How is it that there’s this whopping disconnect now between the ‘propaganda media’ and politics? They just haven’t lost that many viewers or listeners over the last five years (in fact, I think Fox News viewership is actually up this year) to explain why only 23% of people now call themselves ‘Republican’.

So the only other thing to conclude is this: people aren’t as easily swayed as they once were. The angry titans are throwing media punches, but they’re not landing.

Why the big ‘disconnect’? Here are my guesses. I believe they are all to blame at least in some small part for the current failures of the propaganda media.

1.) Everybody’s in on the joke #1. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity–their schtick has been going on long enough that everybody knows they’re hired for 2 purposes: ratings and propaganda. It’s an unholy marriage that orphans rational thought and average sensibility to any other outlets but theirs. Because of that, if you hear an argument of theirs that seems extreme, you don’t give it a second thought (such are the kin of ideological rigidity and gaudy anger). I think the drawn out, brutal years of the Iraq War were what finally exposed them for the corporate propagandists they really are. While so many people came to feel the costs of the War personally, the paycheck black-and-whiters blithely pushed on without a second thought because that’s what they were paid to do. You can’t trust people like that, they’re not human.

2.) Everybody’s in on the joke #2. Fear Factor, the auditioning freaks of American Idol, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Outta Whatever, Paris Hilton, Brangelina, Octo-Mom: the fish-eye psyche of the culture that drives ratings now has got nothing to do with the high quality of anything, it’s just about watching the ‘spectacle’. Fox and Rushbo pull down the big ratings–so what? They’re outrageous, that’s how everything works now. Leave Britney Alone, buddy.

3.) They over-played their strategy. Somewhere during the last eight years, at a height perhaps around the 2004 campaign, they figured that merely bringing up a topic to discuss it isn’t particularly effective in getting your message across. You needed to define your message as the discussion.

Something like this–traditionally: ‘New revelations may bring into question John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. What do you think?’

The new strategy: ‘It turns out John Kerry’s service in Vietnam isn’t what he said it was. What’s your reaction?’

You start with the result you want, you make it the truth and let people weigh in on the ‘revelation.’ This strategy, though, has a huge flaw: it only works if enough people are willing to consider the lie that they’ll ‘jump in’, so to speak. They can’t be too far outside of the sphere of your propaganda, you won’t be speaking to them. You can’t ‘lead’ them by too much, they just won’t get it.

The nation has changed and shifted back, centrally, leaving radio and Fox behind. Yet there they are, trotting out the same far-right incendiary stuff, to no effect. The ‘Sotomayor is a racist’ clip is a perfect example of this sort of misfiring. They’re going to have to move to the center to get enough people back within firing range if they’re going to hit anybody. But they’re not remotely going to do that soon, they’re still adamant that they weren’t right-wing enough in 2008. It’s insane, and I couldn’t be happier.

4.) They can’t back people up against the wall any more. We’ve been dealing with savage terrorists and endless wars for a while, and it’s just part of our daily existence. It once was pretty easy to win an argument when everybody was freaked out post 9/11. You could just play the ‘You’re going to just coddle the murderers?!’ or ‘You wouldn’t kill these scumbags if you had a chance?!’ card, or any other such all-or-nothing ace. But they don’t work now–we’ve regained some composure.

A classic example of this is the current debate on torture: ‘You wouldn’t torture a guy you knew had information on a ticking bomb? What?!‘ This is a ridiculous scenario. We know that torture doesn’t work, it didn’t work, it blackens our national character and reputation, and it’s been illegal the entire time. That still doesn’t stop right-wing radio and Fox from trotting it out daily, but it just falls flat. Thank gawd for sanity’s Yo-Yo effect.

There you go, those are the four that I came up with. I think all of these things are going on, hollowing out what once was a pretty effective propaganda bludgeon. What do you see, what did I miss?

Next up: how Conservatives can re-gain the offensive. Sure, stay tuned.