Meta, meta, meta. (rhubarb)

Amanda’s plight is so fascinating, and regardless of what happens, there is going to be ink spilled upon the matter for months to come. One angle I’ve not seen too much discussion on yet is what this battle tells us about Who Really Is In Charge. Short version: it’s may not be who you think.

And indeed, this is a battle. Between the forces of good- those of us who believe in Constitutional Democracy and a nation of laws- and the forces of evil. Evil being defined as those who would tell you that only some know what is best for all, what wars must be fought, how your taxdollars must be spent, who gets to live and die, who can be free and who must be a slave. Normally, I’m one of those writers who will wax madly about our Corporate Masters, the uber-wealthy elite who act behind so many closed doors, making themselves more powerful by manipulating and exploiting the weak, the powerless. But Amanda has reminded me that there are complexities and analyses that are not discussed enough, and I’m going to try to rectify that.

Who really decides who gets to be the Leader of the Free World? The voters? Perhaps, when our votes are counted and everyone is allowed to vote. The Parties? Sort of. It’s certainly the case that to make it to the top and become the nominee, candidates have to work their way, often for long years, through a Byzantine system of back patting and stabbing, sycophancy and fundraising, favor trading and influence peddling. I’m already hearing complaints from newly elected progressive Democrats who have found that they aren’t really in charge of even their own offices, so beholden to the tyranny of the fundraising game are they. Are the rich donors the ones who truly choose our leaders? On the surface, the answer is “yes.” No matter how much we Little People may raise, blogosphere portals or otherwise, our donations are a drop in the bucket, compared to what the very wealthy and their corporations contribute. The fundraising cycle never ends, and there are a mountain of bills, invoices, and expense sheets that must be dealt with. Anyone who has ever run for even the smallest office will tell you that a constant stream of money is the most important quality a politician can have. Money can erase almost any error, overcome almost any handicap, undo almost any faux pas.

But where does that money go, exactly? My time in Washington has taught me many things, not the least important of which is that people here live well. Lavish parties, impressive spreads of food and drink, expensive trips and junkets, private events…it’s Babylon alright, and it was this way even before the Republicans took over and did away with any sense of decency or restraint. But setting aside the excesses of the lifestyles of the slick and hypocritical, I want to zero in on what I believe is the top expense of the political world.

Advertising.

Hey, don’t you love capitalism? At its core, it perverts everything that is good in human nature, in the name of taking money from a sucker. OK, perhaps that’s too harsh, but what is advertising, really? It’s a form of mind control that convinces people that they must part with that which is most important in life (their money) because if they don’t have X, they will [die, be unloved, suffer horribly, endure forced celibacy, live in ignorance or ignominy, etc]. Ads convince you of a certain need you didn’t know you really had, and they do so with every trick in the persuasive and argumentative book to get you there.

Political advertising has become a thing of horror in the last few generations, increasingly relying on the base human emotions of hate and fear to motivate people to vote a certain way. Clearly, Edwards and Amanda’s attackers are setting the stage for future ads, which will proclaim that Edwards hires blood-drinking Catholic-bashing feminazis who want to enforce homosexuality on your children. And the sad thing is, one can almost understand why Edwards would quail at that prospect. It’s worked in the past, and so far, none of the Democratic response tactics have been effective. Any absurd claim or perversion of logic may be used to attack Democrats, and in our Fair and Balanced media, the most blatant moments of Republican hypocrisy and lawbreaking are overlooked and forgotten.
Such is why so many of us are batshit insane about blogging and truth telling as citizen journalists slightly upset and continually seeking out better sources of information about political matters.

Hey, why isn’t Mark Foley in jail? He broke the very law he wrote…

Anyway, the real reason for all this imbalance in our “free” press comes back to money. Our corporate masters use their wealth to control public discourse, the better to hide the looting and destruction that is at the heart of how they get and keep that wealth. In the purely political sphere, money drives our Jounalmalists, because they and their behind the scenes bosses know one truth: squeeze politicians, and you will always get more money from them. And jobs, and breaks, and opportunities.

Because without the media, politicians have no way to reach out to voters and get their messages heard. (That’s not entirely true, but we’ll leave that aside for now) Media people understand that the single greatest medium to influence voters is the one they control, and for years now, they have forced politicians to play a rigged game by the rules media people set, and- here’s the sickest part- pay for the abuse they receive.

This cycle will probably cost a billion dollars, all told, as politicians and parties find new ways to buy ad space on TV and in the dead-tree world. That’s nothing to sneeze at, even as it may seem like chump change when compared to what we spend in Iraq every day. But the saying goes, “well timed, and well applied, there is no obstacle money cannot overcome.” That’s what political advertising is supposed to do, and ironically, it is the money spent by politicians that keeps them so beholden to the media and its narrative of which problems politicians should be most concerned with. Producer X gets great ratings for endlessly flogging politician Y about controversy Z on some “news” show, that producer’s career is made, along with whatever bobblehead is reading the script, and both of them move up the media ladder. Advertising executive X covertly starts a bidding war in hot battle ground state Y, forcing politician Z1 and Z2 to spend twice as much as anticipated for control of that market. Executive X wins again, and uses the cash flow to her company to bolster her career climb up the media pyramid.

