So What Am I To Do?

I'm 53 years old and I've never in my lifetime seen anything even approaching what is happening now. I own a television but I rarely use it anymore because of all the crappy programming, the right-wing garbage, and the propaganda that passes these days for news coverage. I own a radio, but rarely turn it on because the air waves are saturated with right wing (and often religious) programs broadcast by people I think must have rabies. I dropped my local paper because it was so right wing and vacuous, it was an embarrassment to the community (not that the community appeared particularly embarrassed, of course).

Now it appears probable that the FCC will approve proposals to further deregulate the media. This means that the problem will only get worse. I would be hard pressed to identify anything more un-American than this.
[...]

I am not optimistic in the slightest about the upcoming presidential campaign. I don't think this country has yet passed through the "deep valley" it needs to find itself in before people start to wake up and begin demanding change (that is, if they still can). The Democrats will have to swim against the tide of a hostile press, a misled (and frequently indifferent) public, an opponent funded by many wealthy supporters with deep pockets, and their own inexplicable and deplorable cowardice.

I'll vote in the next election as I always do, and I'll vote for a Democrat as long as the candidate isn't just Republican-lite, but I see no reason to be optimistic that the ideals I cherish will be restored anytime soon.
[more]

  thanks to BookNotes