So, I just read that Lou Dobbs is mulling a run for president. My first, fleeting instinct is to laugh, but then it hits me: this news, and my initial reaction to it, crystalizes a thought that's been much on my mind lately. By focusing so much on ridiculing the "stars" of the conservative movement and the people who admire them, we're missing the fact the reason Dobbs and Palin and Beck and Limbaugh have such fervid followers is that they are speaking to the frustrations of a certain segment of the middle class that liberals aren't speaking to. Dobbs says it himself in the linked article: "Do I seek to represent and champion the middle class in this country and those who aspire to it? Absolutely. And I will."
Of course, the idea that Dobbs is genuinely interested in the "middle class" in this country is ridiculous. He knows it. We know it. But the people who respond to his diatribes on "illegal immigrants" also respond to his scathing remarks about Wall Street's war on the middle class, and they find his hot-button issues pretty compelling evidence of his commitment to their interests.
We've got to find a way to reach these people before Dobbs and Palin and their ilk leverage their growing influence into building what could become a very real and very scary political movement that captures control of the country in the not-too-distant future.
Satire and ridicule are fun, but the people we need to reach don't understand or resent the joke. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are geniuses at political satire, and I cackle with glee every time they deftly expose how vapid and absurd "conservative" "thought" is, and how the media can't see, because of wilful blindness, through the right-wing bullshit. Unfortunately, however, when Jon and Stephen have left the screen, I can't help but think that the liberal-left wing of the politically active public relies far too much on dismissive ridicule when dealing with their counterparts at the other end of the political spectrum.
As Jeffrey Feldman's earlier diary argues, there's a good reason -- many good reasons, in fact -- why Sarah Palin is so popular. Yet, as much as I agree with Feldman's argument, I think he gave short shrift to the most important element of her appeal: people are genuinely suffering after 30 years of neo-liberal looting of the American economy (she won't save them from that, of course), and they're desperately looking for answers. The siren song of the right wing is so appealing because it plays right to its audience's genuine suffering by tapping into its vanity and self-righteousness. The "good" are suffering because the "bad" are in control. Exhibit A in their case: President Barack Obama, a fancy, elite-educated egghead who is foreign, Muslim, (for many) black, and way too familiar with and deferential to foreign peoples and ideologies. He can't be, by his very character and background, committed to preserving and defending the lifestyles of "traditional" (white) America. He is -- together with the nefarious and America-hating constituency he represents -- an enemy, in fact, of that America. Their America. The America they want to have.
I don't know if it's possible to come up with a way to speak to these people so that they respond, and turn away from the familiar tropes of the right-wing snake oil salesmen, but I do know that, if we don't find a way, there is a chance too big for comfort that a right-wing populism could swell to sufficient size and heft to manage to put some really scary people in power. Especially if they learn to tone down the hateful rhetoric about black and brown people.
Just think about what a Dobbs-Palin ticket might do to galvanize a hurting people looking for easy answers. Dobbs and Palin are placeholders for any number of celebrity right-wing demagogues. But, ultimately, Dobbs is right: you have to make the middle class believe you're championing their interests. Right now, I think Dobbs or someone like him would find it far too easy to convince a growing number of people that the Washington "establishment," currently dominated by Democrats, cares more about billionaire bankers (foreign and domestic) and poor dark people (foreign and domestic) than they do the "traditional" middle class. The kernel of truth that will resonate with his audience is that the American economy is rigged against 95% of its population, a fact that provides liberals' only hope of reaching this audience, people who would otherwise be tempted to give Dobbs and the remaining rogues gallery of right-wing media clowns more and more credence and respect.
Of course, none of these fools really gives a shit about the middle class, but they all seem pretty adept at convincing people they do. This country is facing a crisis of monumental proportions economically. There's a lot of tinder lying about, and a lot of people who are growing frustrated that New York bankers are getting rich with their tax money while their lives implode economically. It doesn't take much imagination to start fearing where things could lead.
It's time to reach these people with real words, real concern and real policies that can rebuild middle class prosperity. Comedy don't cut it.