June 8, 2007
I Have a Dream, and a Plan (Brent Budowsky)
America stands at the threshold of a new Democratic president, Democratic Congress, FDR-magnitude realignment and a national spirit reminiscent of the New Frontier.
There will be a transformation of American media as powerful as the days when Edward R. Murrow took integrity and quality to broadcast radio and then network television.
By November 2008 there will be a giant mega-move of mutual empowerment and support networks of the progressive Internet, radio and politics that will have extraordinary power to drive ratings, move money and turn out votes.
Follow the numbers. American politics today involves a large majority of Americans who feel disrespected by the power institutions of politics and media.
For every poll about high disapproval for the president and Congress, and declining ratings for fossilized forms of “entertainment,” giant constituencies are waiting for a voice.
If a Democratic president is elected, the Democratic House will maintain its majority and the Senate will include 53 to 60 Democrats because so many Republicans (22) are running for reelection.
JFK was right: The presidency is the center of action in America, and imagine the spirit in January 2009 on Inauguration Day with a Democrat putting his or her hand on the Bible, with rejoicing throughout the free world.
Consider American women, a large majority of voters with a large majority of consumer purchasing power, only beginning to have their rightful place in leadership, and far more supportive than the establishment of other disempowered groups.
Nancy Pelosi is not only the first woman Speaker, she is a Speaker who stands up for African Americans, Hispanics, poor folks, veterans and friends of the Earth far more than the males who preceded her. The Speaker has conquered sexism and will be a historic figure when she breaks free from the chains of a backward Republican presidency.
If Hillary is elected president, of the three most powerful leaders in America, two of them will be women, who will lift up and empower Americans across the spectrum.
Why do the morning and primetime lineups of MSNBC hosts look like a segregated, all-male country club of the 1950s? Stephanie Miller did a sensational job guest hosting the Imus slot and is one smart executive away from becoming the next cable host superstar with success equal to that of Keith Olbermann.
If Barack Obama is elected president, he will not only be the first African American president, he will electrify young people throughout America and around the world, and inaugurate a new spirit of community activism and optimism.
The single radio show that best represents an American mosaic far more powerful than any current cable configuration is the Air Americans, primetime radio with Mark Riley, one of the leading African American hosts, and an ensemble that includes Laura Flanders and Robert Kennedy, among others.
If Al Gore is elected, the world’s leading friend of the Earth will empower Americans, mobilizing the highest aspirations of huge numbers of people, through the newest technologies of politics and media. How ennobling that after eight years of Bush the next president could be a Nobel laureate from the conviction politics of the Loyal Opposition.
The same is true if Edwards, Richardson or any leading Democrat is elected. Ignore the commentariat class that opines about the tactics, trivialities and minutiae of insiderism and focus on the powerful change waves that have already begun.
Think about the rejuvenation of participatory democracy and the huge impact on media that will come with the new order of political change.
Don’t be surprised to see Air American TV, to see Ed Schultz surpass Rush Limbaugh, to see Nova M Radio blossom, and a powerful surge for progressive radio that will migrate to cable television.
While we should take a tough position on the Pravda of the Right, I predict Rupert Murdoch will respond to a Democratic USA by putting tons of money into what will look like a liberal Fox News. If he does not, others will, and he will be left behind.
You will be hearing a lot less about Sean Hannity and a lot more about Randi Rhodes and Amy Goodman.
Do the math: We are on the right side and Republicans are on the wrong side of global warming, where 80 percent of Americans want change. Republicans are in bed with oil companies, who make record profits while they rip off consumers and profit from wars, while homeless vets go hungry and disabled vets are often neglected.
On immigration the Republican Party is being eaten alive from within, torn in half, trapped in their politics of fear, while Hispanics are moving to Democrats in major numbers.
Independents are aligning with Democrats in overwhelming numbers, and this will continue so long as Democrats act like Democrats.
Support the vets — 25 million American vets with a 75 percent voter turnout. Add their families and the number rises above 50 million. Democrats can reclaim our heritage of FDR and JFK as the true party of troops, vets and military families.
