The democrats lost. That is a fact. It is on them to own up to their own mistakes, it is on us to take them to task for running away from the democratic principles that not only made the democratic party the strongest, most influential force for good in the 20th century, but catapulted us to power for years and years. And now, it is evident to me that the age of the intellectual diversity and strength of the democratic party is beginning to come to a close. Again, many of the democrats problems are of their own making. There is absolutely no reason to run campaigns like those of Alison Lundergan Grimes, Bruce Braley etc etc. They were simply bad, anemic, awful candidates who got bad advice from even worse political advisers and democratic politicos. Let me be clear, I think the rot goes all the way up to the upper echelons of the democratic party -- including the president. To be sure, there is a lot of blame to go around.
But, if I am going to be fair in my analysis of what really happened on election night this week, I must acknowledge that there were structural factors leaning against the democrats the entire time. First, the geography. We lost big in red states that went big for Barack Obama in 2008. It entirely makes sense that Democrats would lose like this in red states like Kentucky and North Carolina. We have to admit that the GOP had home field advantage in this one, which made our collective nominee choices absolutely bewildering, and absolutely fucking frustrating to watch as each and every single one of these inept assholes imploded into oblivion.
Secondly, and I think this is the most important part -- it is clear that we have lost the messaging game. Even reliable issues that usually bring out democrats failed to do so in this one. But, my real question is -- was this really the democrats fault or are there forces larger than our party working against our agenda simply because it doesn't align with corporate goals? Now, look, again, I don't want this diary to seem like it is trying to make excuses for democratic ineptitude this cycle (thats why I spent the last three paragraphs tearing our dear party the fuck apart), but I think it is prudent to make the point that whether or not the democrats are in trouble, the 24 hour news cycle runs against us. Consistently.
I know that accusations of media bias have become dubious amongst the general population (or at least the folks I know), because most casual observers make the observation that fox news and msnbc cancel each other out, one is left wing, one is right wing -- meaning automagically -- that each viewpoint gets equal air time. But that one, seemingly rational observation is completely and utterly false, once one actually jumps into the weeds of what each network really is.
And really, the conservative bent in media goes far beyond the cable news 24 hour bullshit cycle that has developed in the last 20 or so years. Even public broadcasting -- NPR and PBS -- have been invaded by right wing viewpoints and conservative donors in the last few years. These are sources of news trusted widely by liberals and conservatives alike. Liberals love to tout their NPR creds and look at me as if I am absolutely insane when I say it is completely in the tank for the financial elite and republican interests. And then I am written off completely like I am some sort of 9/11 truther, simply because I make the rational observation that these stations DO NOT represent any sort of progressive viewpoint.
Turning back to cable news for a second, one has to realize that Fox News and MSNBC are two entirely different beasts. Fox News and its dumb little brother Fox Business News (and, for that matter, CNBC) are entirely in the tank for republicans and conservatives. Every minute of every hour of every single fucking broadcast day is dedicated to needling the fuck out of democrats and progressives at every opportunity. Every host (besides the sometimes sane Shep Smith) is there to character assassinate, malign, and smear democrats and progressives. These hosts get paid millions of dollars to represent republican viewpoints.
MSNBC, yes, "leans forward" on occasions. There is a 5 hour block (Ed Schultz, Al Sharpton, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O'Donnell), and a few progressive leaning shows on the weekend, but outside of those specific times, MSNBC is just as in the tank for corporate viewpoints and conservative ideals as the Fox Lite network, CNN. Hell, MSNBC is essentially off-air during saturday and sunday as they play prison porn and viral video documentaries for hours on fucking end. There is no equivalency to be drawn between these two networks. One is pouring conservative disinformation onto the air waves 24 hour hours a day; the other is spending half of its time concurring with conservative view points and the other half combating them.
So its no fucking wonder that with a lack luster message, lack of a vehicle to spread said message, democrats running away from their president, party, and principles, failed campaigns, geography that caught dems flatfooted in southern states, and the wave of dark money coming from shady groups made the democrats lose. Really, no fucking wonder.
But what is lost in the noise, at least in my opinion, on the democratic side is this fundamental inequality in the proliferation of ideas throughout the media. I refuse to believe that the media does not effect elections. Fact of the matter is, this entire cycle, republicans have benefited and democrats have lost. Isn't it funny that democrats always seem to lose the many, many cycles of news right before an elections.
Of course, this problem is because the very core of progressivism, which is the life-blood of the democratic party, is essentially an anti-corporatist message. The news media in this country is corporate owned. These outlets have a vested interest in taking progressivism, and therefore the whole of the democratic party down.
Again, I don't want to take anything away from the real problems within the democratic party, but until we fix this fundamental unequal distribution in the proliferation of ideas and messages throughout the news media, we will continue to lose in off years. This election cycle was about messaging, for sure. And the people we called candidates this year were horrible at it. But there is a more fundamental principle in the media at work against us, and we really, really need to address that before 2016 and beyond. Until we can 1) form a coherent, easy to understand, simple populist message, and 2) proliferate that message quickly, accurately, and effectively, democrats will continue to lose. #2 necessarily requires we address the corporate media and build a media infrastructure that rivals it. It seems almost a Herculean task, but we can accomplish it if we put our minds to it.