Elections, Progressives, Stakes Too Low

Tonight, Election Day, (well, technically last night now...), I went to an election party with a bunch of electorally focused progressives at Tracks, one of Denver's gay clubs. Suspicious I wouldn't fit in as an electoral skeptic, I arrived. The dancing was fun. After a series of speeches on everything from comprehensive immigration reform, saving the rivers, reproductive justice, health care, labor and affirmative action, the dancing started up again and towering above the gesticulating progressives were huge images from corporate news. At first I thought I was watching a T.V. Sheriff-esque video mix. Sadly, I was wrong. It turned out the video images playing on the wall were the evening news. It struck me. All these progressive reforms and nobody was taking on the problems of media consolidation. The limits of contemporary progressive debate are being set by ABC, NBC, CNN, and Fox. Its pathetic. Until Colorado progressives fight for a just, fair media, we will continue to have irrelevant, politically reformist movements couched in shortsighted reforms and long-term continued capitalist exploitation without a media to set more pressing agendas, more long-term goals, more inspirational frames to debate contemporary issues.