Wondering about Political Liberalism’s Relative Political Weakness

I’ve been wondering about the political weakness of the Democratic Party, as the (imperfect) vessel of political liberalism, relative to the numbers of people who agree with its basic positions on most issues. According to the polls I have seen, a solid majority of Americans agree that global warming (the ecological environment generally) is something that must be addressed through government; that wealthier people should pay more taxes; that abortion should be ‘legal and rare’; that we need a comprehensive, humane, ‘liberal’ immigration policy; that we need a higher minimum wage; that we need some kind of truly universal health care; etc. Yet, political outcomes do not reflect that political reality.

There can be, of course, many factors contributing to that phenomenon — including the possibility that in fact a majority of Americans do not support those positions, that the polls I have seen are somehow erroneous. If those polls are correct, though, the Democrats’ political problem boils down to this: too few of the people who support their positions get out and vote. Here I want to suggest one possible contributor to that phenomenon.

Liberals don’t seem to be fond of admitting it, but the ‘mainstream media’ are in fact purveyors of the liberal ideology. Movies, T.V., the recording industry, and — perhaps most insistently — the marketing industry, which is part and parcel of all of those media, create a nonstop stream of words and images that convey the liberal perspective into people’s minds. Could it be that people who are ‘casually’ liberal, who support liberal political positions but are not politically engaged, even enough to vote, do not get engaged because those media create a false sense of accomplishment for political liberalism?

For people immersed one way or another in such media — which is most people in the U.S., and especially younger people — it could seem that we already live in a liberal wonderland. Where is the need, a casually liberal person could wonder, to get politically engaged to further the liberal Cause?

This ‘theory’ would also help to explain the greater zeal of people who are politically conservative.