The great rallying cry of the revolution of 1848 in France was "Aux barricades!" Per teacherken's diary and rossl's diary, something similar needs to happen now in order for a mass movement to hit the streets with enough force and commitment in it to have a truly national effect.
Other diarists' are doing an excellent job of waving the warning banner that those of us here at DKos readily acknowledge with our nodding of the head and pennies in the tip jar. But, in reality, what does that gain either us (the bogging community), the progressive movement as a political force or untimately the excercise of that political power to enact a progressive political agenda? To be blunt, not alot. If only half of what Luis states in his diary is true, that alone should be enough to bring millions into the streets. But I don't see them. I don't see us.
Very broadly speaking, the student rebellion against the Viet Nam war was based on a number of mixed factors. Partly on the instinct for self preservation because of the draft, partly because of the generally accepted perception of an insidious military-industrial complex and a widely held belief that our own govenment was lying to the public on a massive scale. This student movement was essentially on its own until the middle class began to accept that some of what they were saying was true.
This occured in large part because the MSM of the time actually reported the day to day horror of Viet Nam. Be it the body bags of dead American servicemen and women to the naplaming of children. The American public saw it every night on Walter Cronkite. It took some time, but the anti-war protestors went from only long haired hippes to long haired hippes and dock workers and vets against the war and housewives. Only then did our political leaders at the time decide that contiuing the war was a bad idea. Hawkish (what neo-cons were before they were neo-cons) Domino theories be damed, grassroots, hometown support for the war evaporated.
Again, very broadly speaking, the dual activities of the MSM and the anti-war protestors, over time, broke the back of our involvement in Viet Nam. The problem we face today is that we may not have the seven or eight years needed to build the bottom up pressure needed to force political action, either in Iraq, Afaganistan, or even against our own rapacious financial system.
I fully agree that the "heat of the street" is absolutely required in order for a large part of populace to voice their discontent over whatever injustice/injury/anger happens to be closest to their heart. I do not mean something as artifical and vacuous as a Teabagger. Real outrage comes from the empethetic realization that something truly terrible is happening. That outrage is triggered in large part by actually seeing that truly terrible something.
One of the most powerful, iconic images to come out of the Viet Nam war was of a young girl, her arms outstretched, running naked and terrified down a road towards the camera after her village had been naplamed by American aircraft and all the clothes had been burned from her body. That picture appeared in newspapers, news magazines and on television all over the country. Where is that kind of coverage today? Where are the pictures of the dead Iraqi or Afgan children, killed by American "collateral" damage or because they bombed the wrong house? Where are the pictures of American kids sleeping out in the cold because the bank forclosed on their parents house? Where, in short, are the pictures and the stories that will fuel the outrage?
For the general public, they are no where to be seen. Why? IMHO it is because we have become cowards. Afraid to look, to acknowledge what we all bear a responsibilty for. Want to stir something up? Put up a few billboards with the picture of a dead Iraqi child on it with the words "Your Tax Dollars at Work" writ large underneath and see if you get a reaction. Put up a few billboards with a picture of some family getting evicted from their home with the words "Wall Street CEO Gets 73 Million Dollar Bonus" and see what kind of reaction you get. Make people SEE. Show them, don't just tell them. Put the truly terrible in front of their eyes everyday until it can no longer be ignored.
You want to "take it to the streets"? You will need more than an intellectual argument, you will need a visceral one as well. Don't count on the MSM to get it out there either. MSM stands for Main Stream Media. I don't see the word "news" in there anywhere. They no longer report the news, that something truly terrible. That responsibility has fallen to us. Now the real question is, do you want a revolution? Or Not?