Tuesday showed the Right had a better long-range plan
[Updated, 1:28 p.m.] People who have been blaming Mike Tate or Mary Burke or other candidates or activists here and there since Tuesday night should review and face up to the bigger picture:
What happened is that the empire struck back - from Alaska to Massachusetts to Maryland to Wisconsin to Florida.
The attack first began more than four decades ago, longing for the 50's in reaction to 60's liberation movements, and in opposition to The Great Society - - and before that, The New Deal - - with the infamous Lewis Powell business community political strategy memo.
The Powell plan has been implemented by the likes of the Koch brothers and the Bradley Foundation's Michael Grebe, to name but a few - - and for whom Scott Walker is but a willing, naive but suitably ambitious and unaware cookie-cutter tool.
And the Powell-triggered machine is even more formidable now with coordinated media, finance and other issue and GOP/Tea Party campaign infrastructure because pro-corporate Supreme Court decisions by the John Roberts' majority closed the loop for the Kochs and Grebes and Adelsons and Scaifes and Coors' and Trumps and Murdoch/Ailes', and Boehners, et al, that Powell began drawing before, not surprisingly, he ended up on the Supreme Court, too.
It's an understatement that progressives' have their work out for themselves.
But let's not under-appreciate what we're up against - - at least until the older white male vote to which the Right's machine is tuned is surpassed by younger, female and more racially and ethnically diverse constituencies - - and let's put the blame or explanations for Tuesday where they belong, and not on allies some would turn into scapegoats.
What happened is that the empire struck back - from Alaska to Massachusetts to Maryland to Wisconsin to Florida.
The attack first began more than four decades ago, longing for the 50's in reaction to 60's liberation movements, and in opposition to The Great Society - - and before that, The New Deal - - with the infamous Lewis Powell business community political strategy memo.
The Powell plan has been implemented by the likes of the Koch brothers and the Bradley Foundation's Michael Grebe, to name but a few - - and for whom Scott Walker is but a willing, naive but suitably ambitious and unaware cookie-cutter tool.
And the Powell-triggered machine is even more formidable now with coordinated media, finance and other issue and GOP/Tea Party campaign infrastructure because pro-corporate Supreme Court decisions by the John Roberts' majority closed the loop for the Kochs and Grebes and Adelsons and Scaifes and Coors' and Trumps and Murdoch/Ailes', and Boehners, et al, that Powell began drawing before, not surprisingly, he ended up on the Supreme Court, too.
It's an understatement that progressives' have their work out for themselves.
But let's not under-appreciate what we're up against - - at least until the older white male vote to which the Right's machine is tuned is surpassed by younger, female and more racially and ethnically diverse constituencies - - and let's put the blame or explanations for Tuesday where they belong, and not on allies some would turn into scapegoats.
2 comments:
Spot-on analysis. An irony is that the comparatively moderate Virginia native Powell (at least judging by his tenure on the Supreme Court) were he alive today, would have been horrified to see what has become his authored project.
This is the same Powell who authored such pro-Fourth Amendment opinions as US v. US Eastern Dist of Michigan and so on,
I'm going to sound like a broken record on this, but the idea that they are going to fade away or that our lives will be easier because of demographic change is simply wishful thinking. Younger people will get older (and gay marriage won't be an issue). People of color - especially Latinos - will assimilate. And they will spend the money it takes to identify messages that sufficiently hide their true agenda to win people over, just like they do now with middle-class whites. They will find the boogeyman (now it's Obama, but it's always something). The way to beat them is not to count on anything, but to put forward a proactive agenda, message, and charismatic candidates. Take nothing for granted. Assume we're good at nothing. And work at it with the diligence they do.
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