Rove Stage Two Defense - Divide
Just warning you, you're gonna start to see it soon. Rove stage two defense will be to portray all criticism of the failures of FEMA as the provence of Democrats. Therefore, anyone who criticizes the administration's response will be asked, "are you like Michael Moore or Barbara Streisand?" The easy way in which the Rove message machine falls into this so many times it makes me sick. (Oh, and by the way, wasn't he supposed to be fired if any member of the administration was "involved" in the leaking of Plame.)
The key to this tactic is that there are so many centrists who respond to the, "do you agree with the positions of the extremist elements of the "tree huggers" who believe that we should destroy all industrialized society, or not? And if not, then you must be with me."
Therefore I have a mandate, your mandate, to cut down any forest, completely remove any of the local mercury emissions limits, or, let's say, change the laws to allow Louisiana developers to destroy all the wetlands south or New Orleans.
See how easy it is to rhetorically claim the middle.
And that's going to be stage two of the unconscionable defense of the unconscionable unconsciousness that was the New Orleans relief efforts.
Do you want to be like Ted Kennedy? No? Then obviously you agree with our side that all the criticism is just the democrats trying to capitalize on New Orlean's misfortune to attack the president. And you don't want to be like Ted Kennedy, do you?
This is the white hat/black hat nature of the Rove machine, leaving aside the dirty tricks, of course.
I have seen the first ripples of this defense/attack. A few "unnamed officials" type articles. This is usually followed by a few congressional leaders pushing the line, leading to the flowering on the Sunday talk shows when all the Republican guests just happen to spontaneously use the exact same words to express the exact same point. It's generally got a gestation somewhere between a week and ten days, and then, once present will be repeated until the polling turns.
The only thing that can derail this is for members of the Republican party to refuse the talking points. I fear that even with a dereliction as severe as letting people die without water, there will be few republicans brave enough to stand up. They know that in the era of custom tailored districts, their political postions no longer have any great bearing on whether or not they are reelected. It has become far more perilous to fight the district-drawing machine than to fight the people.
I just hope that some republican has the virtue and the fortitude to break the talking points, to stand up and speak for the victims. Would someone from the right PLEASE stand up for the victims. Because they can't speak for themselves. They are living in America, and they are poor and black and dead.
The key to this tactic is that there are so many centrists who respond to the, "do you agree with the positions of the extremist elements of the "tree huggers" who believe that we should destroy all industrialized society, or not? And if not, then you must be with me."
Therefore I have a mandate, your mandate, to cut down any forest, completely remove any of the local mercury emissions limits, or, let's say, change the laws to allow Louisiana developers to destroy all the wetlands south or New Orleans.
See how easy it is to rhetorically claim the middle.
And that's going to be stage two of the unconscionable defense of the unconscionable unconsciousness that was the New Orleans relief efforts.
Do you want to be like Ted Kennedy? No? Then obviously you agree with our side that all the criticism is just the democrats trying to capitalize on New Orlean's misfortune to attack the president. And you don't want to be like Ted Kennedy, do you?
This is the white hat/black hat nature of the Rove machine, leaving aside the dirty tricks, of course.
I have seen the first ripples of this defense/attack. A few "unnamed officials" type articles. This is usually followed by a few congressional leaders pushing the line, leading to the flowering on the Sunday talk shows when all the Republican guests just happen to spontaneously use the exact same words to express the exact same point. It's generally got a gestation somewhere between a week and ten days, and then, once present will be repeated until the polling turns.
The only thing that can derail this is for members of the Republican party to refuse the talking points. I fear that even with a dereliction as severe as letting people die without water, there will be few republicans brave enough to stand up. They know that in the era of custom tailored districts, their political postions no longer have any great bearing on whether or not they are reelected. It has become far more perilous to fight the district-drawing machine than to fight the people.
I just hope that some republican has the virtue and the fortitude to break the talking points, to stand up and speak for the victims. Would someone from the right PLEASE stand up for the victims. Because they can't speak for themselves. They are living in America, and they are poor and black and dead.
posted by mikevotes at
9:05 PM
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