[lbo-talk] American Idiocracy redux

[Wojtek S]

Alan: "I am firmly of the opinion that Obama could easily
have savaged the conservative critique of Obamacare and/or Ryan's
budget with a simple, charismatic/compassionate emphasis on the
ways Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are funded by the
public's contribution to its own health and security and that they have
a proven record of coming through for Americans.  Rhetorically,
he could have taken on the insurance, pharmaceutical and banking
industries in populist fashion and enriched his popular political base
though, of course, he would have experienced an utter exodus w/r/t
his funding base."

[WS:] I honestly would like to hope that you are right and I am wrong
on this, but somehow it looks too good to be true.  I just do not
believe that public views can be totally manipulated by the corporate
media - my experience from Eastern Europe was that propaganda had
little effect when it went against the grain of popular beliefs and
myths.  Besides, there are left leaning media in the US - they are
just not very popular, unlike conservative outlets.

As to Haymarket & Oklahoma socialists - autres temps autres moeurs.
Today, anything that smacks of socialism is DOA even among most
liberals.

Wojtek