Activist Wednesday: The Revolution Will Not be Televised
Posted by: madamab on: September 29, 2010
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Widdershins, there are only three days left till the One Nation Working Together march on Washington. As a reminder, here is the URL for the home page:
http://www.onenationworkingtogether.org/page/s/join-the-movement
Although many of the groups who are sponsoring this event are of the very far left persuasion, as noted in the comments yesterday by comrades Beata and La-T-Da, some of the usual “progressive” suspects have started to sign on. Howard Dean is even on the home page, for heaven’s sake! Since big names are becoming attached, you’d think that the corporate and/or political media would be all over this historic gathering of those who want the US goverment to start going in the right, er, left, direction, wouldn’t you?
If so, you would be wrong.
I checked Memeorandum yesterday, and there was not one story on either the march or on the organization. I did a Google search for One Nation Working Together, and found quite a few stories – all from either participating organizations or “progressive” political news aggregators like Daily Kos. Nothing from CBS, ABC, CNN or any other large news organization.
Do you want to guess how many stories there were on the Tea Party? Far, far too many to count. Fox, CBS, The Wall Street Journal all have current stories about the AstroTurf movement as I write. The stories on Memeorandum mostly had to do with the Tea Party in various incarnations, whether about Obama’s response to it or the wacky antics of its prominent women, Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell.
Those of us who went to the March on Washington in 1989 when Bush I tried to get Roe V. Wade overturned, and who marched against the Iraq War in 2003, or who have ever marched for social justice and peace before, are quite familiar with the minimizing techniques employed by the corporate media. We all know the tricks, don’t we? They don’t report on the existence of the marches, as appears to be the case here, or they under-report attendance, or they cover the march protesters as though they were as important and numerous as the marchers. The efforts of the people to try to force their government to respond to their needs, to live up to the ideals outlined in our Constitution, never seem to get the attention of the Powers that Be.
What’s very interesting is the way the Tea Party has essentially co-opted the left’s narrative of positive social change, while in reality, it’s dedicated to propping up the status quo and increasing the government’s indebtedness to corporations and fundiegelicals. That’s why it’s getting so much attention, of course! Heaven forbid that equality, peace and economic justice should start controlling the narrative. The peasants might revolt!
I think it’s too early to say whether this organization is going to be the left’s pushback against the Obama administration and the Democrats who shoved him down our throats in 2008, or whether or not the movement will mobilize into a force to be reckoned with. But it certainly will be interesting to watch, and even if it’s not televised, we at TW will be sure to do our part to spread the word.
This is an open thread.
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32 Responses to "Activist Wednesday: The Revolution Will Not be Televised"
September 29, 2010 at 9:00 AM
MadamaB, you made so many good points I don’t even know where to begin to respond…so I guess I’ll start with what scares me most: Christine O’Donnell. An fundigelical to the greatest extreme, she poses the single biggest threat to our reproductive rights. She is deeply in debt, so I wonder who is really funding her. The Catholic Church? My tinfoil alert is way up with her. And, living in ScottBrown-achusetts, I am not at all certain she will be defeated.
Obama is running around the cuontry having backyard talks, and the rest of us are still struggling to pay the light bill. It’s not complicated economics, it’s simple…fund some middle income jobs, and sell some houses, same as FDR. But of course, the unholy alliance of the so-called proggies and the Repubs doesn’t want a functioning middle class.
In my family, I am the only one employed now, and that is only because I am self-employed, which basically means underemployed.
September 29, 2010 at 9:47 AM
Excellent post, MB. I am hoping for a good turn-out on Oct. 2nd. If the numbers are less than for Beck’s “Come to Jesus and the Tea Party” revival( Jesus would of course be a Tea Party member if he was walking among us today ), we will never hear the end of it. The Death of the Left and all that jazz.
Like Back Bay, I fear the legitimate possibility that O’Donnell may win. If the Democratic base stays home, it could happen, along with the election of Angle and Paul. Scary stuff. Too bad the Obama administration thinks the way to GOTV is to mock and scold us. How about giving us real reasons to vote for Democratic candidates? Nah, that would be hard work, like growing a spine.
September 29, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Interesting article by Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine and disappointed Obama supporter. He now calls Obama “clueless”. Lerner’s Network of Spiritual Progressives organization will be part of the One Nation march.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-michael-lerner/obama-and-biden-have-no-c_b_742647.html
September 29, 2010 at 10:52 AM
There will be internal push back. I’m sure many of the founding groups will not be pleased if this becomes about the Democratic Party. Solidarity said this in their larger statement about the march on the 25th:
“We do not, however, share the strategy of the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, and other organizations which hope to achieve jobs and justice by supporting Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in the national elections on November 2. The neoliberal leadership of the national, state, and big city organizations of the Democratic Party has betrayed the party’s rank-and-file. We believe that it has become quite clear now that neither Democrats nor the Republicans are capable of solving the country’s three great crises—the economy, the environment, and the wars—in a way that will be good for the American people.”
Solidarity has a branch in Bloomington, IN, Beata.
September 29, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Hi, everybody. We’re awash down here with the storm still south of us. Depending on how reliable power is (or isn’t) I may be in and out today.
September 29, 2010 at 11:43 AM
As some of you know I have hosted a Book Club for several years. Last night was our monthly meeting.
During the course of the conversation I learned that one of the members has a son who is a legislative aide to – wait for it! – Jim Demint!!!
How am I going to get through another season knowing that her son works for Jim Demint without losing my cool? She is a lovely person but I know my tendency to shoot off my mouth.
OMG! I am cooked.
September 29, 2010 at 11:48 AM
Chat – be safe!
LTD @5, that is excellent news. I’m so glad that at least some of the groups involved are aware of the danger.
