Mediaboss Marketing

This post originally appeared on Bill Moyers.

Jeremy Blake nervously shuffled papers as he sat on the Newark, Ohio, city council dais. The room was packed; people were standing along the aisles and spilling into the hallway outside. Blake, 38, first became involved in local politics when he was a teenager, but back then, he would never have imagined that this moment would arrive.

In about 30 minutes, the council would vote on legislation to ban discrimination against people for being gay, bisexual, or transgender legislation that Blake had proposed and shepherded.

After testimony from supporters and opponents, and before the vote, Blake spoke, a serious expression replacing his near-permanent grin. Its not like I woke up one morning and chose to be a black, gay man in Newark, Ohio, he said. We are who we are. I dont want you to tolerate me. I want you to accept me for who I am.

The legislation passed unanimously a surprising thing in a Rust Belt red city in a red county. Its approval underscored bipartisan support and the respect council members have for Blake, who is a Democrat.

But that was last July, before a polarizing presidential campaign heated up and before President Trump won the national election, the state of Ohio and Blakes home county by about 23,000 votes.

That was a wake-up call for Ohios Democrats. Trumps election has propelled many young progressives into the political fray for the first time. Jen House, president of Ohio Young Democrats, says that at a recent statewide new-candidates training, dozens of people showed up more than ever before.

Jeremy Blake might be a useful model for some of these new candidates, many of whom seek success in apparent Republican strongholds.

Blakes hometown, Newark, was once a manufacturing hub, and a transforming downtown shows both recent growth and relics of that past. On the outskirts of town theres an empty seven-story building in the shape of a basket, the former headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Company. The city is grappling with the drug epidemic that has slammed small town America and, Blake points out, must do so with fewer resources than it once had, in part because of budget cuts under Republican Gov. John Kasichs administration.

Last summer, Longaberger moved employees out of the basket-shaped building. Its still empty and is about to go into foreclosure. When Michael Moore was looking for a site to tape a one-man show that would be part of his 2016 film TrumpLand, he considered Newark because of the basket, which he could link to Clintons quip about a basket of deplorables. However, the theater where he planned to film denied him access, saying he was too controversial.

It takes a skilled politician to succeed in a place like this, especially when youre a member of the other party.

Blake says that a politician representing the opposition party must listen and talk to constituents. Its not magic, he says, Its about being able to talk to people and relate to them.

If people trust you, they might come along with you when you propose legislation that seems outside their wheelhouse. People listened to Blake when he proposed potentially controversial legislation like the LGBT anti-discrimination law. They also listened in 2015, when he helped write a proposal to ban-the-box on city employment applications in an effort to help those with felony convictions find jobs. The proposal passed and the city became a model for private employers in the community to follow.

Blake frames these two initiatives as being part of an effort to make Newark more welcoming for employee and employer alike. Making the community a better place to live in, Blake says, helps boost the economy. Hes supported or driven efforts to pave streets, replace water and sewer lines, support parks and the arts, and to rethink how the community addresses the drug epidemic. As a member of the council Blake has supported local efforts to treat addicts as patients and not criminals by championing a police department program that allows addicts to turn in their drugs in exchange for placements in detox and, hopefully, rehab.

Some of these approaches might be controversial to a typical Republican but to Blakes Republican neighbors, they arent. Thats because they know, and trust, him.

People here know my grandma. They know my people. I have, he chuckles, a reputation.

Its a reputation that developed through years of civic engagement. As a teenager Blake served on the mayors youth council. Later, while working as a staffer for the Ohio Democratic Caucus, he was elected to the Newark school board, and soon became board president at the age of 25. The bulk of his time in politics has been spent working with South Newark Civic Association. The local nonprofit began as a block watch and is now solely focused on building relationships between neighbors.

All Im doing is coalition building, Blake says. For progressives to make real and sustainable inroads in rural and Rust Belt America, this would be a good place to start. Mobilizing versus Organizing

Harry Boyte, a veteran community organizer and co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College, says Democrats have been too focused on mobilizing rather than the kind of organizing Blake champions.

For Boyte, organizing is an open and evolving process with no predetermined script. It involves talking to people and learning what their needs are.

There might be some issue theyre working on, he says, but the focus is on developing peoples capacities. Organizing is about building relationships and can foster a politics that pays close attention to the needs of the people on the ground, he says.

