When Smear Campaigns Backfire it's a Good Thing for Democracy!

[sabrina 1]

The unintended consequences of thoughtless personal attacks, thoughtless meaning someone doesn't think 'If I do this it would be great for my agenda, however IF I do it, it might raise questions AND answers that won't be that great for my agenda'.

That's exactly what happened when the smear mongers decided to spread the falsehood that 'Bernie has problems with POC'.

And it was a smear campaign. Bernie never had problems with POC. Other than the problem he had with all Americans, they didn't know who he was.

But back to unintended consequences. BECAUSE of the smear campaign, which didn't go much beyond a few blogs, some AAs who had never heard of Bernie DID hear about him.

Wanting to know what the fuss was all about many decided to find out for themselves.

Lil B is an example of how what was intended to preempt Bernie from speaking for himself directly to AAs, backfired.

He had been a Hillary supporter. But when he heard about the fuss about this 'other guy', he 'checked him out'.

And what he found was someone who had stood up for Civil Rights in the sixties and throughout his career.

He was impressed.

And then, and this happened to me also, he wondered 'what was Hillary doing while Bernie was fighting for my Civil Rights'? And he found out. And he switched to Bernie.

Did the smear mongers think we WOULDN'T want to know what Hillary was doing at that time? They really are not very smart which is good for us.

They will keep on trying, they have billions in Corporate Money to do so. And the last thing they want to do is to have their chosen candidates talk about ISSUES.

So the best way to handle them imo, is to USE them from now on as people USED David Brock's attempt to benefit Bernie. HE doesn't do this, no one should be doing it.

Smear Campaigns funded by Corporate money are a blight on our political system.

Any time they backfire it is a step forward for democracy.

The recent spectacular backfiring of David (still blinded by the money) Brock is a perfect way to use their nasty, corporate funded smear campaigns against them.

Iow, Brock inadvertently raised over $1,200,000 for Bernie in approx 24 hours. THAT is what a 'rapid response' looks like!

And force them to talk about what the people want to talk about. ISSUES

And the #1 issue for a majority of Americans according to polls in this campaign is:

Get the Money Out Of Politics! End Citizens United.

[merrily]

1. Bernie Sanders, deep in the pockets of Big Voter!

Last edited Tue Sep 29, 2015, 07:11 AM - Edit history (1)

[Demeter]

2. Giving new meaning to the phrase "Pocket Change"

[merrily]

4. Ooooo

Good one!

[sabrina 1]

8. Lol!

[Enthusiast]

6. PLUS ONE, a whole bunch!

[d_legendary1]

3. Yeah but that was a long time ago!

HRC has evolved since then! That's why she was peddling that Omnibus Crime Bill that punished POC! She evolved again after that and said she was sorry! She's changing everyday!

Quit making stuff up about Hillary!

[merrily]

5. Correct. That was before he decided to become a racist billionaire.

[sabrina 1]

7. I was just pointing that that even though we have been told how insignificant people who

participated in the Civil Rights movement are, which btw, I didn't know until it was explained right here, to SOME people it kind of does matter. And who would have thought to ask what Hillary was doing back then without that Smear Campaign to begin with? Lol

[d_legendary1]

11. Strange, ain't it?

Making stuff up to slow a candidate down and it turns out that the one they (the HRC crowd) were defending supported a guy who voted against the Civil Rights Act. There was a saying about glass houses and stones which seems appropriate here...

[sabrina 1]

9. True, and you forgot the Welfare Reform bill she supported because it would stop those

'handouts' to people who were 'dependent' and lead them to a life of - dependency. Mostly women and children who needed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps or something.

Bernie opposed it btw, predicting the awful results. Not sure where Hillary stands now since no one has asked her yet.

[d_legendary1]

12. Just give her a few months

She'll evolve on that issue as well.

[sabrina 1]

13. Yes, but that's the problem I have with her. She has been consistently wrong on issues when people

most needed her to be right. Then when she is running for something, Senate, WH, she 'evolves'. Once or twice that is okay so long as it isn't something that adversely affects people's lives as in the Iraq War vote.

But it has happened so often with her it's hard to know what she really thinks at this point.

[d_legendary1]

14. They used to call those people wafflers

And frankly its one of the reasons why I can't trust HRC with the presidency. She's too inconsistent in everything she does. Most of her support comes from people who liked her husband. Once they find out she's not as charismatic or as decisive she will end up losing support. She's a corporate Democrat plain and simple. The middle class can't afford another four years of pro-business policies since its currently on life support.

An HRC administration could very well end us since she has no problems helping for-profit firms realize larger profits at the expense of the American worker.

[sabrina 1]

16. Yes, a good way to describe someone who is constantly having to change their mind, mostly for

political reasons. No we can't afford another four years of Third Way triangulation. The very thought of it is too scary to contemplate.

That is why we need to also focus on Congress and try to get as many good, non corporate candidates elected. I think that's more likely to happen with Bernie in the race. We know the DNC with DWS won't every support a candidate who is not Corporate funded. So it's up to us to find out who is running and who needs support in our state.

Two advantages to making sure we change Congress. If Bernie wins he will need support from Congress. But if he doesn't that same Congress can block the agenda of a president if it doesn't benefit the people.

[libdem4life]

10. Big K @ R

[Live and Learn]

15. Hear, hear! nt