From: nlns@igc.apc.org (New Liberation News Service)
Subject: NLNS ELECTION COVERAGE (3)
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 12:49:51 GMT

/* Written  6:25 pm  Oct 13, 1992 by nlns in cdp:nlns.news */
/* ---------- "NLNS Packet 3.3 *** 10/12/92" ---------- */

How We Rock!  A review of MTV's Rock The Vote campaign.
Jason Pramas, NLNS

(NLNS)--
Last week, I was sitting around the house watching 
Married With Children reruns. Then, whipped into near-frenzy 
by the antics of the mercurial Bundy clan, I stayed glued to a 
couple more Fox network extravaganzas and suddenly it was 
THAT TIME. I had forgotten, MTV had cut a deal with Fox to 
show its Rock The Vote TV special. And, lucky me, I was just 
the kind of 18-25 year old that was meant to be caught in its 
carefully-created demographic web.  Albeit one who is already 
registered to vote--as an independent, thank you very little.
	For those of you who managed to miss the hype, MTV 
has been pumping its unique brand of election year hysteria at 
rock concerts and other hip media events for the last several 
months now. Called Rock The Vote, this is a campaign with a 
typically simplistic MTV twist. A summarization: There are lots 
of young people of voting age. Most of them do not vote. If we 
register them, most of them will vote for a "CHANGE."
	What kind of change is rarely touched upon in the 
various sound-bite video-propaganda sniglets that have been 
used to advertise the campaign. Over the last year, viewers 
have been treated to 30-second blurbs on  the presidential 
candidates (and this campaign focuses primarily on the 
presidential race) which might include things about George 
Bush like his favorite sport and rather conspicuously omit less 
savory facts like: "Biggest Mass Murderer Since Ronald Reagan."
	A couple of months ago Bill Clinton paid a visit to the 
network to "talk to the youth" which was about as unexciting 
an event as one might expect. As a sharp Boston Globe 
columnist put it (to paraphrase): "It is ludicrous to talk about 
Bill Clinton representing the free-wheeling 60s generation. 
While the rest of us were out doing the wild thing, the Bill 
Clintons of the world were in student government 
experimenting with new and exciting ways to wear blue 
polyester suits." So whether he plays the sax or not, a machine 
politician is a machine politician, and none of the answers to 
the questions thrown by the "youth" in the studio audience 
were much more than the usual campaign circumlocution. Not 
that the oh-so-hip MTV studio audiences are particularly 
articulate representatives of my generation. While there might 
have been a few Harvard-educated "Global Teens" in the 
audience with their asymmetrical haircuts all aglow mouthing 
platitudes about the "destruction of the rainforest" or some 
other half-explained pseudo issue--there was not much in the 
way of hard-hitting journalistic repartee by anyone present. No 
barbs about Clinton's possible connections to BCCI. Nothing 
about his labor record. Or his environmental record. Or which 
Fortune 500 corporations are backing him. Just a lot of inane 
balloon questions beginning with phrases such as: "Uh, like. . 
.Governor Clinton. . ." and ending with ". . .the destruction of the 
rainforest."
	But the piece de resistance was upon me at last. Rock 
The Vote. The Movie. The TV Show. Whatever. Now I'm sure 
my reading audience is on the edge of their proverbial seats 
waiting for me to savage the tele-despoilers of the reputation 
of my generation with savage knives of well-turned phrase, 
but wait. . .it wasn't too bad. Not as bad as I was expecting 
anyway. Rock The Vote is the kind of show I watch closely for. 
As a child of the mass culture myself, watching up to 13 hours 
of TV a day while growing up asthmatic, I KNOW TV like I 
know few other things. And a political show that is more good 
than bad is about the best one can expect from the mainstream 
broadcast media. So when one such comes up, I am of two 
minds. On the one hand, I have no trouble shooting the 
messenger (MTV) for being such a corporate tool. On the other 
hand, for all the problems I have with the spastic, jump-cut use 
of the medium (an MTV trademark), the basic message of Rock 
The Vote was at its best liberal-to-leftist with populist noisings 
thrown in for good measure. At worst it was apolitical 
nonsense, but I take that as par for the course. But none of it 
could be called right-wing; so the show passes my first litmus 
test of relative coolness.
	Let me focus on the positive first. Of the twenty or so 
"stars" that the show featured, about eight were decent and 
articulate. They came at the screen in different ways. Danny 
DeVito was awesome playing a shadowy power-broker 
speaking candidly of our generation as mindless consumers 
who could be manipulated at will by the military-industrial 
complex. Michael Moore (of Roger and Me fame) was extremely 
amusing, though not as cutting as I would have hoped, 
interviewing the heads of obscure Washington lobbies with the 
straightest of faces. As he moved from National Cigar Lobby to 
the National Cookies and Candy Lobby, he got the stodgy 
executive-types therein to say some pretty silly things.  But the 
best was when he asked the National Funeral Lobby how they 
thought the dead would vote this year and they said, 
"Democratic."
