US - BBC:"The American left has faded away"

Coming from the BBC that's saying something.

While Webb's report is mainly about the failure of the Left, the underlying message is an attack on the Right.

These, of course, refer to the election of 2000 in which more Americans voted for Al Gore, but which was awarded to Mr Bush by the Supreme Court after that voting snafu in Florida.

Only in Webb's and the BBC's alternate world was Bush "awarded" the election. Every recount and study has proven conclusively that Bush won Florida. The Supreme Court didn't award anything.

But at least he gets this right:

The nation plainly elected Mr Bush - he won more than 50% of the vote - something Bill Clinton never managed.

Then Webb goes on the attack.

From World War II until the Reagan revolution the establishment in the US was socially progressive.

There was a belief that there was such a thing as society, and its ills could and should be tackled.

Webb's planting the idea that the Right doesn't hold those beliefs.

Now, there are plenty of Americans who still hold those views, but the arteries which once fed them into the nation's vital organs, have been clogged or cut.

So, now that the Right is in power, society of being killed.

The universities do not have the power they did, professorial authority is less respected.

Most importantly, the worlds of entertainment and news (which used to pipe a vaguely left-wing message into the nation's homes) have been blown to bits by technological changes which render them powerless.

"Powerless"? Come on Webb, that's a little over the top. Bloggers, Fox news and talk radio are having success at exposing the left wing professors and media but we have a long way to go.

Just in case you missed the message of how evil the Right is, Webb goes nuclear.

The Democrats need a message and a new way of communicating that message to a mass audience. They have neither.

And do not be fooled by those who say this malaise is structural, at this stage of the electoral cycle there isn't a presidential candidate etc.

No, it is more than that. The American left has faded away.

Only their bumper stickers remain, like cockroaches after a nuclear holocaust.

"Re-defeat George Bush," they whine. Not knowing, not caring that the world has changed.

Webb is moaning about the obvious failure of the Left in America and blaming the uncaring Right for their demise. But he too, like the BBC, do not know and do not care that the world has changed - for the better.
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