FDL Late Nite: I'm Keeping The Mouth
Digby has one of those must-read Digby posts that pulls together so many things that everyone is feeling but nobody else knows how to express:
The right has mau-maued the press by going aggressively in their face with everything they've got every time they write a word that can cause them trouble. And back in the day, they carefully fed the press the kind of tabloid scandal stories that made good copy and caused ratings to rise. They work this stuff from all angles.Every time I look at my Technorati links these days there are a lot more wingnuts than there used to be. You're never quite sure what they're saying since it's always misspelled but you're pretty sure it's supposed to be insulting, in that sort of ham-fisted, remedial, back-of-the-class monobrow humor that finds its apex in the word "booger." Anyway, these are the people who are usually castigating me for my awful language and doing their part to spread the meme "sandpaper snatch" such that Kate O'Beirne will most assuredly never walk into a room wearing taffeta again.
We can be nice liberals and continue that highly successful strategy (for them) or we, the great unwashed blogosphere, can mau-mau the media into being accountable for what they write. It isn't pretty --- they are calling us nasty names and everything. But for the first time in memory we actually have a vehicle for pushing back from the other side and we literally represent millions of people who are willing to take the time to join the fight. That's powerful juju.
Over time, they will see that we are actually giving them an excuse to lean the other way. When Karl calls up Len, he can say that liberals are on the rampage --- what does he want him to do, ignore his own readers? We liberal bloggers and readers can produce some ballast on the other side so that the press has a way to resist the wingnuts.
This is a huge change and everyone involved is going to resist. Tonight they were talking about the "angry left on both coasts" on Lehrer, as if we aren't real Americans again. That's nonsense, as we know. My traffic comes from all over the country, much of it deep in the heart of Red America. They don't know what they are dealing with.
But something is happening, I'm not sure what but things are changing rather quickly and I really don't know why. Witness this article in the WaPo, where the Pool Boy almost gets it. Except I couldn't get anyone interested in the "draft Murtha" thing, I think 49 people showed up and commented at the DU board, nobody was into it. When I woke up the next morning I found out they'd chosen Kaine for the SOTU rebuttal before I made my way over to Kos and saw he'd linked to it, and I half figured the Democratic leadership had seen it there and it had forced their hand. But there was no way to be sure. How that rated an article in the WaPo is a bit of a mystery.
And then there is this galloping dose of bullshit:
"The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. "The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left."I'm going to let James field this one (from the comments):
If your name is accompanied by the words "Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign," then you deserve a warm glass of shut-the-hell-up.Until their bid to turn us all into cash machines and vault Joe Biden into the Democratic candidacy actually succeeds (at which point I will give up and open a vein) we'll be here every night doing our FDL Late Nite action thing.
It's like quoting Axl Rose for tips on keeping the band together.
Tonight those fine folks at the Chris Matthews blog want you to contact your local Toyota dealer and tell them about the feeling Chris is giving you. I got emails from people who said Intuit called them personally after last night's action, and we hear Verizon has hired someone to watch the traffic on the Matthews blog so give 'em a few hits too.
You can also contact:
ToyotaI feel like I should end it all with "fuck something" just so nobody in wingnutia is disappointed. It makes them all so happy.
- Don Esmond, Senior VP
tel. 310-468-5212
fax 310-468-7846
don_esmond@toyota.com
- Dennis Cuneo, Senior VP
tel. 212-223-0303
fax 212-750-3564
dennis_cuneo@tma.toyota.com
- Ms Pat Pineda, VP Ext. Affairs
pat_pineda@tma.toyota.com
- Main #: 800-331-4331
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posted by Jane Hamsher @ 1/27/2006 11:06:00 PM
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