One way we're losing the PR war: People don't understand that the GOP is evil, not misguided.

[backscatter712]

I say this because of a discussion I had with my mom yesterday. She's kinda-sorta conservative, but not beyond reach - the rest of the family got her to vote for Obama last election, but she still considers herself conservative. Anyways, I was in yet another political discussion with her, and mentioned my opinion, which most of us on DU likely share, that the GOP isn't merely misguided in their policies, but are engaged in pure malice - sabotaging the economy just to hurt Obama's reelection chances, blocking anything resembling reasonable legislation on environmental and energy issues, banking & Wall street reform, health care, jobs etc. They literally want America to fail so they can point fingers at the Democrats, seize power, then auction away America wholesale to the corporations and billionaires.

My mom blanched and said "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!"

She was genuinely shocked that I suggested that the GOP is acting out of malice. My dad agreed with me that the GOP was deliberately stopping anything that would improve the economy or create jobs, but my mom just refused to believe they would do such despicable things.

And I think a lot of people in America are like my mom. They think our politicians may be misguided, but they all mean well, are patriots, and care about the citizens.

That is a mindset we need to work very hard to eradicate. Because we know the truth - the GOP IS FUCKING EVIL! We need to be making more people understand that.

People want to trust, and want to believe that their fellow human beings want to do the right thing, and that's why so many of us fall victim to vicious sociopaths. We need to be reaching out to the independent voters and LIVs and making sure they understand that the GOP wants the American people to suffer right now, and are working very hard to make that happen. People want to believe that the GOP isn't really trying to hurt people, that they're just acting out of a different philosophy, or that they're merely misguided. They need to understand the GOP WANTS TO HURT THEM!

[ShockediSay]

1. They are Fascists!

Right Wing
Super Wealthy Funded
Corporation
Controlled
Media
Propaganda Pumping, Organized & Repitious
w/ Scapegoating
& Union Busting
=Fascist Regime

[backscatter712]

3. Indeed! n/t

[durablend]

2. Like I said

They're just "misunderstood". Even the president understands this.

:sarcasm:

[polichick]

4. It's very hard for good people to imagine such malice in others...

That's why so many are manipulated by all the Republican flag waving and Bible toting - they just wouldn't use the flag or the Bible that way and can't imagine that anyone would.

It doesn't help when the WH and Dems speak about the other side as if they are patriots and friends with just a difference of opinion.

[backscatter712]

6. Exactly!

And that's why Alan Grayson struck such a chord when he pulled out the "Republican health care plan": "Don't get sick!" & "If you do get sick, die quickly!" It exposed the GOP's malice while everyone else was saying "Oh, the GOP just wants to solve these problems with the free market!"

[polichick]

8. imo it's so important to talk straight so people don't get confused - I miss Grayson!

[ShockediSay]

10. “When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

Quote by Sinclair Lewis

[polichick]

13. I'd say it has come.

[flamingdem]

5. Explain to your mom that they just tried to send the US economy over a cliff

and that the right wing is deliriously happy over the ratings downgrade. They want chaos so they can gain power.

[grasswire]

7. my MIL always said Nixon got in with a "bad crowd"

go figure

[IDemo]

9. I posted as such a few days ago

The "discussion" took a few short meandering steps and collapsed in a heap:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1643784

[AndyTiedye]

11. People Need to Understand that the PigBaggers are the Snidely Whipsnade of Politics

[izquierdista]

12. We know what works

When you offer an explanation to politically disinterested people, you should point out that we DO know what works. An economic calamity like this happened before. Tax cuts didn't fix it, trying to balance the budget didn't fix it, gaming the financial markets didn't fix it. What fixed it was a 91% top tax rate, union workers having good paying jobs, and projects to build the country up.

[Tennessee Gal]

14. Share with her what Mitch McConnell said.

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."


“I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn't think that. What we did learn is this -- it's a hostage that's worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done.”

[MaeScott]

15. K and R. Nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. Shorter and simpler reason:

Lack of a concise, easily conveyed and consistent message. The GOP have managed to boil things down to talking points. The GOP also have a committed network of propagandists in right-wing talk radio hosts, right-wing op-ed columnists, and Fox News; the Democrats by contrast lack anything like such a well-organised publicity machine. The GOP talking points are listened to every weekday by the millions who listen to Limbaugh and Hannity and Neal Boortz, who watch Fox News, who pick up the newspaper and read an op-ed by Charles Krauthammer or Cal Thomas, and those talking points don't really vary all that much between the various sources; the Republicans have a consistent message which their average target voter receives from a multiplicity of sources in ways that tend to be self-reinforcing. The Democrats? Have nothing, NOTHING at all to compete with that. Liberal talk radio? A minority of the market. Liberal nationally-syndicated columnists? Very few compared to the numbers of conservatives. Liberal broadcast news? MSNBC is not the Fox of the left (it gets less than half the total viewer numbers, for a start).

Okay, maybe not shorter. But that's why.

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. I agree that they are evil - but that is probably no the best word to use to explain the whole thing

to people. Most Republicans of today have such a naive and gullible worldview that they genuinely are unable to distinguish loyalty to their right-wing ideals and loyalty to America. They are one and the same for them. When most Republicans speak of America they are speaking of an America that does not exist and never has existed. They believe in a history that never happened. I recall how my right-wing Republican dear old Aunt very calmly said to me in a tone as if she was explaining the obvious, "My problem with Obama is that whenever our nation strays away from the Biblical principles that founded our country and made our nation the greatest country on earth . we always end up in a lot of trouble." Of course such a comment carries with it so many utterly preposterous assumptions, I don't even know where to begin. But this confused and childlike view of history and of the world around them is the worldview or something very close to the worldview of the vast overwhelming majority of today's Republicans.

With a mind set that operates under these assumptions - they genuinely believe that a scorched-earth - win-at-any-cost approach is not only justified but morally imperative. They know so many things for such an absolute moral certainty that are so patently false - to them it is simply natural to try to fight and destroy what they see as the enemies of God and Country - no matter what it takes.