Cenk hit the nail on the head with this one. The real conflict that is going on in this country is not the one that Republicans and other right wing nuts are framing it to be. It is not, as they say, a war between socialists and free market capitalists. Very few people on the left are ideologically opposed to capitalism. Why would they be inimical to a system that has provided for them as much prosperity as anyone else? We liberals are just as much for free markets as any conservative - the only difference is that liberals haven’t been seduced into thinking that the preservation of the corporations’ powers is synonymous with maintaining free market capitalism.
The conservatives, mainly from the “heartland” of America, but also hailing from every corner of our country, have been duped into thinking that some how they will one day get a piece of the fat pie that the corporate executives are gluttonously devouring. That is the ultimate allure of men like Rush Limbaugh and networks like Fox News. They are as adept as the most seasoned info commercial salesmen at selling an idealized vision of American, where everyone has an equal chance to be the corporate fat cat, if they give an honest effort. Of course behind all the platitudes they use to convince their conservative constituency on this idea, the true statistics show how few actually ascend the economic ladder to such lofty fiscal heights. The chances that you will be as big as Rush Limbaugh (financial, not physically) is a fantasy that has as much likelihood of being realized as a poor urban kid’s dream that his skills as a basketball player will make him the next Michael Jordan, and that will be his ticket out of the ghetto.
This brings me to my problem with Cenk’s argument. He needs to understand that his criticism of the media powers for being naïve is in and of itself naïve. Its not that the media conglomerates are so credulous as to believe that conservatives and blue dog democrats are truly about free markets, and not corporatists. They know better, but the media, or at least the journalists that work for the big media networks, are themselves owned by these free market killing corporate entities. They know what they are saying is false, but they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them. Hence, it is not that the media needs to learn the lesson that Cenk is trying to teach them. What is necessary is that the American population wakes up and starts to get their sources of news from other news outlets that are not monopolized by powerful corporate interests.
This is where the blogosphere, and Internet based news, like the YoungTurks, can make such a difference. In fact, the Internet is probably the main impetus behind why many truly progressive Congressmen got elected the last election cycle. Since the Internet is a realm that is very difficult, if next to impossible, to bring under submission, even by corporate powers, it is through this venue that the progressive movement will truly find its salvation.
We who are raised in the Internet age owe it to ourselves and our country to bring the elderly and those living in rural areas (the two most powerful voting blocks for Republicans and corporatists) into the 21<sup>st</sup> century by encouraging them to use the Internet and get more of their news from such sources, as opposed to the major networks. I think when these people are forced to confront their preconceived notions about liberal ideas and liberal people, by being exposed to more varied points of view, there will be an ideological shift in this country that will include not only the young, but the old as well. &nbs
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by
lawrence louis on
09/16/2009 02:50:53 PM EST
