Who Will Win? - Soros Vs. Scaife: Rise of the Progressive Infrastructure

[freeandbrave]

Heavy on my mind since the coup of 2000 is the right wing's overwhelming dominance in the propaganda wars. Their reach extends to the deepest crevices of civilization and includes but is not limited to the following:

Right-wing radio (Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, etc.)
Fox News
Think Tanks (Hoover, Heritage, Cato, CFG)
Newspapers (Washington Times, WSJ, NY Post)
Pundits (Everybody)
News services (UPI and Talon)
Magazines (NRO, Weekly Standard)
The web (Drudge, Newsmax, WorldNetDaily, World Tribune, FreeRepublic)

The question is, what the Hell have we done to combat this?? I think I found the answer.

Here’s a few outstanding articles targeting this subject. They give a great state of the battle for propaganda dominance and I recommend you read them all in thier entirety. They’re pretty quick reads.

1) Making Headway to a Progressive Infrastructure: Gives a great appraisal of the current Progressive infrastructure and where we might be headed.

Excerpt

Long ago, in an era not long past, there was a political party that went about its business as though it had little with which to concern itself.

Times were prime -- prosperity, peace. That's right...a Democrat was in the White House and all was relatively well.

Then something horrible happened. An opposition propaganda network popped up among the ranks of the cable back-benchers. At first not many thought much of it, but as days passed, its effects began to ripple through the halls of reason -- tearing down walls and upending the foundations of objective reality.

The Democrats ignored the scofflaw at first, dismissing it to the bunks of juvenile detention.

It was not long, however, that the scofflaw blossomed into a full-fledged felon, persistently skirting the standards of decency and morality. It was then, and only then, that the Democrats recognized that the felon was not alone. In fact it was but a single element within a highly organized gang of societal usurpers -- a gang that perpetrated crimes without punishment or accountability.

And then one day it happened. The felonious crew stole the presidency of the united states of America. From then, their power only grew. The Democrats were hopeless, powerless...hapless.

Until yet again a day arrived when the tides would begin to turn…

2) A Progressive Infrastructure: Tells of recent meetings between Soros and other progressive billionaires to develop the lefty 'intellectual infrastructure'.

Excerpt

"The details of the San Francisco meeting are closely held. Mr Soros and his son Jonathan, the Sandlers and Mr Lewis asked aides to leave the room as they discussed the planned financial commitment."

3) Could Ted Turner Become a New Progressive Sugar Daddy?: Discusses the possibility of Ted Turner joining Soros and other named billionaires in building a left-wing infrastructure.

Excerpt

Ted Turner called Fox a propaganda tool of the Bush administration and indirectly compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's popular election to run Germany before World War II.

The 66-year-old billionaire, who leveraged a television station in Atlanta into a media empire, made the comment before a standing-room-only crowd at NATPE's opening session Tuesday.

His no-nonsense, sometimes humorous, approach during the one-hour Q&A generated frequent loud applause and laughter...

[Just Me]

1. I LOVE THIS POST!!!! Hope for the voice of progressives!!!

I think Soros is an incredibly giving and compassionate human being. I hold him high esteem (despite all critics). :loveya:

If Turner is gonna' join the progressive wagon,...all I can say is, YEAH!!!!

If I were a wealthy person, I'd jump on this wagon, too!!! :bounce:

[Jensen]

2. Yeah !!!!

Me two!

[electropop]

16. We need a "Rover" Norquist!

The key to framing is repetition of one phrase by every progressive source. The way the RW does it is by simply having a meeting and issuing marching orders each week. We need somebody with the authority, visibility, and credibility to select and disseminate the phrase of the week.

[freeandbrave]

8. Soros Has given Hundreds of millions to promote Democracy...

long before his emergence into the political environment. Most of this went to post-soviet, eastern bloc nations.

He has done far more for Democracy around the world that Bush could ever hope to do!

[Zhade]

17. Um, true, in a sense...he and James Baker both intervened in Georgia.

The "rose revolution" in the former Soviet republic, that is, not the Peach State.

Soros is just out to keep the empire from crumbling. Not that I can blame him; he's got a lot invested. But he's not exactly a paragon of justice.

[nickinSTL]

3. Soros and Turner combining financial means

to help make this happen (even if they don't exactly combine...but both put their money to work on it) would be a good start.

[xchrom]

4. good news for the future

for me the battle is with mainstream, average, mr and mrs joe six pack -- this is where we may be able to find the tools to begin to educate these people about what conservatives have been doing to their country.

this is a long term battle -- and should be thought of in those terms.

[freeandbrave]

5. Another must-read Related Article

Amazingly, just found another outstanding article on this topic on the same web site:

The Enemy We Face in the War for Social Security Preservation : Although the title specifies Social Security, the article actually, perhaps inadvertently, describes a ‘microscopic right wing conspiracy’ and those who fund them.

It is a true eye-opener!

[loudsue]

7. Thanks for that link, Freeandbrave! Just what Sey Hersh was talking about

in his article, when he said there were only a handful of neocons, at the highest reaches of government, that have taken over the country.

This article describes the ones that bush*** must be calling "his base".

