 among others? No. They elected Republicans who vowed to reduce regulation, just as they did when setting up the conditions that lead to this crisis.
Sure, special interests run the show but voters have the power to act in their interest and choose not to, whether out of absolute idiocy or ideology is irrelevant.
.ren, it seems like Chris Hedges is on the same page. I just read this.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_phantom_left_20101031/
I had two choices on my ballot in Washington State (not including the write in option): Democrat or Republican. Basically, which gas chamber do I get to walk into and pull the lever. Or I can choose not to. Now, how did that get to be?
What do you mean when you insist that the voters are adults at the end of the day? If you mean we will be paying for our sins, I think so. If you mean that people will grow up and be responsible just because they have more than a few decades on their ticker, I think it defies observation.
We all, both sides, cannot understand why the other side does not make rational decisions. Supply siders insisted that if we did make rational consumer choices the market would bring its magic to the process and wealth would expand enough to flow down beyond the trickle. Progressives watch working people vote for corporate tools and wonder why.
Ren put it very well.
I think we also need to note that the American political system is not democratic in its construct. What makes us need a Supreme Court or a Senate to cool down the House. Why not have a system that might have a chance of catching up with the real challenges America needs to face instead of avoiding? For democracy to fail in America, we would have to try some. What is failing is plutocracy and empire.
Along with the empire, Obama faced a very hostile Court that opened the financial floodgates to swamp anything like reasoned discourse. The White House has no good sales force, but the list of things Americans believe about Obama's legislative record that are wrong is amazing. There is no journalism here or the public would have some idea of what the facts are. They have no clue.
Fear disrupts thinking. The Culture War is not going well for the Right as the real world requires attention. The politics of conscience belong to a narrative of Christian America on a Mission where national moral 'purity' is required to be the Chosen Nation. Catholics bring their own theocratic prejudices against Liberal democracy, although many have come to terms with it. Abortion continues to be what the theocrats push as part of a story about the evils of secularism.
Obama and the plural America of diversity and religious freedom belongs to a different story. Here we see the extension of human rights as the measure of the American Dream, along with the radical idea of governing ourselves instead of submitting to Corporate Domination. The people with money and power at stake do not want democracy to break out in America.
Propaganda is effective. We would like to believe that people can and will think, analyze and make decisions based on facts. We would like to believe that the predators would change their ways and stop doing their nefarious sabotage of democracy. We would like our fellow citizens to grow up and be adults. I would like it at the beginning of the day, not just at the end.
But, I don't expect any of this. I expect people to be subject to bad information and the promises of political and economic alchemy. My belief in democracy is based in the failure of everything else, not in how smart or good we will be. This is why it is important to treat democracy with respect and to insist that free speech be handled responsibly. Dishonesty and smears should be met with shunning, not by any legal attempt to intervene. But we have to face the idiocy of money and speech or deserve the crap that follows.
What do you think would make it possible for voters to use their power to act in their real interest instead of choosing another course? I think we need a narrative with coherence and power. I think small change and messages of patience bore and disappoint compared to the ideological certainty and rhetoric of the Right. If they are not getting anything significant from the Dems, or don't know they are getting anything, they will go for the crack. They may go for the crack anyway, but if you have to choose between "taking my country back(ward)" and the hard choices and realities of change in the Bush disaster, culture war will beat politics.
Rehab is going to be more complicated than we think, and liberals and progressives have to go too. We may not have the same drug problem as the Right does, but there are important issues we have not faced about our own failed American Century heritage. We are also blind to the post-Enlightenment realities that conflict with our love of education and rationality. Reality actually expands our sense of the mind, but rationality is no longer the cultural limit to thinking.
When your reality crashes and burns, it is an apocalypse for you. We are seeing a lot of that. Giving up our favorite myths and fantasies is not easy and not a matter of intellect alone.
