A Socialist In The Fox Hole
How An Hour on Fox News Shows the Power of a Progressive Agenda
A few weeks ago it was announced that senator Bernie Sanders was going to broadcast a town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on the Fox News channel. To the vast majority of his supporters, this was viewed as a chance to take his message of class struggle married with universalist social democracy to a completely different audience. How often, after all, does your average Fox viewer get exposure to a clear and concise pro-labor, antiracist, and universalist message that reframed populist anger away from social minorities to be redirected at the ruling economic elite?
To a smaller contingent of his supporters, this was a betrayal. According to them, his appearance on Fox would lend legitimacy to an organization that hypes conspiracy theories and stokes hateful rhetoric. According to folks like the Intercept’s Mehdi Hassan and hyper online media leftists like Sam Sacks and David Klion, this decision by Sanders lends undue legitimacy to an undeniable reactionary institution.
Personally, I fell pretty hard on the pro-town hall side. Having driven cross country multiple times and grown up in the south, I’ve seen the consistent prevalence of Fox for a large swath of the country. Barring peak Russiagate coverage from Rachel Maddow, Fox has dominated cable news for decades at this point. While Fox’s bottom line may have been affected by strategic pressure on advertisers for their prime-time opinion shows, it’s laughable to claim that the most watched cable news channel is lacking in legitimacy.
Thankfully, we were able to put this theory to the test quite quickly, and oh boy did Sanders pass that test. Between a rousing and unequivocal statement of support for the bravest politician in the country, Ilhan Omar, and deftly turning a gotcha question from Fox Host Brett Baier into a moment of free media gold by getting a Fox audience to cheer a socialized healthcare plan, Sanders absolutely crushed it. By going into enemy territory and refusing to bend an inch to conservatives, he revealed liberals fears of appearing on Fox as unfounded.
Sanders even seemed to rattle the President, who must have interrupted Trump’s “executive time” where he eats garbage fast food and watches his friends on TV. Perhaps the president was just annoyed that Hannity had to come on later than expected, or maybe he, a product of a decrepit media culture has a clear picture of how effective Sanders message was in Bethlehem. He saw his most likely opponent present the clearest case against his presidency and knows that calling him “Crazy Bernie” ain’t gonna cut it.
Now’s the time to be bold and strike. After generations of defeat, some progressives and leftists may have internalized a political mode of insulular cautiousness, concerning themselves more with appeasing liberal instincts than taking risks. This strategy may help protect your media brand, but does very little to organize or persuade. The Left has a winning message that must be spread to fight the ills of society. By meeting people where they are, we can change the world.
