One thing I’d like to see Dem groups do more of is develop front groups. That is, the left would probably benefit if we had more phony organizations with impressive sounding names that can pretend to exist and generate attention. The right does it with surprising efficiency.
Consider, for example, this item from today’s Washington Times.
A group of black leaders is accusing liberal blacks and others of racism after President Bush’s nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for secretary of state.
Members of Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan voice of the black community since 1992, are critical of “self-professed” civil rights leaders who remain silent on current and previous racial attacks on black Bush administration officials.
So, is Project 21 a “group of black leaders”? That’s certainly the impression you’d get from this article, but it’s hardly true.
Joshua Holland noted in a terrific item for The Gadflyer a few months back that Project 21, which bills itself as an organization of conservative African-Americans, is led by a man named David Almasi — who is white. What’s worse, he is Project 21’s only paid staff member and he doesn’t even work full time.
What we have here is a white conservative issuing a press release on behalf of an allegedly African-American group about alleged instances of racism against Condi Rice. Conservative news outlets, like the Moonies’ Washington Times, pick this up as legitimate news and report it uncritically. I’d bet money that sometime over the next couple of weeks, someone on Fox News will say that there’s been “some grumbling” about liberal racism against Rice and point out the concerns of “Project 21.”
Why don’t we have equally vacuous front groups on our side to churn out insipid nonsense like this? Granted, we don’t have ultra-liberal daily newspapers and our own cable news network to spread propoganda, but it couldn’t hurt. It wouldn’t even cost much, since, as the right has already demonstrated, front groups don’t need offices or staff members to be taken seriously.