That strategy has worked for Ohio progressives. Mayor Luke Feeney of Chillicothe, Ohio, says, If youre elected locally and can show youre delivering basic services, that will build credibility.

Feeney has been in Chillicothe for a little over 10 years; in a place like this, it means hes still a newcomer. But the young attorney bonded quickly with this community through his work at Southeastern Ohio Legal Services, where he served mostly elderly and low-income people. In 2013 he became city auditor, and two years later, ran for mayor.

With just over a year in office, Feeney has helped the city increase police and fire department staffing, paved roads, brought back curbside recycling and worked to develop a rainy day fund. Hes also started holding Neighborhood Office Hours in order to listen to constituents directly.

Folks in Chillicothe, he says, can and will make connections between local outcomes and national politics. Last July, when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention, he mentioned a Chillicothe entrepreneur named Courtney Lewis, who had opened a thriving store selling locally themed gifts three years ago. Lewis is still a success story, but Feeney worries about her future under an administration that he believes caters only to big business.

I havent heard how Trump will help Courtney, Feeney says.

In many ways, he adds, it feels as if small towns like Chillicothe are on their own as well. Like Blake, Feeney is concerned about the drug epidemic it has hit families in his area hard and stretched his towns resources. So Feeney is working with data analysts from the University of Cincinnati to find correlations between overdose statistics and other city data, like that from schools and public utilities.

Im not a policing expert, he says, but I think we can learn a lot from data. If we can find the hottest spot, then we can help the people in that area.

Chillicothe, a city of about 22,000 in Ross County, Ohio just on the western edge of the Appalachians went for Trump. There are fewer Democrats in this part of the state than there are in Newark, but Feeney says his party is making inroads. I think that after last November, more rural areas are going to have to get more attention from the Democrats. I dont know what thats going to look like, but I think it will happen.

Jen House of the Ohio Young Democrats the official youth arm of the Democratic Party says she is focused on supporting campaigns and potential candidates through training and strategizing. She is also working to identify people who want to run especially those with local experience.

Redistricting has made finding potential candidates a challenge for Democrats on the state and congressional level, but she has already seen several young Democrats exploring bids in Republican-held house districts. On a local level, she points to two young Democrats Sarah Schregardus and Chad Queen who are running in Hilliard, Ohio, where a Democrat hasnt run for council since 2009.

Schregardus and Queen both say they are running, in part, because of the outcome of the presidential election.

I felt like I wanted to help my community with what I could bring to the table, Schregardus says. As an attorney I deal with people who disagree with me all the time. Im effective at coming to solutions, to agreements. Shes raising a family in Hilliard and, she says, wants to see council members who reflect progressive values. She could be one of them.

House believes that the key now is to take this current momentum from progressives and put it to good use. Her peers in other states, she says, are hoping to do the same.

Can we turn this into boots on the ground? That remains to be seen, she says. If it doesnt work, then well find another way. We have no choice. The Ground Game

Jeremy Blake bristles at the suggestion that theres a fixed party dichotomy among local voters. Hes sure some folks who voted for him also voted for Trump.

If youre going into this situation already having this division in your mind, then youre not going to succeed. Youre starting off from the wrong place.

Blake admits his is an optimistic approach, but he says he doesnt want to repeat the failings of the Hillary Clinton campaign. From his vantage point, the campaign didnt relate to the working-class people who are more interested in raising wages than they are in social issues. It makes sense, he says, that some people would support Bernie Sanders but not Clinton, and then ultimately cast a vote for Trump.

I still live in a community where people think if you work hard, youll achieve, says Blake, who was raised by a single mother who was a proud union member. They dont want to look at the systemic barriers that hurt people. They want to believe that dream that if I work hard Ill be able to succeed in this life. They want to go to work. Provide for their families.

That fed Trumps appeal: They saw a businessman who said he was going to stir things up in Washington and so they voted for him.

Most Ohio progressives, Blake says, believe that government has a role in education, health and well-being, environment, regulations for commerce and financial institutions, social safety net, protections for marginalized citizens, science and organized labor.

When Republicans attribute problems to the government, theyre telling the wrong story, Blake says. When people say, The government this or The government that! well, thats you! You are voting for people to represent you but you ultimately have a say.

