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Sunday 18 July 2004

Talking point of the day

So everyday, the RNC publishes daily talking points, or rather the daily point. Senators get up in congress and talk about it. Rush Limbaugh harps on it. Other talk radio types talk about it. Fox News does a special report on it. Everyday they take one issue and hammer on it though out the GOP media.

Contrary to what it may seem, there is left media. We've got blogs. We've got Air America Radio. We've got Indy Media. We've got the Pacifica Network. It's not a huge media, but it's enough to create an echo chamber. If we start talking up a point of the day, it will seep into Blue State news and some mainstream news outlets.

However, we cannot rely on Democratic National leadership to orchestrate this. They're too busy meeting with business leaders, soliciting donation and trying to argue with the RNC on terms and conditions the RNC has defined. In other words, we should trust the DNC as much as Greens should trust Nader. They've abandoned us. They know we want Bush out of office to put up with all sorts of shit, so they've got all sorts of shit for us. We need to set the terms of the debate to progressive causes. (Green State causes, if you will)

What needs to happen is some media hound who is on top of what's going on needs to come up with a point for every day and publish it in some accessible location. The RNC uses GOP.com. We could set up a blog or something and publish the points a few days in advance. Then, on the day a point was the issue of the day, progressive bloggers would post about the issue. Say for example the point of the day is that we're the only country in the industrialized world that doesn't have nationalized healthcare. If you were doing a political blog, you could write about the insanely high number of uninsured americans. Or how forcing poor people to wait till they're about to keel over dead and go to an emergency room is inhumane, violates their rights under the UN Human Rights document and costs more. Or you could write about how expensive medicines are only available to some while others can go just die. Or you, know, maybe the talking oint would be more narrowly defined, but progressives could just say whatever they have to say about it. So it would just be a topic to talk about. And the progressive media could do a story, etc.

The idea is that people will become more aware of these issues. Things people say about them will echo around. More mainstream media will become aware that suddenly all sorts of people are talking about healthcare issues. We will be bringing Green State issues to the public's attention on our own terms and be setting the debate for Blue State media. If we lead, the DNC will follow. This is already going on now. This is why people are talking about Diebold. This is why people are talking about disenfranchised voters in Florida, because of grassroots Blue media, like the Democratic Underground. I'm suggesting that these guys keep up the good work, but also that grassroots types coordinate a bit, to make sure our issues are heard. We don't need to all speak in unison, but if we're all suddenly talking about the same thing, somebody is going to listen.

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