I admit that the situation is very complicated, and I’m being metaphorical and oversimplifying the many lines of power that intersect in American politics. But it’s very clear to me that at the heart of the media’s great and abiding hatred of bloggers, they fear that we will be the ones to supplant them and damn the river of money and power they currently receive from politicians and parties. Bloggers are smarter, faster to respond and construct new memes and stories, more informed, and most frighteningly- we do it because we care, not for the money. I’m not saying none of us can be bought, but for every blogger who joins a campaign, there are a thousand who stand behind that blogger, ready to assist her as she constructs the most powerful message for her candidate and develops new ways to reach out to voters. Trust me when I say that even the “major” news organizations don’t devote that much human capital to the project of interpreting and directing the news. On a level playing field, the Joke Lines of the world would not make it one round with Atrios, and The Moustache of Understanding would run crying from the room after five minutes with the Rude Pundit.

We here on the Tubes often refer to the members of the media as the Gang of 500, and don’t think they aren’t aware of the correctness of that label. Cushy, work for three hours a day “jobs” aren’t the only thing at stake. As Joke Line recently bragged, established mediawhores get to write campaign speeches, tell candidates what issues they should focus upon, make or break bills and careers. The short way to describe what they cling to so desperately: Power. Amanda and the blogosphere are trying to take that power away from them, one passionately argued, logically constructed, compassionate blog post at a time.

Candidates are often puppets to so many forces, it’s hard to know the real human being behind the public face. Edwards is currently trapped between the Scylla of his own populist image, and the Charybdis of those who determine if anyone in the population gets to see and hear that image. In a way, I don’t envy him. But in another way, I hope he can have his own Come to Jesus moment here. It’s not just about showing spine, or even doing what’s right and standing up for those who support and work for you.
The right choice for him is also common fucking sense.

For how much longer do you want to pay people who advance in power and career by bashing you? How much longer do you want to cower to unelected, cliquish Heathers who care nothing for the real people you say you want to represent and lead? This is one of those moments when doing what’s right is more than just scoring bonus points with your Savior. It’s about taking the first, bold step in destroying the structures that have held representative democracy hostage for far too long.

Blogger Keepin it Real Moment

Do you pay people to forcibly fuck you in the ass without lube, and then beg them to come back and take your money before doing it again? People who tell you this time around they get to do that for two long years, and longer every campaign after that? I don’t. Neither should you.

Amanda did or said nothing that everyone, and let me stress, everyone hasn’t done or said at some point in our private lives. Blogs are “public” but they are also the private responsibility of those who write them. By the standards the media is trying to apply, literally no one in America could get a job, for who among us has not said or written something disagreeable to some others? And smell the rank hypocrisy- not only have most members of the media and consulting class said and done far, far worse, proof of that is all over the frakking map- print, tubes, video. As Holden said, “The Republicans accept millions of campaign dollars from an industry that pays women to fuck on the internet but John Edwards can’t pay two women who once said fuck on the internet.” Not according to our media, Pony Boy.

The attack on Amanda and John is too well coordinated for me to think it’s less than an opening salvo in this war. I have said it before, but since Lamont, it’s been clear to me they there can be only one response to the growing influence and power of the blogosphere. We can expect this, and more, from here on until the last newspaper executive is strangled with the entrails of the last TV bobblehead. Smear and unfounded or absurdist attack is the only weapon they really have, for the facts are on our side. Freedom of expression, diversity of opinion, public discourse that is open to all- these are our weapons, and anathema to our enemies. There are some good people in the SCLM, but for the most part they are a token few, used mainly to maintain the fiction that there is diversity and balance in the press. When the chips are down, it’s very clear that those voices do not represent the majority, or the powerful, in the media establishment.

I’ve encouraged everyone to write and blog and talk about Amanda’s case, there is so much in it that needs to be brought into the open. In that vien, let me say that most of what I’ve said here can also be applied to high priced Beltway “consultants,” themselves a group dependent upon the constant stream of pap that constitutes most of what is presented in the public discourse as ’what really matters,’ at the expense of what really does. I sincerely hope Edwards makes the right choice, and as I’ve said earlier, there are a thousand reasons why it should be a no-brainer, probably the least of which is that if he doesn’t, he will be my enemy.

Bloggers would do well to treat this as a battle in the fight for their lives, for indeed, it is nothing less. I’m not going to go back into the closet of obscurity and impotence, and I sincerely hope none of the rest of you will either.

Update: Jeff speaks for me:

The latest attack by Republican thugs on the American system of fair elections comes from Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League. The basis of the attack? Some bloggers hired by the John Edwards campaign once used colorful language on their private blogs.

While we all wait to see how the Edwards campaign will respond, it is worth remembering these three crucial points:

Attacks of this sort are not about cuss words (or military service or smoking or any other crap), but about right-wing thugs trying to control elections through fear.

When it happens, get your principal on TV right away to defend the electoral system from the thugs.

While on TV, be loyal as heck to those being attacked and everyone else associated with them.

Donahue, like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truuth before him, do not really care about the language of bloggers or the military records of veterans. What they care about is controlling the electoral system by appealing to our fears.

They attack good people to intimidate and silence the debate—to keep us from standing up.

We will not allow it anymore.

The 2000 and 2004 Presidential election cycle was defiled by Republican thugs who ran roughshod over the system with impunity. This time, Americans will speak back.

For the Edwards campaign—and for Democratic campaigns attacked in this way—the time to speak back and defend our system from these thugs is now.