Why the Right's Propaganda Works

[Emit]

Why the Right's Propaganda Works

By Robert Parry
August 19, 2009

Many on the Left are blaming President Barack Obama and middle-of-the-road Democrats for maneuvering health-care reform into a fast-approaching head-on collision. And some of that criticism is well deserved for foolishly letting Republicans get their hands on the wheel at all.

But American liberals and progressives – especially the wealthy ones – should take a hard look in the mirror when assessing blame. For three decades now, the Left has sat back and done next to nothing to build a media infrastructure while the Right has put together a truly powerful media machine.

So it’s not entirely Obama’s fault that support for the public health insurance option has dropped from three-quarters of the American people to not even a plurality, according to the latest NBC News poll. The Right’s propagandists – via radio, TV, print and the Internet – have successfully demonized reform.

The Right also has used psy-war arguments about government “death panels” and other lies to frighten gullible Americans into opposition. In the NBC poll, 45 percent think Obama’s reform would let the government stop medical care for sick old people, though the legislation wouldn’t do that.

~snip~

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/081809.html

[HughMoran]

1. I wonder if the right-wing bullshit will backfire

It's easy to forget that the Dems have huge majorities in both House and Senate and might be somewhat pissed at the outright lies that the Republicans have used this time. In the past their arguments had some validity to them, but this time it's been nearly 100% bullshit lies. I can't see this succeeding - or at least I'm hoping it won't succeed.

[2Design]

2. Dean built what we have and how we won but he was left behind - now

we have Rahm making deals with the health care corporations and key stake holders - yes they are writing their own epitaphs