>I think the growing, collectivized voices of the left are
>more interesting than a top-down notion of influential
>thinkers

in general...the left is more decentralized and bottom-up grassroots driven. as opposed to the right being more streamlined/consolidated and top-down authoritarian.

so its much easier to elevate voices among the right when most of their audience is tuned into that heavily-concentrated elevation venue and more willing to receive orders/instruction.

for example...like 50% of republicans have fox news as their primary news source. for democrats...i think cnn was the highest primary news source but barely cracking double digits. and the rest is pretty evenly spread out between msnbc, facebook, local tv, npr, nyt, etc with single digits for each.

even when you look at pure politics...all of the major shifts in the dem party platform have been driven bottom-up by the people (marriage equality, renewable energy, criminal justice, healthcare, etc). the major shifts in the repub party platform have been completely driven by special interest groups via 'leaders' (climate denial, gun rights absolutism, etc).