Who is "they"? Corporations have appropriated control of our government, the Republicans and many Democrats, with the complete support of "conservative" Americans. If you want someone to blame, blame the "conservative" base and the "angry" Americans that a) refused to push the Democrats to the left and (b) voted Republicans in as a sign of their anger. "They" didn't force these adults to vote the way they did nor support "their" right-wing policies. We got the governance that we as a nation deserve. Chris says:
"The loss of a radical left in American politics has been catastrophic. The left once harbored militant anarchist and communist labor unions, an independent, alternative press, social movements and politicians not tethered to corporate benefactors. But its disappearance, the result of long witch hunts for communists, post-industrialization and the silencing of those who did not sign on for the utopian vision of globalization, means that there is no counterforce to halt our slide into corporate neofeudalism."
Elections have consequences, and it is the fault of the voter for accepting right-wing ideology and voting right-wingers into power. American voters are the reason for our slide into corporate feudalism.
.ren, it seems like Chris Hedges is on the same page. I just read this.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_phantom_left_20101031/
I've been sort of acting as Chris's marketing agent, trying to help sell his books here recently, lol. That Monday's article is some condensed ideas from his last two books, which, if you enjoyed that article, you may enjoy as well:
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Death of the Liberal Class
The left in this country is a"phantom". A made-up illusion...a straw man to attack that politically just doesn't exist.
"Left" has come to mean a supporter of the Dems. Dems aren't leftist...and haven't leaned in that direction for decades... The party of "me too" is considered left. Being to the left of Genghis Kahn isn't the traditional left.
Maintaining the policies of G.W. Bush isn't "left".
The left in this country is a bad joke. Chris Hedges, as usual, is on target.
We're on the road to replaying Argentina's 2001 meltdown..
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
Hey, at least California kept the rich from buying the election. Told ya all that Californians love to get the rich to run and then not vote for them in the final election. That's what they did to Whitman and Fiorina. I heard yesterday that Whitman paid her top consultant $100K a month which Jerry Brown paid only $75K a month ... for his whole staff!
As for the media, they did the same thing in South America. When you have the rich owning the media they will use it to control thought. We really need to take the rich down!
The lesson in California is that although money and wealth are problems in our political system the fact is that the voters still control their own actions and hold the power of their future in their votes. If you want to blame someone for the sad state of affairs, blame the voter. Good for California.
jeffbiss, the power the voters hold is so thin that defeating a billionaire amateur is seen as a resounding mark of voter power. No. The power to shape the future has to be pursued beyond elections and the system of elections itself must be changed to have any chance of real change. It is not the voters, it is the system. The system does make the voters disaffected.
Polycarp2 > You are 100% right,
the left here is a puppet, just like NPR, to make people think that a "center-right" institution is the left. That's why the rightwingers everyday push the idea of "leftwing media", is not a criticism, is like the saying goes "Say a lie 1000 times and it'll become true".
The most important factor in the rightwing propaganda machine is the "fake left". That's why we need true, independent pro-democratic (liberal or left) radio. Instead of the Washington, DC fake-left NPR.
I don't accept that the power of voters is thin. For all of the faults of our system and the amount of money special interests contribute it is the voter that holds the power because we still elect government officials. While I agree that, and have argued for, mandating that our elections allow only public funding and that officials and their staff cannot accept jobs in industries that they affected, I also argue that change is in the hands of the voters. It is the voters that are the ultimate problem. It is the voters that choose to not question, as I showed in post #4, and so are voting out of either intentional ignorance or stupidity.
Sure the system is broken, but it is broken because the American voter has made it so for a number of reasons, the main of which is because they choose to be ignorant or remain stupid because the special interests may be lying but they are incapable of keeping the ill-informed voter from becoming informed, at least until they control the media and the internet as they do in North Korea or China. We're not there yet.
