Guerilla campaigning in the era of Fox News and Karl Rove - Part I

[Kelvin Mace]

As we have seen, the smearing of Democratic presidential candidates has begun in the last month with the opening salvos against Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton in a neat "two fer" attack.

The volley came from right-wing propaganda site InsightMag.com and is entitled "Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background (pay site). The gist of the story is that Hillary's team is actually planning to attack Obama as being a Muslim because he attended a Islamic madrassa school for two years when he was six years-old.

The neat part of this story is that it taps into anti-Islamic fears (professionally stoked for the last six years by the White House and the neo-con echo chamber) to brand Obama a terrorist-in-waiting who will immediately attack Peoria if he becomes president, while pinning the smear on the Clinton camp.

The article was immediately trumpeted by Fox News' Fox & Friends who gleefully pointed out that madrassas is financed by the Saudis and teaches extremist Islam. Of course, the story overlooks the fact that the radicalizing of Islamic teachings in these schools is something that has only taken place in the last 25-30 years, and was not part of any curriculum when Obama was six.

The lying little bastards then began referring to Obama as a "Muslim" even though he is, in fact, a Christian, a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ for over 19 years.

The main attacks so far have been against Obama (with the odd swipe at Hillary and Edwards) since he is viewed by the Right as the most dangerous candidate. In fact, some on the Left have advocated that Obama is the perfect candidate for president, since any attempt to attack him racially would backfire in present day America.

These people are naive.

Obama will be attacked with every smear imaginable. The fact that he has a Muslim heritage will be used to bash him again and again until he wiped from the race. His race will certainly be focused on in every unsavory way imaginable in the South, a place where as recently as this week I read this letter to the editor of the Greensboro News & Record:

Remember the bravery of Gen. Robert E. Lee

Friday marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Confederate Gen. Robert Edward Lee.

A Virginian, scion of two distinguished Colonial families, Lee considered it his duty to honor his famous father, Revolutionary War Gen. Henry Lee, by also pursuing a military career. Thus, following West Point graduation, Lee began a 30-year career in the United States Army, and by 1860, was a highly regarded officer. >When the newly elected federal president, Lincoln, ordered an illegal and unconstitutional invasion of the Southern states in 1861, Lee was offered command of all Union forces. He declined, refusing to draw his sword against his native state.

Though a brave, skilled commander when necessary, Lee was by nature a kind, compassionate man who loved his family, his soldiers, his country and his God. Like his fellow countrymen, he had sacrificed everything in defense of his homeland against a brutal invader and to protect constitutional government.

William Oden
Greensboro, NC

If you don't think that Obama will be portrayed as a slavering Negro hungry for white women by the GOP, you are living in a dream world. It will be done by agents who will be "disavowed" by the national and state party. The party leadership will shake their heads about the shameful lack of civility, but will somehow fail to condemn the perpetrators.

The press likes to portray Obama as the fresh-faced kid who is selling a new brand of bi-partisan politics, and who wishes to embrace the Religious Right. In fact, Obama has very much aligned himself with the center-right elements of the party (like his good buddy Joe Lieberman) and seems to think he can make inroads into the Right's religious base, a group of people who are still annoyed that stoning was outlawed.

If Obama continues to pursue the tactics of the "wise" leaders of the DLC, he WILL lose, and lose badly.

The Democratic party, specifically the leadership of the Democratic party, has not awakened to the fact that this is quite literally becoming a fight to the death for our Republic. The neo-cons and their Christian-extremist allies are bent on turning this nation into a theocratic/corporate state.

For over two decades now, we have lost ground to the neo-con movement because we keep playing the game according to rules that have not been in effect since the 1970s. We have stood by and insisted on reasonable discourse with a party that has been purging its ranks of reasonable people since the Reagan era, and replacing them with zealots. Those who haven't been purged, have been cowed.

The turning point for the neo-cons came in 1994 when, thanks to Newt Gingrich's slash and burn tactics, they were able to vanquish the left and seize control of the Congress. Newt's tactics were used again and again with great success, up to the present day.

Now some of you are saying, "Hey, we WON last November. We have turned back the forces of darkness. Lighten up, dude, and party on!". This is true, but our victory was very pathetic despite all the self-congratulatory back-slapping.

Consider for a moment that we have the most criminal administration and party in the history of the Republic, a group of people who WANTONLY and OPENLY violated federal and state laws, violated the Constitution, and held in contempt every decent tradition and precept of this nation since its founding. They have deliberately involved us in a war for their own personal glory and profit, spied on Americans, suspended the 800 year-old doctrine of <i>habeus corpus</i>, committed war crimes, tortured foreign and American citizens, tried to destroy the institution of science, destroyed an entire American city by neglect, and took trillions of dollars from the working American and diverted it to the corporate masters they serve.

They have taken this country to the brink of becoming a police state, complete with concentration camps and wholesale executions, and yet during the election we won a majority in the House by a paltry 30 seats, and the Senate by a single seat.

That, my friends, is pathetic, and NOTHING to brag about. In fact, we should be ashamed of such a dismal victory given what is at stake.

The question every one should be asking is WHY are we doing so poorly.The evil of the Bush administration is so pronounced, they don't even try to hide it anymore, and yet we still manage to win a senate seat in Montana, against a thoroughly and demonstrably corrupt bigot, by a paltry 7,000 votes. In Virgina, the margin was far smaller.

