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The Day After... Tomorrow
Wed Nov 3, 2004 14:18
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The Day After... Tomorrow
Wed, 3 Nov 2004 02:47:42 -0800

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=806

By Stephen Marshall, GNN
Will the left finally look itself in the mirror?

Barring a challenge from Democratic lawyers in the tightly contested battleground state of Ohio, George Bush will remain in office for another four years. Election day was a rollercoaster ride for left-leaning Kerry hopefuls, many of whom had resigned themselves to a lesser-of-two-evils position on the 2004 election. “Anything to get Bush out of office” ran the familiar mantra. And for a moment yesterday, there was even a glimmer of hope that Kerry would take the White House in a definitive electoral victory.

For most of the day, liberal talk radio network Air America ran live call-in segments with Democrats across the country. One Ohio woman, who called between shifts ferrying voters to the polls, reported larger voter turn-outs than in any of the last three elections she worked. And on a golf course down in Palm Springs, one GNN source reported that a group of retired Republicans were concerned the vote would go to Kerry because of the well-coordinated youth voting initiative that seemed sure to push the balance in the Dems favor. At a bar in Manhattan, a group of rowdy thirtysomethings applauded as the numbers for New York state exit polls appeared on the television screen, showing a clear Kerry victory for the state.

But, as the night wore on, the hard reality of a close-fought political dogfight began to set in. High expectations fell into a quiet despair that Bush could actually pull it off. By 1 am EST, Drudge had called the election for George W. Bush while a more tentative NBC projected a win in Ohio for Bush. The Kerry camp is holding out for a Florida-style recount that still could deliver the state’s 20 electoral votes and render a tie in the electoral college.

But what happened to the Kerry/Edwards ticket? After a polarizing election year that saw Michael Moore’s damning agit-prop documentary Fahrenheit 911 rake in over $100 million, disappointing Bush performances at the presidential debates, negative economic growth and a worsening situation in Iraq, the Democrats should have closed the door months ago. The fact is that this was an election driven by fear. Half of the country voting out of fear of another Bush administration, the other, in reaction a Kerry-led War on Terror. And in between the two sides, millions of Americans who simply could not get up the drive to vote. Despite all early indications, the youth did not turn out to vote in large numbers. One MSNBC exit poll showed the 18-29 bracket voted the same this year as in 2000, while the 30-44 group was down. Maybe the three-story tall billboards of Vote Or Die founder and erstwhile rap star P-Diddy weren’t tall enough after all. Or maybe the youth just don’t see enough of a difference between the two parties to feel inspired enough to vote for them. And who can blame them?

Much has been made of the neo-conservative influence on the Bush administration. And the legacy of the Project for the New American Century has been a subject often discussed on GNN. But what about the Progressive Policy Institute, PNAC’s alter-ego on the Democratic side of the aisle? How many of us have spent any time reading their own manifesto, which calls for “the bold exercise of American power” at the heart of “a new Democratic strategy, grounded in the party’s tradition of muscular internationalism.” Championed by the new tier of leaders now taking power in the party, John Kerry included, this strategy would “keep Americans safer than the Republicans’ go-it-alone policy, which has alienated our natural allies and overstretched our resources. We aim to rebuild the moral foundation of U.S. global leadership …”

Feels like neo-con lite to me.

Whatever you want to call it, the undeniable truth is we live in an era that will be marked by a bold, military-led expansionism for American economic and political interests. Some call this ‘empire,’ which is fine. But let’s be clear. This is an empire by necessity, not by convenience nor divine right. With global resources shrinking and population expanding, it’s purely a matter of calculus. And somewhere, in some underground bunker, the true protectors of American national security are focused on charts and graphs that elaborate a future thirty and forty years from now. And they know that if the United States is going to secure a moderately First World future for its people, then difficult decisions will have to be made, now, to enable it. Decisions that freedom-loving American citizens do not have the realpolitikal fortitude to make. So they need to be taken out of the equation. Or, at least, out of the process of determining what elements factor into it. In other words, the electoral process. And for all the noise made by the progressive contingent of American society, the conservatives still dominate electoral politics. They know how to energize their base and get out the vote. It’s that simple. They use the media as political platform and weaponize it accordingly.

If ever there was a time for a progressive media ®evolution, it is now. We must challenge independent media organizations to break out of arcane and ineffective techniques and look objectively at the barricades we have erected across own paths to self-realization. If the leaders of this movement are happy to lecture the choir who have already congregated around the message, then so be it. But count us out. In our media ®evolution, we want to reach the widest possible demographic. And to do that, we understand that we have something to learn from the corporate media institutions we have defined as our nemeses.

There is a stark divide between the rhetorical evaluation of corporate media’s entrenched monopolistic power and the tactical strategies being offered to combat it. Of course, they possess economic and network superiority, but true ®evolutionaries know the battle is not controlled by those who wield the largest army or hold the most gold. It is won by those who tap the deepest instincts, ideals and prejudices of the public mind. These are values that cannot be manufactured. We simply need to find a way to pierce the illusion of lies and deception being cast by the mainstream media. Instead of being marginalized by our disadvantage, we must adopt the tactics of guerrillas, who wage war against an all-powerful totalitarian opponent by using its power against it. The independent media must shift beyond the cloister of irrelevancy, seize the new tools of production and work to create a spectacle that rivals that of the mainstream media.

In case anyone needed more inspiration to get serious about the battle ahead of us, Bill Moyers had no qualms about laying down the gauntlet in his speech to the Media Reform Conference last winter:

“Never has there been an administration so disciplined in secrecy, so precisely in lockstep in keeping information from the people at large and – in defiance of the Constitution – from their representatives in Congress. Never has so powerful a media oligopoly been so unabashed in reaching like Caesar for still more wealth and power. Never have hand and glove fitted together so comfortably to manipulate free political debate, sow contempt for the idea of government itself, and trivialize the people’s need to know.”

But, there is reason to be hopeful. Though the bulk of left-wing and progressive leaders decry the current wave of corporate empire building, their doomsday prophecies have a silver lining, because monopolization and conglomeration are not always signs of strength. Think about it: Where there was once a spectrum of competing mainstream media companies, they have now shrunk and become entrenched in a monolithic set of socio-political values. Worse, the once-proud institutions of independent thought have now internalized the process of censorship, often discouraging or terminating those journalists or public officials who take on the work of exposing major cases governmental and corporate corruption. Big Media has become a servile partner of the State and lost the power to be innovative, controversial and progressive. Huddled together, they resemble a herd of finely groomed sheep.

Behind them, a vacuum has opened up, and there is suddenly room for a highly branded, charismatic and controversial set of competitors to accept the challenge and compete with the din and sparkle of the mainstream spectacle. There has never been a more fortuitous time to take on the behemoth. Like an army of Davids, we have the tools, the techniques, and the will. We have so much vibrant creative energy within us and it is precisely because we are on the outside that we have the edge.

Never before has the security of our world been so reliant on the freedom of independent, investigative voices to unite the people against those who have nakedly seized the mechanism of American democracy. As the world’s dominant superpower, we have the enhanced responsibility of ®evolutionizing our media system because it is not only framing the debate at home, it is also doing it globally, and for good reason. The economic and political elites in America know that their survival depends on the rapid absorption of the propagandist media by the nations they seek to dominate and exploit. Fortunately, we have a new generation of independent journalists and citizen muckrakers who will use the unharnessed power of communications technology to fight and win this information war.

What are you waiting for?

Stephen Marshall is the co-author (with Anthony Lappé and Ian Inaba) of True Lies, now available in bookstores across North America.
http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/article.php?id=717

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