John Wight dissects the recent Chancellor’s debate in Britain saying their primary difference is the Tories want to appease the financial sector and screw everyone else while Labour wants to continue the stimulus a bit longer – then appease the financial sector. Sounds like Tories / Republicans vs Labour / Democrats to me, playing hard cop / soft cop.
The choice offered the electorate in this election is effectively Hobson’s Choice between two parties committed to the same free market nostrums that have wrought so much damage and led directly to the current recession. If after 13 years in office the best a Labour government can do for working class people is institutionalise low pay and poverty with the passage of the minimum wage, introduce the indignity of means tested benefits such as working tax credits, whilst ensuring that the rich have never had it so good, then we have just endured one of the most regressive periods in our history.
This helps to explain The disappeared left flank that Talk Left has been blogging about. Where has progressive activism gone? Sucked back into the black hole that is the Democratic Party, that’s where Meanwhile, other progressives and liberals are too timid to challenge Obama on the war and his continual bailing out the banksters because, y’know, he’s supposed to be one of us. So they remain silent.
Why is conservative media crushing liberal media?
In the light of the recent ratings news–CNN implodes, FOX soars, MSNBC does okay–it’s worth asking a question that no one seems to have a good answer to:
Why is conservative media crushing liberal media?
It’s crushing it in ratings, crushing it in profits, crushing it in influence.
a) It offers a better story, has a narrative, tells you where it stands.
b) Conservatives don’t insult the white working class, they court them. Liberals too often think it’s cute to call them trailer trash. Then wonders why they are hostile.
c) At the congressional level, Democrats mostly agree with Republicans on major issues, like the wars and bailouts. But they can’t say that. Thus, they have little with which to differentiate themselves from Republicans.