They Became a Political Power the Old-Fashioned Way, They Worked For It

Interesting bit from my regular Wednesday e-mail delivery of  The Weekly Spin:

The Center for Media and Democracy's John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton write, "Republican successes have not come quickly or easily. For more than four decades, conservatives have worked to build a network of grassroots organizations and think tanks that formulate and promote their ideas. They are now enjoying the fruits of this long-term investment." The right wing "has simply done a better job than anyone else of organizing from the grassroots up. This isn't because their ideas are more popular or palatable - they aren't - but because the right has been serious and strategic in its commitment to winning and wielding power."

That's already underway in a fashion with John Podesta's fledgling Center For American Progress think tank. But it's early days in this four-decade catch up.

The message, I suppose, is that our republic needs a constancy of nourishment from all points of view and responds not at all to a frantic realization of what  we have come to be as a nation. There are many messages here, from how the civil rights movement died of starvation after King's assassination to the emergence of the radical religious right as a political power.

Time to stop agonizing and get back to the business of democracy---time to get down to the work---the necessary work---it's catch-up time.