Thomas Lindaman writes:
Since the beginning of the media coverage of the Wisconsin budget battle between Governor Scott Walker and the unions, there's been a whispering campaign that is now becoming a full blown shout-fest. The Left wants the unions to become the Leftist equivalent of the TEA Party. Judging from the commentary on Politico, the Left is warning of Walker "waking a sleeping giant" and his electoral doom is all but certain once that giant awakes and gets moving.
I have three words for any Leftist who believes that: The Coffee Party.
Remember when The Coffee Party was supposed to be the Leftist counterpart to the TEA Party? Yeah. That lasted for about a month before the Left realized it just wasn't taking off like they'd hoped. Seriously, aside from this blog post, when was the last time you hear anyone mention the Coffee Party?
The Coffee Party is "Leftist"?? Do you even know what the Coffee Party stands for, exactly?
The Coffee Party doesn't stand for any side in particular. It's more about methodology than actual political posturing.
They don't support any specific policies aside from being civil. They were formed for the sake of bringing decency and manners back to politics, without having an actual policy agenda.
So naturally that would be anti-Teabagger, yeah. Since the Teabaggers are an astroturfed right-wing indecent embarrassment. But the Coffee Party being "Leftist"? Pffft.
People are not interested in the Coffee Party because their name alone makes it clear that they are a reaction to the Teabaggers, which is a movement that doesn't deserve a reaction. They should have avoided the whole beverage thing.
The Coffee Party is just a bunch of people saying: "These Teabaggers will see the light if we just calmly reason with them."
Of course, with the Teabaggers being what they are, that was a losing proposition. Doomed to fail.
Although the Wisconsin union protests are encouraging, I honestly don't think the union movement is strong enough to be a Leftist TEA Party mainly because the union movement isn't that strong right now. With dropping membership and a badly damaged image over the past couple of decades, the time when unions were to be a feared political machine are pretty much over on a national level. Sure, you'll still have enclaves on a statewide level, but nationally unions are becoming dinosaurs.
And that's who you want to be the next TEA Party?
There is another reason why the labor movement will not be successful as a TEA Party substitute, that being a fundamental difference between the two movements. Say what you will about the TEA Party, they are motivated by a love of country and a desire to put the country back on the right financial course.
Ahhh... the Teabaggers. As long as their leaders are spouting nonsense about abortion, Mexicans, unions and liberals, the tea party is satiated. They'll whine about "fiscal responsibility" and then focus almost completely on social bigotry and repression. They are the worst hypocrites of all.
From what we've seen and heard from the union movement recently, they seem more motivated by a love of money regardless of the fiscal consequences. Of course, they don't come out and say that because it would undercut their credibility as "hard working average Americans."
Too bad the actions of unions actually do help the American worker. A fact that you guys absolutely hate, since you hate workers' rights, and always have.
Just like Air America failed to live up to its billing as a Leftist alternative to talk radio,
You're funny like the "Half Hour News Hour" was funny. Remember that show? It's the only show that was canceled faster than Limbaugh's TV show.
Citadel Broadcasting, the largest conservative network bar-none, and the third largest network in the USA, went bankrupt just like Air America, and it went bankrupt before Air America did. Kind of funny how you just don't hear the hype on that, isn't it?
Anyways, certain types of people enjoy being justified in their actions by talk radio, and apparently liberals are less likely than conservatives to be that type. Not really that surprising. Right-wingers like Fox News, which leans heavily to the right, while liberals like NPR, which has repeatedly proven to be neutral (albeit a bit dull). They are the most neutral network on the air. It's true that some conservatives call them liberal... because NPR tells the truth, and right-wingers consider anything that isn't conservative propaganda to be some kind of liberal conspiracy.
Liberals listen to neutral stations like NPR, because Liberals don't care to hear orders for daily talking points delivered from on high. Why switch from NPR to a scratchy AM station?
