Progressively Lost

From "No More Mr. Nice Blog":

"We simply don't have the Right's message machine. A bit of what happens on the Right is purely grassroots -- I'm thinking of the work of Christian conservatives -- but right-wing activism packs a punch only because of big money, from self-interested corporations and scheming think-tank-funding billionaires. Big money shapes the message and gets it out there. That, in turn, keeps a much larger percentage of ordinary conservative Americans pumped up and versed on talking points than we can muster on the other side."

But it's more than this. The Reds have access to more money, but there is money on the Blue side as well---it just isn't being spent in the same way. The rabid right recruits early and keeps people on their payroll. Kids with talent get scholarships, fellowships, jobs with real influence, and access to the right's political leaders. They take care of their own.

But it's one of the unpleasant ironies that while the rightists carry on about individualism, they are better at supporting each other, while the left with all its solidarity rhetoric, has little or no consciousness about making sure its people are supported, and that means with jobs, fellowships, institutes, etc. Even the rightist bloggers are better at supporting each other.

Back when they were big enough to do so, labor unions performed this function of spotting talent and finding a place for it for the Democratic party. But it seems that left leaning think tanks etc. have remained exclusive and elitist. The left would rather discuss their minute differences and plug their narrow issues than take care of their own.

When told that a program under consideration for the New Deal would benefit people in the long term, FDR advisor Harry Hopkins retorted, "People don't eat in the long term. They eat every day." While we work for a better future for all, we had better be aware of what's needed in the present.