On days I don't telecommute, I have a longish drive, and listen to talk radio, mostly left, sometimes right. Today was amazing from both sides.
I learned that Saul Alinsky is a new bogey man talking point for the right.
I learned from Rush Limbaugh that it is the left wing socialists behind the bailout.
I learned from Thom Hartmann that it is the right wing new-kind-of-fascist behind the bailout.
I am reminded why Left Blogistan is much better suited to my temperament than the radio.
Explanations and descriptions below the fold, plus a bonus hors d'oeuvre on positive experiences canvassing for Obama in Nevada.
First, Saul Alinsky. As you may know, he is a hero among organizers, wrote the book ``Rules for Radicals'' . Kos' new book is a kind of update to this guide from the early 70s, suitable for the innovations provided by the web. Alinsky grew up in Chicago, and Hillary Clinton wrote her Wellesley Senior thesis on his model for radical organizing.
On Stephanie Miller today I heard a clip from her turn last week on Larry King where a Lars Larson, who seems to be a down-ticket radio talk show wingnut, brought out the discussion of Obama and the dems as `Alinsky-ites.' Then I heard the BDAG (bloviating drug addicted gasbag) Rush Limbaugh himself describe the dems and Obama as Alinsky-ites today.
Hearing this once from a wing-nut? Maybe they read Kos' book. Hearing it from two separate wing-nuts? I smell a new talking point.
I can only assume that in some dark corner of wingnuttia Frank Luntz or a clone ran a focus group with Saul Alinsky brought up, and that this hit some kind of cultural resonance because (i) the name sounds like Alinsky might have been a Bolshevik, (ii) he is from Chicago like someone running for president right now, and (iii) he wrote some famous rules for community organizing, which aforementioned famous Chicagoan is well known for. So, what a clever example of Luntzian talking point engineering! Link the Dems to a bolshevik sounding name, link community organizing to someone who wrote a handbook for radicals, and you get - well BLISS, right?
On the other hand, who on the street under the age of say, 60, would hear this name and say something other than WTF? If this is intendet to reach low information voters, I guess I just have to say: FAIL!
Not that Saul Alinsky is anyone to ignore.
The other things I heard on the radio that really caught my ear involve the bailout.
First, from Thom Hartmann. Now I like Thom Hartmann. I generally listen intently to what he has to say, and find him to be intelligent and thoughtful. However, he is not immune to running off to the nervous nelly lefty subscribing to Christic institute style conspiracy theories. Today Thom espoused that the bailouts were a kind of new fascism in which the state becomes the master of the corporate. To me that sounds more like a not-so-new socialism, and in any case while that may describe in some loose sense what has happened with AIG, it does not describe the proposed bailout that Secretary for Life Paulson proposed, which seems more like a swap of taxpayer monies for garbage, a massive con-job.
Now, back to Mr. BDAG. Rush brushed off the idea that Paulson's folly has ANYTHING to do with the current president, who he suggests is rather eager to just get the hell out of dodge without making much further ado, and rather that the Alinsky-ite DEMOCRAT party is eager to get their hands on Wall Street's neck to further our agenda of gasp! SOCIALISM!
Now, if this were the case, how on earth would we initiate that effort through Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson?
Listening to all of this makes me realize how the sanity of so much of the writing here on DKos or in other great sites like Talking Points Memo and Hullabaloo is a find home for thoughful progressives and why radio is more the domain for lizard brains listening to Rush. I do like to listen to Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, and when possible, Rachael Maddow, but I have to say that the depth and quality of thought seems much higher to me in general on the web.
BONUS: My familly and I canvassed in Reno on Saturday, and while most of the targeted homes we hit in a nice area of town were out enjoying a positively gorgeous day, of the remaining 32%, 2/3 were for Obama with no hesitancy whatsoever. We also talked to a nice guy from CO who last voted in 72, got discouraged with McGovern's loss, loved Gore, but finally got inspired to vote again thanks to our man Obama.
I like the way things are looking.