The mainstream media has finally discovered the culture of corruption running our government. They have discovered the disappearing middle class. They have found the serious threat to our American Democracy of questionable voting machines and outright election fraud. I applaud their recent discoveries but feel the need to state that there have long been voices calling for reform actions to remedy these outrages.
As I am writing this column, I am watching, on C-SPAN, two important authors who have been crusading for reform on these issues for years. Thom Hartmann is discussing his brilliant new book, SCREWED. Hartmann is an author who addresses the economic and political assaults on the American middle class and American Democracy in his books, columns and radio shows.
He is joined on the show by political scientist and author Mark Crispin Miller. His recent book on our flawed election system is a political must read. It is aptly called Fooled Again.
They are not to only informed voices calling out for reform from the political wilderness. We have investigative reporter Greg Palast who has written two brilliant books, Best Democracy Money Could Buy and, more recently, Armed Madhouse. We have David Sirota, who wrote the brilliant book exposing the how and why of the corporate takeover of the American government, called Hostile Takeover. Sirota's book has many important reform action plans on issue after issue.
There is the amazingly talented and informed writer William Rivers Pitt. His news and opinion website Truthout.org http://www.truthout.org is relied upon by tens of thousands of activists around the nation as their primary news source. I highly recommend his book, The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.
Other Internet sites I highly recommend are OpEd News.com and Buzzflash. Both are excellent and are relied upon by reform activists in exactly the same way as Truthout. Rob Kall of OpEd News should be a widely known and often interviewed media pundit. Mark Karlin of Buzzflash should be appearing often on your television set along with these other informed reformists.
Political activists like Bob Fertik of Democrats.com should be seen as often as James Carville or Paul Begala. He was kicked off a Bill O'Reilly program because O'Reilly could not get away with his normal Republican spin with Bob Fertik as a guest.
Local talk radio personalities like Guy James (Florida), Andy Johnson (Florida), Mike Ward (Kentucky), Joe Jackson (Utah), Arnie Arnesen (New Hampshire), Meria Heller (mostly Internet) and hundreds of others have vast knowledge on these subjects. I would love to see Bernie Ward, Peter Werbe, Mike Malloy and many others appearing on your television screen discussing the current outrages of the Bush Republicans and the large international corporations controlling our government.
My co-host, Al Lawrence and I have interviewed or otherwise interacted with hundreds of well-informed activists, authors and other reformers since Democratic Talk Radio was formed the night the Bush vs. Gore ruling by the Supreme Court short-circuited American Democracy in 2000. The availability of potential informed reformist guests, not seen on your television set, is huge.
I apologize for leaving out so many talented writers, talk show hosts, books, websites and activists from this article. Thousands of others deserve mention but space does not permit the kind of in-depth discussion the subject deserves. Maybe I can correct these omissions in future columns or a book.
The American public needs exposure to the ideas and knowledge of all those mentioned and many others. Our future will be much brighter if we listen to these voices calling for real reform from the American political wilderness!
Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: P.O. Box 283, Earleville, Maryland 21919. Email: midsouthcm@aol.com . Phone: 443-907-2367.
Feel free to publish without prior permission without charge as a Letter to the Editor, OpEd, Guest Editorial or Democratic Voices column.
