Democracy Now! focuses on the extreme 'Right,' but will never touch the extreme 'Left.' Why is that? (At least never when it comes to electoral politics.)

DN! focuses on, perhaps, the most extreme Republican candidates, Perry and Bachmann. And as DN! listeners listen in alarmed dismay and a similarly positioned ideologue, Amy Allison, for example, (on "Living Room" with Kris Welch on 8/12/11, both "SaveKPFA/Concerned Listener" partisans and Wellstone Democrats) urges listeners not to worry about 2012, nor pay too much attention to Obama’s shortcomings, alternatives are drowned out.

Questioning Obama in 2012 "is sort of the wrong question," claims Allison to Welch's delight. ("Amen!" hoots Welch.) Oh? But it's a very real question, one which the Wellstone Democrats dare not parse in any meaningful way. Either they naïvely believe in wasting more progressive candidates and supporters' energy and resources by injecting them into the Democrat Party, or they are shills for the Democrat Party itself. The result is the same.

"It's not just replacing the Democrats with Republicans that's the solution," urges Allison ("Amen," chimes Welch, never mind independents or third-parties). Instead, focus on Congressional races, urges Allison. Yet, we've seen what good that does, as we saw with the "People's Budget" shot down by Democrat Party leadership earlier this year and as happens to any progressive policies proposed by apparently well-meaning Democrats. Meanwhile, Obama is taken off the hook and not analysed critically, as independents and third-parties are virtually ignored by Wellstone Democrats like Welch, Allison, and Goodman. Clearly, progressive Democrats would do well to reject that corrupt corporate party and move to a third-party based on grassroots support by appealing to the people. But we know the function of the so-called progressive Democrats is to siphon away precious political energy, quell frustrations against the Democrat Party, and keep progressives praying for a miracle that never comes. Even if the likes of Goodman, Welch, and Allison were sincere in their purported Wellstone Democrat ideologies of reforming the Democrat Party from within, their goal would be better served by airing and acknowledging those to the 'Left' of this Democrat ideology.

We know Republican Rick Perry functions within the Republican realm, as the extremist who will push the national political discourse as far to the political 'Right' as possible. Thus, making the real Republican candidate that will face Obama in 2012 all the more palatable to voters and the public in general. Yet, Amy Goodman never seems to be aware of this point; DN! certainly never mentions this, nor brings on guests with this view. Instead DN! seems to give further airtime to this extreme right-wing political perspective bent on total privatisation and undermining of governmental functions, priming even 'liberals' and progressives for a political discourse to the 'Right' of where the so-called centre was before this year's campaigning.

Well, for those of us who understand both major political parties to be completely corrupt and soaked in corporate cash and influence, we have no voices speaking to us of for us. So much for DN! as the champion of the people. In the words of Fanon, more captured vanguard.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate being informed about extremists like Perry and Bachmann, but I don't think they deserve to capture the entire imagination of DN!'s audience. DN! could balance coverage of
the extreme 'Right' with coverage of the extreme 'Left,' however belittled or obscured they may be by corporate media. If DN! championed those to the 'Left' of Democrats, as they champion Democrats themselves, they wouldn't be as obscure. The underlying implication is that Obama is the only viable hope for progressives when we all know very well Obama has continued and, in some cases, worsened Bush's policies. By extension, the same logic is implied regarding Congress.

The politics of fear seem to prevail on DN! In the absence of independent, third-party, and electoral reform voices, corporate politicians intertwined with an astonishing lack of imagination to air alternatives instead mires DN! broadcasts in horse-race minutiae and corruptions over-seas. (As for coverage of foreign woes, we know none of that stuff will lessen until U.S. imperialism is challenged; and this will never be challenged until progressives reject Wellstone fantasies/distractions of reforming the Democrat Party from within.)

In 2008, DN! aired a little bit of third-party voices, but it was nothing compared to the level of promotion the Democrat candidates, Obama, and the Republicans received.

With our most beloved programmes like DN! resistant to airing radical alternatives, what hope can progressives have that anything better may be galvanised approaching 2012? Time will tell. Will another corporate candidate ascend to power in 2012, leaving progressives scratching their heads wondering what happened? (Similarly, will Congress continue to be dominated by Democrats, as beloved broadcasts like DN! largely ignore alternatives?) And then, after the fact, progressives are invariably so surprised and disappointed. Time will tell.

Come on free-speech radio and DN!, let's push things forward.