Here's a little factoid about Limbaugh's radio show: To launch Limbaugh's radio show, Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks -- the same folks who syndicate wingnut du jour Glen Beck -- gave Limbaugh's three hours away -- that's right, no cash -- to local radio stations, mostly in medium and smaller markets, back in the early 1990's.
So, a local talk station got Rush's show for zilch. In exchange, Premiere took for itself much of the local station's available advertising time (roughly 15 minutes an hour) and packed the show with national ads it had already pre-sold.
Rightwing radio was heavily funded by the likes of Richard Scaife for many years before they found a way to make it profitable. Air America was not being able to survive without significant subsidies from power brokers. It's a problem the right wing doesn't have. The right wing, after all, is populated by abject morons. They fund the superchurches and every other scam that their deceptive masters favor. So, it's no coincidence that right wingnuts have a ready market: the great stupidity of their market is their friend.
Meanwhile: Beck is fired, O'Reilly is subordinate to his parody, Rush is deaf due to drugs and lost his TV show ages ago... while Maddow and Ed Shultz have shows, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are loved and popular, and Al Franken is a Senator. Good god, man... Franken is really a threat to you right-wingers, isn't he? I'm loving this. He's good enough, he's smart enough, and gosh darn it, Republicans hate him. At least he doesn't shrink from it. Being hated by Republicans is a badge of honor.
Randi Rhodes went onto Premiere. Thom Hartmann to Dial Global, joining Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz and Bill Press. Franken is a Senator. Maddow has a better deal with MSNBC. Air America didn't work. But like a dandelion, their seeds have been spread. The company fails, the idea continues.
just like the Huffington Post failed to be an alternative to the Drudge Report,
Because unlike the Drudge Report, it's a legitimate publication?
Leftists will fail if they try to make the union movement into a Leftist version of the TEA Party for the same reason the other two ventures I mentioned failed.
Failed like Glenn Beck? lol
The Left doesn't understand Americans as well as they think they do.
True, "The Left" needs to understand that a large segment of Americans aren't too bright. But it's hard for the left to cater to the stupid. The right-wingers have cornered that market.
Since the beginning of the media coverage of the Wisconsin budget battle between Governor Scott Walker and the unions, there's been a whispering campaign that is now becoming a full blown shout-fest. The Left wants the unions to become the Leftist equivalent of the TEA Party. Judging from the commentary on Politico, the Left is warning of Walker "waking a sleeping giant" and his electoral doom is all but certain once that giant awakes and gets moving.
I have three words for any Leftist who believes that: The Coffee Party.
Remember when The Coffee Party was supposed to be the Leftist counterpart to the TEA Party? Yeah. That lasted for about a month before the Left realized it just wasn't taking off like they'd hoped. Seriously, aside from this blog post, when was the last time you hear anyone mention the Coffee Party?
The Coffee Party is "Leftist"?? Do you even know what the Coffee Party stands for, exactly?
The Coffee Party doesn't stand for any side in particular. It's more about methodology than actual political posturing.
They don't support any specific policies aside from being civil. They were formed for the sake of bringing decency and manners back to politics, without having an actual policy agenda.
So naturally that would be anti-Teabagger, yeah. Since the Teabaggers are an astroturfed right-wing indecent embarrassment. But the Coffee Party being "Leftist"? Pffft.
People are not interested in the Coffee Party because their name alone makes it clear that they are a reaction to the Teabaggers, which is a movement that doesn't deserve a reaction. They should have avoided the whole beverage thing.
The Coffee Party is just a bunch of people saying: "These Teabaggers will see the light if we just calmly reason with them."
Of course, with the Teabaggers being what they are, that was a losing proposition. Doomed to fail.
Although the Wisconsin union protests are encouraging, I honestly don't think the union movement is strong enough to be a Leftist TEA Party mainly because the union movement isn't that strong right now. With dropping membership and a badly damaged image over the past couple of decades, the time when unions were to be a feared political machine are pretty much over on a national level. Sure, you'll still have enclaves on a statewide level, but nationally unions are becoming dinosaurs.
