Politics as the Ultimate Infotainment

Remember the 2008 election?  We progressives had the political equivalent of World War II on our hands.  The humble, but passionate, middle class backed their 5–star general, Barack Obama, and prevailed over the fascist tyranny of the GOP, their tax breaks for the wealthy, the theory of the “Unitary Executive”, and torture.  We knew that the troops would finally come home from the misadventures in the Middle East that Bush set in motion to gain power over the oil reserves there.

Then, after fighting so hard, we who campaigned for Barack Obama sat back to watch the United States right itself, to have Guantanamo closed, to witness the end of extraordinary rendition, black ops sites, violation of the Constitution, and the restoration of the economy that Bush and the GOP had mangled so severely.  The power of the banks was to come to an end, mortgages “under water” would be re-negotiated, and the middle class would be represented in the White House and in Congress.  No longer would we have to ask honorable soldiers in uniform to lie about their sexual preferences, and health care for all was a goal that would put us on par with the other industrialized nations on the planet.  Lobbyists lurking in the shadows would no longer be able to buy support for the corporation’s interests over that of the American citizens.

The Huffington Post and the Daily Kos were staples of the progressive’s diet.  You could track the blow-by-blow status of even state races and watch the first video images of the latest aspiring candidate’s verbal miscue.  The progressive could gather all of the information available throughout the day, and then watch the news recapped by Keith Olbermann and later, Rachel Maddow.  It was satisfying to see the stories called out that one had read about hours earlier in the day.

Now that the mid-terms are approaching, it is singularly bizarre to see the political landscape now compared to what it was in 2008.  We have the Tea Party candidates who are trying to move the Overton Window so far right, that even Republicans are not conservative enough for them.  We have seen the previously liberal Democratic Party become a bastion of conservatism, accepting corporate bribes from lobbyists in order to maintain their re-election war chests, without even an apology to loyal liberals and progressives.  Political ads on TV and the Internet are all negative, all the time.  They are such obvious fabrications that anyone within their right mind will change the channel, mute the volume, or, if the viewer is using a DVR, simply fast-forward past the lying claims.  These negative ads are being run by Republican and Democrat candidates alike.

Progressives have been repeatedly denigrated by the White House and its staff.  We’ve been called “F—-ing retarded” and the “Professional Left”.  We are the ones who got Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress elected, but we apparently are not the ones who will get them re-elected.  Corporations will supposedly do that for them, not millions of $100 donors who believe in their candidates.

President Obama and Congress have been anxious to throw off the mantle of “Progressive Heroes”, and now pretend that they never supported liberal and progressive ideals.  To not do so would risk offending their corporate benefactors.  No, these politicians never knew us.  They never talked about the public option in health care, ending “too big to fail” banks, restoring sanity to Wall Street, ending DADT, or ending corporate bailouts.  Instead, the headlines today are that Obama opposes halting the steady stream of foreclosures, even though these have been authorized fraudulently, without the banks even reading the paperwork associated with the foreclosures.

With such a massive failure of liberal and progressive interests to influence Democratic candidates, the political media has recognized that there are no stories of progressive champions that they might cover.  The result has been that the media itself has been the story the majority of the time.  Brian Kilmeade, from Fox, says that all terrorists are Muslims.  Bill O’Reilly rails against all Muslims because “Muslims killed us on 9–11”.  Glenn Beck stokes hatred against progressives and the result is an armed gunman ready to take out the CEO’s of charitable organizations.  Dylan Ratigan, on MSNBC, rants about the horrible people at Fox News.  This is just the past 24 hours.

So, do we have anyone in the main-stream media giving us daily reports on the war in Afghanistan?  No, but we have commentary on what Michelle Obama wore yesterday, and the latest on what Katy Perry said about Russell Brand.  Do we know how Iraq is going?  How is the “War on Terror” progressing?  When are the troops coming home?  When is Guantanamo going to be closed? What are we doing about the economy, America’s failing infrastructure, and the loss of the Middle Class?

Reading the Daily Kos is just an adventure in “pie fights”.  Those that think you should not ever criticize Barack Obama (because it emboldens the enemy) do not realize that they have a GOP mindset, and stage pitched battles with those who believe there are things not going as they should in this country, and that Obama must be called out on his broken campaign promises.  Ideological purity, keeping silent about what your leaders are doing despite their destructive decisions, and fearing criticism are all traits of the right-wing authoritarian personalities of the GOP and the Tea Party.  Apparently, we have left-wing authoritarian Democrats as well.

