It’s time to stop the mourning and kvetching about what didn’t work. We basically know what went south and how we got here. Now it is time to get into the solution. The right-wing information ecosystem won this election for Donald Trump. Period. End of story. So what is our next move? We need to put together a left-wing information ecosystem that rivals the right-wing. That is it, in a nutshell.
Now there are a few leftist media outlets, including this one. But we are in the minority. There is a fantasy that the mainstream media is leftist and that is utter absurdity. We found that idea to be a myth when both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times pulled editorials endorsing Kamala Harris for president. So who are the real leftist media outlets? MSNBC is the largest voice. Then you have a few outlets which started up on the Trump era, namely Lincoln Project and Meidas Touch. Daily Kos has been around for a while. The writers on this blog all met up over at Daily Kos. Then there’s PoliticusUSA, Crooks & Liars, PolitiZoom, Political Flare, Occupy Democrats, and if there are others, I don’t know about it. But that’s it. Ron Filipkowski at Meidas Touch has a theory on what we need to do:
Imagine every week, somewhere in America, there is an event featuring nationally prominent Democratic elected officials, TV personalities, celebrities, artists, state and local officials, candidates, podcasters, journalists, and social media influencers. A one-day or weekend event, sponsored and hosted by different organizations, each with their own group of speakers, in different states, all year round. That is what the Republican Party has had in place for a decade to recruit, build, inspire, organize and motivate their base.
The Democrats have MSNBC.
Since I have attended, watched and covered these events on the Right for years now, I am often asked why the Right has embraced these so enthusiastically while the Left has virtually nothing equivalent. My theory always was that Republicans enjoy doing things in groups and Democrats are more individualistic. But every time I would mention that while speaking to a group of activists, their response was always the same – ‘I would go to something like that!’
Democrats do some of this in the final few months of major election campaigns, but it is nothing like the network that the Right has created. Sure, we have all made fun of these events. Many of the speakers at right-wing conferences are nutty conspiracy theorists, christian nationalists, charlatans and grifters, and people who attend them can be fairly culty, but they are effective. While Democrats laugh at them or criticize them for what is taking place, they are doing nothing of their own to counter it.
Let’s say, in a few months after the mourning period is over for 2024, a major conference was announced in a major city of a swing state that featured Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Andy Beshear, Eric Swalwell, Jared Moskowitz, Jasmine Crockett, AOC, along with a few celebrities of the entertainment industry, TV news commentators, journalists, podcasters and social media influencers. Would you go if that was in your state?
Probably a lot of people would. Look, let’s face us, the organizing in the swing states by the GOP/MAGA eclipsed anything that the Democrats put together. The right-wing media has created a formidable information silo and we either get to their level so that we can compete or we perish. There is no other option that I can discern.
The legacy media is owned by billionaires. They are going to pursue their own interests. We found out the glaring truth of that when the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times backed down on their Harris editorials. We can expect little, if any, support from mainstream media. They cover Trump’s foibles in the most wishy-washy of ways.
The New York Times, in particular, is a disgrace. I’m sure you recall recently how Matt Drudge put together a succinct headline on Trump threatening Liz Cheney and how the Times whitewashed and sanewashed it to read like a “spirited discussion” or some drivel. No, it was a threat, plain and simple. And let’s give it up to Matt Drudge to have the balls to tell the truth when the Times didn’t and wouldn’t.
We need to get in touch with this reality. The right-wing is a formidable foe precisely because they are so organized. We need to fight fire with fire. We need to support left-wing media and left-wing media needs to get organized. Starting right now.
What an excellent idea. And since the Democratic world view is far closer to the ‘rest of the world’ norm, you’ll be able to get overseas speakers like actual leaders of other countries. Not crazy outliers like Orban, but people like the Mexican and Canadian and any other European premiers. And they’ll come complete with stories, examples and narratives of how well ‘dangerous’, ‘socialist’, ‘unAmerican’ things like free healthcare, free quality education, electoral spending limits, and competently enforced taxation work so well everywhere else at no additional or even lower costs to taxpayers.
Thom Hartmann has been saying for years that we need our own radio stations. And we could use some organizations like ALEC that has been writing laws for congressmen/women to take home to legislators for the past 40 years.
I was thinking something similar. I also will be talking to the local office of my Congress Critter this week. Yes, even though in NC I’m lucky enough despite the vicious gerrymandering to have a Democrat representing me in the House. One thing I’ll advocate is that she assigns a staffer to follow blogs like the one you cited. And encourage others to do so. Draft things that they’re willing to have posted on progressive sites. It can’t hurt to try. Maybe it can help grow the progressive online ecosystem. I’d encourage our readers to get in tough with their own Democratic officials and do what I said I’m going to do. We ARE out here and it’s clear the MSM is going to “both sider” any discussion of the issues. Politicians and other leaders on our side have nothing to lose by reaching out to a like-minded audience that will be MOTIVATED to hear directly from them. And again, who knows? It just might help fuel something bigger.