I will never understand why people insist that Rahm was pushing his agenda, not Obama’s. It strikes me as bizarre.
September 29, 2010 at 12:06 PM
In anticipation of the One Nation march, the classic labor song “Bread and Roses” :
September 29, 2010 at 12:12 PM
@5: Thanks for the info, La. I am already on Solidarity’s email list. I will check into the Indiana group.
September 29, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Coverage from the WA Post today. He misses the mark, calling them one of the poles of the Democratic Base, but does compare the differences in the groups that will be there this weekend, as compared to the Colbert March, that in my opinion is about the Democratic Party.
Some really might believe the far-left is part of the Democratic Base, and that, is what needs the push-back. All we, or I will say anyway, is that the far-left is not a part of the Democratic Base. The goal has not to become “Democrats” again. “Yeppie, oh what a privilege. The Democrats want us back. Yup, when they want our vote.”
September 29, 2010 at 12:31 PM
@ 7. Pat, you need your old avatar back. The little pink one with the tape over it’s mouth. You should have never let that one go. It was a premonition. 
September 29, 2010 at 12:45 PM
On Jon Stewart’s show, Ariana Huffington promised free transportation to anyone who wants to go to Stewart’s march.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-28-2010/arianna-huffington?xrs=share_copy
September 29, 2010 at 12:57 PM
@14: Chat, a white stretch limo with all the amenities? If Arianna’s paying, I want to go in style.
September 29, 2010 at 1:51 PM
Chat@14: (firstly glad to see you haven’t drowned yet!) Second-I wonder if Ariana could have the gulfstream just drop by here to pick me up on the way to DC?
I was over at no dimes and they were talking about the march and have decided it’s a lefty, communist thing because (gasp!) SEIU and a *socialist* group are part of it! 
And doesn’t that just prove that Obama is a socialist! 
Now it apparently has not crossed their minds that the health care bill was a giveaway to corporatist private insurance companies and his vote on FISA along with his admin’s current idea to do away with the idea of net neutrality, http://tinyurl.com/2f5f7z3 are hardly part of a leftist “agenda”.
And now he wants to be able to eavesdrop or snoop on your internet communications:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/103836983.html
Yeah, that’s a real lefty there. I can remember when that place started up it was over the outrage that was done to HRC in the primaries and at the DNC. Now it’s completely switched around.
September 29, 2010 at 1:53 PM
Oh hell…two links in a comment again and it’s in moderation. And I know better than that damnit! Can someone release me puhleeze?
September 29, 2010 at 2:09 PM
Also, I was surfing around night before last and found an article about census data showing the increasing gap between the richest of the rich and the most poor. Thought I bookmarked it but can’t find it so I had to search but here it is:
September 29, 2010 at 2:50 PM
You all know that the Stewart/Colbert marches are on Oct. 30th, right? They don’t conflict with this weekend.
I have no interest in Stewart’s march, myself. I am happy to restore sanity, but I don’t think Jon Stewart is the appropriate person to decide what that is fo America.
Pat – you and Fuzzy should be sainted. I don’t know how you do it! Oh, and Chat with her fundie friends and relatives.
September 29, 2010 at 3:47 PM
@20: Thank heavens, no fundie relatives – just some friends. All of the ultra-Catholic relatives have passed away.
September 29, 2010 at 3:52 PM
@20 Yup, OFA is putting in 50 million, according to Wa Post, to start their 2012 campaign…which I think is what the 30th rally is. OFA is just doing what they do by getting involved in the One Nation march…suppress the voice of the real left and far-left.
September 29, 2010 at 4:15 PM
@23 – Looks like the Dems are doubling down on their losing bet, unless OFA suddenly becomes “Ostriches for America.” 
September 29, 2010 at 5:38 PM
Well, they did it! Looks like the tit gloves are coming off.
“The National Organization for Women had an unusual gift for Alan Simpson this morning. One thousand five hundred nipples. Or, as they termed it, ’1500 Tits for an Ass.’”
September 29, 2010 at 7:33 PM
Political blackjack:
Democrat’s hand: King of clubs, six of diamonds, 7 of hearts, 2 of spades(total 28)
Rebublican’s hand: King of spades, Queen of dimonds,3 of hearts, ten of Clubs(total 33)
Tea Party: Jack of Dimonds, 8 of Spades, Queen of Clubs, 2 of hearts(total 30)
Lefties: Jack of Spades and Acew of Spades (total 21)
Next play:
Democrats “quit your whining hit me” dealer gives 3 of hearts (new total 31)
Republicans “we created a monster hit us again too!” dealer gives them a 4 of clubs (new total 37)
Tea party “bubble bubble toil and trouble hit us again on the double” Dealer give them a 7 of clubs (new total 37)
Lefties “we are just fine as we are oh by the way Black Jack”
Dealer: You Rethuglicans and teaparty wackjobs and dems get all the media attention but you know jack about how the game is played!
September 29, 2010 at 7:34 PM
moral of the story….
In the end we win because we are right errrr ummm Correct!
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September 29, 2010 at 8:42 AM
With Rahm expected to officially step down this week look for the Obama apologizers to lay all the blame at his feet as another way of excusing President Indifferent in the “what went wrong” game.
Rahm may have many faults but he was selected to guide this man through the legislative process that he pretty much knew nothing about owing to his less than 300 days in the Senate and knowing this he relied on others to do the “heavy lifting” he so abhors.
Had their been a real leader in the WH it would have been his agenda that his Chief of Staff pushed through the congress, not the other way around.
The only excuse I can offer in defense of Rahm Emanuel is that “somebody had to do it” as President Indifferent had other things on his mind like “campaigning” day in and day out which is actually his true forte and only interest.