The glaringly simple formula for rightwing dominance of our national debate
August 24, 2010 by Peter · 13 Comments
There is a simple formula for rightwing dominance of our national debate, even when Democrats are in charge: move the conversation as extreme right as possible, then compromise toward the far right. Negotiation 101.
Here’s how John Boehner does it:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) will call Tuesday for the mass firing of the Obama administration’s economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House adviser Larry Summers, arguing that November’s midterm elections are shaping up as a referendum on sustained unemployment across the nation and saying the “writing is on the wall.”
In one fell swoop, this becomes the starting point of a conversation. For Democrats it would be an end point — if they ever reached it.
It’s no accident that in 21st century America, torture has been mainstreamed; climate denial has taken firm hold; book burning, racial dog whistles and brazen religious intolerance are part of our discourse and par for the course. This is how the right plays the game, using Limbaugh, Hannity, Fox, Drudge, blogs, chain emails, talk radio, etc. to shamelessly and defiantly drag the conversation as far right as possible. And Republican elected officials are willing to take the heat to play the game as well, saying things no Democrat would be willing to say.
This is the reason the left is furious: when progressive positions are unnecessarily bargained away, Democrats are ceding the leverage that would move the national debate back to the center. After all, the counterweight to the right is not the mushy middle, it’s the principled left.
Progressive activists don’t expect a single payer health care system, bringing all Bush warmongers to justice, ending the looting of the poor by the ultra-rich, revitalizing the environmental movement, undoing Bush-Cheney’s executive power excesses, bringing about true social justice and stopping needless wars. No. They’re far more jaded and pragmatic than anyone admits. But at least make those the debate points rather than ditch them unilaterally.
Democrats run away from the left while Republican run to the right. The net effect is that the media end up reporting far right positions as though they were mainstream and reporting liberal positions as though they were heinous aberrations. And you wonder why America is veering off the rails?
So it’s O’s fault that he doesn’t have a multinational like Newscorp to trumpet his message like fox, wsj, post, etc. and rather than the professional left like HuffPo trumpeting his message they choose to attack him relentlessly?? You’re part of the problem WATB. Msnbc attacks from the “progressive” hosts is unhelpful and they rarely broadcast speeches (nor CNN) or bully pulpit sessions. Sorry he’s not wild enough for you WATB’s. Next time elect a prez that has its own TV station & radio hosts who don’t continually bash & attack the prez!
The problem for Democrats is that in 30 years trying, they haven’t generated a counter strategy to “move right, settle for gains, move right again.” And by drifting right along with the Republicans, Democrats have become dislodged from the positions that gave the party strength.
Frankly, I think the reason Democrats haven’t been able to counter this is due to their unwillingness to adopt a scorched-earth policy. They take the high road too often, and, in the current climate, they come across as weak and effete. Obama tried the noble thing when he began his term – he tried to work with GOP leaders to find common ground on his proposals. This was the wrong thing to do; he started from slightly left of center, rather than from the extreme left.
Did [ americans ] really think Obama was going to establish a single payer health care system, bring all Bush warmongers to justice, stop the looting of the poor by the ultra-rich, revitalize the environmental movement, undo Bush-Cheney’s executive power excesses, bring about true social justice and stop needless wars?
well, that is exactly what this American was thinking / wishing & hoping for.
and if i were president, that would have all been accomplished on Day One, starting at 12:02 pm on Inauguration Day.
Interesting theory, and it is proven propaganda theory so you are right. But “looting of the poor by the ultra-rich?” Like Buffet and Gates are doing? “Undo executive power excesses?” This administration is simply perfecting them (by not going to the trouble of or getting the exposure of signing letters). Stop needless war? Didn’t the president (and Kerry in 2004) make it very clear in the campaign that Afghanistan was a needed war. But good column anyways.
Yeah, That’s why we keep sliding into this left wing cesspool.
I distincly remember calls for the ouster of Rumsfeld and Rove back in the day. Were those calls extreme, too? Let’s face it – playing defense is harder than playing offense, and the side in power is always playing defense.
And btw, “climate denial” is reality-based.
Guys, wake up! The reason conservatives are able to shift the debate to the right is because the USA is a center-right nation, and we always have been. It is far easier to push the country in a direction it already wants to go, than to pull it somewhere it doesn’t. The left will be pissing up a rope till the end of time trying to move the country left because, on the whole, we’re not buying what they’ve been selling. When Obama drops all the left wing ideas you guys love so much, his doing so is a tacit admission that when it comes time to implement policy, the left wing agenda is a loser.
Exactly. This is why, when you ask a liberal direct questions, it is so freaking hard to get a direct response. The true desires for policy which will be massively unpopular cannot be spoken. This is why they need to redefine words and then use them hoping the emotional impact of the former meaning will carry the day and no one will look at the details of how they are using the word.
One such word is ‘justice’, as in ‘social’.
It’s ‘justice’ to steal a person’s property and hand it to someone else? it’s ‘justice’ to have the State in charge of legal racial discrimination?
How you can stand to live in this evil fascist country is beyond me. What a nightmare the USA is! Think of the terrible things we do: We let women drive cars (unlikeSaudi Arabia). We let them work( and go to school (unlike Afghanistan). We don’t let anyone starve (unlikeNoKo). Everybody accused of a crime gets a trial( unlike most of the rest of the world) and the right to a real defense(ditto) from judges who aren’t gov’t stooges (ditto). We let people write stupid and inane political commentary like yours and don’t arrest them (ditto). We have elections (ditto) and candidates aren’t regularly murdered(ditto) by the ruling party, and if the opponents win, they actually take control(ditto). The government can’t break down your door and arrest you on trumped-up charges, at least not yet while the Constitution still has life in it, which you progressives would like to ignore on your march to “true social justice”. Didn’t you folks learn anything from 70 years of communism, fascism, and peoples’ revolutions? Utopia can only be brought about by repression and murder; by a police state where nobody has any rights—except the ruling class, which all you progressives fancy yourselves to be in. Utopias are totalitarian by their nature, but you progressives can’t see it. That’s why your progressive “philosophy” will always end up in the dustbin of history. Progressive my ass—you believe in an old, discredited, defeated 20th century political ideology that is so out of date! So un-cool!
LOL, uh yeah right. The only reason women have the right to vote and drive cars in this country, people get trials (which you Repugs are eager to overthrow with your enemy combatant nonsense) and why people actually get a defense (Gideon v. Wainwright) is BECAUSE OF PROGRESSIVES. Every step of the way, you useless wastes called Conservatives fought against these rational things, howled and claimed it was Anti American for these things to occur. Then decades later, you try to twist logic into such ridiculous contortions so you can try to take credit for them. Your ideological forefathers were against them. Your philosophy is nothing but a cancer in need of excision.
Uh, so its crazy right wingers who are the bad guys in this story, somehow?
Please stop with the Conservative Victim Mentality. It’s pathetic.