Rahul Mahajan over at Empire Notes makes a good point about Air America:
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"Al Franken...clearly has the wrong vision for the network. An article on him in the Times Sunday Magazine (March 21) said,
Though he says he is interested in sticking around, Franken has reportedly signed only a one-year contract. "I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected," he told me. "I'd be happy if the election of a Democrat ended the show."
Beating Bush is a fine and good goal (especially for a political middle-of-the-roader like Franken, who, according to the Times, thinks the DLC is a "moral force for good"), but if the people who launched conservative talk radio had had such a blinkered vision 25 years ago, the country would be in a lot better shape than it is.
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So what is the alternative?
Liberals and the left in the United States need to get serious about building a movement. Personally, I think Air America and the blogs are an important part of that. These mediums serve as an echo chamber for progressive leaders, a space for internal debate and critiism, as well as a way to reach mass audiences.Liberals and the left in the United States need to get serious about building a movement. Personally, I think Air America and the blogs are an important part of that. These mediums serve as an echo chamber for progressive leaders, a space for internal debate and criticism, as well as a way to reach mass audiences.
Make no mistake: the conservatives are part of a movement. From their flagships of The National Review and The Weekly Standard , conservatives have built an intellectual foundation for their policies. A huge part of this has also been think-tanks like the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and others. Of course, we have magazines, but they are not coordinated nor are they explicitly focused on building the liberal movement. The Center for American Progress is a good first start into building a left-leaning center for intellectual discourse. But it's not enough and doesn't represent the intellectual diversity of our movement.
Another reason the conservatives have been able to build a movement is because of their willingness to work together. Public Eye has a great breakdown of the sectors of the American right. While they don't always get along, they are smart enough to know that cooperation is always better than a circular firing squad. When Alan Keys and the rest of the Christian ulta-right lost the primary to more moderate George W. Bush, did they all jump ship for a third party or threaten not to vote? Of course not. Their movement is way too disciplined for that.
So, how do we build ourselves into a movement?
