What sort of issues have political traction? Gay marriage. No facts required. My marriage is screwed up. Well, it is because a couple married in Mass. The right can get away with such crap because they are pretty unified and the media repeats much of what they say.
In contrast, the 9/11 thesis requires complex technical analysis of structural engineering. Not something that you can put into a 10 second sound bite. The Dems could have created a lot of energy by protesting the two election scandals or by raising hell over the issue of fairness, but they have been complicit so long that they cannot make a case. Even more for Iraq. Carroll says go out & organize, but I am not sure that the left has clearly framed any issue. Iraq is an issue but it is not enough for building a longer term movement. I suspect that the first step is to get on the ground and find out what people feel. Not a focus group where you figure out how to sell a predetermined product, but to really develop a way of speaking to people's needs. I don't think that I have that kind of scale, but some of us do. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