But theres a disconnect between the Democratic Party leadership and places like Newark. The Ohio Democratic party offers little financial support to politicians running in small towns and rural areas; Blake says theyve never wrote him a check when he ran for city council. Theyre focused on the cities because thats their base, and I get that. They do, however, offer training and strategic support.

But even without Democratic Party financial support, Blake is making sure locals in his party get organized. Currently, he is helping two young Newark Democrats 34-year-old Sean Fennell and 20-year-old Seth Dobbelaer navigate their first city council elections. Thats why on a bright Sunday in March, Blake is among volunteers gathered to canvass for Fennell.

Around a dining room table littered with bumper stickers that read #NewarkProud and flyers promoting a meet-the-candidate event, Fennell, a cheery technology specialist for the local library, lays out his platform to a handful of volunteers.

When Fennells done, Blake pipes up and tells folks that as they go door to door, its best to keep it short. On a Sunday, he says, People dont want you to get all detailed. Were probably interrupting them. This is about building awareness. Thats it.

As he leaves the house with volunteer Molly Pancini, the two quickly form a plan as they walk. Pancini carries a clipboard with a list of addresses. Blake carries a stack of flyers and stickers.

If you tell us where to go, Ill do all the talking, Blake offers. Pancini agrees.

Blake knocks on the door of the first house, a yellow Victorian with a wrap-around porch. Theres no response. He waits. And then, a dog barks. The dog got started, he says matter-of-factly. Dog gets moving and maybe the people will! He waits patiently.

No one is home. He leaves a sticker and a flyer.

At the next house on the list, a man comes to the door in a jeans and a T-shirt, looking a bit like hed just woken from a nap. But he greets Blake and Pancini with a demure Midwestern politeness. Blake informs the man that his neighbor, Sean Fennell, is running for city council, and is having folks over next Wednesday for a meet-the-candidate event.

Hes just up the block, Blake says. You should come by.

Okay, thank you, the man says.

Blake hands him a flyer, shakes his hand and keeps moving. There are a lot of houses on the list.

See the original post here:
Small-town progressives pick up the pieces of Ohio's Democratic Party - Salon

230000+ Progressives Urge DSCC Not to Fund Any Senate Dems Who Help Confirm Gorsuch Common Dreams WASHINGTON - Progressive leaders delivered more than 230,000 petition signatures Monday urging the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to publicly announce that it will not allocate campaign funds to Sens. Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Joe ...

Continued here:
230000+ Progressives Urge DSCC Not to Fund Any Senate Dems Who Help Confirm Gorsuch - Common Dreams

Since theDemocratic Partylost the 2016 presidential election,the partys establishment has suppressed all callsfor reform from progressives.Though thepartyappointed Sen. Bernie Sanders as its head of outreach, most Democrats continue to treat him and his supporters as unwelcome outsiders. In a recent speech, Sanders provided progressives with insight as to how to advance their valuesagainst an inept and increasingly out of touchDemocratic Party.

When you have everybody in theestablishmentagainst you, how do you move a progressive agenda forward? asked Sanders during aspeechat MIT on March 31. The answer is you go to the people. This has beenSandersprimary strategy during Donald Trumps presidency; he has led rallies, held town halls, and delivered speeches across the country to mobilize his supporters.

Our job is not a radical concept. Our job is to organize and educate people around a progressive agenda that demands Congress represent us, not just the one percent. Thats about it. Nothing more complicated than that, Sanders said. But to make that happen, we are going to need radical transformation of theDemocratic Party. I dont want to offend anybody, but theDemocratic Partycannot continue to be just the party of theliberal eliteand people who have money. It has got to be the party of the working class of this country. TheDemocratic Partycannot just be a party that just does well in New England and the west coast, it has got to be a 50-state party.

While Sanders discussed why the Republican Party issuccessful in winning elections across the country, he blamed theDemocratic PartyforTrumps election and Republicans holding a majority in Congress and state legislatures all over the country.

And he also assumes, quite correctly, that theDemocratic Partyis extremely weak and incapable of organizing people, Sanders said in reference to how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is able to push policies that hurt his constituents with impunity.

Sandersnoted that although the knee-jerk reaction from manyDemocratsis to shame, scold, and blame people who voted for Trump, its Democrats fault that thousands of voters who voted for former President BarackObamain 2008 and 2012 voted for Trump in 2016. The problem is these people over the years, many of them wereDemocrats. They looked at the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party made a hell of a lot of promises to them.

