Government Underground

In reading about the National Governor’s Association meeting, I saw that Pat Quinn, Governor of Illinois, was leading the all-too-typical uninformed charge of history revisionists. Pat stated that “We need more help from Washington to protect against job cuts and health care cuts. If we don’t do that, we’re following Herbert Hoover economics.”

My response was an email to Pat’s office.  I know that he won’t read it, but maybe some staffer will. Maybe it will plant a seed. My email follows:

Hey Pat, read a history book instead of blindly lying to the public. In campaigning against Hoover, FDR accused Hoover of “reckless and extravagant” spending and of presiding over “the greatest spending in peacetime in all history.” Rexford Guy Tugwell, one of FDR’s New Deal architects said that “We didn’t admit it at the time, but practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started.” FDR won in a landslide in the 1932 presidential election on a Democratic platform that advocated a 25% reduction in federal spending, a balanced budget and a solid gold standard. Director of the Bureau of the Budget Lewis W. Douglas quit after 1 year due to FDR’s about face from what he had campaigned for. FDR & Congress unconstitutionally seized gold holdings and then overnight increased the price of gold, creating the greatest theft in history. I could go on about how FDR’s policies literally created 10 years of misery but I know that YOU will never read this email.  I only hope that some staffer of yours will read this who is probably young and intelligent and open-minded and might possibly be interested in actually digging for the truth for him/herself instead of listening to mindless crap that you’re spewing. People who actually think for themselves and find out the facts for themselves are what will save this country from pathetic politicians like you. Illinois is already in the pitiful position of having to borrow $2.2 billion from the federal government just to make unemployment payments.  Your solution? Gee, the federal government should just GIVE it to us. Where do you think it comes from? The government can only “give” to some people what it takes away from others. You’re a taker just like so many other politicians. Go get a real job and earn something by being a producer for a change instead of spending other peoples’ money for a living.

Caricature Assassination as Political Strategy

Interestingly I was listening to Caplis & Silverman on my way back from Kansas to Denver yesterday, and three of the callers in a 2 hour time period (out of maybe 7-8 callers on air) accused the tea party movement of being racist. I think there is a legitimate concern that we cannot allow the left to redirect public attention to such a bogus red herring issue such as racism, or any other red herring. We must focus attention on the issues and not allow anyone to mute us with their strategy of “caricature assassination”.

This leftist strategy has a two-pronged effect: 1) it paints a horrible and false picture for others to see and use as a basis to discredit/marginalize, and 2) it causes many people to respond to the attacks by shrinking back and going into a mode of political appeasement, trying to show just how “not-racist/xenophobic/homophobic/sexist/bigoted/violent” they are. This deflection has been a horribly effective strategy for the left on both fronts by falsely accusing tea partiers while simultaneously causing tea partiers to pull back on their own.

If Nancy Pelosi looks out her window and sees protesters, she screams “Astroturf”. If people are against illegal immigration, they are xenophobes. If people are against Obama’s policies, they are racists. People who support the second amendment are violent. Those who support traditional marriage are homophobes. Anyone against Hillary during the election was a sexist.

“Caricature assassination” is a potent weapon. This strategy that has been very successful for the last several years for the left. They try to discredit and marginalize the opposition. It’s the classic go-to play that they’ve been running again and again.

The battle of the sound bite, which Bill Clinton is clearly a master of, is simply a proven strategy to discredit other people’s ideas regardless of their merit. It was very effective for Obama and helped him in his election because people were afraid to attack him out of fear of caricature assassination as racist. The fact is that most people on the right have a moral compass and do not want to be subject to vile accusations. As a result, the left’s strategy has been effective in muting them.

Bill Clinton is certainly “setting the stage.” He is setting the stage by framing the issue so that the left can gain politically if anything at all negative happens going forward relative to the tea partiers. If there’s any little event, then he has set the stage for the left to gain from it politically. This is a most cynical strategy, but it’s been effective.

The reason that it’s been so effective for the left is because they have, for many years now, controlled the bully pulpit of the press. With the advent of cable there are more opportunities to access information, but television is still dominated by the left. So because the left controls the bully pulpit of the media, their sound bite vilifications and caricature assassinations are effective because the media just replays the sound bites over and over again until people begin to assume that what they are hearing is true.

I believe that this is something to be aware of and to fight against, both externally by deflating the false accusations and also internally by not backing down in the name trying to “prove” how “not-racist/xenophobic/homophobic/sexist/bigoted/violent” we are.