Because the media over the last six months or so has made the primary races the be all and end all of the news, creating narratives to make the horse
June 6, 2008

Because the media over the last six months or so has made the primary races the be all and end all of the news, creating narratives to make the horse race seem closer than it was or piling on the cream to encourage the pie fight (if you'll excuse the mixed metaphors), it's easy to not realize that the country is, as a whole, swinging back to the left side of the political spectrum as a response to how far right we've gone in the last decade or so.

David Sirota has documented this swing in his new book The Uprising and he sat down with Stephen Colbert to discuss it:

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DS: The Uprising is not about any candidate. The Uprising is about seeing candidates and politicians as vehicles for a movement. People want…

SC: Okay, what candidate is the vehicle for the movement? Let’s…okay, it’s the people, the people swell up underneath the candidate and they inflate him like a political power balloon. Who’s inflating faster?

DS: It’s your state legislators; it’s your city council people; it’s your governor…

SC: I wouldn’t want those people as President. I’ve met those people…

DS: That’s the whole point. We’re led to believe, by people like you, that the President is the only place…the presidential campaign is the only place where change really happens. And the point is that change happens all over the place. When I went out and reported this book, again, I met with people who are unionizing workers in Seattle. I met with people who are forming a third party in New York. I met with people again on the border. These are people who say change is happening far away from the presidential race.

SC: The New York Times—and I’m seeing why—even the NY Times has called you “a populist rabble-rouser”, okay? Are you a Che Guevara? Are you a Che Guevara for our age? Do you look forward to a day where college students wear your face on their shirt and don’t know what you did?

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