We are already here and have readers. Sure they’re awfully beaten up and discouraged at the moment but if Democratic leaders start punching back with the MSM like you wrote about earlier there’s a cadre of people who will be mightily encouraged by small blogs/sites like this and maybe enough that larger places will take notice. A good while back you told me something I’d written made it onto Substack. I didn’t realize then the significance. But if Democratic politicians post some straightforward stuff in places like this it will show up there more often. To a point where maybe the MSM can’t just blow it off.
Ok, so it might be pure fantasy on my part but it’s like back when I had a social life and chances at romance. No one ever says yes if you don’t make the effort to engage with them and ask for a date! Like most guys I’ve gotten a no more often than not. But sometimes someone has said yes and a handful of times it wound up resulting in some magic in my life. That part of my life is over but I can still try for political magic!
There is also Uncharted Blue, a blog site started by Mark Sumner, Hunter, Joan McCarter, Laura Clawson and Meteor Blades from DK. I was thinking that the large pool of talent online, maybe someone would sponsor either a radio network, or podcast network to get the message out. Just my musings on the subject. Either that or get some of these people to speak at the conferences.
You should add National Zero and Talking Points Memo and Balloon Juice to the list. I’m sure there are more. Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube. And since humor is vital to survival, don’t forget Liberal Redneck, Trae Crowder.
There are SO MANY good resources already available. BUT they aren’t mainstream. By MAINSTREAM I mean “popular” with THE KIDS. You know, those KIDS who were supposed to SAVE US from vonshitzinpantz. KOS and PZ, along with subtacks like NCR and Joyce Vance have been with us for a looong time. And many of us fondly remember when AIR AMERICA existed. Where did they go?
Here are some frightening thoughts from three days ago:
Joyce Vance’s Substack Comments Nov. 7, 2024
One of the most disturbing things I listened to yesterday was a clip of interviews with college students voting for Trump. According to the students: Trump has better policy, he did a great job in his previous four years, he did an interview with Joe Rogan and Kamala didn’t so she must not want to be honest with us!
And I thought the young folks would help save us, not help destroy us (and themselves).
College kids new to voting did not remember the trump years because they were only 14-16 years old and like the Hispanics listening to RWNJ radio in Spanish; the Democratic Party still hasn’t gotten the How To Memo that that guy Rush Limbaugh left laying around.
Instead of bemoaning FUX why not BUILD ONE, and it ain’t MSNBC.
Still wondering where those 10 million people who voted last time but didn’t this time went. If they were “too busy” it means they fucking had jobs that were only made possible by Biden/Harris. All the finger pointing discussed in other “analysis” articles here and elsewhere do not discuss this elephant of so many fewer voters for the Ds. Could it all be “woman color, race?” Just add “TV and camera”… 🙂
I never believed the bs that the kids would save us. Not one iota. As for the missing votes, I really am starting to mull over tyrant telling people that he didn’t need more votes, he had all he needed for the win. What was that about?
I was just telling my husband last night that we need to develop an extremely powerful and loud left wing media to start blaring the truth. The media we have now is the embarrassment of the world and is how that jacka$$ was supposedly elected twice. Thank you!
Folks don’t seem to remember the 50’s and 60’s and how the government used the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice to shut up the liberals. From what I can see most of the Justice Department and the FBI are still staffed by Republicans. And now, they have all these wonderful tools to track what we say and do.
You know, if the Democratic Party had spent most of that campaign money on buying a few radio stations around the country (they wouldn’t have to pay for political ads on their own stations) and hired guys like Beau of the Fifth Column and Trae Crowder, we might have wound up with a few more votes. It’s all about COMMUNICATION. You have to explain stuff to your audience in a way that your audience is going to understand it, trust you, and want to listen .
Oh, and have you noticed that all comments at least of mine are now awaiting moderation.
I don’t know why, but if by chance your comment included more than one URL link they automatically go into moderation. That’s true on most sites.
I don’t have enough “AMEN!”s in me for this column.
I posted a comment on Ursula’s article “‘Hate Over Humanity’ Democrats Suffered A Blow But the GOP Is Irrevocably Lost” regarding the deteriorated relationship between the Democratic Party and working class voters and it’s repair.
Those voters are important – we won’t win an election without them.