> Help us, Chip! You're the expert on the right's appeal. How can we
> short-circuit it?
There are a variety of strategies. One very effective strategy is to mock them, hence the right wing's obsession with the new Al Franken and Michael Moore books. Ideologues expect to be taken seriously. A bunch of rich white guys dont like it when other people laugh at them.
The brouhaha last week over the Ronald Reagan miniseries revealed another Achille Heel of the right wing. They have a few sacred cows such as RONALD REAGAN. I know it would be a lot of work, but why couldn't the Left fund a few scholars to publish books on Reagan? Books that would go into the true legacy of the cocaine-importing, big government president.
It should also be pointed out the the right's appeal is very limited, but they do a good job of keeping their troops in line. That's what the Fox News channel is about, as weel as Rush Limbaugh and everything else designed to tell the true believers what to think.
I also think that the Left needs to take the gloves off and get down and dirty with the right wing. We tend to be over-educated and think that good ideas should win out over bad ones. Until we have a planet full of smart people with good critical thinking skills and decent bullshit detectors, we will always lose to the right wing extremists who don't fight fair. Look at how Horowitz operates. He doesn't give a shit about facts. People always tell me to be more like Chomsky, but I'm more of a mudslinger than a fact checker. I love Chomsky and think his work is really important, but we won't make any ground until we go after the right wing. More of us should follow the lead of Molly Ivins, Al Franken and Michael Moore. They are connecting with average people and landing blows on the right because they are fighting the right in a way that has to be done.
We also need to do a better job of supporting the Left media. There are lots of great projects out there that could use some financial help. If the Left would stop throwing good money at shitty liberal magazines like the Nation and radio network like NPR, just think at how much we could increase the reach of the Left media.
Lastly, when it comes to fighting the skinheads of the right, networks like Anti-Racist Action have had more impact on disrupting the Right than the better-funded liberal money sinks like the Southern Poverty Law Center.
It's easy to fight back against the right. I've been doing it for years. We have some good examples of what works, like the recent spate of books on the bestseller lists. The question is: are we going to whine about the right or are we interested in playing to win.
I like to win.
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)