	The most worth it part of the show for me, however, 
were the three short (very) segments that actually dealt with 
grassroots political struggles. That ubiquitous middle-class 
black person, Spike Lee, led the pack with the surprisingly 
inspiring segment on the struggles of the Student Non-Violent 
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the South of the early 60s. 
This was the first time outside of "Eyes on the Prize" reruns 
that I can recall any mention of that most revolutionary of 
youth organizations. The deeds of SNCC are already legend and 
should be studied more closely than they are by today's 
activists, but to see them recounted in a time slot normally 
relegated to Beverly Hills 90210 took me off guard. My respect 
for the whole effort immediately went up a few notches. Of 
course, the main point of the SNCC segment was to highlight 
their incredibly hard fight to simply REGISTER large number of 
poor southern blacks. And to show its outcome with milestones 
like the founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
	Following straight on its heels was a piece narrated by 
Laura Dern and Rebecca DeMornay (mark these names down on 
your lists of Brat Packers to hit up for money) on the 
Suffragette Movement. I was unhappy that they did not follow 
it up with a segment on the more-relevant Women's Liberation 
Movement of the 60s (No, Ms. Magazine, the movement did 
NOT begin with your cooptation of it in the early 70s!). Still, to 
see file footage of women at the turn of the century carrying 
feminist banners with slogans that still ring true, sadly and 
gladly, was powerful and well placed. One can only hope that 
the young people watching the show take it upon themselves to 
investigate the leads they were given on Rock The Vote. 
Someone whose name I neglected to write down, did a skimpy, 
but o.k. bit about the anti-Vietnam War movement and. . .there 
it was. The five-minutes that showcased grassroots struggle as 
the true bastion of democracy were joined by maybe another 
ten of assorted good things in an hour long show. Priscilla 
Presley had some nice things to say. Robin William was almost 
back up-to-par as he was shown fielding volleyballs with 
political terms written on them and "improv"-ing amusing folk 
definitions of the words in his hands.
	As for the rest? Well, there was a five-part 
"mockumentary" about a 25-year old, pudgy, hulking schmuck 
named "Steve Wilkins" running for City Council in a fictional 
town against a fifty year old black man-- which for all its 
cinema verite aspirations and liberal good-naturedness did 
little to make the prospects of running for office look very 
attractive. It also got my goat when the kid actually said a few 
words about his economic plan if elected, "I'd like to start a 
non-profit corporation that would encourage Big Business to 
invest in entrepreneurship in this city." Oh yeah, I've heard 
that game before. Up in Burlington, Vermont, where the liberal 
"Progressives"  hold sway over the right-wing "Democrats" and 
a friend of mine named Eugene Resnick (in his late twenties) 
ran a grassroots campaign for City Council against just that kind 
of Keynesian economic nonsense. He got 15% his first time out, 
as did my friend Jon Leavitt who ran as a Green in Lawrence, 
MA last year. MTV would've done better to talk to people like 
them, if they really wanted to discuss the whys and wherefores 
of third party efforts in the US today.
	But it was not to be. Let me list the rest of the "stars" 
that appeared in Rock The Vote, for you fame fans who are just 
dying to know. Since she's so accustomed to the spotlight, I'll 
start by mentioning Madonna. There I've done it. I think they 
should loosen her leather corsets occasionally to allow some 
blood to flow to her brain and maybe then she'd get something 
approaching a clue. Aside from the two or three I didn't 
recognize, the following appeared and did NOT distinguish 
themselves: Michael Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, Red Hot Chili 
Peppers, REM, The Disposable Heroes of Hipopracy (I expected 
better of them, but they were kind of funny blowing off "Steve 
Wilkins" in the "mockumentary."), Christian "Pump Up The 
Volume was just a fluke" Slater, Luke "likes to skeet-shoot with 
Charleton Heston" Perry, Lisa Bonet, Ted Danson, and of course, 
U2. The "Top 4 Issues" (for young people) listed repeatedly 
were: Jobs, Education, AIDS, and The Environment. Why race 
and sex got omitted from this list probably reflects MTV's 
white, middle-class male audience, but were unforgiveable.  
And it was unclear what we were supposed to be thinking 
about these issues. Are we in favor of more AIDS? Or "curing" 
it? I'm a little confused. Dopey me.
	At this juncture, readers are probably thinking: "Jason, 
this is all well and good, but what's your point? Is this the best 
we can expect out of the mainstream media? Why should we 
give a good goddamn about the drivel MTV shovels at us and 
calls political? We all admit that the Pearl Jam "Evenflow" video 
is God, but even so, does this make it worth our while to pay 
attention to the station which makes it more and more difficult 
for us to pay attention to anything? Or to read? Or think? 
Jeezum Crowbars, we sure are confused?"
	Well, you are an unusually prescient audience to 
recognize the godhood of Pearl Jam's "Evenflow" video. . .but 
the point is the thing. The point is: Young radical activists must 
not scoff at voter registration. It does mean something. It 
means a lot, but it depends why you are doing it and for whom.         
