But American liberals and progressives – especially the wealthy ones – should take a hard look in the mirror when assessing blame. For three decades now, the Left has sat back and done next to nothing to build a media infrastructure while the Right has put together a truly powerful media machine.
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It’s always puzzled me how well-to-do sympathizers of progressive causes (i.e., actors, musicians, artists, directors, etc.…) channel their energy into one-off campaigns or ineffective scattershot efforts that merely tag them as pretentious wannabe players on the political stage. When they could funnel money into equipping, empowering and nourishing news outlets, muckraking endeavors and organizations of progressive writers, more advantageously armed with intellect and persuasive sway.
In recent years, liberals and progressives have made strides to even the rhetorical score, with outfits like Larry Lessig’s Change Congress, OurFuture.org and George Lakoff’s (sadly, now defunct) Rockridge Institute. But still, most political rallying on the left side of the political ledger is done by single issue interests.
That’s in stark contrast to conservative, libertarian, and neoconservative think tanks (along with the strident conservative news organs headed by media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Richard Mellon Scaife) that over the past 30+ years, have cemented themselves as power brokers. Then toss in, too, the near complete dominance of talk radio markets (where many politically interested Americans receive the bulk of their information on current events).
With vast resources, ability to provide a paid talking head on any cable news show, crafted op-ed pieces on demand, a network that can still rival the disperse nature of an open internet, and a less literate society, the right effectively drives the debate, even when public consensus is aligned against their interests.
