The Terror Within: A Look at the Republican Messaging Machine
Most of us have read about political polls and how candidates and parties use the results of to shape messages and vocabulary. You read about how bizarre and loaded they are and you never think for a million years that you'd be able to participate in them. For the longest time I assumed there was some anonymous town in the heart of conservative America where Republican's crafted and honed all their messages. That is until tonight, when I was called by a conservative pollster, trying to hone a partisan message.
The questions I was asked astounded me.
The poll began innocuously enough, "Are you over 18 years old and registered to vote?"
As soon as I answered in the affirmative, I was reminded of Bette Davis' infamous line in All About Eve and we were off and running.
The first dozen questions were variants on terrorist attack scenarios. Things like, "What concerns you most: Dirty bombs, back pack bombs, improvised nuclear devices or nuclear weapons?" or gems like "Knowing the fact that transportable nuclear weapons can have enough destructive force to level Manhattan and killing hundreds of thousands, in whose hands would that frighten you most: A rogue state, terrorist cells, state sponsored terrorists, Al-Qaeda or Osama Bin-Laden?"
It was frightening to deconstruct the messages these questions held. Some politician somewhere, most likely a Republican, hopefully not a presidential candidate (although my gut tells me it was), is using this poll to shape his platform. And they're going to phrase the threat we're going to hear about over and over again on Fox News. The results of polls like these will determine whether or not Osama Bin-Laden will hypothetically be sneaking dirty bombs large enough to level Manhattan into the country or if Iran will be a state-sponsor of terror and probably involved in a plot to destroy us all with nuclear weapons.
Something tells me we'll probably hear it all, but this was only the tip of the iceberg for this poll.
I was asked how strongly I responded to words like oath and commitment and pledge and promise. I was asked which sounded stronger, a "Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear Proliferation" or the "Campaign for a Nuclear Free World." I was asked, honestly, a string of questions about what "scares me the most."
The show stopper though?
I was asked, and I'm quoting this from my notes, "Which word worst describes how to deal with a nuclear power: talks, negotiations or diplomacy."
My heart sank and I could no longer keep up my un-biased air I had put on to continue with the poll. "Are you serious?"
"Yes," the pollster told me.
"Those are all the best options. Can I say none of the above?"
"Ummm.... No. The only other answer I can input is 'not sure'."
I went with "not sure" even though I was pretty damn sure what my answer would have been, were it an available choice.
This was a thoroughly un-predicted and uninvited insight into the world of politics and, more than a dirty bomb or an IED, this is what scares me. These messages, this fear mongering, scare me much more than any anonymous terrorist threatening to attack inside the United States. Isn't speciously inciting terror in the populace this way every bit as evil as threats the terrorists make? Terrorists don't even have to make threats to the American people anymore; Republican politicians do it for them as a matter of political course.
Those responsible for this poll are already in the United States and their attacking it from within, decaying the fragile, wooden foundation of democracy and sanity as termites would destroy a house. Each fragile piece of wood is hollowed until it's a knotted, gnarled shell of its former self. Unfortunately, the political equivalents of exterminators are strong leaders and, at this point, all we have to fight these politicians with are would-be leaders acting like politicians.
(Bryan Young blogs daily at This Divided State)
Follow Bryan Young on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigShinyRobot
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Why doesn't anyone in the public arena point out that the real cut-and-runners and cowards are the ones who want to sacrifice what this country stands for? Democrats deny, but they don't turn the sword around. I'd rather end up fighting in the streets than give up on freedom.
don't you understand that giving up on freedom is exactly what the republicans have us doing right now? sure, it's little freedoms now, that some may consider insignificant, or for the greater good, but it's a slippery slope. they've set the precedent for torturing US citizens, for taking away their rights, keeping them from health care, and keeping them from making a living wage. what do they have to do for u to see that they are hurting this country, and not helping? does it have to get to the point that all borders are closed and no one can go in or out, & you have to have papers to travel between states, and they implant some kind of technology into every US citizen so they can "make sure they aren't involved in terrorism"? don't you see who the real terrorists are?
terrorism: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
http://mw1
who follows that definition better? they are coercing their fellow republicans to give up their rights by telling them that they should be afraid and that a terrorist attack will happen any moment now. how are people so blind? i don't understand it.