But you know what? In many respects, not all, and clearly theDemocratshave been much better than the Republicans. But I dont want anyone here to forget that it was aDemocratic president, not a Republican president, who deregulated Wall Street. It was a Democratic president who made the first major initiatives in disastrous trade policies, Sanders explained in reference to former President Bill Clinton, whoenacted several policies that hurt working, middle class and low income Americans. Lets not forget that either. So, theyre angry, and they look for an alternative.

Rather than understanding this dynamic, manyDemocrats have attackedTrumps voters, reverberating the self-destructive attitude exemplified byHillaryClintons commentduring her campaign that half of all Trump supporters belong in a basket of deplorables. Sanders said, I do not believe in any way shape or form that the vast majority of Trump supporters are racists, sexists, xenophobes and homophobes. I dont believe that. I think if you think thats the issue, you are missing the boat big time.

He also discussed the plight of coal country in rural America, where communities that once thrived with thousands of well paid jobs have been abandoned and these jobs have disappeared with no economic infrastructure to fill the void. These guys were heroes, going down underneath there, the worst work in the world, and many of them die young from black lung diseaseThe world has come and past them. Coal is in decline, said Sanders.

So, how do you feel if you are 50-60 years old you once had a job. And by the way, a job is not just income. People want to work. They want to feel part of society. They want to be productive.Sandersnoted that severe economic issues in many areas of the country combined witha diminishing sense of community throughout nationand globallyprovides opportunities for people like Trump. We have got to create community. We have got to make sure that I care about you and you care about me. That I know you are worried about my seven grandchildren, and I am worried about your mother who is ill. When we are a part of that communitynot left outI think that makes us more human and less likely to picking and start scapegoating minorities, because thats what demagogues feed upon.

The rest is here:
Bernie Sanders Calls Democratic Party 'Weak and Incapable of Organizing' - Observer

The Russian election interference narrative has devolved into Clinton loyalists attempting to rehabilitate theClintonbrand, so it wasinevitable that the narrative would be used to attack Sen.Bernie Sandersand his supporters. These attacks have ranged from baseless allegations that Sanders supporters are Russian stooges to reducing their criticisms of HillaryClintonto being the resultof Russian bot-fueled propaganda.

Months after the election,Clintonsupporters are still re-litigating the argument thatshe was a good candidate, which is, in essence, the effect of their claims that the Russian government hired people to pose as Bernie Bros to inflame progressives criticisms of Clinton. There has not been any evidence to support these claims, yet the allegations have been sustainedthroughout the past several weeks.

A few weeks ago, the Huffington Postpublishedan article speculating that Russian trolls infiltrated Bernie Sanders groups to post fake news and news critical of HillaryClinton. Instead of citing evidence, the authors of the article relied on conjecture and anecdotal evidence from a few people from Bernie Sanders Facebook groups, two of whom complained that their quotes were taken out of context and used to develop the narrative that Russia was manipulating the groups. These administratorscomplaints were more againsthyper-partisanand unreliable news sources that people were sharingmany of which solely dealt pro-HillaryClintonnews, including PoliticusUSA, Addicting Info, and Blue Nation Review, which was funded by pro-Clinton Super PACs. This important nuance was ignored because it didnt fit into the authors narrative.

The reporters failed to acknowledge that the poorly constructed fake news websitesthat either poached articles from other sources or wrote fake news of their ownwere created solely for-profit, not to manufacture negative opinions about Hillary Clinton. In December 2016, NBC News and other news sourcesreportedon a Macedonian teenager who made $60,000 through a fake news website he managed.

The Huffington Posts article was further sensationalized by MSNBCs Rachel Maddow, who summarized the points from the article that best fit into the Russia narrativeshe crafted in her sensationalized segment.

Then, the FBIannouncedthat they were looking into Breitbart and InfoWars. Clinton Watts, a former FBI agent, claimed during a Senate testimony that Sanders supporters were targeted by Russian bots, though he provided no evidence for his opinion. RawStorypublisheda misleading article, using the pejorative term Bernie Bros and claimed that former General Keith Alexander said during a Senate testimony that Sanders supporters were unwitting agents in aRussiandisinformation campaign. Alexander, who left the NSA in 2014, said, I thinkwhat they were trying to do was drive a wedge within the Democratic Party between the Clinton group and the Sanders group, and then in our nation between Republicans and Democrats. Alexander was only speculating that this was the Russians strategy, but RawStory transmogrified it into a smoking gun headline to attack Sanders supporters.

