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I consider this a Radical Gumbo, with many varied ingredients making more than the sum of its parts. We are no-holds barred, passionate and not overly PC here. Yes, Liberals can have Fangs. Jump in and be part of the cutting edge!
Words have power, they convey meaning, we use them to communicate, but progressives keep using the wrong words, we keep using words that empower the corporate enemies of democracy, we keep using words that distort meaning and communicate false realities.
We need to stop doing that.
Stop using words like "Congress" and "Elections" and "Democratic Party". We don't have a Congress, so why are so many progressives still saying we have one by using that word? We used to have a Congress, it was where representatives of the people used to pass laws that enabled the middle class to prosper so the whole country would prosper. That doesn't happen any more, it doesn't happen any more because we have no Congress. Calling that K Street whorehouse "Congress" confers legitimacy on a corrupted institution that has no legitimacy, it reinforces the illusion that representative democracy still exists in this country, it pushes us further down the road to that nightmare world George Orwell warned us about . . .
A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain.
Progressive bloggers also need to stop talking about "elections". We don't have elections in this country any more, we have Deceit Contests. The liars with the most cash usually win and then rake in even more cash from that steady flow of K Street bribes those liars in what used to be Congress call campaign contributions. If you want to talk about the Midterm Deceit Contests, go right ahead, but call them what they are. Don't reinforce the illusion that we have "elections" by using that word, expose the illusion with accurate words, with words that expose the pervasive deceit entrenched at every level of this Orwellian political system, with words that communicate what's actually happening.
(This only had 12 minutes on top, taking turns is good :) - promoted by Diane G)
Being from Ohio, elections here are especially important to me as they have a more direct impact on the Buckeye State than do federal elections. So it was heartening to read at USelections.com that there is an independent candidate from the left who is running for governor and who isn't culled from the pools of Big Business. His name is Dennis Spisak, and he is running for governor this year. You can check out his web site by clicking this LINK.
Other candidates for governor are incumbent and Democrat Ted Strickland, Republican and businessboy John Kasich, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. president in 2000, and building contractor Ken Matesz on the Libertarian Party ticket.
In Part 3 Cohen talked about the struggle for power and direction within the Democratic Party from the days of the Viet Nam War to the present, and wound up with "Frankly... I would love to see a primary challenge to Obama when he's up for re-election... Because unless you build a base through elections and then you hold the officials accountable, then you'll never get anywhere."
Here in the conclusion of the interview Cohen expands on those ideas and fills in some of the outlines to draw a rough set of guidelines or roadmap of how to get from where things stand now with the Democrats as out and out corporatists to a world of the kind of progressive populism they have been well known for at various points in history, and how it is going to take a no more Mr. Nice Guy approach from progressives and a lot of very hardnosed and fearless aggressiveness, of the kind that I think Muhammad Ali meant when he noted so many years ago "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."
Journalism professor Jeff Cohen of FAIR and the Park Center for Independent Media on the struggle within the Democratic Party, starting from the Viet Nam War:
There's no doubt that there's an awakening. What concerns me is that the liberal base, the Democratic Party base, has never been more educated, in my view, and that's because of the independent media. The democratic base is against an imperial foreign policy. The democratic base is for real medicare for all, or at least the strongest public option that would really hurt private insurance. There's an understanding of history, and again it's largely because the independent media is giving us the news in real time, every day when we click on the computer and we watch Real News, we watch Democracy Now.
What hasn't translated is while we have this boom in independent media on the Internet, we don't have a boom of independent politics.
What I believe are needed are new groups, that will be on the Internet, mobilizing the millions to make the kinds of demands of the Democrats that the right wing base, which has clearly transformed the country, the right wing base in the Republican Party not only took over a major party, they haven't let up on that party until their agenda is put in place, whereas on our side we don't have that.
What needs to happen, this is what a few groups are doing, Progressive Democrats of America is one, the idea is we need to take over that major political party.
When people talk about change, and then they deliver only for insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street, you vote them out. You primary them. You know this is what the right wing has done for decades. It's what they're doing now.
What we get from MoveOn historically and other groups is apologies for democratic office holders who have faked left with their rhetoric and then governed for big business. And what we need is to primary these people.
Frankly... I would love to see a primary challenge to Obama when he's up for re-election.
Because unless you build a base through elections and then you hold the officials accountable, then you'll never get anywhere.
