|
This is from a friend of mine, posted to a yahoo group. I find him to be DEAD ON. Read away:
I don't know if my opinion here is minority or
unpopular. Maybe if I say it is, I will be taken more
seriously. That seems to be how the media works. But I
wanna know why so many Democrats on this stage turn
tail and run at the first difficultly with the media?
The media will be spoiling for anyone who represents a
change in direction in the Dem party. Self-inflicted?
Get real. Denial? Acknowledgement.
Take, for instance, the contentions concerning Dean's
speech after the caucuses you mention.
If Dean had given that speech after placing first,
you'd be praising his rallying cry.
Have you ever seen a film of Teddy Roosevelt? He makes
Dean look more sedate and slow than John Kerry on
animal tranquilizers.
I'm highly, I want emphasize, HIGHLY disappointed in
Democrats who continue to insist that Dean should
never have mentioned the confederate flag, that the
symbol is "too charged with reminders of slavery."
'Scuse me, but that symbol is in the news every week,
whether someone is trying to remove it from a
statehouse or whatever.
You KNOW Dean was widely misquoted about it. You KNOW
African-American audiences have applauded him for it
for months. You KNOW you can't talk about race in
America today without that flag coming up. You KNOW we
have to have that discussion (especially if you were
at the Durham Dems meeting last night). You KNOW the
South needs that discussion. You KNOW that running
around with the confederate flag isn't just some
innocent form of rebellion that Yankees do too. You
KNOW what Dean said was the truth. You KNOW you should
be proud of him for it.
But you let the press tell you what to think and then
say about it? Carter and Clinton had both gone through
far greater ridicule by this point. You should be
CAPITALIZING on the flag flap. The only reason the
campaign had pause to comment about it is that the
grassroots were not vociferous enough in their outrage
at the media spin. We just left out friend twisting in
the wind to defend himself against a "When did you
stop beating your wife?" type of question. There's
*nothing* a candidate could say that would come out
smelling good in such a situation and that is very
much not self-inflicted. But there's plenty WE could
say.
You know, every chance I get when someone discusses
that flag flap, I walk them through it. I have Dean's
quote memorized word to word. And in each case the
person I discuss it with will have to come around and
admit, "Well, I didn't know he said it like that," or
"I understand now what he meant." Sometimes there's
some protest that, "Well, he shouldn't say things that
are going to be misinterpreted like that."
But I've got to keep the heat on people that he will
be misinterpreted no matter what he says and if we
have to accept the media's misinterpretation of
events, we might as well roll over and die now. You'll
never lack for people who will read your
forthrightness for being mean or hateful or angry or
crazy or whatever. And you cannot let such people keep
you from being forthright. We can't win this election
in the media. We can only win by representing a change
in this party and in this country to the people with
whom we come in contact, and multiply that contact.
About the only thing in Iowa I can fault Dean for is
pulling Meathead and Josiah Barlett/Captain Willard up
on stage with him. Sometimes I wonder if it's such a
good idea to bombard Iowans with legions of college
kids skipping class. But I figure for every farmer
turned off by it, there's a homemaker who thinks its a
good thing our young people are getting involved.
I tell you what. Whoever the nominee is will have my
support. But until the nominee is decided and NOT
BEFORE, I am not ready to reach out to candidates who
voted for the President's unilateral war on Iraq. I am
not ready to out reach to candidates who voted for the
President's property tax increase. I am ESPECIALLY not
ready to reach out to candidates who say they want to
keep the President's property tax increase and call it
a "middle class" cut in the same breath. I am not
ready to reach out to other candidates who attack
other candidates for attacking other candidates and
call that logic a "positive message of hope." I am not
ready to reach out to other candidates who appropriate
Dean's positions and slogans and then slag Dean. I am
not ready to reach out to candidates who talk about
"hope" and "positive message" and then have no
substance or record of achievement other than
graduating from college. I am not ready to reach out
to Bush lite or baby kissers.
See, I don't believe any of that is going to beat
Dubya. I KNOW Dean is that only Dem who can. This is
not being "ideologically bound to any candidate." This
being practically bound to some obvious facts. We need
our country back. Not more of the same.
However, what I am ready to do is to ask any Democrat
who caves into Fox-like propaganda to please get a
spine. Apply your energies to something productive
like a letter to the editor propagating some real
principle. Don't sully me with your doubts. The idea
that the best candidate will just magically appear
from the primary contests is a bunch of "logic of the
market" styled bologna.
The market regularly produces the lowest common
denominator. Dubya himself is the product of the
contest system. We can do better than that. But not by
accepting media spin or shifting ourselves in response
to polls.
If we are not vigilant, if we are do not stand up for
ourselves, this "inferno," as you call it, will burn
our chances of taking our country back and leave us
with a candidate we cannot be excited about ourselves
or get anybody else excited about. And THAT, my
friend, is what would be "politically naive."
Talk to me about other candidates after July and only
if you have to. In the meantime, question and counter
the nutty, angry, irrational, hateful, mean, crazy,
out of control media spin with every breath, please.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
