You Can Laugh, But the Gore Mania Should Tell You Something

I have a little device I call the Dean-O-Meter. I keep it in my shirt pocket close to my heart. Every time I watch a Democratic debate, or see a candidate speak, I can pull it out and measure how they rank compared to any given Dean speech. Sometimes I think my Dean-O-Meter is broken. The little needle just sits there. Then someone will say something, like when Edwards talked about taking on corporate power, and it will flicker a bit.

I know I'm not the only one. In fact, the way I see it, this little meter thing is the perfect instrument to explain why Al Gore, a man who has not given even a hint that he's going to run, is still the candidate of choice for so many Democrats.

Yes, you can laugh at all the Al Gore diaries which, admittedly, are beginning to resemble Elvis sightings. But there's a message in there somewhere. And that message, to my ears, is straight from an old Peggy Lee song, 'Is that All There Is?'.

Quite simply, and this should be obvious to anyone who's honest about it, the current slew of candidates fail to inspire. And, most importantly, they have failed to tell the truth.

You want to know what Ron Paul's appeal is? Every now and then, he speaks the truth. I am no more fond of Libertarianism than I am of Conservatism. Both philosophies fail to recognize that societies are more than an aggregation of individuals, but are indeed a cohesive system - An interconnecting, interdependent whole. And the collectivism they so vehemently oppose looks a lot like democracy to me.

But that doesn't mean someone like Ron Paul is wrong all the time. And every now and then, regardless of his misguided - I'd say absurd - philosophy, he speaks the truth. The kind of truth that rattles the conventional wisdom and scares the Washington establishment - like saying the reason we were attacked on 9/11 is not because they hate our freedom, but because of our imperial misadventures in the Middle East.

Not to draw too close a comparison, but Howard Dean did that too. He rattled the conventional wisdom with his opposition to the Iraq war way back when Hillary and Edwards were still holding their political fingers in the wind.

But more than anything, Howard Dean's campaign was about empowering people. Not just empowering Howard Dean. "You have the power" he would yell, and we believed him. And that scared the Washington establishment most of all.

And so they took him down. But when they took down Howard Dean, they really took us down. And the old saying, 'Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer'? That is why Howard Dean is still DNC chair - that once powerful position now a retirement home for old threats to the established order.

The Democratic establishment hates John Edwards too. At least if you believe MSNBC's Chuck Todd who, in a rare moment of candor for those up late enough to see it, said as much after the Democratic debates last week. "The democratic elites" he called them, "hate John Edwards." I'm surprised no one else caught it, or at least wrote about it.

But I'm not surprised they do. They hated Al Gore too. They have a cushy gig there in the Beltway. And the last thing they need are principled populists and visionaries to fuck things up.

I wonder how many people realize that for every election, there are actually two campaigns: one for the people's vote, and another, behind the scenes, for the support of the money people and their conventional "wisdom." This is why Democratic candidates are so strained to say anything meaningful on the stump - it would conflict with what they've been saying behind closed doors. Incidentally, Hillary won the money race back in 2006.

The Republicans don't have to work so hard, speaking in forked tongues. Their message of lower taxes, deregulation, and reducing the size of government to a defense contract is the same out front as it is in the back room.

Will we ever get a candidate who can speak to the American people, honestly and without hesitation, without the internal conflict of knowing he or she doesn't believe a word they're saying.

I think that's what people see in Al Gore. Someone who has the integrity to tell the truth, and the clout to make it mean something. Someone who's both a member of the establishment, and a patron of the people.

Al Gore's become almost a Messiah like figure, someone said. But I think it's more like Moses. Born a prince, exiled a peasant, coming down from the mount, reborn and white haired, to lead his people to the promised land.

Me, I'll settle for anyone who can make this Dean-O-Meter thing work. Cause I can almost swear it's broken.

The True Power of the Netroots

The most powerful force in our modern world is not government, politicians, the military industrial complex or even Wall Street directly. It is the big, agenda setting media - and mostly the television networks. Their ability to control information, shape the parameters of acceptable discourse, and spread lies and misinformation trumps all other forms of political power - including protests, political campaigns, and any other action you can think of.

This is what we're up against. This is what Democratic leaders who want to do the right thing are up against. A zeitgeist of pundits on the payroll, PR firms, news publishers and tv producers, radio talk show hosts, and others who all serve to shape the American consciousness into accepting the status quo and believing that real change is both impossible and dangerous.

How many times have you turned on your TV and thought, 'what world are they in? Don't they know what's really going on?'

Of course they do. It is their job to keep the rest of us from knowing it though. The self appointed role of the agenda setting media is to maintain a stable and docile society. To keep us happy consumers and protect the corporate economy. Providing the public with disturbing news of the state of the world is not on their agenda. The people might revolt.

And this is the good side of the big media. The truly nasty side is the spread of lies and misinformation to serve the perpetual war machine, feed on people's fears to make them compliant and powerless, prop up evil regimes like very popular guy you want to have a beer with Mr. Bush, and serve the goal of corporate empire.

From "news" to entertainment programming, the big media is nothing but one big infomercial. And their selling the corporate takeover of our country - indeed the world. And the feckless public, unaware of how they're being manipulated by the cleverest of means, is buying it. Sort of.

Out of all the actions we can take, none is more important and more effective than what OPOL and the rest of us are doing right here - challenging the zeitgeist, informing the people, and raising awareness. OPOL is particularly effective at this task because he takes it to the next level and goes beyond informing. He inspires.

The internet as a means of spreading political knowledge is the best weapon we have against the very real corporate takeover of our country - and other countries as OPOL pointed out. Those who mock and condemn OPOL and others as all talk and no action are forgetting an incredibly important point - all action must first begin with an idea.

The Vietnam protests were the response to information. Information that was spread by the big media who, at that time, had turned on the war.

