Mark 4:9: “And he said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’
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The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

If I seem to speak in parables, please forgive me.

Writers can only tell stories and hope some people might understand and take action.

There are people screaming at me in private telling me what I should be doing.

My question for them is, what are you doing?

I mean other than scanning the so-called Facebook news feed on your iPhone and occasionally clicking on the “like” button?

I wrote an entire book about saving democracy and the planet.

Jump On The Bus: Make Democracy Work Again

Oh, I know. People don’t read books anymore, or click on news links on Facebook. You won’t read it unless it is on Facebook, the platform that is literally killing American journalism and democracy.

I Heard It Through the Facebook Grapevine

While Democrats are sharing cat pictures and silly memes on Facebook, the Trump Republicans are very busy, actively working to steal future elections, while continuing to falsely accuse Democrats of stealing the last one, which every bona fide expert says was the most secure, honest election ever.

We recently ran a story detailing what the Republicans are up to. Did you take the time to read it? Did you share it with your friends?

Heeding Steve Bannon’s Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP — and Reshape America’s Elections

I shared a couple of important stories on Facebook Saturday morning. Clearly Facebook is not showing these stories to anyone, and very few people are paying close attention because The New York Times and The Washington Post are protected by paywalls.

People will pay for cable TeeVee, by Dog, but are reluctant to pay for news online, since there appears to be so much of it, all that silly and useless clickbait that grabs your attention. There is even a show on Netflix now called Clickbait. Have you watched it? Not me.

So even though most people don’t have ears to hear the truth, we will keep publishing it anyway.

Here’s what’s going on.

A fairly new New York Times columnist named Jamelle Bouie from Charlottesville, Virginia, wrote a worthy column that came out on Friday under the headline: Trump Had a Mob. He Also Had a Plan.

“As the full picture of Jan. 6 begins to come into view, I think we should consider it a kind of revolution or, at least, the very beginning of one. Joe Biden ultimately became president, but Donald Trump’s fight to keep himself in office against the will of the voters has upturned the political order. The plot itself shows us how.”

He summarizes the plot, which has been detailed in many news stories over the past few months, all of which I have shared on Facebook or written myself.

But if you have an ear to hear, this is a good summary. Maybe you should print it out and post it on the wall by your computer.

I don’t have to do that because I have been covering this story in great depth all along. Perhaps you missed most of it because it was not posted full text for free on Facebook.

I have an archive to consult if I need to look back to recall what happened. It is a searchable archive that is free online with no paywall or popup ad and no sponsored sensational celebrity content to wade through.

NewAmericanJournal.Net

Here are a couple of parables for today.

How Doug Jones Got Elected in 2017

In May of 2017, I told people that Birmingham attorney Doug Jones had a chance to get elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat. People all over Alabama and the country shared the links on Facebook and Twitter.

I told Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen this in person on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, while Republicans were inside setting up a vote to kill the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Emboldened by Exoneration in Mueller Probe, Trump Administration Moves to Strike Down Health Care Law

I was there in the Senate Gallery the day John McCain voted thumbs down.

At the time, Van Hollen was head of the Senate Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and he went to work on behalf of Doug Jones.

And low and behold, Jones won that election, and was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in January, 2018.

In other words, we beat Steve Bannon and Donald Trump (who endorsed Roy Moore) in that election, the only case of its kind in the country.

Alabama Democrat Doug Jones Sworn in as U.S. Senator

But people did not listen to me in 2020. They did not share the links.

Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville got elected instead.

The Republicans worked hard. The Democrats simply hit like on a few Facebook posts.

The Race for Control of the U.S. Senate is On

The Democrats in Atlanta did work hard, playing a key role in Joe Biden being elected president and Democrats regaining majorities in the House and Senate.

Democrats Win Historic Victories in Georgia and Take Control of Power in the Senate

But I have to tell another story today to try to make this lesson clear.

Go back and read the story about what Steve Bannon is doing now.

When I moved back to Birmingham in 2005 from Washington, D.C. because my elderly mother needed my help to continue living in her home she had been in since 1960 and avoid a nursing home for as long as possible, I had some interaction with progressive activists on Southside.

The woman who accosted me back then on an email listserv (before there was a Facebook) wanted my help because of my many years of expertise with media effects on public opinion.

She could not even seem to find a place for the group to meet.

I am a journalist, not an activist. But there have been times when the situation was so important I felt I had to get a little involved (the chapter on fracking and the Sierra Club in my book is one of those times).

This time, I suggested the backroom at the 22nd Street Jazz Cafe might be a good place to meet. Leaders from a number of liberal, Democrat, progressive and peace groups in Birmingham came. I mostly listened, since I was new back in town and trying to figure out what the political problem was in Alabama at the time.

I ultimately figured it out and wrote the story, including a video interview with historian Wayne Flynt. This story went viral all over the world. I showed the video to 350 union leaders in a conference near Montgomery.

Why Do Working Class People Vote Against Their Economic Interests? Poor But Proud: Twenty Years Later – Auburn History Professor Wayne Flynt Answers the Central Political Question of Our Time

But like Democrats do, in that meeting on Southside they mostly argued with each other, and could not coalesce around any coherent plan of action.

In parting, I made a humble suggestion, which is still my suggestion today.

If progressives are disgruntled with the leadership of the Democratic Party, I said, they should do what the Christian Right did back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They took over the Republican Party and rewrote the platform. That’s how Ronald Reagan, considered a long-shot in that election, became president.

Finally in 2016 — 11 years later — not in Birmingham but in Washington, Bernie Sanders ran for president as a Democrat and vowed to get his delegates on the platform committee even if he was not elected. The Progressive Democrats of America wanted him to run as an independent. I advised them to run him as a Democrat. He did.

Many Bernie Democrats are still mad at the party machinery for helping Hillary Clinton win the Democratic Party Primary in 2016. Many believe if he had been the nominee, he could have beaten Trump.

I don’t know for sure that’s true, but he seemed to have a chance at the time judging by public opinion polls.

But I’ve had two people just in the past week bring this back up again and shout it into the phone at me.

The lesson here is, Bernie didn’t give up. He got his people on the platform committee, and now he’s a critical player in the party as chair of the Senate Budget Committee.

So Democrats are going to have to do more than hit like on Facebook to avoid Republicans winning back majorities in the U.S. House and Senate in 2022, and to make sure Donald Trump is not reelected president again in 2024.

Get involved in the party and help us get the real news out on social media.

The antidote to the virus of fake news is real news. If enough people drowned out all the fake, stupid crap on Facebook with real news links, we might have a chance to save some form of democracy, and drown out all the anti-vax BS and climate change denying idiocy.

That is our only hope.

Stop screaming at me about what I should be doing. I’m doing it. I’m covering the important news and sharing it on Facebook and Twitter.

Now what are you doing?

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