You Like Nonsense? Well, Two Can Play at That Game.
What a day yesterday was. What a vibe. Everybody was cool in spite of the fact that the gig was set up for 60,000 people while drawing 300,000. Like many of the 240,000 who could not really make out what anybody on stage was saying, I spent the day people watching. While trying to digest the sights and sounds of yesterday’s rally this morning, I came upon this Kos diary which explains the final demise of Newspaper authority in this election cycle.
It is a great read which points out how Republicans have completely opted out of trying to explain their anti-factual nonsense to newspaper editorial boards and the “main stream” media in general.
With all the money in the world at their disposal, they have simply ignored the historically objective media in favor of right wing TV, radio, invitation only pep rallies, and a blizzard of attack ads. [Side Note: Fuck newspapers. They dug their own grave by ignoring reality and objective truth and rather framed every story over the past ten years as a “he said/she said” battle between two extreme positions. (JUST LOOK AT TODAY’S FRONT PAGE FOR A CLASSIC EXAMPLE) Fuck you a million times News Journal you dumb fucks! /rant]
Anyway, it occurs to me that yesterday showed a willingness on the left to fight fire with fire. Or in this specific case, fight absurd rallies with crazy people holding nonsensical signs with absurd rallies with crazy people holding nonsensical signs.
Only, our signs were nonsensical by design. For every “angry” teabagger who screamed with Beck that they want the country back – there were ten reasonable liberal employing dry wit to calmly eviscerate the notion that the country is anything other than what it has always been….AWESOME!!
America! FUCK YEAH!!
I’m so sick of the he said/she said, both sides do it nonsense of the MSM. It’s really something they just say, and when pushed for examples they come up empty handed.
Via Digby:
Typical.
I have to think that a Sunday News magazine show that delivered facts and didn’t strive for fake balance would do fairly well in the ratings.
I can see Fineman now. Like a fish gasping for water to draw through his gills as you land him. Wish I had been the angler.I would have drawn him further ashore. Fucking asshole!
I’m hoping the media will figure this out from the rally. They’re all so badly chasing after Beck viewers (CNN brought on Erick Erickson and ABC News is bringing on Andrew Breitbart for its election coverage). There were at least 3x people at the rally yesterday compared to Beck’s rally. A rally concerned mostly with media criticism. Do you think they’ll get the point?
Jason, glad I wasn’t the only one who was at the rally who heard very little and saw less. Except for the excitment of being there, I wish I had stayed home and watched it on TV because I heard it was really good. And darn that I forgot to record it.
A fun part of the day happened after the rally was over when we started walking to find a place to eat and ended up with thousands — I mean, thousands — of others just walking up the middle of the street carrying signs. We couldn’t figure out where they were going; turns out they weren’t going anywhere. It was like a spontaneous parade of people just looking for sanity to return to our country. It was a real Happening.
June,
CSPAN video.
It is only about money, not about people. Discussions of “Republican” and “Democrat” and “Right” and “Left” are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
U.I., It is far more profitable to appeal to a small, concentrated, and highly affluent elite than it is to appeal to a larger mass audience.
And profits are all that matter.
It was a lovely day. I was glad we went. 🙂
here’s A JOLT – HOW CAN YOU WIN AN ELECTION WHEN YOUR “SUPPORTERS” ARE SAYING THIS STUFF?:
quote form an O’Donnell supporter from the front page of todays’ NJ
“Across from him, the man with a Christine O’Donnell yard sign, who would not give his name, responded: “Too bad Obamacare won’t help me. I’ll be paying for your health care so you can get all the diseases you want. Tell your African president to go back to Kenya where he came from.”
“I wish I had stayed home and watched it on TV because I heard it was really good.”
You can always watch the taped speeches on the stage later, but you had to be there to get the vibe from the crowd. I am sure most of the people there were left of center folks who are accustomed to snarking on teabaggers and Republicans, but strangely the conversations in the crowd really weren’t about that yesterday.
The few times I tried to start a conversation about how much teabaggers suck, or how badly Dems screwed up, it was like I had farted. People just politely moved away from the topic. It took me about 45 minutes after I arrived to detox and get with the vibe.
Of course Republicans still suck and Dems still screwed up. The point was that we don’t have to talk about it all the time.
ABC News is trying to back away from their decision to hire Andrew Breitbart for election coverage.
I can’t remember who said it yesterday, but I quote, “Republicans are soulless and Democrats are spineless”. Nevertheless, if this rally proved anything (beyond that even in hard times, we haven’t lost our sense of humor) it was that there is still, alive and well in the great country, a spirit of cooperation. (Except for that youngster who had to be hit over the head—not literally—to give up her seat for a handicapped person on the Metro). I missed 95% of what was going on onstage, still, this being my 4th march for various causes in DC, have to say this rally had the best vibe ever. Can’t wait to sit down and watch it in it’s entirety. Enjoyed the day, enjoyed the people, even enjoyed the street hot dog I ate because the restaurants were mobbed.
