Hey Left, talk radio kicked your internet ass. Fix the bloody radio.

[certainot]

The internet has done a lot for business but as far as democracy goes it's been a failure, beaten by talk radio. Beaten badly.

The internet is common and still relatively free and democratic and if you get it you can find almost anything you want.

So why are we here, worse than it's ever been, with a major party acting like terrorists and suicide bombers, threatening the economy with default and saying on the floor of congress that global warming is just an environmentalist hoax perpetrated by tenured professors greedily seeking research money? Weren't we supposed to be past that by now?

Democracy is supposed to beat money in politics and give us the tools to fix and prevent disasters and improve things. Maybe we take some steps forward and then some steps back, but unless you think the Earth is flat we have to conclude America has not been keeping up the last 20 years. If that isn't bad enough, the big Citizens United money will be rolling into the elections soon.

Even with stolen elections and 'mainstream' media helping does anyone really think the last 20 years of Left political failures were caused by the Fox talking heads, publications like the Washington Times, mass mailings, ads, and right wing blogs? The internet couldn't beat that? Plain old American common sense can beat that lineup.

Even Fox has to pretend ideological balance and accountability. There is still some competition in TV and print and they are mediums that offer political alternatives within boundaries.

It is talk radio that often decides what those boundaries are, what is and isn't acceptable in American politics and media. There is no bigger PC cop or censor-by-threat than talk radio. The myths, distortions, and lies that enable today's irrational Republican assault on America need the kind of unchallenged and coordinated widespread repetition that only talk radio can provide.

Unchallenged because there is no real organized opposition to it by the Left, because most talkers are protected by call screeners who make sure the lies are seldom challenged in real time, and because progressive talkers are excluded as much as possible in the same markets despite being more than capable of competing on an even playing field.

Coordinated because right wing think tanks provide much of the research and material, constantly tailored to sell a pro-corporate agenda while attacking, distorting, and distracting from anything progressive and liberal. National and local talkers use much of the same material with variation for local issues and elections. Call screening software allows call screeners to push the think tank paid callers and talk radio trolls to the top of the list to prompt, praise, and reinforce. The think tanks can message over most anything the Left succeeds with. They can create and direct made-to-order constituencies to scream for any issue within a short time.

The Tea Party may have been bussed around and directed early on by Koch Bros think tanks but they were already talk radio graduates.

In the question and answer period after his statement on Friday President Obama named talk radio twice as co-culprits to this default idiocy, for enforcing the inability of the GOP to compromise.

Unchallenged talk radio is why we are here now and whether it goes well or badly for one party or the other the collective Left must fix it. The planet is warming too fast to wait for legislation, whether it's a good idea or not.

The Left's organizations and the Democratic Party must begin to challenge the stations that broadcast the Limbaughs and Hannitys. For the racism and global warming denial alone the local sponsors need to be shamed and boycotted, university and professional sports teams that give those stations community credibility need to be shamed, and the stations themselves need to be picketed. They are the real power centers of the Right.

And Rush Limbaugh needs to be recognized as the true leader of the Republican/Tea Party. What will Limbaugh say on Monday if no deal has been made by then? For the Republicans to compromise he would have to give them a way out. Or they will have to overthrow him.