Getting 1,000,000 People to Join your Facebook Cause Doesn't Equal a Protest

One thing I have heard repeatedly during the last year -- as the economy tanked, as people lost their homes and jobs, as the Republicans' obstructionism watered down the health care debate -- was, "Where are all the protests?  Why aren't the progressives taking to the streets?" 

Yeah, where were we?  Protesting has been the mainstay of the left since the 1960's.  Heck, as recently as the 90's we were out there with our "No Blood for Oil" signs.  But where are we now?  Why, when so many critical issues are coming to a head, are we silent?

At first I thought that maybe we had just gotten too old as a generation -- that most of the GenXers (who carried on the mantle of the 60's hippies) had reached middle age and retired their protest signs.  And that the Millenials were just too damned optimistic and naive to protest (and they are). 

But that's not it.  The real culprit is the rise of the internet and social networking.  Back in the old days, the only way to commune with fellow lefties en masse was to attend a protest or gathering of some sort.  These days?  Join a Facebook group called "Get Rush Limbaugh to Leave the Country" or "1,000,000 Facebookers against Iraq."  And that's it.  Join, and you're done -- you've felt like you've added a voice.  But to what?

Some of these groups actually have some meat behind them -- if the pages are sponsored by a specific non-profit.  But have you really taken a close look?  Most are nothing more than a page created by someone who cares about the issue -- which is admirable, but it isn't going to create any measurable result.  Obama isn't going to be getting any morning briefs about Facebook pages.  Well, he might -- but I think 1,000,000 angry progressives standing on the Mall would have a greater impact.

Meanwhile, the Tea Baggers --- I mean, Tea Partiers -- are getting the jump on us.  They actually have rallies (lame as they are).  Which gives the "news" media something to cover.  Now of course I don't expect Faux News to cover a progressive rally -- except perhaps to make it look like it was an angry socialist mob coming to kill granny with their death squad -- but maybe the local news stations would.  And it would make us visible to others. 

But we don't.  Somehow we've been brainwashed into inaction.  Into thinking that joining some doofy group online means anything.  It's a false sense of security, and we shouldn't allow ourselves to be mollified by it any longer. 

Be loud, be proud, and let's show those Tea Party nutters what a REAL protest is like!

Left Wing, My Eye!

I am really, really tired of hearing right-wing nutjobs call Obama and other elected Democrats "liberals."  I am tired of hearing tales of the mythical Liberal Media, which allegedly brainwashes us with left-wing bilge.  And today, I heard the coups de gras: some dorkwad (O'Reilly or Hannity, I think) called Obama a "left wing radical."

Please.  Let's just take a moment people.  Left wing radical, seriously?  Now, I know that the people spewing this crap day in and day out know darn well what a REAL lefty radical is like.  But the poor, ignorant masses don't.  They lap up this sh*t like a kitten drinks milk.  And then they vote these idiots into office because they are afraid of the "crazy muslim black man" running our country. 

What's the matter with Kansas?  I'll tell you what: they believe this baloney, and they would soil their drawers to discover what a REAL leftist radical wants. 

Of course, they would soil themselves because they have been brainwashed (by corporate, not liberal media) to be very, very afraid of people like me.  People who believe in the common good, who understand that taxes are the way a society pays for that common good.  People who actually read books instead of watching non-reality tv night after night.  (Do we really care what happens to the Gosselins?  Really?)

Knowing many people who actually live in Kansas (and others who fit the bill), I believe that they just don't know better.  That they are not skeptical enough -- either by nature or upbringing -- to distrust what they see on tv.  After all, CNN seems pretty reputable, right?  Heck, even I used to think O'Reilly wasn't so bad --- until I discovered what a lying liar he is.  But one only learns such things by reading dark, evil, lefty literature.

But I digress.  My beef is not with the masses.  It's with the talking heads who repeat this same boring mantra day in and day out.  I am tired of hearing Obama's centrist ideas being called radical.  I guess you could say I'm feeling a bit left out.  After all, if Obama is a lefty radical, what then am I?

This is why I've decided to take up the mantle for true left wing radicals.  No, I'm not going to accept the current Senate health care bill because "it's better than nothing."  No, I'm not going to sit quietly as we continue to bail out Wall Street.  No, I'm not going to let the O'Lie-lly's (TM Al Franken) of the world defame my good lefty name.  I believe in calling a spade a spade.  Obama and most of the current Democrats are nowhere near being Left.  They are maybe, just maybe, a tad left of center.  That's all.

You wanna see true Left?  Listen to Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich.  Read yourself some Marx.  Watch some Michael Moore movies (Sicko, anyone?).  These are the Real Lefties.  And they are proud to say it.

Don't believe me?  Well of course, why should you.  I'm just another Lefty Radical myself.  But Thom Hartmann is the most reasonable, balanced human being I have ever encountered, and I have heard him repeatedly assert that "there is no Left in America today."  Look up today's broadcast in fact, and you will hear him say just that! 

I can agree to disagree.  I can respect a True Conservative's ideas (hail George Will and Andrew Sullivan).  But I cannot tolerate the bigoted, bullshit scare tactics of the Right Wing Lunatics any longer.  They aren't even the fringe any more;  they are the mainstream of the Republican Party.  Sad, but true.  I dearly hope the True Conservatives splinter off and form their own party.  Because the teabaggers aren't doing anybody any favors.  Oh, except the rich, Wall Street fat cat corporate businessmen.  You think Glenn Beck, who lives in a gated community, gives a shit about you, worker bee of the American blue-collar "middle" class?  Think again.

All I ask is that we get real.  Let's discuss reality, not this fantasy world Fox News has created for us.  Obama is not a left-wing radical.  From where the teabaggers stand, sure, he's pretty left.  But just because they are far out in right field doesn't make the Center left.  In fact, most of Obama's decisions thus far have only supported right-wing corporatist ideals (anyone remember the Wall Street bailout of last year?  Anyone know anyone who's benefited?  No?  Well gee, I do: the mega banks have posted record profits since then).

So please: can we stop listening to crazy teabaggers (btw, the lamest name ever -- don't they know what it means?) and start listening to actual facts?  F-A-C-T-S.  Google it.