Very interesting article, indeed!

:kick:

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. Interesting stuff, thanks.

Welcome to DU!

[KissMeKate]

9. there are at least 40 conservative and or industry think tanks.

the conservative money machine is far more widespread than a few heritage foundations or cato institutes.

[PATRICK]

11. Incestuous boards of directors

breeds idiots. Their think tanks are so devoted to pro-active opinion making they poison their own research capabilities and share many of the same safe 'brains" who are purged of the very qualities that bestow a civil relationship to the real world(aka nature) and not the small group constructs of a power grab.

Many of the industries line up as old, outdated, dying and by nature polluting, poisoning, unhealthy and dangerously intrusive into human life necessities. When this sludge decides to kickstart "thinking" beware. behind them are the old banking and ruling elites whose thinking over the centuries has been so consistent they learn nothing from crisis and defeat other than to change clothing and persist and go for more.

REAL think tanks include serious, if focused by interest, thinking for labor, Democrats and issues. The CIA is buried treasure hoarded by dragons. The Internet is the Wild West of the planetary brain. They are not focused on a power grab but on working for policy and broad policy support in ways only aped by the right wing with their shoddy experts.

Since no rational person wants to be a contradiction like the RW tanks they may not be as effective, only to the extent where reason and voice drowns out the loony hot air and delivers reality without misery. I don't think we are are aware of what we want or where we can go in "matching" the fraudulent GOP machine. We must mismatch them
with the truth.

[PATRICK]

10. After hearing Soros(a sane man) talk

I fear he is still on a political learning curve, granted that he is not actually running for office. His opinions are very personal as are his tactics. The other side is on a tactical roll that needs no special intelligence or effort.

This is not a one on one boxing match. No lone wolf is going to get anywhere but isolated special attention unless he succeeds in joining with others and finding savvier brains to plot the tactics. Supporting grass roots movements and efforts is fine but he is zealous without a sharp focus for which he cannot be blamed since more experienced Dem pols are so sadly, inexcusably lacking in the current crisis.

This is NOT about the contest but about the exercise of responsible reason and ideals within a national organizational meltdown. He is trying to do the right thing. It is nowhere on a par with the dark activities of his fellow billionaires.

The next point is about a possible media focus to re-educate the misinformed, civically deformed masses. You have to realize that can never succeed 100%. The process of getting leftist punditry in place competitively is OK, but a real fact and investigative driven national news service is more necessary with open markets more important than the "free trade" principles overseas. Right now the field has been nearly deserted as lies and reductions have shrunk real news to a hyped adjunct of bland propaganda. Moore's film proved that and that one film, one radio network or one semi-fair besieged TV network is simply not enough to win. Considering the horrors on the RW in no way does the national news media represent the dialog and forums of truth properly. They will have to be beaten back on a wide front with no magic bullet, law or leader likely to make even a small difference.

[Just Me]

14. Well, educating the "misinformed, civically deformed masses" is possible.

You simply have to be willing to include members of rural America into the fold. Moreover, the information should be succinct rather than overwhelming. For example, it's much easier to digest a summary (written in lay terms) of a court decision than to read/decipher a one-hundred page opinion.

So, I wouldn't so quickly dismiss the possibility of reaching out to those who are disenfranchised (primarily because no one is willing to reach out to them or to level with them in a more basic, human way).

(Yes, I live in rural American and I have lived in suburban and urban America, too).

[PATRICK]

15. Give them a free mailing

competitive press and access to fairer media in really media oppressed regions. I see some RW think tank slick tabloids being sent free to targeted groups until a core subscribe themselves. Two such glossies with the deceptive titles of "Educational reform" and "Conservation Reform" are all RW propaganda aimed at educators, given freely periodically to educators and snaring- gradually more than few permanent subscribers. I thought at first few would bite, but the numbers do grow as I watch the bundles of mail be distributed through city and rural towns. Remember these are TEACHERS being fed slanted poison in an easy to swallow, anger inducing capsule.

Target and inclusion and getting to everyone is more important even than the content or quality. Truth has its own urgency and appeal I should think, but it must be universally available, first to those most in need.

No education is totally successful especially in social engineering. Temporary success for emotional and immediate threats. Long term networking and reliability for fair information. But human individuals will likely still divide along one moral or political divide without regard to virtue or science.

But you are absolutely right. It must be done energetically and deeply. The immediate satisfaction of gasbags must become universally distrusted because wiser compassionate heads are delivering the goods.
When competing ideas are merely rival propositions it is a tough road to hoe. Good government and good information must grow together.

[ThorsHammer]

12. Soros

IMO the conservative movement has peaked, while the liberal movement still has upside left.

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. Thank you for starting this thread

I only had enough time to scan it now but I knew enough already to make sure that I bookmarked it.

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. First step: Ted buys back CNN

And immediately fires Leslie "Jerusalem PNAC Post" Blitzer, Judy Kiss ass Woodruff Candy COWley and the rest of the neocon moles over there.

And Douchebag Novak, obviously

Fuck fair and balanced. Make it a blatantly LIBERAL network, so the Busheep will finally know the difference.

EDIT - added Douchebag