and the Rude Pundit. And I disagree with them too.
I am not one for framing debates. Much like BooMan, I think that there is an inherent dishonesty in playing with people’s emotions and minds in order to score a political point. But that still does not change the fact that I see things that “they” are doing and could not disagree with “them” more. And my gut tells me that we have to hit meet them head on with a loud and resounding “HELL NO!” And, IMHO, that has nothing to do with framing… It has to do with reality. (more below)
The other day BooMan posted this:
I’ve been trying to find the right words to describe the MoveOn.org advertising fiasco on General Betraeus. I think The Rude One found the right balance.
Obviously, the Rude Pundit doesn’t believe in the Bob Shrum/DLC school of cautious political rhetoric, where you try real hard not to piss off the other side ’cause they might hit back. The language of inclusion, though, need not be the language of capitulation. Let’s put this in historical perspective: You’re Tom Hayden. Let the Rude Pundit and others be Abbie Hoffman. Out here in the blogworld, we can say shit like “Petraeus/Betray Us” because, well, shit, that’s what we do. Let us be the dirty fuckin’ hippies.
We need you to be mainstream, MoveOn. We need you to be the grown-up. The mainstream media is distracted by shiny objects. Don’t actually try to dangle a sparkly charm in front of them.
Yeah…basically.
Sorry dudes… I heartily disagree with both the idea and the reasoning. Here, Lakoff gives his position on this and for a change it has less to do with framing an issue, and is more about the cold hard reality:
MoveOn Ad Exposes the True Betrayers
(excerpt from page 2)“The issue is this: Who has been betraying the trust of the American people — including our troops — in bringing about the American invasion of Iraq and in continuing the occupation? What were the acts of betrayal and with what consequences? And is a betrayal of trust still going on, and if so where, how, and by whom?
I have developed a deeper look at these issues. You can read that in my new article Iraq and the Betrayal of Trust. But meanwhile, let’s talk about one of the traps we should stay out of: The Politeness Trap.
Bush took advantage of certain conventions of etiquette and politeness when he sent Petraeus to testify before Congress. Those conventions hold that one does not criticize the symbolic stand-in for the military, even when the uniform-wearing stand-in is on an overt political mission that is at the heart of the Administration’s continuing betrayal of trust. Decorum can be put to political use, and Bush did just that.
Bush was using a familiar right-wing tactic: identifying himself with a military uniform and the stature of the military in general, when he had no military stature himself. Rudy Guiliani used the same tactic in his ad in Friday’s New York Times: by associating himself with Petraeus’ rank and role, hoping some of the stature of the military would rub off on him. The implicit message is an attack on MoveOn: in pointing out Petraeus’ deception, MoveOn, so Giuliani implies, was being disrespectful of the military itself. This is a typical right-wing attack on progressives, and progressives shouldn’t stand for it. They should not be allowed to hide behind the troops. The troops themselves have been betrayed.”
Here is the political reality as I see it today:
MoveOn was right. They didn’t write any facts that most reasonable Americans would dispute. Did they use harsh words in a flaming sound byte? Yep… And rightfully so. These harsh GOP tactics deserve nothing less than to be hammered with facts.
It is an outrage that these neocon wannabes would get their panties all twisted in a knot over MoveOn pointing out the obvious and, even worse IMHO, is having some Dems run from the facts.
This “polite” political tactic may cut it with the hardcore vote-Dem-until-they-die crowd, but the rest of the political nation is going to point out the absurdities of the Dems playing this game of footsie under the table, and playing it by the GOP rules. I am very disappointed, to say the least, with the repeated wishy-washy mixed signals sent by Dems. Someone has to stand up to the bullies in the GOP, and the Dems aren’t doing it.
Forget about “Mommy” Democrats and “Daddy” Republicans and fuck thinking about the god-damned elephant and to hell with being polite about it all… The lefty-Bloggers are the ONLY adults and the Dems are the little kids that can’t/won’t fend for themselves. And, for a change, MoveOn got something right.
The truth is that all that Petraeus adds to the debate is nothing more than another layer of bush propaganda and lies, and the sooner you act on these facts the faster an honest debate on Iraq policies will begin.