Claims that theRussiangovernment created pro-Bernie bots to spread propaganda diminish the validity ofcriticisms of HillaryClintonand theDemocratic establishment. These claims also distract from similar campaigns conducted on behalf of HillaryClintonduring the election, which there is evidence for.ClintonSuper PAC Correct the Record implemented theirBreaking Barriers campaign, which included spending at least $1 million on internet trolls to correct the record of claims against HillaryClinton.

This false narrative was quickly repeated by ShareBlue, a pro-Clintonmedia outlet owned by David Brock and run by formerClintonstaffer Peter Daou, which didnt offer any evidence to substantiate the claim and resurfaced the Bernie Bros smear campaign as well. The phrase Bernie Bros, despite being coined by awhite male, was used to portray Sanders supporters as sexist white males. The term is still used in disingenuous attacks againstprogressives, who Clinton partisans would rather blame for Trumps victory than taking responsibility themselves.

Visit link:
'Russians Bots' Is Latest Smear Campaign Against Sanders Progressives - Observer

It was ten days after Election Day and most liberals were still in full blown crisis mode, wading their way through the fever dream of the post-Trump victory world. The week since the unthinkable had happened had been a whirlwind; the rallies, the recounts, the sense of chaos, loss, and most of all, deep uncertainty. What was certain, however, was the dreamy vision of a progressive American identity many had been so sure of the morning of November 8th had been snuffed out, quite literally overnight. The liberal vision of the election as a significant step towards a more perfect union, the glorious symbolism of the first woman president succeeding the first black president, the long awaited relish of defeating Trump himself, it was all gone. And in its wake was little more than brooding, self-affirmative groupthink about a flawed, bigoted America resistant to progress and pluralism. It was against this backdrop that Saturday Night Live, long a bastion of urban progressivism and fresh off months of mercilessly mocking of Trump and his team, aired The Bubble. The sketch detailed an eponymous planned community for liberals or like-minded freethinkers and no one else to seek refuge from the ravages of Trumps America. To borrow from a successful SNL character, The Bubble has everything: wine bars, raw milk, and WiFi that only connects to liberal blogs. In short, the sketch is chock full of small digs at the modern stereotypes of American liberals. But it goes even deeper. At one point, one of the communitys fictional spokesmen, a white man in Warby Parker glasses, declares that its members dont see color, but celebrate it, prompting an eye-roll from his black female cohort. At another, the starting rate for a one-bedroom apartment is mentioned to be $1.9 million. Even more significant than its playful parody of liberal idiosyncrasies is its nudging at white liberals on the more discomforting (and more politically relevant) issues of their racial insensitivity and economic privilege, suggesting they are not quite as egalitarian and open-minded as they believe.

Coming on the heels of an election whose shock outcome was attributed by many in the media to the supposed insularity of urban and progressive communities, the skit was widely circulated and well-received - across conservative media in particular. But lost in much of the post-November conversation about ideological provincialism, and conservatives celebration of liberals being pilloried for their own, is the stark difference in how the left and right views and attends to their own bubbles. The release this month of Jordan Peeles cinematic tour de force, Get Out, underscores the gaping, and growing, gap between liberals and conservatives ability to critique, confront, and laugh at their own imperfections.

To call Get Out racially charged would be an understatement. From the get-go, the film, premised on a black man meeting the family and entering the world of his white girlfriend, is racially volted, with the very opening scene alluding to Trayvon Martins killing. It is a testament to Peeles distinct talent as an artist that even as the the film descends into a frenzied, bizarre thriller it still manages to incorporate elements of satire, subtlety, and comic relief. Tracking closely with that descent is the tone and breadth of the films statement on race. While racial discrimination and insensitivity are present from early in the film, they initially come exclusively from expected sources Baby Boomer parents, white male police officers. The film is too laden with symbolism and meaning to fully address here, but there is one moment that particularly sticks out. While there are several big reveals, the most thrilling comes when it is revealed that Rose the white girlfriend who had theretofore been distinct from her family and friends racism is directly complicit in the racial subjugation plot of her family. The moment encapsulates the clear message underlying Get Out: that many, even most, of the ostensibly woke, craft-beer drinking liberals that populate SNLs Bubble do in fact reside on the same spectrum of racial oppression as the red state rubes from which they created the community to seek refuge. In itself, the delivery of this message by Peele is a watershed moment in American culture. Never before has such a message been given as big a megaphone or received as strong an affirmation (the film enjoys a 99 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

