Reply #56: your fallacy, once again... [View All]

is in the assumption that the "mainstream" is a constant that gives assent.

The mainstream is shaped by events. People change how they vote, non-voters come in, previous voters leave.

There are many issues that would "command the assent" of the mainstream if they were first pressed in a convincing manner. Issues the Democrats have ignored, to the point where they seem "left-wing."

If the Democrats had called Reagan on all the crap he did, they would have had a shot in '84 and a definite victory in '88. But they would have had to do it the whole time, instead of letting them get away for long periods without dissent.

The same applies today. Why isn't the USA PATRIOT Act a big issue? Because (almost all) the Democrats voted along with it and have not brought it up in a big way since.

Issues become issues by being pressed over time - even if the first media reaction is to attack, you must keep pressing.

The 9/11 coverup for being so outrageous was a weird exception. Despite the overwhelming pressure not to touch the issue, it was pressed in some quarters (at sacrifice, as in McKinney's case), consistently enough until now it is increasingly legitimate to demand disclosure, even (as Clark just did) to attack Bush as responsible for what happens on his watch and demand the documents! (Is Clark going to thank everyone who made that possible for him? Never mind.)

I'll say it again. You have to press an issue if you want to make it into an issue, and you have to keep pressing it against the attacks that you will at first encounter. Then it becomes an issue.

(This success has also been achieved with BBV.)

Here are some issues worth pressing - surely in a more soft-pedaled manner than I do here. But thre is still time to put these issues on the table and change what the mainstream thinks:

The real situation of the American economy: it runs on record credit levels and is unsustainable. Down this way lies a certain collapse. We must acknowledge the problem to do anything about it. The infrastructure and a real industrial base must be rebuilt.

The real situation of the energy economy: the oil is going to peak and development and conversion to every form of genuine alternative energy (hydrogen doesn't count as it's a form of battery; solar-hydrogen might swing trick) is necessary now.

The real situation of our state: corrupt, secretive, enormously destructive to Americans' true interests. Plundering the treasury. Plundering the SS fund. 2.3 trillion in missing Pentagon assets.

The reality of those parts of the world where we are unpopular: they blame America for the actions of its government, although the people are often uninformed about it. The need to actually know what that government does (to end secrecy).

The reality of drug prohibition: a failure. A demonstrable failure, a disaster for all Americans, the main driving force behind crime. Unwinnable, impossible to finance, and destabilizing South America.

The reality of the media: a cartel that keeps essential information away from the people and bombards them with propaganda and distraction. The need to break up this cartel and provide open media.

The reality of our election process: fixed by money, and now fixable by way of fraud.

The reality of how our tax money is blown: on creating greater insecurity through the illusion of a strong defense.

You don't address these issues, then I guarantee you, things will only get worse in the years to come, even if at first a Democrat should win in 2004.

You don't at least take on the illusion of Bush honesty, there will be no victory in 2004. You have got to stop giving this guy and his gangster crew a free ride, or they will run you over.

For many years the rightwing attacked, attacked, attacked against a nation they imagined was a bastion of bureaucrats and liberals. They did not lose sight of their vision. That is how they became powerful. Not by watering down what they believed.