I wrote an op-ed in The Hill titled “A national band of brothers and sisters” (June 7) calling for a Soldier Bond, modeled after the war bond of the 1940s, working like the Savings Bond, to raise $500 billion over 20 years for issues that every American should champion.
Lets banish the phrase “scandal of wounded, troops” from America forever and go to this enormous patriotic constituency in support of disabled vets, homeless heroes, wounded troops, post-traumatic stress treatment, military medical research and emergency financial aid.
In our world, no military family should suffer from low pay, poverty or being ripped off by modern-day loan sharks and debt collectors.
What Bush Republicanism, the banner carried by Republicans everywhere, represents is a royalist presidency, which seeks to monopolize power for itself, and royalist economics, with most gains monopolized at the very top and all of the sacrifice borne by everyone else.
The Republican debates are a festival of fear, with candidates competing for who can scare people the most, nuclear bomb Iran first, extend war the longest, demonize enemies the loudest or support torture the strongest, with family values comparable to the six wives of Henry VIII.
Here is our platform: The Sermon on the Mount, where we lead the fight against poverty in America and genocide in Darfur, where we stand for stewardship to leave a better world for our children, where the last shall no longer be last, and the first shoulder their fair share.
Let the partisans of the right and the media megaphone for their game champion their world of endless war and their politics of endless fear.
We stand for a politics where our heritage comes from a president who led his crew in PT-109 and wrote a book called Profiles in Courage. If we stand for courage and they stand for fear, we win that debate in a landslide.
As the sun sets on the Bush years, people will be astonished at the reawakening of the American spirit of optimism, driven by a nobler vision, supported by a vast majority, who want tomorrow to be better than today.
It is time to dream again, to transform the majority of the disillusioned into the majority of the empowered, and begin the next great era of American renewal and reform.
28 Comments
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Ooh, Brent, I can hear the hair rising on the necks of the neocons that will be spewing postings beneath this one. Ouch. But oh so true, and a great post there Brent.
Comment by Chris in NM — June 8, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
So we'll have two women and one squishy guy, Harry Reid? You think that's impressive? You're preaching communism. Shoulder their fair share? The upper brackets pay almost 96% of all income taxes now. How much more you want? All of us who have worked hard to get where we are won't stand for it, and the rest will reject it because they will understand the political implications. I honestly don't see that many Americans eagerly getting in line at this point in our history for their free cheese.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — June 8, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
Brent, the call for the brotherhood and sisterhood of the disposessed is a bit too 100 years ago. The job of the government is to protect the populace from violence and to enforce property rights, not to play social experiments. Anytime the governement plays those experiments someone wind ups losing for a number of well-knonw reasons. Look at history, look at all the "noble" experiments that have been tried. Do we really want to start again?
Comment by Igor R. — June 8, 2007 @ 3:23 pm
Brent,
You need to switch to decaf.
Comment by Henny — June 8, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Damn, even as an Independent I like it. On the female angle the dilution of testosterone with some estrogen in national politics is much needed to get us off the war binge. Personally I favor a resurgence of congressional imperative to counter a too-powerful executive branch, but I don't wish to detract from your inspirational screed which I hope can reach a wider audience. It deserves one.
Wonderful!! Bravo!!
Comment by Don Bacon — June 8, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
Ooh! Was this ever fun to read!! Thank you - we are ready, we can feel it coming, we can feel ourselves restoring ourselves after so long in the wilderness. Home at last, home at last!!!
Comment by banjobailey — June 8, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
Brent, thank you once again. This is a very powerful piece that gives me hope. You have learned well from your mentors over the years, and we are all blessed because of that.
I commented on NoQuarter, on your idea about the bonds… I want to help you get it going, or do whatever I can to help you with the idea. Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is something, anything, that you think I can do to help.n Marlene
Comment by PrchrLady — June 8, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
Nicely worded Brent, I saw PT 109 with my Father one afternoon in 1963, you need an interpreter however to explain what all of that meant to this generation of morons and immigrants
Comment by John Hoctor — June 8, 2007 @ 8:06 pm
That's a beautiful dream, an American goal, and a distinct possibility. Its underlying logic is a different sort of patriotism or civic virtue, one rooted in respect for our fellow citizens (and for all persons, I might add) rather than a swaggering identification with the nation-state. Speed the day!
