The Blame Game
I’m getting damn sick and tired of everyone – Dems & Repubs – playing the “blame game” for the election. Everyone and everything is getting blamed – “moral values”, gays, liberalism, polls, voting machines, elitism, and, most unfairly, Kerry himself. He was a great candidate with a superb, consistent record that backed up everything that he spoke about on the campaign trail. The fact of the matter is that we only lost by a couple of percentage points! That’s it! Our message and our stance on the issues resonated with 48% of the people.
Only a SLIGHT majority of people disagreed with us and I firmly believe that was because of ignorance. With a large number of the public not knowing about major facts like the lack of WMDs in Iraq or the lack of connection between Hassain & 9/11, how could we expect them to know things like a senator’s record or details about the economy or the environment – despite the evidence of their own senses?
Yes, we have to rethink our strategy, but not our message. If we were able to educate a small percentage of the people who voted for bush on the facts and the issues, then I believe that we could have won. A large number of bush supporters still do not know his stance on basic issues! But, bush has the conservative media juggernaut on his side that has spoon-fed his propaganda constantly to the public.
They covered bush, his supporters, and his lies, with very little coverage of the truth behind the lies. The biggest “controversy” was about a forged memo that simply supported known facts about bush’s lack of service in the National Guard. But, the proven liars, the swift boat veterans, are STILL getting coverage! Anything anti-Kerry was repeated endlessly – how many times have you heard the term “flip-flop”? – despite no evidence whatsoever to back up the claims. The only stories that could have been construed as anti-bush were factual news stories about the disasters that he has created! On those stories the media continually fed people the administrations’ lame excuses – no matter how desperate - and never demanded accountability. The need for non-partisan news coverage is critical.
The Democratic Party also needs to work on their PR angle. It is true that they let things go for too long and let the Repubs’ baseless attacks define Kerry in the eyes of America. He didn’t have the time and money to make himself known to the public, so he was typecast as cold and rigid. Somehow bush has been made to be a “man of the people”, despite being a multi-millionaire who has had everything handed to him throughout his life. Kerry concentrated on issues and thought that the public would see through the obvious fabrications and distortions. Unfortunately, too many people didn’t know or care about the issues.
We naively thought that people would research issues and see through the lies. Instead they believed a vicious attack campaign based on character assassination and twisted words.
It’s like the schoolyard bully – only by standing up to him will he stop. And if you try to take a higher moral ground and not lower yourself to his level, people will think that you are weak. We need to organize ourselves and not be afraid to be as dirty as they are. When they start fighting nasty, we have to be ready to fight back immediately. They have proven that they will stop at nothing, say anything, twist everything, and that no trick is too low, too dirty or too evil for them to use. We don’t need to lie – the truth about their record is enough to convince any sane person – but we need to retaliate to any insult and any lie as soon as they start spreading them. We know that we are morally superior in regards to the issues, but we can’t afford to be when campaigning. It is the only thing that the average bush supporter will respond to!
We need to quit trying to assign blame and get to work on education and PR! We need to demand that major media do their job and not simply toe the Republican Party line. We need to appeal to the LCD – the lowest common denominator - as well as our current base. It will be a tough tight-rope act, but it needs to be done. I hope that we have the people to do it!
Only a SLIGHT majority of people disagreed with us and I firmly believe that was because of ignorance. With a large number of the public not knowing about major facts like the lack of WMDs in Iraq or the lack of connection between Hassain & 9/11, how could we expect them to know things like a senator’s record or details about the economy or the environment – despite the evidence of their own senses?
Yes, we have to rethink our strategy, but not our message. If we were able to educate a small percentage of the people who voted for bush on the facts and the issues, then I believe that we could have won. A large number of bush supporters still do not know his stance on basic issues! But, bush has the conservative media juggernaut on his side that has spoon-fed his propaganda constantly to the public.
They covered bush, his supporters, and his lies, with very little coverage of the truth behind the lies. The biggest “controversy” was about a forged memo that simply supported known facts about bush’s lack of service in the National Guard. But, the proven liars, the swift boat veterans, are STILL getting coverage! Anything anti-Kerry was repeated endlessly – how many times have you heard the term “flip-flop”? – despite no evidence whatsoever to back up the claims. The only stories that could have been construed as anti-bush were factual news stories about the disasters that he has created! On those stories the media continually fed people the administrations’ lame excuses – no matter how desperate - and never demanded accountability. The need for non-partisan news coverage is critical.
The Democratic Party also needs to work on their PR angle. It is true that they let things go for too long and let the Repubs’ baseless attacks define Kerry in the eyes of America. He didn’t have the time and money to make himself known to the public, so he was typecast as cold and rigid. Somehow bush has been made to be a “man of the people”, despite being a multi-millionaire who has had everything handed to him throughout his life. Kerry concentrated on issues and thought that the public would see through the obvious fabrications and distortions. Unfortunately, too many people didn’t know or care about the issues.
We naively thought that people would research issues and see through the lies. Instead they believed a vicious attack campaign based on character assassination and twisted words.
It’s like the schoolyard bully – only by standing up to him will he stop. And if you try to take a higher moral ground and not lower yourself to his level, people will think that you are weak. We need to organize ourselves and not be afraid to be as dirty as they are. When they start fighting nasty, we have to be ready to fight back immediately. They have proven that they will stop at nothing, say anything, twist everything, and that no trick is too low, too dirty or too evil for them to use. We don’t need to lie – the truth about their record is enough to convince any sane person – but we need to retaliate to any insult and any lie as soon as they start spreading them. We know that we are morally superior in regards to the issues, but we can’t afford to be when campaigning. It is the only thing that the average bush supporter will respond to!
We need to quit trying to assign blame and get to work on education and PR! We need to demand that major media do their job and not simply toe the Republican Party line. We need to appeal to the LCD – the lowest common denominator - as well as our current base. It will be a tough tight-rope act, but it needs to be done. I hope that we have the people to do it!
posted by rich at 11:00 AM
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