This is responding to Kos' post,
The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, which links to an
Alternet article describing the Right's communications machine. The Alternet article describes a network of right-wing organizations that I think is the fundamental reason that Republicans are winning elections. I have done quite a bit of research into this network of organizations, as well as looking into ways that it might be countered, and I'd like to offer some suggestions.
I think it is important for all of us to do some research and understand how the Right's messaging machine works, its nature, and the effect it has on our politics because understanding helps us find ways to counter what they are doing. (Toward that end I have put together a collection of links to articles about this network of right-wing organizations.)
This infrastructure of organizations does almost everything for the Republican Party. I'll go as far as to say that this "infrastructure" of organizations IS the Republican party now. It provides education and training, issue research, message development, constant outreach to the general public, materials and talking points for candidates and media pundits, and other services too numerous to put in this short post. One point I would like to emphasize is that they employ thousands of well-paid political operatives, which all by itself gives them an advantage.
A key feature is that the core funding for this network of organizations was initiated and is maintained by a specific group of wingnuts who coordinate their donations. I'm taking about Scaife, etc. (Because this is a definable group of individuals I think we need a good name for them beyond just saying "the Right.") This core funding is coordinated, which brings a certain level of centralized control -- or at the very least ideological uniformity -- to the organizations. And it means that they are able to say "we need an organization that does this, and one that does that" and then provide the means to build the organizations. (This is the nature of infrastructure.) They call themselves the "conservative movement" and they have seized control of all of the party apparatus. Republican "moderates" exist but are not plugged in to this network, and in fact are being purged.
So on the Right there is an infrastructure of coordinated strategic organizations reaching the general public with a unified underlying ideology. And over time, people are persuaded, and then they vote for the Right's candidates. But on the Dem/Progressive side everyone is always saying that we need "the right candidate." Well compare Bush and the other geeks they have managed to elect and you'll see that it isn't about candidates or even campaigns. It is about modern marketing methods, strategic coordination, developmet of infrastructure and control of the channels through which people receive information.
Here is an important point: Progressives always think the problem is that the Right has more money. But it isn't really about the amount of money, it's about how they USE the money. My research shows that there is a lot of money on "our side" but that it is not applied effectively in the face of this Right-wing assault. What THEY do is coordinate funding, looking at where they have organizations and where they need them. They provide "general operating support" and guarantee that it will be there year after year so the organizations can focus on their mission. And mostly, they focus on UNDERLYING IDEOLOGY and make the effort to reach the GENERAL PUBLIC with their message!! (It's called "advocacy.") Examples of this include "market solutions" instead of democracy, and a focus on individuals instead of community. Etc. You all know the lines because you have been hearing them repeated for 20-30 years as these organizations grow in strength and power. And, in specific strategic ares they repeat certain themes, like "Social Security is going broke" or "public schools are failing."
Meanwhile, what OUR organizations too often do is talk to their own audience, and only about the narrower issues they work on. Believe it or not, in many cases this is because the funders demand this! They actually prohibit the organizations they fund from advocacy, and do not promise ongoing year-after-year support. This used to be OK, and there were good reasons that the organizations developed in this way, but what we have to recognize is that it is not effective now that the Right is dominant. The Right talks to the general public, pushing their UNDERLYING ideology, and only then tying specific issues to it. Progressives need to learn to do this as well.
My idea of a solution is twofold. One is to get existing Progressive organizations to understand that times have changed and it is time to start talking to the GENERAL PUBLIC, tying their own issues to a larger Progressive picture. In some cases this might require changes in the way these organizations see themselves and their mission, but the Right's assault isn't going to slow down and wait for them.
But more than anything else, I think we really need to start building a new kind of organization designed primarily to reach the general public with an ongoing conversation about UNDERLYING Progressive values and ideals. I think this message essentially comes down to democracy and community, and we can tie everything else to those core values, but that's a whole other post.