Friday, June 22, 2007
No Respect. No Respect
E.J. Dionne wonders why the democrats can't get any respect. The big issues like the war and health care finds the larger public agreeing with progressive ideas, yet at the same time there is still a stigma attached to the word liberal.
My quick answer is a persistent Orwellian framing of the word liberal by the right has been quite successful. Since the 1980's really, conservatives have been saying liberal like one would say convicted of setting puppies on fire. It does get into the subconscious through repetition.
The liberal media well isn't. They see the "popularity" of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and decide to keep their powder dry even as the arguments about what liberalism mean bear no relationship to reality.
If radio and tv ratings had any co-relation to reality, why didn't the Republicans win once again in 2006? The war became unpopular, people were worried about the economy, health care. Yet Fox News kept dominating the cable news ratings with averages of one million viewers. They kept telling these viewers how evil liberals were, yet the American public voted for democrats.
This is a rhetorical question by the way.
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