Is Obama to Blame For Losing Control Of the Message?
Posted: Tuesday, November 09, 2010
by Dan Bimrose
Liberal Fix
There are many who might say that I spend a little too much time defending Obama. It is true that I have been defending him for years now. I can remember the very first time I defended then Senator Obama. Someone had made the claim that he was sworn in on the Koran. My only response to this person was, "don't be an idiot." Three years later I am defending him still, not only to these very same people, but also people on the left and people who at one time used to support the President.
There used to be a time when we received our news through relatively few sources. There was the nightly news on our three network channels, the local newspaper, and the guys sitting outside of the barber shop. There used to be a time when news professionals, especially on the networks, took great pride in simply reporting the news and not influencing the news. In an environment like this it was relatively easy to control the message.
The environment today is completely different. Democrats have not adapted. You have a 24 hour news cycle, you have cable news companies, you have the internet with real time updates and you have twitter and facebook. In short you have a whole new ballgame. It is rather simple in this day and age for a person to isolate and orient his choice of news media to just one political viewpoint. Very simple to do and it is something many, many conservatives have already done.
The question is, how do your reach these people? You cannot control the message they receive. They hear only what they want to hear.
The dangerous aspect of this for Democrats is that the conservatives have mastered the new environment. Not only do they make use of online resources such as facebook and viral e-mails, they have also organized on an old school grass roots level. They talk to people, they organize miniature local rallies and they hold public forums. Many deny that this is a grass roots movement, but speaking from my own personal experience, I can assure you that at least locally, they are active and they are busy. They are at every small festival and they have a float in every parade. They may be funded by big business, but the leaders on the street are in work boots and blue jeans.
The Europeans used to fight in organized columns. One row would fire their guns and then they would get out of the way and the next row would fire their guns. This worked fine in Europe where they tended to fight in open fields. In the new America, the environment was different. When you were forced to deal with a great deal of wilderness, standing out in the open did not work so well. During the French and Indian war there was a group of men led by Robert Rogers who would become known as Rogers Rangers. While Rogers was growing up in New Hampshire he was exposed to many Indian raids. He learned to fight in these same ways and would eventually teach his troops to fight in the same manner. Leaders in the British military thought his tactics at best unorthodox, and at the worst barbaric. No one however could argue the effectiveness of his methods. The end justified the means.
On November 2nd the Democrats just got picked off by a group of people standing behind cover completely hidden and unexposed. These are seasoned fighters with lots of money who are capable of motivating a large portion of the public to actually do something.
The question for Democrats is, do we keep fighting the same way we have been fighting because it seems more civil or do we adapt to the different environment?
It should not be hard to do this. Liberals and progressives know a thing or two about organizing. We also have the truth on our side. However, we must be more clever and louder. We have to think outside the box. We cannot let another group of people to claim ownership of the flag or the constitution just because we think differently than they do. We need a spine.
Honestly though, I think it needs to be us to show Washington how to fight. If the people getting screwed by the Republican agenda cannot get off the couch and do something about it then it makes it that much harder for our leadership to persuade the other side that they are fighting for what people want. Does this make any sense to anyone but me? We can keep playing the blame game, which serves no real purpose, or we can collectively get off our butts and start to act like we are ticked off.
During the Michael Moore interview on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell he made us all aware of the work of some rather creative people while promoting a website created by Shavanna Miller, Will Carlough, and Richard Boenigk. The G-rated version of the website is whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com . This proved to be an effective way to get the message out. A little too late, but we can learn from these young whippersnappers.
We need more of this. We need much more of this. We need ideas from everyone.
What else can we do to reach people? What else can we do to get our neighbors to wake up and realize that virtually every part of the Republican agenda is destructive to the middle class? What else can we do to make our relatives and friends that are senior citizens understand that the Republicans are not the protectors of Medicare or Social Security?
We need an entire country filled with Rogers Rangers that come to fight not with guns, but with ideas that are backed up with bold action and relentless determination.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Definitive, well written article- Thanks Dan- Always- EllaPlease log in to respond to this comment.Ella, Thanks for reading and thanks for the comment.Please log in to respond to this comment.
It's a pleasure to read your defense of Barack Obama. I think he's a phenomenal man, possibly way ahead of his time. I watched his press conference, and he mentioned that perhaps he had failed the people who voted for him as president - by not reaching out to them in the same way. I'm sure he won't make the same mistake in two years' time.Sometimes it seems to me as if conservative, middle-class America is drugged, or hypnotized. They seem impervious to reason and reality. I like your idea of finding new ways to fight for sanity.Please log in to respond to this comment.He is a very smart person. A person that acknowledges his mistakes is the person most likely to learn from them. I think the next two years will be very interesting.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Thank you for your article.
During the recent visit to India, the President Obama has won the heart of the people of India and the media was praising him while he does not talk about war, but peace. Indian parliament welcomed his ideas for food security for the world, bold and unflinching determination for welfare for all.Please log in to respond to this comment.It should be about peace. I hope it stays about peace. Thanks for reading Guarav.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Most people do not even listen to political trash anymore, they prefer HBO. Yes they hear more negatives than positives, but that is not hard to listen to if unemployment is up to around 10 to 15%. Had Obama used more of the economic recovery package to help create jobs, instead of using the majority of it to bail out business interests, which needed to be done, and believing they would then help create jobs (yeah right), his message would be easier to accept. No jobs, no votes. That's why the large swings in popularity from (D) to (R). It's all a matter of what have you done for me lately for most of the swing voters. Great article.Please log in to respond to this comment.I agree. Lack of a real substantial jobs program in the stimulus is a problem. It will make passing an infrastructure bill even more difficult in the immediate future even though our infrastructure is in much need for investment whether we have a deficit or not. Thanks again for reading David.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Yes to the fact that some have switched on Obama. Maybe they don't believe in his message now. Maybe the message is not seen as reality to more people now. So what, you don't have control over FOX, but what about the media that does favor Obama. You still have CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and not to mention 99% of Hollywood and shows like "The View," along with most actors and pop stars. You also have the majority of big city newspapers. It is not that you cannot get out your views. Your views are representative of most of the media. FOX only grew out of the trend that the media did not reflect the views of many of it's listeners. Is it possible that "the group of people standing behind cover completely hidden and unexposed," was usually not mentioned in your news because FOX and conservative talk show hosts are the only ones who typically would report on them?Please log in to respond to this comment."Report on them", is an awfully strong metaphor what FOX produces I believe.Please log in to respond to this comment.Have to disagree. CNN,NBC,CBS,ABC all still attempt to present a centrist non-partisan viewpoint. Who cares what Hollywood thinks, I did not really hear much from them during the 2010 election. "The View" has Hasselbeck. People really still read newspapers? And the vast majority of political radio personalities are extremely conservative. Sure MSNBC is biased but at least they have the integrity to admit it. I am of the opinion that even if conservative voters do watch the National news on one of the networks they still go to Fox or Limbaugh to discover what the truth really is. MSNBC has been doing some reporting on the conservative financiers that they can dig up, but do they get near the press of the people or organizations that FOX news demonizes? I have been discouraged by the mainstream medias constant focus on whether Obama had lost control of the message after I had witnessed him stumping for several weeks saying the things that the Media wanted him to say to no avail.Please log in to respond to this comment.
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