And I really enjoyed meeting some of you rascals on the DE Liberal bus!
Also, I predict there will be a surge in politicians seeking to gain endorsements from comedians going forward.
here’s A JOLT – HOW CAN YOU WIN AN ELECTION WHEN YOUR “SUPPORTERS” ARE SAYING THIS STUFF?:
easy, you run for office in america, speak through fox news, and when people point this stuff out… accuse them of being sexist.
That was a young crowd yesterday, as contrasted with the old crowd at the Beck rally. Just saying.
Oh, I don’t know. I’m pretty old. My knee is sure reminding me of that today.
I had to apologize to my feet and knees this morning.
A collection of signs seen at the Rally by mudpup MonaLisa from mudflats.net: http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r29/mlhollums/Rally2RestoreSanity%20Signs/?albumview=slideshow
TanteF from Sussex
I had a GREAT TIME!!!!!!!!!! That is all.
I think it was what we used to call a “be-in,” only all grown up.
I am really really trying to get my head around Stewart’s message, because I feel it is important and I ought to understand it. But it is difficult.
Stewart is like the henpecked husband (or wife) who says “All right! You can have your damn tax cuts for the rich. And I promise I won’t mention public health care again. Just let’s not bicker about it anymore, okay??”
At a time we most need to fight, our best and brightest are calling for unilateral surrender.
I am still trying to work my way through that. It is tough going. Maybe there is something wrong with me.
I did appreciate the air of extreme nonchalance (among the crowd) . It projects a certain confidence that must drive teabaggers nuts.
I see Stewart’s point even if I don’t totally agree with it.
The media is terrible and they tend to feature the most extreme voices without informing of what is truth.
I guess I struggle with the “both sides are equally at fault” argument. Is he saying we shouldn’t forcefully call out people that are wrong? I think part of the problem is that the media won’t do that.
This is Jon’s Moment of Sincerity and perhaps the best part.
He specifically is calling out the Press here and listen closely to the examples of how the system is broken. He does want the press to be the Fourth Estate — not just the recorder, explainer and normalizer of today’s bad behavior. He isn’t so much asking for everyone to play nice as he is asking people treat the issues that face us with alot more seriousness. There were examples that they called out earlier in some of the featured bits that seemed like forced equivalency, but the overall message isn’t much different than anything that Stewart has said before. We *should* argue about health care — but we should not have to tolerate the false arguments, that they are pulling the plug on grandma or single payer or nothing. Because the false arguments leave you arguing over ideology and facts — not on solutions.
See here’s how our press works these days. The closer the race the more the candidates, parties, secret societies, corporations, etc. spend on advertising. So, if you don’t have a close race, the press will trump one up. It’s in the best interest of their bottom line. Objective reporting doesn’t help advertising revenues. Horse races do and if they don’t have a horse race they will slant the reporting to create one.
It has worked great for them this cycle. Can’t wait to see the quarterly reports for the media giants.
I saw Stewart’s speech on TV and, frankly, I wasn’t terribly impressed. In my view, his attempt to strike a moderate tone (which is ballyhooed by the press accounts of it) is precisely what made it inconsequential and irrelevant. Many right-wing extremists are about to be elected to power in my country and I see no reason to be moderate about that. Besides, if real political sanity were defining present politics in the US, we’d realize that this race is in fact about a choice between right-wing reactionaries and mostly moderate Democrats. Why is finding a center form of discourse between those two positions considered desirable?
I think Stewart did not clearly define the difference between moderation in demeanor vs. moderation in policy. At least I hope he thinks there is a difference.
Nice comment, Dana. Spot on.
Why is finding a center form of discourse between those two positions considered desirable?
That’s not what Stewart was saying. He was, however, giving voice to the weariness shared by both liberals and moderates, and among the dozens of examples of extreme discourse, he included one or two of KO’s shriekier moments.
Why is finding a center form of discourse between those two positions considered desirable?
Stewart almost never makes the case for “a center form of discourse”. His case is almost *always* for the media to do a better job at illuminating issues and stop lazily inviting us to just watch the mudslinging.
I was not impressed with Stewart’s rally either. Not one word about two illegal wars drainig our treasury. 250,000 young and old at a rally for sanity, when the majority of them are/would be aware of the illegal, trillion dollar wars. In fact why arent Democrats talking about the wars? Wikileaks has exposed what the Bush regime did (war crimes) and yet the democrats are going after Assange for bringing the secrets to light.
Democrats didnt get their message out for two years, while the teabaggers built their organizations around anger, and confusion as to who their real enemies are? FEDUP the first group established in Fla. went after the corporates and is now complaining the republican party, the corporations hijacked their groups. The Last Word had 4 teabagger groups on, they claim they are not against separation of church and state, they dont believe social security, medicare and medicaid are not socialist! So if the heads of the biggest tea parties in the country dont believe these issues are socialistic….why do the teabaggers themselves still say they are. No leaders, no one is charge of these people they are acting like 5th grade school children without purpose.