Republicans’ Most Important Propaganda Technique (And the big question) |
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Republicans have mastered the art of inoculation, and Democrats don’t seem to have a clue as to how to combat it. You “inoculate” yourself against criticism by accusing your opposition of doing the very same thing you are doing yourself. Thus, when Rs repeatedly accuse Ds of waging class warfare (trying to make voters envious of the rich), and make the charge stick—and Ds don’t counterattack by explaining what the Rs are doing—the public assumes the Rs are right. As a result, Rs “own” the class warfare argument and use it repeatedly and with impunity. Even when Ds counterattack, if they do it ineffectively, the public concludes that “you can’t believe any of them, and they both are probably right.” Even this stalemate works to the Rs advantage, because they are actually the ones waging class warfare, and their exposure would put the American public in a hanging mood. (Why do Rs frequently say on radio and tv that they would “love it” if the Ds would bring up the class war issue? Because they are scared to death that they will, and they’ve learned that Ds are too timid to take on the challenge.) The fairness of our tax system is one of the most recent examples of inoculation. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial made the case that the poor don’t pay enough taxes, and the rich are unfairly forced to pay too much. To claim that the poor are not paying enough taxes was NOT the Wall Street Journal’s real intent. Only someone totally out-of-touch with reality would seriously make this point. This is a backdoor attempt to defuse the argument that the rich should be taxed more. Republicans feel that they can inoculate themselves from attack if they can convince people that the case for taxing poor people is at least equal to the case for taxing rich people. In other words, it’s a wash, and we shouldn’t raise taxes on either. Rs have effectively turned reality on its head, made black appear white, on the following issues:
The Big QuestionOn the above issues, reality (the facts) and logic so clearly favor the Ds’ positions and are at odds with the Rs’ positions, one has to wonder why the Ds have been so ineffective in presenting their case. Is it possible that too many Ds are really Republican-lites? And a criticism of Rs is also an indictment of themselves? Has everyone, including many Ds, been bought off by corporate America? Or is it that the Ds have become too inbred with their own pollsters and spin-doctors, and forgotten what it means to speak clearly, honestly and with conviction? What to doAssuming it’s the latter, Ds should:
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