It is a great big mistake for establishment media lefties to crow too much about Lou Dobbs leaving CNN. Casting him as some sort of straw-man racist, and thereby dismissing what he has to say, is self-destructive and mechanical.
However objectionable some of Lou Dobbs' views, he may be the face of right-wing populism, and if the lefties want to win they had better start making coalition politics with all the populists they can find. Do the lefties want to be in the position of disputing Lou Dobbs on things like outsourcing, tax fairness, executive compensation, and free trade? Only if they want to lose.
To say it again: populism is surging on the left and the right and the two sides are finding more points of agreement all the time. The worst nightmare of Corporate America is a true coalition between people like Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, and Ron Paul on one side, and Ralph Nader, Bernie Sanders, and Dennis Kucinich on the other. Such a coalition is increasingly possible and if it came to power about three fourths of our current grief would just disappear. Bickering between the right and the left wings of populism only feeds the current power structure.
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