Receiving less attention but even more significant than the films content itself is what it tells us about bubbles and insularity. Given the films entire message is a strong criticism of progressives, in particular white progressives, it is significant it has been received positively by liberal critics and audiences alike. Get Out is the biggest indication yet that, for all the snowflake flak they get, American liberals choose to both create and expose themselves to artistic content that critiques themselves on some of the most emotional and explosive social issues, no less. Indeed, once one gets past the meme of liberal insularity and sensitivity, it becomes clear that the entire narrative is dubious at best and utterly fallacious at worst.

Think for a second about the last television show or movie created by, directed at, and critical of conservatives. Youll ponder in vain. They simply do not exist. Many on the right would indignantly protest that they are underrepresented in the studios and boardrooms of Hollywood and Manhattan, and this is at least partially true. But the past few years have seen a veritable explosion in conservative media. Mike Huckabee, for example, has produced nearly a dozen movies, including The Gift of Life, Gods Not Dead, and Gods Not Dead 2 (in case there was any ambiguity remaining). Kirk Camerons Saving Christmas, even after earning the dubious distinction of being ranked the worst movie of all time by IMDB, banked $2.5 million in 2014. Glenn Becks media flagship The Blaze is worth nearly $100 million and saw fit to construct a full-scale replication of the Oval Office from which Beck broadcast during the 2016 GOP primary. Just last year, Miracles from Heaven, a story of a chronically ill little girl who supposedly ascended to heaven and returned, grossed $70 million at the box office off a budget of $13 million. In other words, the capital is there. The tools are there. The audience is there. Conservatives simply choose not to utilize any of them to produce any content that is even remotely critical of any aspect of their ideology. Even Lena Dunham, the most reviled example of liberal decadence to the American right, looks like a bona fide Joan Rivers-Christopher Hitchens love child when compared to conservative media; her HBO opus Girls is itself centered around living caricatures of white, liberal millennials.

The separation between conservative and liberals is only underscored when one considers the yawning gap between the mainstream acceptability of their ideologies. Per polls from the past year and a half: 57% of Americans acknowledge human activity to be a driver behind climate change, 7 in 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade, 55% support increased gun control, and a (mind boggling) 88% support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. In short, the entire modern conservative movement is organized around a series of political positions wholly out of step with middle America. Even if conservatives and liberals did live in equivalent bubbles, the latter would still be less isolated given they are overwhelmingly more in touch with the center of American society.

The bottom line: despite their frequent denigration of liberal safe spaces, and sensitivity, it is demonstrably true that conservatives live overwhelmingly more homogenous and insulated lives. The position du jour of many effete elites that conservatives and liberals alike exist in equally aloof two Americas flies in the face of all evidence and logic. In Trumps America, the left is producing and processing media that examines everything from innocuous idiosyncrasies to real, systemic hypocrisies. Meanwhile, conservatives are incapable of challenging even the most fantastical of statements by Trump and his advisors. From his claim of five million illegal immigrants voting in the presidential election to his recent allegation President Obama executed an intricate, secret, criminal conspiracy to wiretap him during the election, the grotesque falsehoods and absurdities of President Trump and the lack of pushback from any prominent conservative voice or elected official is a living, breathing embodiment of the unparalleled bubble around which modern conservatism is organized.

As the pain and shock of the morning of November 9th showed, progressives do have blind spots. Acknowledging that does not necessitate capitulating to bigots or admitting ones way of life is somehow inferior to a heartland conservatives. What it does take is self-awareness, honest self-appraisal, and a firm insistence on the concept of objective reality not coincidentally, all characteristics modern conservatives are lacking. They are also the precise tools that, if utilized, will lead progressives, and America as a whole, to the future we envisioned the morning of November 8th. With projects like Get Out, theres hope for that future.

The rest is here:
'Get Out' Is The Type Of Bubble-Burst Liberals Need - Huffington Post