After two terms of neo-con rule, the nation is looking at thousands dead, hundreds of billions wasted, a national reputation in tatters, record oil prices, record deficits, and an economy so antsy it goes from red to black and back again in a day. It’s now clear that the president lied to get his war on, and that his head advisor outed a CIA agent in a fit of spite. Ever wonder how Republicans can hope to beat Democrats in the next round of elections? Answer: they don’t.
In fact, Republicans don’t even plan to confront Democrats. Not real Democrats, anyway. Because what the Republicans are up to now is the business of constructing an enemy they can beat. They’re stewing up an enemy so vile, so evil, so distasteful that it makes the Khmer Rouge and Idi Amin look warm and fuzzy. Instead of taking on real issues, they’re creating fake enemies — Straw Democrats.
How to spot a Straw Democrat
A Straw Democrat hates Christians.
A Straw Democrat is too soft to fight America’s enemies.
A Straw Democrat isn’t patriotic.
Straw Democrats support “terrorist” teacher’s unions instead of education.
These are all good signs of Straw Democrats, but the biggest clue is Straw Democrats don’t have names. They’re a faceless hoarde of tree-huggers, out to hand over our country to Osama while growing the government to the size of the solar system. They’re a bunch of namby-pamby stuck up snobs who want to take away everything you ever valued.
And the very best thing about Straw Democrats? They never fight back. Which is what Real Republicans, and Real Media need. Real Republicans — Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and on down the line — have screwed the pooch too badly to ever outpunch another flesh and blood opponent. But as long as the Real Media allows them to shadow punch again Straw Democrats, they’ll do just fine.
dead on. But they do attack real democrats too.
Clinton: rape, murder, drug dealing, sexual harrassment, cowardice.
Kerry: adultery, cowardice
Cleland: treachery, cowardice
etc.
It’s a package deal.
Ah, but it’s generally the Republican second tier and media mouthpieces that bother to smear real Democrats. You won’t find Rove or Bush talking about Clinton murdering Vince Foster. They’ll leave that to the Michael Savage brigade. Savage and his ilk say anything they want about anybody they want, and the media never bothers to counter because they’re “commentators.” Then the Republican front bench echo these remarks, but carefully scrub them of any identifying marks that might allow rebuttal of their statements by messy old “facts.”
When confronted, you get things like Rove claiming that his statements were really about MoveOn, or the folks at RedState digging up a single web site to defend their “liberals only see the bad in America” schtick.
true enough. Though with Vince it got blurry. Was it Dornan that used a watermelon to simulate what happened to Foster’s head?
I think that was Dan Burton, who also went on to call the president a “scumbag” before admitting (whoops) that he had, um, “fathered a child out of wedlock.” Oh, and he was in wedlock at the time, though not with the mother of the child. Of course, little things like that don’t bother true red Hoosier believers, who re-elected Burton by bigger numbers than ever.
Morals are for the other guy.
I’d apologize to Dornan, but I don’t feel like it.
should apologize to all of us.
Straw Clinton, Straw Kerry, Straw Cleland.
The Republicans create the flesh-and-blood Democrats Americans get to know, just as much as they create the imaginary ones.
Next time we hold an industrial revolution, somebody please remember to include mass media in the Constitution.
And they will keep doing it because the “real” democrats allow them and the media to do it. They use the “strawman” technique so no one can sue them for slander.
it comes to the media because we don’t have a great grapevine for the “spokesmen” to check in with the great mass of other elected dems and us unwashed critters here on the blogrolls. Consequently the “spokesman” just pushes his/her own agenda. Like we have said over and over, we need a real shadow cabinet. How hard can it be? We don’t have to have just one member of each post, we can use experts all and post position papers all over the blogasphere. The spokesperson then would have a lot of ammo going to the media and it would sound more unified. Also I know that we have no supeana power so the type of forums that can be held are sort of one sided, but more effort in that area needs to happen. We need good sound bites on our side to promote.
And the democratic reaction? Silence. I have no idea what Dean (or Reid or Pelosi) have put forth as alternatives to the administration’s plans for:
I’ve heard (here as well as other places) that it’s pointless to introduce legislation; that dems have been shut out of the system; and that alternatives have been put forth. Horse hockey.
Has any Democrat accused the NYT or WaPo or network news organizations of failing the American people? Attacked them for their complacency? No. That’s left to the “second tier” groups.
No media access? Diaried before, the party has a completely equipped network w/video, ‘net, and audio capabilities. It’s been there since ’04. Who uses it? Da gucci boys? Consultants? Reps making home movies for their constituents? Jesus H. Christ this is getting old.