Comment by Jason Opal — June 9, 2007 @ 7:21 am
Budowski you mentioned that we are a year ahead of schedule on the pres campaign trail and that Obamma, Hillary and Edwards will have a chance to show their true colors as primary day approaches. My point is don't count out Kucinich.
more … http://www.airamerica.com/airamericans/node/2/107#comment-107
mp3
http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/lofiversion/index.php/t113545.html
Comment by singsing — June 9, 2007 @ 9:49 am
I would surely wish and hope everything you say will come true. We have won some big fights, but two clouds sit on the horizon.
The first is the GOP hold on the power structures and disrespect for anything but their own power. They have never had any close ties to reality, and will use any sort of smoke to cover final takeover.
It has happened in many places and a power grab at the moment of popular defeat cannot be ruled out. There are also diehard wingers and Theocrats who would see such a defeat as a call to arms, and some like Blackwater have a lot of arms.
The other cloud is that the Democrats also have subversives who are socially liberal, but still deeply Corporatist economically, and without a strong fight on that front, we will be no better off than Zambia in recovering from our looted pain.
I only hope that all them chickens you are counting are not crows.
Comment by Freedem — June 9, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
One subject that Brent overlooks in his article, is the removal of "personhood" from the corporations. Until we expunge these predators from our political system — WE CANNOT SURVIVE AS A DEMOCRATIC NATION! Through a fluke ruling by the Supreme Court in the last part of the nineteenth century, we have been losing control of this country to artificially created entities that show NO mercy in their savage and merciless mandate for profits. Until we tame this internationally corrupting force, we can make NO headway toward true growth and freedom.
Comment by Terry Sneller — June 9, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
While the right-wing echo chambers continue to hustle patent baldness remedies, swedish mattresses and vacuum cleaners, we on the left are searching for the new way forward with media.
It's not just Air America or NovaM, both of whom are working hard in the arena of "traditional" terrestrial radio.
In an era where the internet is already the preferred media delivery device for younger Americans, projects like The Head-On Radio Network (The H.O.R.N.) are truly revolutionary. The H.O.R.N. has no interest in anything but the internet. It is on the internet that we will garner support and provide a gathering place for the people who will be running this country in another thirty years.
Grassroots progressivism and passionate determination are at the center of what is making more and more folks turn to The H.O.R.N. No salaries for the talent. No salaries for the production team. No massive infusions of investor capital. No begging for donations, subscriptions or memberships. Nothing but unfettered freedom and a passion for facts and honest dialogue. Most H.O.R.N. hosts have "day jobs," and do what they do on the H.O.R.N. because they know how desperately America needs dialogue that's not polluted with ads for Kaopectate and Fixodent and Ovaltine and "BUY GOLD NOW" and all the other miserable crap that keeps dialogue from truly developing in the commercial radio model.
Want diversity? Spend time listening to the H.O.R.N. Where else can literally ANYONE take as much time as necessary to get his or her point across? Black, white, muslim, jew, christian, atheist, agnostic, man, woman, gay or straight. All are welcome. And no one gets hustled off the air.
Want a fairness doctrine? The H.O.R.N. is its living embodiment. Every single person who calls the H.O.R.N. is treated like the expert they are, and afforded all the time they need to make their contribution to the restoration of the American discussion.
Brent, you're right: there is a media revolution coming. Some of it will happen on traditional terrestrial radio. The biggest part, however, will happen on the internet, where The H.O.R.N. has already carved out a niche and invited America to sit and talk for a spell.
Feel free to check out the H.O.R.N. at our website, http://www.headonradionetwork.com, or at iTunes Radio, Reciva.com or Phonostar.com
Everybody's welcome!
The revolution will not be televised, but it will be broadcast. It already is. At The H.O.R.N.
