Disconnect cable

The cable television industry has become the right wing's main lever for the suppression of democratic discourse, both liberal and conservative. As a matter of self-interest, it is time for liberals to disconnect cable.

The easy money in cable flows from densely populated areas, strongholds of civil discourse and progressive self-confidence. But the cable industry uses the cash flows from those areas to extend its political power and expand into less urban markets, along the way undermining the interests of its own best customers. In effect, it uses its lucrative monopolies in liberal districts to muffle civil discourse and support a political network that is sympathetic to corporate acquisition of exclusive market controls.

Because cable is a guild of local monopolies, all "media" companies live or die by their ability to strike bargains with cable toll-collectors. This dynamic has caused a kind of consolidation in which each member of the handful of communications goliaths holds enough cards to bargain from strength, at least for the short term.

There is no more powerful lobby than that supporting cable. The industry has managed to get law to define away logic and observation -- having itself declared not a monopoly, acquiring first-amendment rights to free speech not to be subverted by calls for fairness or decency. In fact, cable is not an efficient way to distribute television. It is only an effective way to extract tolls for viewing. Without franchises granted by the state, it would not exist.

Can a citizen get by without cable?  The transition will seem retrograde, but actually it will be futuristic. You will be watching more DVDs and getting more programs over the air, perfect practice for the habit of choosing shows from your massive hard drive and through wireless television. Right now, the cable industry is trying to contain the hard-drive television trend within its own monopoly, and through its lackeys in the broadcast industry, to snuff out the expansion of wireless television.