Do you think we will see a day when the Repugs turn their back on the NRA? I fear that one of these days we will have a revolution and all those guns are going to be a problem for the Reich.
Pollsters like these are another extension of the mentality that has driven the Bush administration for the last 6+ years. Loading polls with questions based on nightmares of brutality that could only happen in the worst possible case sets the stage. These questions are designed to draw an emotional response in a flash moment without allowing a person to think. These are the tactics of the doomsayers.
Since 9-11 the Conservatives have capitalized on scare tactics to promote their agendas. They have falsely set themselves up as the only saving grace from Terrorism. In fact all they have done is promote political cronyism, spend money on projects to form the elusion of safety and expand the bureaucratic hierarchy.
It just goes to show that lies and deceptions and false senses of security is all that they have. In the coming Presidential election that's all we can expect. Nothing new. Just more of the same old crap.
Yes, they ARE Evil... and they're COUNTING on americans being ignorant..
We have nothing to fear... except fear itself.
This works well for the Bush administration.
Republicans have been exploiting terrorism fears since 9-11, instead of rallying courage in the populace, the Bush admin. has severely damaged public trust because of this politicization of terrorism -- thanks to Karl Rove's advisor role--and it is the quality which most disgusts me about the Republican party. This poll sounds like it came from Ghouliani, fear is his whole platform.
Last evening I watched a National Geographic show where Lisa Ling had a rare opportunity to film inside North Korea with an eye surgeon who operated on 1,000 North Koreans to restore sight for simple cataract blindness. When the bandages were removed, the moved people expressed deep gartitude to posters on the wall of "The Dear Leader"(that is what they call him) rather than the doctor who cured them. Ling wondered whether who among the people felt true belief or fear, and then decided that it was probably one in the same in their hearts and minds. It was very frightening to see such hysterical devotion to a man, a man who throws whole families into concentration camps for unknown infractions, who allows 3 million of its people (10% of its population) to starve rather than accept international assistance because of his pride. Very sad nation, the people have no constitutional law, The Dear Leader IS the law.
While living abroad, people would often ask me in their most holier-than-thou voice, what was so wrong with the US population that George Bush could be supported. I would gently remind them that horrifically charismatic dictators, from Stalin, to Hitler, to Pinochet, to Pol Pot, have existed all through history all over the world, and their citzens let them get a way with it (at least for a time).
Some of the most intelligent, thoughtful, decent human beings I know are from Sierra Leone, where crazed killers massacred whole villages and macheted hands for ten years. And its scary to realize that on a person to person basis, we are no more mature, no more civilized, no more educated than the Sierra Leonian population. Therefore, what ever could happen to them could happen to us, and the only thing that stops this is the social and governmental stuctures we have built, and these structures are inatly vulnerable.
Democracy, basic human rights, and rationality will always be vulnerable faced with a charimatic fearmongering nationalist. Systems of checks and balances are our only defense, so it is scary to see them being slowly dismantled.
The big difference, in reference to your firt paragrpah, is that we had the chance to re-elect him and we did. Of your examples, only Hitler was democratically elected, and even that wasn't to be the leader of all Germany. So, while the U.S. spouts freedom and democracy, we as a nation exhibit little in the way of standing behind that rhetoric, something peopel outside the U.S understand far better than most Americans. It's our perceived arrogance that elicits the "holier-than-thou" attitude you experience. We earned it.
"Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things...W
Thomas Paine, "Common Sense"
I love the way they totally gloss over the point that the reason OBL is still a danger they can hang over the heads of a gullible electorate is because the bush and GOP left him to his own devices so they could invade Iraq and make all that money for Halliburton.
I love the way they totally gloss over the point that the reason OBL is still a danger they can hang over the heads of a gullible electorate is because the bush and GOP left him to his own devices so they could invade Iraq and make all that money for Halliburton.
i believe that bush has intentionally avoided capturing bin laden, by doing this bush has the ever present "terrorist trump card" to play. since bin laden is on the loose, america is in danger of being nuked by the terrorists. initially this was a smart move by bush, got him elected the second term, that and diebold, he suckered america into believing that he was the only person who was able to stop terrorism. this old ploy is now being plied by rudy, that's all he has.
