can't be overcome in two years. But we've made some serious inroads and we can't stop now.
Today hurts terribly and I fear for where we are headed. Our country will be defined by this in the world and something tells me that the definition will be negative. I think Josh does a pretty good job of describing where we will be.
I've referred to this in the past, and hopefully will have a chance to return to it, but here's the essence of the matter, as I see it. Before today, the course that America had charted in the world over the last three years could be seen as the result of a traumatic event (9/11) and the choice of a president who was actually put in office by a minority of the electorate. This was a referendum on what's happened in the last three years. And it's been validated.
more...
This was a defining moment for our country and unfortunately we failed the test. But the reason we failed is very important.
The GOP has spent decades building what they are now. They developed the "Southern Strategy" in the 60's and have built on it ever since. Then in the 70's, when Nixon was brought down by a media doing its job, they developed the "librul media" strategy. They've worked long and hard defining the media as hostile and been very effective. Ronald Reagan helped them move this strategy forward by getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine and the Talk Radio wing of the GOP was formed.
The next step was to get their own media conglomerate and make sure to bestow a version of reality that was based on what they wanted it to be. Along comes a billionaire willing to lose massive amounts of money in order to make this happen. Most of us watched the way FOX came about and were amazed that it could be taken seriously. But this didn't happen in a vacume, it was part of a decades long project plannd by people with an agenda that didn't include the words honesty, honor or truth.
Two years ago we started fighting back. People like Markos and Atrios gave us a place to fight back with the truth. We started building on that with sites like Media Matters and Air America. People like Al Gore are trying to build our own media conglomerate.
But all of this is new. Thinking that we were going to change a dynamic built over decades of hard work was probably naive. The GOP has perfected the art of disinformation and while we have been able to make it through some of that there is still work to do.
The last graf of Josh's post linked above says it best.
Leave today for disappointment. Tomorrow, think over which of these various groups and organizations you think has made the best start toward what I've described above, go to their website, and give money or volunteer. After that, okay sure, take a few more days for disappointment, maybe a few more weeks. But this takes time. And you shouldn't lose heart. The same division in the country remains, the same stalemate. The other side just got the the ball a yard or two into our side of the field rather than the reverse. And we have to deal with the serious consequences of that. Tomorrow's the day to start.