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The problem in the election, for example in Votergate, but also regarding the flipflop spin and other distortions of fact like Matt Bai's article in the Oct 10 NY Times Magazine miscasting Kerry on terrorism. This problem was widespread through the press and the failure was across the board INCLUDING Kerry and the DLC Democrats.
This problem was especially clear in Votergate. Here's something I posted elsewhere, that only got one silly comment asking me what did I myself do about these things (which I answered in some detail). This was a posting in elections 2004 entitled "progressive leaders failed miserably AGAIN in Votergate 2004":
Progressive leaders and organizations, as in Florida 2000, failed MISERABLY to buck the system when they had an obligation to the Constitution to do so. Everybody is so busy covering their rear ends and 'doing the job' for the power hierarchy, that the real job of defending democracy just didn't get done, in two elections in a row.
The solid rule of the Republicans since the mid-80s is due to the Democrats throwing elections (pres 88, 00, and 04) and complex dynamics of the kind described by Walter Karp in his Poli Sci classic, MUST READING FOR ALL INTERESTED IN ESTABLISHING DEMOCRACY IN THE US, "Indispensable Enemies" guiding Bill the Shill Clinton in 1993-4.
To focus on the 2004 CAMPAIGN, no one in the media or the commentariat as well as the Democrats, or the 527s or progressive leaders with visibility or even media "watchdogs" challenged the flimsy flipflop spin on its merits until after the Democratic Convention, and then generally as grudgingly as possible. One late article of interest was Jonathan Chait "The Invention of Flipflop", the cover story of the Oct 18 New Republic (posted Oct 7) where he totally devasted the spin. He then goes on to explain away five months of press silence (since there was virtually nothing in the article that couldn't just about as easily have been highlighted in May) as a function of a media 'herd instict'. If we are going to bring authentic political democracy rather than its pretense to the US, we have to start confronting rather than conforming to the media system of 'justifying the lying'. This even media "watchdogs" like factcheck.org and spinsanity and media matters and the Columbia Journalism fail to do -- basically a pack of hounds that fail to bark when it would get in the way of the program. Generally, the usual suspects of conservatives, or certain permitted issues are raised harmlessly. This is where progressives need to start CHANGING the system, on the web and globally, and the media lockdown of Votergate 2004 begins but only begins to reveal the extent of the problem. Note that major bloggers like Eschaton and Talking Points Memo that were falling over themselves in the Sinclair flap during the campaign were silent about the flipflop spin during those five months and now about Votergate.
After the flipflop spin reached a point of diminishing returns -- with a voter at the second presidential debate pointing out in her question that the MAIN reason her friends didn't want to vote for Kerry was the view of him as 'wishywashy', and he finally pointed out that his position on the Patriot Act had been consistent -- then Matt Bai at the New York Times came out with his cover story about Kerry where he painted Kerry on terrorism PRECISELY and falsely along the lines cast by the Bushies. Kerry had repeatedly called for a massive increase in the special forces to INTENSIFY the struggle with Al Qaeda militarily, but neither the Democrats nor the liberals nor the progressives nor the media "watchdogs" pointed out Bai's distortion, furthered by a juicy soundbite about 'nuisance' from Kerry. (Nuisance is a term of art used by Israeli terrorism experts, which is why Snowcroft also used the term) This Bai distortion was crucial, giving rise to a tsunami of DAILY columns, often magnifying Bai's highbrow demagogy with lowbrow demagogy -- such as Dick Morris "Nuisance Nonsense" (NY Post Oct 12) that went on for weeks and dovetailed with the main theme of the Bush campaign down the final stretch.
The fix was in in the campaign, but the election still had to be stolen to put the Republicans in as getting with the program dictated. (The same happened in 2000). The evidence that Ohio was stolen (see freepress.org on the systematic deprivation of adequate voting machines in overwhelmingly Democratic precincts and its effect, among other issues -- and the stuff now about the Southern Ohio areas where an obscure and underfunded state judge candidate at the bottom of the ballot mysteriously outpolled Kerry by more than 60,000 votes in conservative districts. There are a myriad of other powerful issues that have been locked down in the mainstream media, PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THE COMPELLINGNESS OF THE CLAIMS.
Now where were the progressive leadership? A class action suit should have been filed in Fla 2000 FAST after the election on behalf of disenfranchised black voters in the state. In Ohio, the voting machines class action suit should have been filed surely before the Thanksgiving weekend. BUT WHERE WERE ALL THE VOTING RIGHTS GROUPS? AND WHERE WERE THEY ORGANIZING MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS AT THE MEDIA CENTERS ABOUT THE MEDIA LOCKDOWN? Michael Moore claims the election was honestly won. David Corn borrows arguments from a real journalist (Manjoo at Salon.com) to cheerlead the pooh poohing of the claims about the election, then, like the NY Times and others, goes silent on these issues when subsequent investigation substantiates them (like allegations of vote hacking in Florida) big time. (The Vote-hacking theory was challenged on the grounds that these were all Dixiecrat counties in the Panhandle -- but 18 of them were elsewhere in the state. Daytona Beach as Dixiecrat Country? Bev Harris encountered shocking evidence of fraud, being furnished with a phony poll tape and then finding the real one in the garbage. Another issue locked down.)
But where was Jesse Jackson DOING SOMETHING EFFECTIVE then? As in Fla 2000, there was just posturing around and nice sounding statements to keep easily satisfied nondemanding progressives happy. And the organizations of lawyers. And all those 527s that never exposed either the flipflop spin or the systematically exploited Bai distortion. The diagnosis here is that all these people are too busy "doing the job" within a system where the fix is in, and not in REALLY "doing the job" for democracy. There is the attitude of Herman Melville in Bartleby the Scrivener and then there is the approach of real Constitutionalists. Unfortunately, when the system fails, the progressive leaders, who got to their positions by looking more rebellious than they really are, know where the golden parachutes are. And they aren't given out to those who really get in the way of the program, but rather only to those who go on about how it's all "paranoia" or "conspiracy theory" of "tin-foil hat thinking" or "cynicism". These notions are just cultural defense mechanisms that are part of the problem. The problem is that we need AUTHENTIC progressive politics in the US, that determines its own leadership, and that is networked internationally on the web so that our democracy doesn't get s*at down to the Ukraine along with Chernobyl.
(The right approach was no nukes from the start -- but the approach we have benefits the rightwing, and then the ightray ingway. Those are the two "sides" and only by exposing and confronting the evils of our system being palmed off as just a little 'steal-to-win' can we REALLY BEGIN to build an authentic progressive movement for democracy in the US.
TIME TO BEGIN!
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