In the post election swirl, Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity/ and/or Fear” is likely to evaporate in the internet ether, but there are pointers to remember. Stewart was true to his appeal to the fact based political disposition talking mostly about a subject on which he is an expert: the media. ”The press is our immune system, if we overact to everything, we get sicker.” At present, “the media is us through a fun house mirror”. Then Stewart took up the “working together” theme. Americans do work together to get things done, he said, except here in Washington and on cable.
Stewart did not even hint, though, at the real media story. Tom Engelhardt spelled it out on his TomDispatch.com. Three billion dollars were spent on political ads in this election. The media was the corporate interest that raked that money. With the Citizens United Supreme Court decision the next election will have even more undisclosed donor money destroying our democratic institutions, and how will we know when our sources of information have a big stake in keeping the political money game going.
Normally, it is only sweet reason to talk about working together to get things done, but not in this political climate. It is not a game plan if you want to win this game. But Stewart may have given us something useful for a game plan, however, in the “Sanity Rally” as a tactic. Let us set up a whistle blower who will call us out to demonstrate every time the Republicans obstruct good programs or propose bad ones. Let us have a thousand “Sanity” demonstrations.
November 3, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Again, spot on! We may never know exactly how many incumbents were defeated and victories won by secret spending. We do know that tea parties were channeled into the corporate arena to do the bidding of those corporations.
I worry that the vast amounts collected by the media (television in particular) for ads from these undisclosed groups to defeat a particular candidate will mean that they no longer can remain objective in their reporting. What can we do?
Insist in the lame duck session that the Senate pass the Disclose Act, so we know who the enemy behind the money actually is. I wish there were some way to discredit or take down “Fox News” (an oxymoron). When Jon Stewart drew a parallel between Fox and MSNBC he was wrong. MSNBC, for example, doesn’t ask its “guests” whether they think President Obama is a Muslim. As Moynihan said, you’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.
November 4, 2010 at 9:41 am
As we lick our wounds from the drubbing our party received last Tuesday, there are a few “positives” to remember. We kept the Senate. A few Tea-Party activists (read Rand Paul) won who will provide an internal stress within the otherwise solid wall of the GOP. There are two years for the population to judge the performance of the House Republicans. That is a long time for the scrutiny of matching rhetoric with reality!
Then there are the facts as they emerged post-election. Despite the Rally – only 10% of the votes cast came from the youth of America (as opposed to 18% in 2008). This kind of apathy is dangerous. We need to keep young Dems engaged and active. We need the White House to rally the party base in a sustained effort – not just near election time. Ladies & gentlemen, Election 2012 has already begun!
November 4, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Austin Report–and it’s bad! Two of the three progressive women from our area that were elected since we moved here lost. Each of them had been voted in their 1st term as Best Freshman Rep by a non-partisan organization. The third is our state rep., Donna Howard, a nurse and former school board member. She is ahead by 15 votes. If she is declared the winner by the Republican Secretary of State (not holding my breath on that one), she will be 1 of 51 Democrats in the TX House of Representatives and the only Anglo woman. The Republicans will have a 99 person majority. In the last session, the Rs had 76 and Ds 74, so there is a dramatic and scary change. If she is declared the loser, then the Rs will have a 2/3 majority and the rules will be in their favor.
Texas is expected to pick up 4 US House seats, from blue states after the Census results are announced. Re-districting is going to be a disaster that will hamper Ds for decades.
All of my friends, needless to say, are down, but we are determined to keep up the fight. Miss all of you, Sandi
November 4, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Hey, Sandi. Yes, I am worried deeply about upcoming gerrymandering. Nothing like Members of Congress being able to choose their voters, instead of the other way around.
Would it be a waste of time to push for nonpartisan commissions to do the redistricting? I think a few states had referendums on this subject on Tuesday and 4 states already allow for independent commissions.
What is your knowledge vis-a-vis these commissions? Effective or not? Shelly
November 4, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Hi Shelly- I am equally concerned, but don’t know more than you. Just read that Calif. has a non-partisan commission. A moderate Republican in Tx lege suggested Tx have one. His fellow Rs were less than thrilled and shot it down. So it goes…
November 5, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Hi All, so glad you are there. I thought we only had to consentrate on the Republicans but after attending an Executive Committee meeting of the Leisure World Democratic Club this morning I think we also have a lot of work to do in the Democratic party. The Treasurer of the club said that she had heard that Obama would not be the Democratic candidate in 2012 (she also believes Obama is a muslim). Another board member said, “Obama had better get his act together or he won’t be running in 2012″. (Of course I lost it.) These people, local party leaders, represent the thinking of a lot of Democrats.
In spite of all the problems somehow for the sake of generations to come, we have to find a way to successfully promote progressive ideas and “sanity”. I think focusing on the Disclose Act would be a good place to begin.
Shirley
November 8, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Hi, all! The question of what we can do, given the size of our loss, isn’t easy to answer. Of course we will want to speak out and encourage any move to pursue passage of a disclosure bill in the lame duck Congress as well as in the new Congress. The chances of passage of a meaningful bill are probably unrealistic and whatever action there is will be in individual states. It seems to me that our approach must be to get more involved in what goes on in the states, especially getting behind those progressive candidates who were defeated and should be encouraged to run again. I look forward to hearing Tom Mann’s views on all this.
November 12, 2010 at 11:49 am
I have been meeting with various groups locally to see how we can activate our slumbering youth and sluggish adult democrats. We are planning on various musical events, jazz nights for young dems for instance. There are other nascent plans in the works.
It might be a good idea to actually formulate talking points for WNDC members reminding people 1) why we elected President Obama 2) What has been achieved by his administration 3) What a 2012 defeat for Obama would mean for the nation in general and democrats in particular. Getting a coherent message out is a vital first step.