Huffington Post has a post today entitled “Lessons Learned from the Alito Fight”.
The author, Cenk Uygur, makes some points I agree with far more eloquently than I have in my prior “notes to Dems”.
Three points he makes bear being repeated and spread far and wide:
1. There is no organization on the left side of the political spectrum. None.[...]
2. The reason they will lose every fight is because every issues is settled the minute it is framed. The framing happens immediately on the Republican side. The White House and Fox News Channel coordinate (as they are on the NSA warrantless spying scandal right now). Then every other conservative host, “journalist,” and commentator follows suit. Once the frame is set, it’s game set and match.[...]
3. Once the Republican framing goes unchallenged, the media repeats it as if it is fact. If you do not counter attack in the media, you have no chance in persuading the public.
However, one consideration fails to make Uygur’s list, and continuously fails to merit attention. The political environment in the U.S. is regularly framed as being right/left, GOP/Dem. This is, unfortunately, a fallacy. The political spectrum is not unidimensional. It encompasses at least two, and more likely multiple, dimensions.
The Democrats are seemingly being torn apart between internal struggles between progressives and moderates. The GOP also has a couple of groups inside of it, although its authoritarian wing seems to do a far better job of keeping GOP libertarians in check and out of sight.
Thus, I’m back to repeating my wish of seeing a 3- or 4-party system emerge. Without a significant shift in political landscape, or the Dems getting their act in gear and gaining traction on some internal common ground, I fear that the authoritarian branch of the GOP will be able to continue to wield power nearly effectively unchecked.