The GOP won because the truth has no marketability in American politics. We accepted a "president" "winning" two elections after demonstrating that he was absolutely NOT a public servant but a corporate donor-in-chief. We the people didn't rise up against two phony elections. Sure, we got mad on messageboards, but that was it. For a few months some of us campaigned for a man to win the presidency and fix our ills. I feel I am in a fragile minority who is witnessing the last decent man to be the face of American Democracy. He tries to be an adult, but BOTH the right and the left whine because x needs are/aren't being met in fast/slow fashion. In two years the "left" expected one man, working alone, to make up for decades of erosion. It didn't happen, they bailed.
Clinton sold the media to the highest conservative corporate bidders. Whiny progressives who were impatient and only waited for 18 months for decades worth of improvements are now fondly looking back at an abusive (Clinton) husband for love. Where was the DNC the last two years? Where were our Bohners and Roves and Cantors on the airwaves defending this president
The media reported on Palin every day. Maddow may have been one of the few talk show hosts who didn't pour over the minutae of Palin, instead trying to ask actual questions about actual policies that affect our lives.
If the winning candidates in Calif. hadn't been corporate-vetted in the first place, they wouldn't have appeared on the ballot.
Media would have discreetly relegated them to "non-coverage". They'd have disappeared.
"What do I have to do to get coverage, set fire to myself?" - Sen. John Edwards, presidential candidate..... against corporate health care.
Yep. A dead anti-corporate candidate will get loads of coverage at his funeral. Resurrected from obscurity for a day. "Managed democracy" is alive and well.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
I think that enough people, those on the right, consider anything that brings conservativism victory is acceptable, including lying and manipulating the system. Winning is everything. It seems that most buy into the myth of individualism and so hate the very idea of charity via government to those unwilling to stand of their own two feet and the balance accept a Calvinism in which the wealthy and powerful are god's elect, such as the Family. Therefore, the elections they won via manipulation weren't phony, they were wins.
Personally, I'm glad to see the neo-liberal twit Pelosi banished from being Speaker of the House.
Her branding of neo-liberalism, embraced by both parties, as "progressive" was a dis-service to the country.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
"Therefore, the elections they won via manipulation weren't phony, they were wins." Jeff
They really do live in an alternate moral universe.
"Personally, I'm glad to see the neo-liberal twit Pelosi banished from being Speaker of the House" poly
Me too. Although having John (Golfing 120 plus times a year while handing out tobacco checks to his cronies while in session and never meeting a lobbyist who couldn't buy him) Boehner should be amusing. The difference being that progressives called Pelosi out while the right will act as apologists and brag about Boehner's graft and corruption.
Kate, I feel your frustration. I think it's called the American need for immediate gratification. That and a VERY conservative media, doesn't help you convey your message very effectively.
The next 2 years are going to be very interesting for America. If Obama does just tread water and attempts to appease the "middle" ground, he is in for a serious problem.
Personally, I think the next 2 years are going to be very difficult for Americans. But I do have faith that there are enough intelligent progressives in America, who will know what to do when the bottom falls out.
At least I hope they haven't all left by that time.
That's a good question, why not have a system that facilitates adaption to a rapidly changing world (one that is now facing a "perfect storm for collapse" perhaps like no other in human history)? I've been puzzling that one now for years. And I suppose that's how I came to the same "radical" conclusion some many odd years ago:
Isn't something a little wrong when a system allows for two corporate backed political parties to become locked into the heart of its form of representation, while it is structured constitutionally with its tripartite separation of powers to allow POTUS, SCOTUS and Congress to negate steps towards adapting to a changing world, as long as what they do somehow fits the formula concocked in the late 1700s for an agrarian based society? And meanwhile the two political parties are able to gridlock each other, because most of the nation isn't happy with either of them as representatives, and so, if they vote at all, they can't pick one. Half the nation picks one they don't like, the other half picks the other.
I want a bumber sticker that says.
"If we can ban ads for tobacco
we can ban ads for politicians"
Off topic I want to point out why righties from libertarian to tea party are so impervious to facts. They're politics is a religion. (Free market fundamentalism) They take the fundamentals on faith. Lower taxes, less government etc. Palin often lists them concisely.