First off, a disclaimer: This is an opinion piece in which I toss out ideas on how to better organize ourselves - and more effectively combat out-of-control radical conservatism.
Backgrounder: I have spent many years in corporate America - and I have observed how the corporate model "fights" - which is almost identical to how the GOP/Radical Right fights. It is organized. It is integrated into local communities. And it's framework is created at a national level and modified for local consumption.
Organization / Bureaucracy:
There are many highly organized entities on the right - most are, or are backed, by corporations. Corporations are organized into very well-controlled units (for the most part). The parts of a corporation are aligned to respond to specific events / processes - we must adopt this model.
More below....
What the hell am I talking about? Do I want us to become a corporation or similar entity? Hell no. But I would like to see us organize in a similar way.
Example:
Most of the DailyKos community is comprised of progressives and/or those who are politically inclined (duh). We are not reaching far enough into the community of citizens who are not politically active.
There are many groups on our side out there who are trying to bridge this divide - and kudos to them for their efforts. What I suggest is a more process-oriented approach. As an example, consider the following:
What if we built a distributed community based on geographical location whose purpose would be to monitor the local media's news reporting, as well as be aware of other events which might be of interest to local citizens, though not necessarily reported by the local MSM. Such a group could use a common and easy to remember web site naming convention, such as: somecity.localnewswatch.com.
The purpose of such local groups:
1. Cite local media reports which are biased or outright fabrications (or sloppily done). Provide additional information which provides context, historical analysis (example: Iran hates us. Why is this? Perhaps if people understood our support of the Shah they may begin to question our foreign policies), and finally - provide more accuracy as well as "Op-Ed pieces" to counter blatant propaganda.
2. Provide a local forum where local citizens may provide feedback / information on local happenings / news (yes, this could be abused by trolls.. but I think the benefits far outweigh the downside, and the local group could moderate it similar to how DailyKos polices itself).
3. Include announcements of interest to the local community: Church meetings, festivals, etc.
4. Provide a forum / contact for local citizens to anonymously report unethical / illegal behavior either in government or by local companies.
5. Provide a forum which would solicit questions from local citizens to be presented to elected officials or those seeking office; Publish the responses (or lack thereof) AND in cases in which politicians lie? Publish (with sources), demonstrating their lies for all to see (for both sides, not just Republicans).
What could such groups accomplish? If executed successfully, they could serve as a springboard to reach out to local citizens who might otherwise be uninterested in politics and/or disinclined to support progressive / democrat candidates. These "springboards" could also serve to begin integrating progressives into local communities - instead of being viewed as "left wing radicals / hippies / etc". Integration is the key. The GOP used Church's for this. We need to begin countering, using a similar approach.
Such an organization would be distributed and aligned with providing near-instant response to local news which is false, lacking in context, or heavily slanted. This is how the GOP / corporate America operate - they see a need and then design organizations to focus on fulfilling such a need.
The major difference between progressives and the corporate sponsored radical right? They are more organized and have a vast bureaucracy primed to advance their agenda at national and local levels.
Our advantage is that we have more passion. The corporate types lose their passion at 5:00. We don't.
PS: Yes, I know Indymedia seeks to have local groups.. but it is too chaotic for consumption by most non-political interested types. We need something more organized and which focuses on local MSM reporting.
My apologies if this has been written about before....
Update:
One other function of such local groups could be to maintain bio pages for local politicians - bios which go beyond the usual BS and show their relationships to supporters - particularly corporate benefactors - and how those corporations / persons benefit from such arrangements.