DB: I want to ask you more about strategy, but I want to ask you another question about the media. Now, the way I see the corporate media, they wanted these two candidates. And they collaborated with the two parties to get these two candidates. And, they knew, if they could give, if you will, Trump to Hillary, they were going to have a bonanza. And they all have admitted now that they have gotten rich on Donald Trump. This corporate media, with the kinds of reporting, the shallow reporting, the misreporting, the refusal to report [meaningfully]... they gave us this moment in history.
NS: The fact is that the CEO of the CBS network said during the primaries that the Donald Trump candidacy might be very bad for America, but it's very good for the profit margin of the networks. And that is, as you say, what happened. Literally, billions of dollars in free air time for Donald Trump during the primaries from cable TV. Without that he would not have seen the light of day, in terms of a strong candidacy.
And, of course, we know, and this comes with the territory, a lot of bias against Bernie Sanders. I think FAIR, the media watch group, counted a dozen anti-Sanders' stories in a 24 hour period, out of the Washington Post. And this is the terrain that we're walking through. And now I think it's very hazardous for people who are among the 54% who voted for candidates other than Donald Trump, very hazardous to trust the mass media.
Doesn't mean that it's always wrong, obviously. But we need to be very wary and suspicious, if you will, of the spin. And that's where I get back to this bandwagon thing about "Oh, our big threat to democracy is the Russian government." Well, this is a way of sort of cleansing ourselves of the very dirty, ugly reality of a serious, severe, debilitating lack of democracy in our own country, that is self-inflicted, and we've got to solve it ourselves.
DB: Alright, what are you going to do, Norman? What's your plan for taking on this, I mean we've got the Supreme Court, you know, coming up here. And that's going to go south, fast.
NS: Yes, well, without being over dramatic, I think this is a question that so many of us, millions of us, are asking ourselves and each other. What are we going to do, as individuals? I think of something that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was imprisoned by Hitler, ultimately...
DB: War resister, died in prison, right?
NS: Yes, and he said, in his prison writings, that resistance cannot be accomplished just as an individual, that we need community. Whatever gives us community, personally, inter-personally, and in terms of relationship building and organizations and activism and organizing. We need community more than ever. Like a healthy forest we need a lot of different aspects.
We started out this discussion, you were talking, Dennis, about many different ways and diverse ways that people can respond to our situation. And I think that means that we find ways to fight back that are consistent with our particular abilities, skills, interests, personalities, if you will, and work with others. Because we can't do it on our own. So, existing organizations need to get stronger, and fight back.
Myself, as somebody who works day-to-day for rootsaction.org and the Institute for Public Accuracy... especially at Roots Action we're very much into building coalitions that can fight back to support immigrants' rights, for instance, can support Muslims who are under threat, can oppose the war machinery.
And that means, I think, [being] in the streets, petitions, and strengthening media aspects and also really putting the screws on, in a positive way, if I can say it in that respect, elected officials. Because there are a lot of democrats in the Senate and the House who, just as in the past, they have been GOP-lite, there's a big temptation, if they think it's opportunistic, to become Trump-lite. And we need to make, as constituents...
DB: You can see it already.
NS: Yeah. And absolute clarity needs to come from us. We will not accept that. We might already need to plan primary challenges for any Democrat who in [2018] isn't absolutely resolute to oppose every [one]... of the numerous, massive, pernicious aspects of the Trump program. And that means, for those of us who may not love to do electoral politics, that we come to see it as part of the mix. It's part of the garden that we're cultivating.
A sign at a Bernie Sanders rally in Washington D.C. on June 9, 2016.
(Image by (Photo credit: Chelsea Gilmour)) Details DMCA
Yes, we need to be in the streets, we do activism, we do organizing, non-profit work, we work in houses of worship. I'm in touch with people working at the Rotary Club for Peace. There's thousands of them around the country, everywhere, like water finding and ["] widening the cracks in the wall. We need to do all that.
And I think that needs to include already looking at the electoral arena, because if we're waiting until [2018], that's too late. Wherever you live, scrutinize those who represent you in the state legislature, on county electoral boards, in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House... and if they're not getting the job done, let them know that you're cultivating some primary challenges if they're democrats or strong challenges otherwise.
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