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There have been rays of hope for progressives recently, notably in the Wisconsin uprising against Governor Walker’s union-busting jihad and in Glenn Beck’s impending departure from Fox News, after strong critical campaigns by Color Of Change, the Jewish Fund for Justice and others, focusing on Beck’s racism and obsession with Nazism.

But let’s face it: progressives are perpetually put on the defensive by the right-wing media, and so are Obama and the Democrats, for that matter. The relentless conservative propaganda machine dominates the public discourse more than ever.  The alarming result is that, according to a number of polls, the constant repetition of conservative disinformation results in many Americans increasingly denying reality.

We have reached this point over a 30- to 40-year process in which conservatives built and funded an infrastructure that is now so well entrenched it operates seamlessly. We are being overrun by a relentless, orchestrated, coordinated machine that hammers away with propaganda and obvious lies, shaped by conservative values and pro-business and corporate talking points. These are woven into conservative narratives delivered by big personalities in every corner of the media where they dominate the discourse and have the largest and most active audiences. It is, in a word, a juggernaut.