This is just my opinion...

[Doctor_J]

40. It's 99% media saturation

Your OP has some merit (look at the Walker recall, where the Dem machine supported an appeaser and loser instead of a pro-labor outsider in the primary), but I believe the problem is very easy to pinpoint.

IMO we are pretty much doomed unless we the people personally dismantle the right wing propaganda apparatus. If real Dems like Bernie Sanders & Sheldon Whitehouse were permitted on Big Media, we'd be fine.

After the 2000 coup and all that has flowed from it (CU and so forth), I personally believe that nothing short of a civil war is going to stop the stampede toward fascism. At this point the only question is whether we end up like Haiti or like Rwanda. Our resistance is prevented by 3 things: 1) Those true believers who think that all of the disasters over the last 20 years are anomalies, and that the system is working just fine, and we just need to be patient. A typical member of this group would be one who thinks that imprisoning the shooter is ample retribution the attempted murder of Gabby Giffords (while Beck infests millions of minds every day); 2) Those who are physically afraid, and would rather live on their knees than die on their feet. They don't relish the thought of living in Haiti, but prefer it over Rwanda; 3) Those who are socially liberal on issues like GLBT rights and drug use, but like corporate rule (DLC types).

Again, I think some sort - any sort - of realignment of the country's media is a sine qua non. Unless this happens, no major shift in the political trajectory has any chance.