06.30.09
Will the Revolution be televised?
The question on Yahoo Answers was:
“What happened to the “Revolution” Republicans or Texas talked about? Tea Parties? That’s it?
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
My answer:
“Somehow it turned out that the glorious “Revolution” was just a publicity stunt designed for television. The Republican organizers of this debacle thought that it would be enough to design the event and tell people to show up. Not only would tens of millions of people attend, but they would be so encouraged by the outpouring of support that they would have become activists. They would exert political influence.
Republican leadership has forgotten how to organize, or even worse (not from the perspective of Democrats, of course) they have decided to shun it and vilify it. What better way to guarantee that they will never achieve grass-roots popularity again?
The overwhelming majority of radio listeners and television viewers are couch potatoes. Why would Rush listeners and Fox viewers be different? People like this have no connection to the political process. When they get angry, they don’t write their Congressman, they act as anonymous internet trolls. When they get really, really angry, they grab a gun from their arsenal and shoot someone.
The sentiment on the part of their target group seems to be vague agreement with principles, enough to keep them from switching the station but hardly the basis for a revolution from people who are by nature so unconnected with the political process that they can barely drag themselves to the polls to vote every couple of years. “
Alas, while I was distracted doing things like working and writing this blog, another answer was chosen. But there’s no point in wasting mine.
The issue is not really whether or not the Revolution will be televised, it is whether it will even happen if the only reason for a “revolution” is to generate television content.
