"This IS all about the political right using Gramsci's theories to establish cultural hegemony through skillful framing of issues and the use of right-wing populist rhetoric that generally plays well to a broad audience in the U.S. What is puzzling is why the liberals and the left can't seem to break through this crap with a set of frames and messages that captures the public's attention."
There are a number of reasons: 1) the left is not monolithic but split between the reformers (dem party shading into Green) and the socialists. These folks don't really have the same agenda or the same goals. 2) The socialists have a very bad habit of thinking that nothing needs to be reframed because it was framed by Marx/Lenin/Trotsky...whatever and this work doesn't need to be revisited. Not only is there no reframing, but a lot of their literature is buried in verbiage that is 150 years old and says nothing to the non-initate except "here's a bunch of people who have stopped thinking."
So, no unity, no framing, no living language. Oh, and I nearly forgot, no money. So, why are we surprised?
Joanna