The big media has somewhat turned on the war now, it seems - or at least Bush's bungling of it. But the Bush admin and the Pentagon are highly effective at keeping them in line. They went into this war with hindsight of how a few brave journalist ended the war in Vietnam. And so they took steps, like embedding journalists for example, to prevent a repeat.

But the broader issues of the general fascist like elements affecting our world are largely unknown to the masses. We here are on the front lines of the information war. We mine data from disparate sources and connect the dots and dig up the truth. Most however, are still getting their information from the fascist-like media. We have a lot of work to do.

People have always been able to organize and protests etc. The whole "let's take over the party from the grass roots" is not new either.

What is new, and gives us hope, is this ability to spread information and knowledge. This is our real power. And that's why the big media people have been trying to discredit us from the start.

I'm all for taking action. But, quite frankly, we ain't there yet. The public, and the necessary consensus we need for real change, is lagging behind, still drinking MSM cool aid.

Before people can begin taking meaningful action, they must first be informed about why action needs to be taken. And let's face it, they aren't. They watch Desperate Housewives and Britney TV and are mesmerized by flashing colors on their screen and have no fucking idea that they are conquered.

If even half of the American public were as informed as we are here, we would be living in a different country. And that, my friends, is the real power of Daily Kos.

So next time OPOL or others post an awareness raising diary, and the predictable critics pop in to ask, "what are you going to do about it?", ask them how many people they informed today? How many people got a little closer to understanding the truth about their world as a result of you?

Most historians believe the printing press was one of the greatest developments in human history for a reason. It facilitated the spread of knowledge and gave people the power to understand and change their world.

This is our new printing press. And using it is very much taking action.

And to all you super organizers, leaders of meetups, and even you OPOL with you protest drives, please keeps something in mind. People don't need to be pushed to organize and take action nearly as much when they are informed enough to be outraged.

That's what we're doing here. Write it and they will come.

A few misconceptions

Misconception #1 Our health Care System Is Broken

Our health care system is not broken. It is working flawlessly. Just not for the vast majority of Americans. If you're a major stockholder of an HMO or an insurance company though, then we have the best health care system in the whole world.

Misconception #2 The Mainstream Traditional Corporate Media is Broken

The big media isn't broken either. They aren't incompetent or unqualified. Those people on TV are doing a great job. It's just not the job we think they're doing.

The big media's role is to keep us docile and complacent consumers. Stupid even. What Herbert Hoover liked to call happiness machines. I often hear people say, "Where's the outrage?" - after some revelation surfaces about yet another atrocity by someone in power. The outrage got lost somewhere between 60 Minutes and Desperate Housewives. Probably during a commercial for a shiny new combustion engine device.

The most accurate way to look at television is as one big infomercial. But they're not just selling little products. What they're really selling is one big product - American life. Complete with soccer moms, and breakfast cereal dads, and happy kids with headphones. What they're selling is a belief system. That cheap products from Indonesia and China will fill our emptiness. And what that doesn't provide, pharmaceuticals will. And no matter how shitty your job, your life gets, you can come home, turn on the fantasy box, and escape for an average of 5 hours a night.

Is it a conspiracy? It was in the beginning. The power class saw television as a way to manipulate the masses and shape society around the capitalist, consumer economy. They were also scared to death. They saw the mass rioting and upheaval during the Great Depression. A lot of it was filmed, but you probably won't see it on television.

But now it's just a norm. Everyone who works at a network, or in a newsroom for that matter, knows the boundaries. And they know what the masters in the boardrooms like. When it was decided to sell the Iraq war, for example, it didn't take a memo. It's a lot like when you go to a dinner party, no one has to tell you not to urinate on the houseplants.

Misconception #3 The Democrats Are Spineless

Another misconception is the idea that the Democrats are spineless, weak, pussies, or however you would put it.

In fact, to the extent one can generalize, the Democrats in power are strikingly agile creatures. You see, they have a much, much harder job than Republicans.

Republicans only have to serve one master. They are expected to be the party of big business, the wealthy and powerful. Their only selling point to the less well-offs is that if, one day, the less well-offs should become well-offs too, the republicans will save them a place at the trough. This seems to be effective on a good number of people.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are traditionally known as the Party of the People. And apparently, this has traditionally meant that in the age old conflict between the well-offs and the not so well-offs, the Democrats would be siding with the not so well-offs.

But in the late 60s, some powerful business leaders got together and decided that it would be better for them if the Democrats started acting more like Republicans. And so they schemed to start using their money and power to bring that about.They formed little groups like the Business Roundtable to exert their influence and they funneled vast fortunes to elect these new Republican-like Democrats and, though they couldn't buy them all, they eventually got so many that they reshaped the party. Why, they even got a Republican-like Democratic president.

But this created a bit of a problem for these new Democrats. Like wolves in sheep's clothing, they had to do costume changes every time they went from the cloak room to the courtyard.

What we interpret as weakness is really the intrinsic strain of internal conflict. What we hear as the voice of timidity is really the thrashing of a forked tongue.

The simple truth is our leaders know who brung em to the dance. And they're not about to leave with the bussboy. Or Howard Dean for that matter.

To the extent one can generalize. And that's a problem in itself. Congress is a club. And so complex are the machinations, the cover they can provide each other makes it hard to tell where anyone really stands on anything.

Until they vote on something really important. But even then, you never know. If my memory serves, 62 House Democrats voted down the Markey amendment preserving Net Neutrality. Coincidentally, that was just the number of votes needed to defeat it. One never knows.

But it doesn't take FISA warrant to know that what they say behind closed doors and what they say up front don't exactly mesh.

So, let's cut them a break. It's really, really hard to keep the military industrial banking media Wall Street complex happy and us progressives too.