Protecting McCain's Ignorance with a 'Great Wall of Duh'

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/protecting-mccains-ignora_b_117565.html

Bob Cesca

Protecting McCain's Ignorance with a 'Great Wall of Duh'
Posted August 7, 2008 | 04:36 PM (EST)


Senator Obama on Tuesday said of the McBush Republicans, "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." After eight years trapped aboard this dark ride, finally hearing a Democratic presidential candidate publicly and forcefully refer to the Republicans as ignorant liars ought to be enough to coax even the most indecisive leaner into the Obama column.

But let's take the senator's remark even further. The McBush Republicans don't just take pride in their ignorance -- their entire electoral strategy depends on it.

This is obviously a risky strategy given the existence of things like "reason", "facts" and "truth" -- each readily available to anyone who's industrious enough to seek them out. Fortunately, though, for the McBush Republicans, there's an outside collaborator working in their favor: the barbecue media whose success also depends greatly upon both ignorance and disingenuousness (Olbermann and others excluded). Paraphrasing Woody Allen, ignorance and disingenuousness are, collectively, their various breads and various butters. So the Republicans have a convenient and sizeable zero-barrier of protective stupid surrounding their golf courses and mansions and trophy wives, shielding them from reality. Let's call it the Great Wall of Duh.

snip//

Four years ago, Karl Rove and the Republicans, protected by a patriotically narcoleptic corporate media, successfully painted Senator Kerry -- a decorated war hero -- as a gay coward who barely deserved a purple Band-Aid, much less the three Purple Hearts he earned in blood. Without this ignorant, disingenuous framing, Senator Kerry would have surely been running for reelection today. Without this strategy, there probably wouldn't have been the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And, by the way, CNN hosts like Glenn Beck wouldn't be on television -- without equal time given to a liberal talk show host -- comparing George W. Bush to Batman.

This week's episode of AMC's Mad Men reminded us that tobacco companies for years told us that cigarettes were healthy. Likewise, FOX News Channel tells us every damn day that their network is fair and balanced. Cheneybots tell us that torture yields solid intelligence. Senator McCain's entire campaign is predicated upon obfuscating the facts about everything from his support for President Bush to Senator Obama's patriotism and energy plan -- all the while painting Senator Obama (a product of a broken home and who just recently paid off his college loans) as an elitist despite Senator McCain's own wealth, heiress wife and celebrity status. And this ignorance strategy will continue to work as long as the barbecue media maintains its protective Great Wall of Duh.

So as Senator McCain continues to "surge ahead" in the polls with a huge 39 percent, we can count on him to work this ignorance strategy at every level. A month from now we can count on seeing tire-pressure gauges at the Republican convention. We can count on repeated remarks claiming that Senator Obama wants to "lose" in Iraq and, to that point, we can count on Senator McCain continuing to conflate leaving -- now, next year or many years from now -- with losing.

Here's to hoping that more Democrats will step up for a change and call Senator McCain on his disingenuousness, lying and ignorance with the same clarity and strength that we heard from Senator Obama this week.

[CitizenPatriot]

1. it's working

I just talked to a friend in Michigan who was going to vote for Obama two weeks ago and now she says she isn't sure what his strategy for Mich economics is. She is sure McCain doesn't have one either, but she's disgusted all the way around. I had actually heard Obama's strategy for Michigan, which was pretty darn brilliant, and so I informed her of it. I need to find it in a succinct email form so I can send it to her and she can send it to the board of realtors there. They, of course, are looking at foreclosures and all of the banking problems with heavy hearts. why don't people know that mccain's financial advisor was the driving force behind deregulation?

I believe he will win anyway, but we shouldn't let down our guard and think this stuff isn't working. It distracts from the issues, which is where Obama shines.

I'm going to call Obama campaign and ask them what else can be done. I'm sick of this shi& and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

[babylonsister]

2. Welcome to DU, CitizenPatriot, and here's some links for you.

Obama gave a well-received economic policy speech in June (?) of this year. I think it's the 3-parter at the youtube site.

http://www.prx.org/pieces/26835

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=obama+%2B+Flynt%2C+MI&search_type=&aq=f

[CitizenPatriot]

3. Thank you!

for the welcome and the links!

I've passed them on to a few more people now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed re Michigan.

Oh, I also called Obama's campaign and got several links from them which I sent on to people in Michigan. they were very helpful at his campaign office.



http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/mihome