Getting Ready for Our Debut

19 September 2015 – Nothing worth doing just pops into being with a big bang. Well, the entire universe did but other than that nothing else is just suddenly there, fully formed and ready to go. Hopping Mad with Will McLeod and Arliss Bunny certainly has been and will be in the process of evolving. As I write there is still much to be done and over the next few weeks, as we gain our footing, all manner of things will experience either evolutionary or revolutionary change. Still, we have been on this path for some time so it is probably worth looking at where we are coming from and where we intend to go.

Will and I do not live in the same city. We don’t even live in the same state. We have never met person-to-rabbit. We met on-line as guests on the Netroots Radio program, The After Show. Both Will and I had been on as regular guests for some time already. He generally focused on politics on Monday and I talked about monetary policy and financial news on Thursday. Justice, the host, decided we might be good together, bouncing off of each other (we Rabbit Americans have serious bouncing chops), so we became co-guests on Fridays. We had a great time and as this past year went on we became progressively more comfortable working together. I don’t recall now whose idea it was but all of the sudden I was sitting at my desk trying to think of an appropriate name for a show that Will and I would co-host. We intend to cover not just politics and economics but all of the issues which are priorities to progressives not just in the United States but around the world.

One cannot help but to note the election of Jeremy Corbyn, to lead the Labour Party in the UK, and the strength of the Bernie Sanders campaign here in the US, the battle being waged by the left in Greece against the deadly bullies of the Troika, the growth of the left in Spain, Portugal and even revived whispers in Ireland. It’s a tide. It’s rising. There will be ebb and flow, there always is, but enough is enough and you can’t keep a good rabbit down…or human either. The battle is joined. This isn’t a time to be kicking back on your couch with a bag of kale chips. There is thinking both on the right and even the left that Occupy didn’t matter but you have to ask yourself, would the Sanders campaign be as strong if Occupy hadn’t gone first?

Tune in to Netroots Radio on Mondays at 8AM Eastern or download our podcast from Stitcher, Libsyn or iTunes. You can even listen to the player which will be on our “Hopping Mad Podcasts” tab. It used to be that organizing progressives was like herding cats but lately the GOP has (laughably) picked up that ball and we are moving forward. Social media and the web are integral to our collective success. We at Hopping Mad are doing our part to spread the word (and to laugh and point at the Tea Party but that’s only because they STILL can’t spellcheck their protest signs.) Join us, it’ll be a thumping good time.

– Carrots to you and yours – Arliss