Comment by Bob Kincaid — June 9, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
I read Budowsky almost daily and this is the first time he has made my eyes well up rather than clinch my fist in solidarity. Our nation is screaming for leadership that will begin to show us the way out of the abyss this administation continues to lead us toward. I don't think there is a Republican war-mongering candidate that can hold a candle to any of those that represent the democratic party and I believe the average voter is beginning to recognize the differences. The nation and the world is begging for sanity, diplomacy and vision.
m. cooper
los angeles
Comment by marta cooper — June 9, 2007 @ 8:58 pm
I have the same dream, and common sense tells me this dream will come true.
Sooner than the neocons think!
Comment by Angela — June 9, 2007 @ 10:42 pm
marta cooper, you can't even buy a cup of coffee with government sanity, diplomacy, and vision. Don't believe in the government, believe in the individual!
Comment by Igor R. — June 10, 2007 @ 1:01 am
Good article, but I believe, just like in the late 20s and early 30s, it will take an economic meltdown to effect this sort of sweeping change. Thnaks to Bush, that is in progress, however, as our dollar drops and the spendable income of the middle class deteriorates. We're right on the precipice of economic disaster and Junior and the Fantasy Baseball Team neocons have no idea how to stop it, nor do they seem inclined to; as long as the profits are rolling in, why end a good thing by imposing restrictions on our over-heating economy? Reaganomics didn't work and Bushonomis is even worse. A rising tide, say of Katrina strength, sometimes sinks yachts along with the skiffs.
I only hope we can find an FDR to step in and resurrect our economy.
"Stephanie Miller did a sensational job guest hosting the Imus slot and is one smart executive away from becoming the next cable host superstar with success equal to that of Keith Olbermann."
The woman is as sharp as Bush isn't, and I was also surprised that Dan Abrams, MSNBC's general manager, didn't give her that morning slot. One can only hope she's being kept in reserve to take over Joe Scarborough's time period when the former GOP congressman's contract runs out.
"Don’t be surprised to see Air American TV, to see Ed Schultz surpass Rush Limbaugh, to see Nova M Radio blossom, and a powerful surge for progressive radio that will migrate to cable television."
In some markets, Randi Rhodes is already eclipsing Rush, Sean and Billo. The tide has turned and people are as fed up with right-wing talk as they are of the Little King's empty blather.
"The job of the government is to protect the populace from violence and to enforce property rights, not to play social experiments. Anytime the governement plays those experiments someone wind ups losing for a number of well-knonw reasons. Look at history, look at all the “noble” experiments that have been tried. Do we really want to start again?"
Igor, the country was founded as a commonweath; in other words, a government that would do the most good for the most people. Part of that is national defense, part of that is protecting property rights, but we are also guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all of which is pretty hard to achieve if you are sick, out of work, or being illegally confined without due process.
Do you seriously think such great humanitarians as Franklin, Jefferson and Paine, if they were alive today, would deny their fellow citizens the best available health care or a job at a reasonable wage? Do you really think they would endorse confining another human being without a fair and open trial by a judge and jury?
If you do, you didn't bother to read the words of the great social experiment that is the Constitution and Bill of Rights, an extremely radical progressive document of its time. For that matter, it's still an extremely radical progressive document, at least to some Americans who wear an 'R' after their names.
Past generations shed blood to keep that radical social experiment going, not to hand the reins to a Yale legacy student with more gumption than brains and his Machiavellian campaign manager.
Terry Sneller, you're absolutely right, but the Supreme Court never made corporations 'people' in the first place. Some enterprising law clerk to an SC justice snuck the language into a decision, but it was never voted on by the SC — it was simply an addendum with no force in law. It's tragic that generations have repeated this myth. Corporations have never had the same rights as individuals — most Americans and politicans just believe that, and the corporations self-servingly encourage them to think it's true. Corporations still only have the rights set out in their charters, although, admittedly, the charters are much more 'elastic' then they used to be.
