Dammit. I always figgered Edwards, like Nixon, had a secret plan.

[Jackpine Radical]

Nixon had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War, and I imagined that Edwards would have calculated some ways to get his message out despite the media blackout. I was waiting for him to unveil the Superstrategy Any Time Now. But what happens instead? He folds. Crap.I was waiting for Superman and instead all I got was an ordinary mortal. Well, maybe even an extraordinary mortal, but one of us Muggles types nevertheless. I mean, he got a treatment from the media that was absolutely predictable, given his populist message. I knew it was coming. Didn't he know it was coming? Did he actually think he'd get some sort of fair shake? Part of why I thought he had a secret plan lay in the knowledge tht he had no chance unless he had one. You see someone jumping out of an airplane, you just kinda assume they probly thought to bring along a parachute.

I can't even say we learned many new lessons from the Edwards campaign, but some old ones were really driven home with a vengeance. First among these is that the media absolutely will not touch an anti-corporate candidate, except maybe to deride him. Whether the solution is some kind of revolution or whether it is to take over the public forum somehow and use new methods to get the message out, we must accept that the existing corporate media will never play fair. That's not what they do. You don't like that? Tough.

There was a time when the American press was divided up into a thousand little competing dailies, whose primary business was to sell advertising and who therefore worked hard to deliver eyeballs, which in turn meant that they had to preset interesting stories in order to attract those eyeballs. A populist candidate could survive in that kind of environment. That's all different now. The only people who can manage in that kind of world are corporate-approved Republicans and DLC-type professional Democratic politicians.

If we, the activists (as opposed to the party hacks, the Pros) are ever to have a hand in shaping American politics, we have to find a whole new playing field. We are forever shut out of the conventional gamespace. We will never, ever get adequate treatment from the slick image people. We will never be more than amusing little half-time diversions, and have no prayer of becoming players. We are screwn in that regard.

So what is the new paradigm (to use a hackneyed phrase I have come to hate)?

God. Damned. If. I. Know.

I was hoping Edwards would show us.

[aquart]

1. Sweetie, Nixon didn't have a secret plan.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Sure he did.

He voted for McGovern.

My reference to that "secret plan" was just a twisted little piece of sardonic humor. You must forgive me. It's a weakness.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. LOL

[Yael]

5. Your condescending attitude toward people here has finally crossed my line

Please enter the ignore list on your right.

[robbedvoter]

9. That's the unintended joke here, I guess.

[patrice]

3. Local issues organizing in tandem with conventional political organizing. nt

[Yael]

4. Jackpine, I am still in shock over how suddenly this happened

Thank you for this post and bringing up this point.

I don't have any answers, but I am eager to hear from those who do.

Tonight, I am just heartbroken. I saw where this country could have gone and I now see it washing away on the NOLA shores.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. Hi, Yael. I guess we're veterans of the Army of the Losing Side

with a lot of campaigns behind us now.

I share your shock and dismay. I guess the thing for us to do now is to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start doing what we can to advocate for our issues now. The war, the environment, poverty, health care--we've got to make the remaining two sign on to tolerable positions on the things that matter. Even though Edwards is gone from the race, let's see how much of his platform we can keep in the running. The Tweedles (Dum and Dee by name) are gonna have to work to buy my vote.

[Armstead]

7. You're on part of the new paradign now

I agree with your analysis and frustration.

But looking at the bright side, the are new paradigms emerging. The Internet being one of the primary ones.

I know I feel a lot less isolated from liberal and progressive fellow travelers and I know more than I did before the cyber sphere was available. I'm not sure an Edwards or a Dean or a Kucinich would have even been possible before.

Thge problem is that it is not yet as all-pervasive as the more traditional media. It takes a certain amount of money, a certain amount of comfort with technology and a certain amount of commitment to take advantage of it now. Easier to pop a Bud and veg out in front of the tube.

But hopefully, this new form of media will continue to proliferate and become easier and more commonplace. When that happens, change will continue.