So what we have here is a numerically superior party that got 49% of the vote, spent 800 million dollars in the last campaign cycle, still crying over spilt milk. Un. F*cking. Believable.
but I’ve seen much improvement as Dean moves forward with his ideas and messages, such as the 50-state plan. I think he’s done an excellent job visiting the smaller states, and starting state organizations where there had been none.
I say it is pathetic that we have so far to go when it comes to states like Mississippi where the Democratic Party hasn’t even contested seats. But I think we are indeed going forward.
I think the DLC is gasping and still has far too much influence, but Reid has impressed me beyond the high hopes I had for him. Pelosi is improving as the months move on.
Now, I’m in the left wing echo chamber so I could give you places to find answers to the issues you laid forth. I don’t think that was your point. Do they need to be communicated to the masses? Absolutely. Are they being communicated better than they were say two years ago? IMO, also absolutely.
This blog and others, Air America Radio, LTE campaigns are all helping the DSM, Plamegate, Ohio coingate, Halliburton, DeLay, etc. issues move forward, along with some real hero-as-politicians such as Reps. Conyers and Slaughter, and Senators such as Boxer and Reid.
We are still the minority party, and with media consolidation the message is harder to get out there. But Dean appearing in Alabama means more to me living in California than Biden appearing on Meet the Press — I suspect it does to Alabamans also.
The Republican takeover took more than 30 years. I have to remind myself of that as we chip away at the levers of power, and look beyond 2006, 2008, etc. Most Americans agree with liberal ideas, our communication of those ideas is improving and it will not take 30 years to reverse course. Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely, the Republicans have had a bad year going and I don’t see the going getting any easier, even if they shove a conservative through to an already conservative SCOTUS.
“Straw Democrats” is a desperate method, being used by desperate people. Eventually, people will realize “hey, I’m one of those people being called unpatriotic” or worse.
Believe it or not, I’m also an optimist, and I agree with your analysis. And my favorite target – the democratic party website has finally been redesigned. Whadyaknow. Good start, and worth the trip.
They’ve apparently brought the design in-house. Now if they can just begin to work the rest of their tools….
Earlier I meant to point out the new democracts.org website — a great improvement.
As a matter of fact, in a comment dated 6/27 I wrote “The front-paged call to “Tell President Bush: Get Osama Bin Laden Now” is outstanding — as long as it doesn’t get stale, it could be a great rallying/action area.”
Today, the front page is related to the SCOTUS choice, and a call to Bush to offer solutions instead of rhetoric re: Iraq. Very good to see the updating of the page(s).
What tools would you like to see them work? 🙂 This is not a snarky comment, I’m genuinely interested.
Tools [From QRS New Media]:
QRS delivered to the DNC on time and under budget a complete professional broadcast television studio.
And their network:
These systems include:
DataMart/Demzilla voter/donor & transactional database systems
The DataMart / Demzilla 2-database system was built from the ground up and fully replaced the DNC’s older database. Information is maintained on donors, volunteers, activists, local and state party leaders, and groups with which the DNC interacts
Suggestions from an earlier diary (some incorporated in the new site):
– Howard Dean sez there is a “50 State” campaign and America is “purple” (something a few of us have been trying to get across since November). So why isn’t the site using the “Purple America” map? (They’d need permission). Easy enough to link to all information about a given state. Would be a “trivial task for a competent programmer”.
– Using that map, the party could easily set up a web form that allows contributors to direct their funds. (Federal/State/Local and/or issue campaigns). In essence create a coordinated democratic/progressive fundraising portal. The party is currently competing for funds with every progressive org out there.
[End quote]
They have begun, and the team in charge is vastly better than whoever had control of the site before. Geographic interface (the map) means getting to your local area in three clicks. The “50-State” still needs work. I think the “bonds” are a good idea, but only if they deliver on their promise.
The other big one to me is the studio: who has control of and uses the video facilities? Why aren’t Dean’s public statements webcast? Why don’t they have their own audio and video web channels? The damn facilites are there, and the operating costs are chump change compared to the f*cking millions spent on idiot savant consultants and pollsters.
There is more common sense on this blog than in all of D.C. combined. Speaking of D.C.: move the damn headquarters to Omaha, or Kansas City, or Minneapolis or better yet all three. D.C. is a politically poisonous atmosphere. </rant>
The tools are there. Just learn to use them. Eventually the MSM will come to you.
One element of fascism is the “Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.” I call this “The Boogeyman Strategy.”
I wrote a diary about how the right has turned secular humanists into the boogeyman. One of the points of that diary is that the righties use secular humanism and liberalism interchangably, conflating the two. As they misrepresent and lie about secular humanism, they lie about liberalism.
Rush Limbaugh:
Rush’s brother David:
Just finished reading Animal Farm.