	Frankly, I am tired of the left ceeding the political high-
ground to the right-wing and liberal-centrists in this country. I 
am tired of people forgetting that it takes years and years of 
hard unglamorous work to build fighting Left political 
movements that can REALLY take power in this country--and 
can REALLY do something worthwhile with that power once we 
get it. I am sick of youth movements in this country that jump 
to burning police cars without doing any of that funky "middle 
part"-- the actual grassroots organizing. I am tired of people 
looking strictly to foreign political movements for inspiration 
when American history is absolute overflowing with examples 
of everyday resistance to the powers-that-be. Examples like 
SNCC that are still less than thirty years old.
	In short, there is a real failure to think STRATEGICALLY 
about what we do politically. There is a failure to plan in the 
long-term. To think beyond the next time you get to say a few 
words about Chinese dissidents on National Public Radio. To 
think about actually talking to "The People" the Left is 
supposed to be interested in "saving." Actually, I think genuine 
radicals aren't interested in "saving" anyone, and the 
separation between grassroots activists who have a real stake 
in a better society that will better their material and spiritual 
condition, and liberals who use words like "saving" that belie 
their class background is getting larger every day.
	One way we can change all this is precisely by building a 
new socialist, democratic and feminist third party over the next 
few years. We need it bad. I am sick to death of strictly 
cultural politics. Of people who think that theater substitutes 
for revolution. Or for organizing. Organizing means building 
organizations. Revolutionary organizations of all kinds, 
including theater, that people can come together in, and fight 
with, and develop true centers of resistance in. I am tired of 
people thinking they are organizers without actually 
organizing.
	One way to build revolutionary organizations and parties 
is to engage in voter registration. And then to encourage people 
to vote for your new party or simply to come to your groups 
meetings. To talk to them. To listen to them. To question them. 
To engage them.  Involve them. Get to know them. Drink a few 
beers (or teas) with them. I believe that voting is a right that 
should be jealously guarded. It may seem irrelevant to most 
folks on the national level, but even if you don't think it does 
much good to cast a vote on the presidential ballot (although I 
think it matters), consider the significance of our franchise on 
the lower levels of government.
	It is not insignificant when radical organizations take 
over cities and municipalities. Look at Brazil if you don't 
believe me. The Workers Party there controls the huge 
city/state of Sao Paolo. Even with the army largely out of their 
control it still has an effect.  If good folks controlled the city 
council or town board in your area, wouldn't it have a positive 
effect? Wouldn't resources be freed up for new housing 
projects for the homeless and poor, job programs at union 
wages to build up public infrastructure, revamping the public 
schools, changing to ecologically sound power grids? Wouldn't 
any of this matter. I think it would. An engaged citizenry with 
their power to vote can help bring these things about. And here 
we sit with only less than 40% of under-25 year olds voting.
	In the current situation, I think MTV's Rock The Vote is 
important strategically for two reasons. It encourages young 
people to register. And it encourages them basically to vote for 
Clinton/Gore. The second statement will no doubt surprise 
many of you. Why should we support the anti-communist 
Dixiecrat fucks? Three reasons. 1) The lack of a viable (and 
fully realized) third party has backed the Left up against the 
familiar old wall of political irrelevance. None of the Left Third 
Party candidates are big enough to win--from Ron Daniels on 
down. If they can't win, all they can do is educate people at this 
point. And assuming that they are already doing that, there is 
no reason to actually vote for them in November. Because, 2) 
The Left always thrives in periods of liberal ascendancy. If 
Clinton/Gore are elected, there will be a change in government. 
Most of it will merely put a happy face on oppression. But 
remember, 2000 major government positions will switch from 
Bush leaguers to new faces. There will be some better people in 
some key positions. In Congress,  vital laws that would have 
been easily vetoed by Bush (who has a 38-1 veto success 
record-- with a Democratic majority congress) will have a 
better chance of survival. And the Supreme Court will probably 
improve, if one of the current codgers buys the big one soon. 
None of this is insignificant. It buys the Left four years of 
breathing space. We need breathing space. Things are 
horrendous right now from both an economic and a civil 
libertarian perspective. The economic situation will only get 
worse, but a breather in the critical realm of the political 
liberties must happen soon or all may be lost. We need room to 
organize afresh. The best of the old must merge with the best 
of the new and move forward together. 3) Maybe people will 
believe that things CAN still change in this country. That we are 
not doomed to an unstoppable slide into complete fascism. That 
the CIA doesn't control our every waking move, but is itself 
fraught with splits and ineptitude for all its money and power. 
It will help people hope again.
	Whether or not Clinton/Gore win, our task is clear. Build 
a third party. Do it. The process has already begun. There are at 
least five major efforts to build a left third party building 
steam even as I write this. We need to work with them. We 
need to register our own voters. Start winning local offices of 
all kinds like crazy, just like the Christian ultra-right has been 
doing for the past five years. Build a coordinated power base of 
interlocking left institutions. And when 1996 rolls around--hit 
hard. If we can't win the whole shebang, we can parley for real 
changes in government and advance to the next stage.  But that 
is a debate we'll have to have in 1995. Right now, our job is to 
get people engaged again. To take the high ground away from 
MTV--and from the Democratic Party for that matter.  I think 
we can do it. I hope you all do too.

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