Comment by RS Janes — June 10, 2007 @ 7:36 am
Well, the title is correct. Dream on little man
Comment by Ron — June 10, 2007 @ 8:20 am
All the dreamers here are just that. They are too lazy to earn it themselves, so they can't wait for sleazy socialists to get elected so they can steal it for them.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — June 10, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
You know if you want to live out your "dream" you may want to move to Europe; there are plenty of social democracies for you to espouse and enact your heart-warming, magnanimous,"compassionate" schemes that are void of reason and that suppress the natural conscience. Thank God (the real and living one; not the contrived non-offensive, multi-cultural, non-descript being created by feel gooders) that this is a Federal Republic where the rule of law, common sense, and sovereignty don't waiver to the whims of "what seems right to me." Thanks to the same God that right and wrong do not change and that they are not left up to personal sentiment or the will of an uneducated mob.
I guess sanity is relative when you all are dreaming. Thankfully, that is the only place where this nightmare you are wishing for will come true. Hillary will be trounced…sorry, that was your wake up call…go ahead and hit snooze if like; typical hypenated-American liberals, reality is too hard to face.
Comment by runfredrun — June 10, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
runfredrun said:
"Thank God (the real and living one; not the contrived non-offensive, multi-cultural, non-descript being created by feel gooders) that this is a Federal Republic where the rule of law, common sense, and sovereignty don’t waiver to the whims of “what seems right to me.” Thanks to the same God that right and wrong do not change and that they are not left up to personal sentiment or the will of an uneducated mob.
I guess sanity is relative when you all are dreaming."
Wow! Almost made me shoot coffee out my nose! That's the funniest thing I've read in ages!
Do you mean the Gawd that Falwell said hit us on 9/11 instead of the Turrists?
Do you mean that rule of law where the whims of one tiny-minded, bug-eyed, jug-eared lout can overall literally seven centuries of legal precedent and destrouy habeas corpus?
Twenty-percenters! What a laugh riot!
Comment by Bob Kincaid — June 10, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
we gonna chase them crazy baldheads out of town!
Comment by Levon — June 11, 2007 @ 10:59 am
I'd much rather live in Brent's "dream" than in the nightmare of the last six years.
Comment by J. D. Bush — June 11, 2007 @ 11:04 am
sounds like you might have hit a nerve from the comments of the wingnut trolls on this site.
"so long as Democrats act like Democrats." and not corporate lapdogs. there's the rub. let's hope CREW can keep them honest.
Comment by foghorn leghorn — June 11, 2007 @ 11:13 am
Yeah, it's honest to steal wealth from people so you can play "Queen for a Day" and hand out money like appliances. Pretty funny.
http://www.examiner.com/blogs/Polar_Z
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — June 11, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
Robert, I see Brent's 'Dream' has crawled up under your skin a bit. How does it feel to be margenalized to the lunatic fringe? You obviously have supported the Failure in Chief. Dream this; When President Hillary Clinton is sworn in, we liberals are all going on welfare, we're gonna raise your taxes, and start socializing medicine and advocating peace. Are you ready?
Comment by Chris in NM — June 11, 2007 @ 6:46 pm
"Yeah, it’s honest to steal wealth from people so you can play “Queen for a Day” and hand out money like appliances. Pretty funny."
You mean like Bush handing out our taxpayer dollars to his campaign contributors with all of those no-bid contracts in Iraq and elsewhere? Somehow, I don't find that funny at all.
Does it bother you that $21 billion of our money is missing in Iraq and no one is held accountable? That would have paid for a lot of rehab treatment for the handicapped vets Bush's war has caused. I also don't find that very funny.
I'd much rather have my tax money go to pay to help an American down on his or her luck than further fatten the profit margins of already wealthy multi-national corporations like Halliburton. (You do know that all-American Halliburton is moving its HQ to Dubai? The tiny Arab nation has no corporate tax and doesn't extradite white-collar criminals. But perhaps they're just moving there for the climate.)
Comment by RS Janes — June 12, 2007 @ 7:30 am
Chris you had claimed to be an old-time conservative. Now you're offering a self-mocking liberal nightmare and calling yourself a liberal. Do you stand for anything at all?
Comment by Igor R. — June 13, 2007 @ 8:46 pm