And that's who you want to be the next TEA Party?
There is another reason why the labor movement will not be successful as a TEA Party substitute, that being a fundamental difference between the two movements. Say what you will about the TEA Party, they are motivated by a love of country and a desire to put the country back on the right financial course.
Ahhh... the Teabaggers. As long as their leaders are spouting nonsense about abortion, Mexicans, unions and liberals, the tea party is satiated. They'll whine about "fiscal responsibility" and then focus almost completely on social bigotry and repression. They are the worst hypocrites of all.
From what we've seen and heard from the union movement recently, they seem more motivated by a love of money regardless of the fiscal consequences. Of course, they don't come out and say that because it would undercut their credibility as "hard working average Americans."
Too bad the actions of unions actually do help the American worker. A fact that you guys absolutely hate, since you hate workers' rights, and always have.
Just like Air America failed to live up to its billing as a Leftist alternative to talk radio,
You're funny like the "Half Hour News Hour" was funny. Remember that show? It's the only show that was canceled faster than Limbaugh's TV show.
Citadel Broadcasting, the largest conservative network bar-none, and the third largest network in the USA, went bankrupt just like Air America, and it went bankrupt before Air America did. Kind of funny how you just don't hear the hype on that, isn't it?
Anyways, certain types of people enjoy being justified in their actions by talk radio, and apparently liberals are less likely than conservatives to be that type. Not really that surprising. Right-wingers like Fox News, which leans heavily to the right, while liberals like NPR, which has repeatedly proven to be neutral (albeit a bit dull). They are the most neutral network on the air. It's true that some conservatives call them liberal... because NPR tells the truth, and right-wingers consider anything that isn't conservative propaganda to be some kind of liberal conspiracy.
Liberals listen to neutral stations like NPR, because Liberals don't care to hear orders for daily talking points delivered from on high. Why switch from NPR to a scratchy AM station?
Here's a little factoid about Limbaugh's radio show: To launch Limbaugh's radio show, Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks -- the same folks who syndicate wingnut du jour Glen Beck -- gave Limbaugh's three hours away -- that's right, no cash -- to local radio stations, mostly in medium and smaller markets, back in the early 1990's.
So, a local talk station got Rush's show for zilch. In exchange, Premiere took for itself much of the local station's available advertising time (roughly 15 minutes an hour) and packed the show with national ads it had already pre-sold.
Rightwing radio was heavily funded by the likes of Richard Scaife for many years before they found a way to make it profitable. Air America was not being able to survive without significant subsidies from power brokers. It's a problem the right wing doesn't have. The right wing, after all, is populated by abject morons. They fund the superchurches and every other scam that their deceptive masters favor. So, it's no coincidence that right wingnuts have a ready market: the great stupidity of their market is their friend.
Meanwhile: Beck is fired, O'Reilly is subordinate to his parody, Rush is deaf due to drugs and lost his TV show ages ago... while Maddow and Ed Shultz have shows, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are loved and popular, and Al Franken is a Senator. Good god, man... Franken is really a threat to you right-wingers, isn't he? I'm loving this. He's good enough, he's smart enough, and gosh darn it, Republicans hate him. At least he doesn't shrink from it. Being hated by Republicans is a badge of honor.
Randi Rhodes went onto Premiere. Thom Hartmann to Dial Global, joining Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz and Bill Press. Franken is a Senator. Maddow has a better deal with MSNBC. Air America didn't work. But like a dandelion, their seeds have been spread. The company fails, the idea continues.
just like the Huffington Post failed to be an alternative to the Drudge Report,
Because unlike the Drudge Report, it's a legitimate publication?
Leftists will fail if they try to make the union movement into a Leftist version of the TEA Party for the same reason the other two ventures I mentioned failed.
Failed like Glenn Beck? lol
The Left doesn't understand Americans as well as they think they do.
True, "The Left" needs to understand that a large segment of Americans aren't too bright. But it's hard for the left to cater to the stupid. The right-wingers have cornered that market.