So the question is, "Why are we doing so poorly?"

Many answers have been proffered. The media slide to the right; the billions of dollars poured into right-wing think tanks, publications and broadcast media by folks like Murdoch, Coors, Scaife; the rise of Christian extremism; the rise of corporate hegemonies like Wal-Mart, Exxon, and Big Pharma; and the public's dwindling interest in their country.

All of these reasons are certainly valid, but all could be countered with the right tactics. And THAT brings me to what I believe is the real problem. While the forces allied against liberal ideology have grown and adapted, our tactics to combat them have not. Our leaders have doggedly fought an enemy that has changed the rules of engagement with tactics that no longer work, and have not worked for decades.

By failing to understand that the rules of the game have changed, and by failing to adopt tactics to counter that change, we have lost control of the message and have allowed our enemies to define that message, and by extension, to define us to the public.

In part two of this essay, I will examine numerous critical political defeats of the past decade or so, and examine why we lost, and how we could have won had we simply chosen a different defense/attack strategy.

2008's race has begun, and we have once again seen our leaders allow their enemies to define them. We have already lost half the battle, let's not lose the war.

Edit: article link http://thoughtcrimes.org/s9/index.php?/archives/1623-Guerilla-campaigning-in-the-era-of-Fox-News-and-Karl-Rove-Part-I.html

[Toots]

1. Food for thought

I look forward to your next post.. :thumbsup:

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Thanks, you seem to be

the only one. :)

Oh, well...

[neoblues]

3. An Apt Description...

"a group of people who are still annoyed that stoning was outlawed.". It fits. For those who didn't read, that would be referring to the "Religious Right" segment of the Republican base.

Anyway, it seems to me you made a number of prescient points that would be very important for our elected Democrats to take heed of. Alas, the post itself seemed to pass with less comment or notice than I would have expected.

The influence of the media (via Corporations) cannot be understated; it's massive and insidious. Corporations also affect their employees and labor in general through other means by everything from instilling a certain culture, work ethic, attitudes as well as controlling wages and benefits (which echoes throughout the labor market). With stagnant wages and limited benefits alone, they can leave Americans stressed, overworked and on the edge of disaster--leaving them all having to expend more and more of their free time struggling to survive (unable to spend time on other pursuits/concerns such as politics; and necessarily in favor of whatever politics helps to ensure their company's success; and leaving them, in their stressed state, more angry/aggressive, less patient, less tolerant; and the prospect of losing jobs to "foreigners" furthers the phobic attitude toward other nations). Ubiquitous greed that has developed or grown has made just surviving, much less doing well, all the more difficult; everything is priced to gouge--to obtain the maximum and beyond in terms of profits (necessary to pay CEO's things like $210 million when they screw up the company and quit). All in all, it's hardly a wonder people are feeling the way they are. It's easier to manipulate those who are busy and exhausted, especially if you control most of what they see, hear and read after work resting or seeking entertainment.

Even so, not that many really supported GWB's irresponsible "war" in IRAQ; at least, once the truth began to come out and the costs continue to grow. They realize we can ill-afford the costs though nearly all feel helpless to do anything about it; the "President" has the power.

In any case, it's true. The rules have changed and they changed with Gingrich--and only gotten worse over the years with Rove adding his own flair. Democrats in office really do seem to fail to recognize the change. Even when we, out here, point it out to them, they're skeptical. Surely they must be puzzling as to why they've been losing for so long and at how thoroughly the Republicans have managed to control the system... but they seem to refuse to believe it's all out political "war". It's our nature to trust, seek to create consensus and negotiate; being ruthless, overlooking process, breaking rules (and perhaps laws) is highly undesirable behavior in our eyes. Still, we have to fight back and it's going to take some hardening of the will.

Alas, we did win in November; by less than we probably should have if the system was accurate/honest, but nevertheless, it seems that since it gave us the majority, most Democrats have relaxed. "Good, now things are returning to normal...", when things are most definitely not "back to normal". Not by a long shot and our majority is extremely fragile. The politics of political campaigning hasn't changed. We still face an overwhelming, unethical Mass Media that will play along with Republicans once again (despite the very slight "slap on the hand" for the Republicans here and there that we've seen in the latter part of last year) to "smear" and perform "media assassinations" of leading Democratic candidates. This immediately places us at a huge disadvantage. We desperately need to "correct" the Media/Press, "The Fourth Estate" and allow journalists to regain their professional ethics by targeting and splitting up the powerful Mega-Media Corporations. Other actions in the FCC would likewise be helpful, but in any case, the people need their independent media back.

For democracy to function properly, citizens must have access to information; honest, factual and timely information. Secrecy in government is most convenient for the growth of fascism and totalitarianism; and without News reporting of what our government is actually doing, the people cannot play a responsible part in their own governance. These things we hold to be self-evident, but apparently some haven't thought about it (certainly, though, few of them would be on DU). Again, it's "The Fourth Estate" that is failing us--though, of course, it's our government and it's leaders who are ultimately deceiving and misleading us while seeking to prevent us from even being aware they're doing so. It's the media that must be fixed first before "The People" can be expected to know what's going on, much less organize in large numbers to exercise their power.

Surely there are other major problems and concerns, but this one is so basic and so powerful it must be address first and with all available resources.

[bananarepublican]

4. I agree. Things are not back to normal. Electoral reform should be the #1 issue, ahead of Iraq! n/t