President Obama reminds me of a college professor who intentionally laid out a line that he wanted us to disagree with.
When we sat there like lumps, the prof would smile and say, "Well, you missed that one! You've got to do better and react, you guys."
Most people are busy with their lives, especially now with the economy stressing them. So it is not unusual that most of them do not react to what is going on.
What if the President only changed from using the term "enemy combatant" but did nothing to change those folks' actual circumstances?
I can see Professor Obama looking around the room, especially at the ones who got "A" in "progressivism" and "activism" classes.
"Come on, you guys. Fight me on this! How am I going to show that policy stinks to the other side who want me to continue holding onto the powers of the Bush administration?"
Looking over our heads at the press corps behind us, he asks, "Are you going to leave it up to Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Keith Olberman to be the only ones to notice and respond?"
Even if I am wrong about what the President is doing on some of these new policies that change little or nothing, we still have to react and then find a channel to let him and the rest of Washington know we will not tolerate lousy policy.
If he is being the teacher, then he is preparing us for his successor who may not be as open to our concerns and insights so we are effective in standing up for what is right . . . within the system.
The "ditto heads" get a lot of help to shower Washington with their opinions. We better learn how to do that or the wingnuts will appear to outnumber us and encourage the nay sayers and power grabbers to keep it up, to the detriment of our country.
I find Michael Moore's website offering routes to sign petitions. Moveon.org and groups like IAVA for veterans issues often provide a chance to do a timely response to things we are concerned about.
There are a lot of groups that will want and get your e-mail address once you start signing petitions. In many cases, that's a good thing. You will then have a better chance of being able to let Congress or the President know where you stand.
Better get used to it. If we don't want corporations and know-nothings to retake our government, we have to be involved.
Holler if you want to know more websites or have some good suggestions so we can link for better responding.
Showing posts with label Rush Limbaugh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rush Limbaugh. Show all posts
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Rush Rules
The media, especially the liberal/progressive folks, have been aware that so many folks listen to Rush Limbaugh every day that Rush himself is really the leader of the Republican Party, no matter who the GOP leaders chose (Michael Steele).
What I'm not hearing is that Rush's voice pounding away at the stimulus bill for weeks has led to undermining public and congressional support. At one point, a progressive group sent out a note asking their supporters to write to Congress immediately because the conservatives were were sending letters at a rate of 100 to 1 over progressives.
The President went out into the country this week to counter the impression that the opposition to his bill is the majority.
And President Obama was successful.
But will he have to do that every time he needs to get people behind his program?
The reality is that conservative talk radio covers so many people in the U. S. and is not countered with facts by the rest of the media. Even normally moderate to liberal folks have him on their radios because there isn't that much else to listen to. Most radio stations are owned by wealthy conservatives who want their point of view to dominate.
But now we have a new problem. Analogue TV ends and the little boxes to translate digital TV signals won't work in many (most?) places in the U. S.
That means the only voices heard by a lot of folks will be that of Rush and his like. Even the main stream media won't reach them any more.
President Obama mentioned concern about extending analogue broadcasting until mid-June. By then the severity of the problems with the small black boxes will be much more widely known. Meanwhile, AM radio will be alive and well.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
What I'm not hearing is that Rush's voice pounding away at the stimulus bill for weeks has led to undermining public and congressional support. At one point, a progressive group sent out a note asking their supporters to write to Congress immediately because the conservatives were were sending letters at a rate of 100 to 1 over progressives.
The President went out into the country this week to counter the impression that the opposition to his bill is the majority.
And President Obama was successful.
But will he have to do that every time he needs to get people behind his program?
The reality is that conservative talk radio covers so many people in the U. S. and is not countered with facts by the rest of the media. Even normally moderate to liberal folks have him on their radios because there isn't that much else to listen to. Most radio stations are owned by wealthy conservatives who want their point of view to dominate.
But now we have a new problem. Analogue TV ends and the little boxes to translate digital TV signals won't work in many (most?) places in the U. S.
That means the only voices heard by a lot of folks will be that of Rush and his like. Even the main stream media won't reach them any more.
President Obama mentioned concern about extending analogue broadcasting until mid-June. By then the severity of the problems with the small black boxes will be much more widely known. Meanwhile, AM radio will be alive and well.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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