“The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear.”- Heinrich Himmler
The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting ad this weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the U.S. homeland.
The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. “These are the stakes,” the ad concludes. “Vote November 7.”
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”- Josef Goebbals
Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the ad would run on national cable beginning Sunday, but he declined to discuss specifics of the buy.
The commercial tracks with Republican Party strategy to make the war on terrorism a central theme of this election. It will air as recent polls show Republicans losing ground as the party best able to combat terrorism.
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”- Josef Goebbels
Last month, President Bush made the war against terrorism a recurrent topic in public appearances. But his message was drowned out by the e- mail sex scandal involving former Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida and by increasing fatalities in Iraq.
The ad displays an array of quotes from bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that include bin Laden’s Dec. 26, 2001 vow that “what is yet to come will be even greater.”
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”- Josef Goebbels
The ad also cites al-Zawahri’s claim to have obtained “some suitcase bombs,” followed by a scene that appears to show a nuclear explosion.
Despite al-Zawahri’s claim, portable nuclear devices are believed to be particularly difficult to produce, and elusive to rogue regimes and terror groups. “The degree of difficulty goes way up as the size of the device gets smaller,” a senior U.S. official said this week, briefing reporters this week on condition of anonymity.
“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”- Hermann Goering
The ad is also featured on the RNC’s Web site. The party said the ad, called “The Stakes,” will be e-mailed to millions of GOP supporters, activists and the state parties.
“Of course people don’t want war. Why should a poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best thing he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?”- Hermann Goering
Now THAT would make an interesting commercial.
Do they seriously think this is going to work?
Nice juxtaposition, by the way. I think we’ve all heard the quotes before, but sometimes the order and the context in which they’re presented makes all the difference.
This is why I object to a call to refrain from a comparison to the Nazis. It’s not that they are Nazis, it’s that we can recognize these techniques.
There’s a quote that’s (most likely wrongly) attributed to Mark Twain, or much less often to Will Rogers, that’s applicable here:
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
fucking great.
at least it doesn’t really work.
Heard some comments on Scarboro tonight. The GOP thinks this will have a similar effect as the LBJ ad in 64, with the little girl and the flowers and the bomb. Blew Goldwater out of the um..water, and LBJ got his landslide.
I think this may in fact backfire on them. They say they have kept us safe these last five years. I wonder what a poll would say about the perceptions of the average American. Are we safer today than five years ago?? I don’t think it will fly. However, if it looks as though it is having an effect, the Dems should run a counter ad showing the Trade Center, scenes from Afghanistan and Iraq, a mushroom cloud referring to N. Korea and so forth. If we don’t panic, I think we can throw this right back at them and make it stick.
I read this excellent comment by Beetwasher on DU earlier. It fits nicely here.
Bush Is A Defective Product and Rove Is A Moron
get orange with it.
Fear does not work once the collective adrenals of the populace are all squeezed out. On a different scale, it is just like how Shock and Awe does not work on populations that are inured to living with destruction and death. This may pull a few percent of the disaffected back to the R’s, but most will see it for the cynical ploy it is.
The Osama imagery just makes me think “Oh yeah, we didn’t ever get that guy, did we?”
from your DKOS cross posting:
Not even Diebold, Jesus or the specter of Osama will save the GOP this time. The GOP is feckless, feculent and finished.
Bush’s 5-million vote ‘confidence edge’
I’ve seen the ad, Olberman showed it on his show…I don’t think it’s that great, well that would be in a negative way, but frankly I don’t think many will buy the package this time around. Only those who’ve already bought the lie or drank the koolaid. I think we have disaster fatigue.
“The ad also cites al-Zawahri’s claim to have obtained “some suitcase bombs,” followed by a scene that appears to show a nuclear explosion.”
The United States produced its first nuclear artillery in 1961. The actual weapon in the shell weighed 97 pounds. Search “suitcase bomb”.
The former head of the KGB told the U.S. senate in 1997-8 that the Soviet Union had shipped several hundred of one man carry nukes into the U.S. and pre-deployed them in the 1980’s. Artillery sized weapons they were considered low yield tactical field weapons and so not negotiated in the “strategic arms” treaties. No one has reported any effort to debunk this assertion.
The Pakistani nuclear program boss, who was busted for proliferation, is a known alQaida supporter. al-Zawahri has said repeatedly that his “nuclear genius” has been traveling in and out of the U.S. for more than two years using the undocumented immigrant flow across the Mexican border as cover.
I will be glad when Ramadan is over.
Goebbels was “brilliant” in his own mad way but it was actually Hitler himself who stumbled onto the power of mass PR (see Mein Kampf)… and he got his inspiration from Woodrow Wilson, who in turn got it from that fellow who wrote “Crystallizing Public Opinion”. That ought to be worth a few (non-Nazi) quotes!
Pax
Not to sicken myself but here’s some quotes from Mein Kampf:
Hitler wrote an entire chapter on this subject, which you can read here. He lost the war and he was evil but he was no fool, not in this regard.
Pax
I see that Jeffersonian Democrat has apparently deleted his diary from yesterday that was calling for an end to Bush/Hitler comparisons. That’s a shame. If it hadn’t gotten so nasty it could’ve helped to see where some of the lines are blurred and where other similarities are clear.
It’s clear to me though that this regime is following a nearly identical path to how they’ve secured their power, even if millions aren’t being murdered…yet.
If I were the Democrats I would create a new ad by taking excerpts from this very ad and then intersperse them with regular Americans talking about their fears of continuing with a do-nothing, rubber-stamp, GOP controlled Congress. I think its time for the Democrats to go toe to toe with the GOP with a light hearted…but very pointed “Fear Factor” campaign.
I just don’t think fear can work this time if the Democrats will hit back. Karl Rove has made a career of taking his opponents strengths and turning them into liabilities…and its time someone return the favor. His house of cards is ready to fall.
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of Karl and the boys singing some of their favorite “Church & State” hymns…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com