The Huffington Post has devolved into a slightly-politically-tinged “National Enquirer”, a tabloid magazine that offers nothing about engaging the issues, motivating people to take up causes, or where we stand in pursuing progressive ideals, and who is standing in the way.  Instead, these are the headlines from the front page of HuffPo just this morning:

‘Acid Christ’: Ken Kesey, Psychedelics And The King Of Counter Culture
12 Unforgettable Skydives Around The World
13 Best Cities for Jobs
13 Unreal Cliffs.. Vintage Vegas Weekend.. Montana Mountain Biking.. Berlin’s Festival Of Lights
AP ENTERPRISE: Tea Party Still As Strong As Ever
An Enemy of the People: Texas Money vs. Clean Air
Are You Texting Into A Toilet? Just Count The Germs
Arianna Guest Stars On ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’
Arianna Huffington: Choking on Its Contrived Objectivity, the Media Refuses to Take a Stand on Sanity
Arianna Slams Wall Street On ‘Parker Spitzer’: They’re Not Making Things, They’re Making Things Up
Arianna Talks Sarah Palin’s New Reality Show
Baking For Good Founder: Talk To As Many People As You Can
Bigotry and Islam: Bill O’Reilly’s at it again
Boomers on Retirement: ‘Hell No, We Won’t Go!’
Bryson On Colbert: How Did People Have Sex When Everyone Lived In The Same Room?
Capitalism Would Have Killed the Chilean Miners: A Reply to Mr. Henninger
Christina Hendricks’ ‘Misfit’ High School Look Revealed!
Crashing the Tea Party Joyride
Does Stress Make You Ugly?
Don’t Drink & Tweet! The Funniest Drunk Tweets By Comedians
Dylan Ratigan BLASTS O’Reilly, ‘War On Islam’
Feeling Abandoned, Gulf Coast Residents Issue a Call to Arms
Food Addiction: Could It Explain Why 70 Percent of Americans Are Fat?
For GOP, Tea Party Candidates Help — And Hurt
Former Police Chief Strikes Back At U.S. Attorney General
Fox Blackout Threatens MLB Playoffs Broadcasts
General Petraeus, Proconsul of Fantasyland
General: Clinton Aide Suggested Letting U.S. Plane Be Shot Down To Provoke War With Iraq
Grade Three: Rise of The Order
Homophobia Is Itself an Abomination
How Religion Is Killing Our Most Vulnerable Youth
How to Earn $900,000 an Hour While Unemployment Soars
If Pop Stars Were Breakfast Cereals: A Delicious Analysis
Iran’s “Soft Power” Increasingly Checks U.S. Power
Josephine Baker, A True Style Icon
Move Your Mortgage, Not Just Your Money, to a Community Bank
New Rule: If a Woman Rejects Your First Dozen Advances, Don’t Send Her a Picture of Your Penis
Nick Cannon: Chelsea Handler Is Angry, Ugly White Trash
Nothing and Everything — What Consumers Expect from the New Normal
Obama’s Escalating Robot War in Pakistan Is Making a Terror Attack More Likely
Obama: End Tax Breaks To Stop Overseas Hiring
Palin Takes Cheap Shot at Michelle Obama
Palin’s Odd New Attack.. Valerie Jarrett Sorry.. Obama Streaker’s Encore.. Rand Paul Blasted
Putting Food First
Rangers Suffer MELTDOWN Against Yankees In ALCS Game 1
The “Imbecile” and “Moron” Responds: On the Freedoms of Remix Creators
The Bogus Demand to Recognize Israel “As a Jewish State”
The Washington Post’s TARP Mythmaking, A Recent History
Tides Foundation CEO To Fox News Advertisers: Drop Glenn Beck Or Have Blood On Your Hands
To Boost Ratings, CNN Proposes Putting Miners Back One by One
Top Bank Regulator Doesn’t Believe Consumers Harmed By Foreclosure Fraud Scandal
U.S. midterms: Political freak show
UN Council Told to Act Against Rapists in Congo
Uncovering Your Inner Wisdom
Unhelpful Provocations
Wall Street Hopes to Use Republicans to Re-Purchase Congress
We Will Enforce Pot Ban Even If California Legalizes It
Why Our Children Should Reach for the Stars
Wrap Party: Freund’s The Mummy and Baba Ghanoush
YOUR Coming Out Stories… Does Stress Make You Ugly?

There’s a veritable cornucopia of political wisdom wrapped in those stories.  No, not really.  The truth is, without any “good guys” vs “bad guys”, without anyone fighting for our side as progressives, the media in its entirety is writing stories about how people perform in the media and about the media commentators themselves.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walking off of the set of “The View” when Bill O’Reilly started spouting bigoted hate speech.  But in reality, I could get as much benefit from watching cute kitten videos on You Tube.  It is like our news media has embraced Twitter with no more than 140 characters of value in any significant story.

Are we ever going to walk away from this political infotainment and actually address real issues again?  I don’t think so, because politics and the media that covers politics have become the ultimate reality show, where the characters themselves are the true focus of interest, not what they are accomplishing.