Yes. Got to get a handle on these people NOW - no more SwiftBoats on steroids.
Did you ASK who they were WORKING FOR?
Did you GET NAMES AND A PHONE NUMBER? (sugar is MUCH stronger than vinegar here - sweetly ask, so's you can COMPLIMENT the people on SUCHA GOOOOOD SURVEY"
Did you ASK if they were PAID or VOLUNTEER?
Were they READING FROM A SCRIPT?
If they REFUSE to give you that information, you then need to REFUSE to be a part of their poll.
Of course I asked who they were working for and the person taking the poll explained to me their confidentiality policy. Yes they were paid and yes they were reading a script. It was a classic call center working for someone anonymously with a blocked number (I tried that, too.)
Darn.
You mean THEY have a 'confidentiality policy' about THEIR EMPLOYER, that YOU can't find out about?
Well, thank you for making that effort.
Is anyone else as sick of "professional" politics as I am?
Hey, Bryan, did the caller have an Indian accent? Outscourcing of that job would be a great irony!
Great Post. Would like to see more research and coverage of the topic.
Obviously this is still a result of Carl Rove.s hand.
Don't forget Karl Rove's infamous push-poll in the 2000 South Carolina primary.
It went something like: "Would you be less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew he'd fathered an illegitimate black child?"
It seems Republicans are more determined to take away our liberties than bin Laden is. How do American's protect themselves from Republican fear mongering and toe tapping in the toilets? Geez, we can't even take a crap without sleazy Republicans making us feel afraid.
What a poorly written survey. So somebody who paid a lot of money will choose to call them negotiations (or diplomacy) when it could be that the voters prefer negotiations to more military. "What scares you most..." should have been what scares you more. If losing one's job and defaulting on the mortgage had been a fifth option....
Poorly written? Quite the opposite. They were written quite carefully to ensure they get the poll results they want.
They are not at all interested in what Americans really think.
Jim, I think the are not interested in what Americans WANT, but they are trying to gauge what/how we think, because that is how the tools of manipulation are created.
Dear Mr. Young,
You should be aware that Democratic pollsters and Democratic-cause PACS use very similar types of opinion polling.
I'm in the ATL area. I get calls like the one you describe, from both sides of the aisle, with a fair regularity. I usually agree to participate because I'm interested in sleazeball tactics, if only from the standpoint of wondering if ANYONE responding to the call fails to recognize how horribly biased the questions themselves are, just based on their underlying presumptions.
If you keep track of the questions, you'll see that a given topic generally repeats (from a slightly different angle) about 3-4 questions down the line. I try to answer the first iteration of a topic as a raving liberal, and the second iteration of the same topic as a rightwing lunatic.
I REALLY had fun with the pollster working at questions that were (obviously) commisssioned by or for the NRA.
:-)
Dear god! Someone actually commissioned this poll, and people were actually called about it!!!!! Welcome to the beginning of the end times people, cause with these kind of people around, it won't be long till we launch nukes somewhere, and then everbody else will launch them, probably at us!
Be afraid, be very afraid every election season.
Republican always come to power behind jigh engery cost and when they are going to dump the USA into a long expensive war they start quoting Lincoln.
When you hear Lincolns quotes start buying Military Weapons Industry stock and buying engery or oil furtures.
Heck here under Bush the size of eggs even got smaller, if you didn't notice.
Excellent analysis.
The right wing may be evil, but those folks are not stupid. They are far better than the left at fashioning propaganda and spreading it.
Progressive say we should not lower ourselves to their level because to fight them on their own turf is to concede the validity of their tactics.
Fine. You're in a knife fight, but you refuse to use a knife. Just resist with your fists. See how long before you bleed to death (with honor intact).
Sample question for a different poll:
Which would waste more lives and money:
(a) Continuation of the Iraq war;
(b) A new war in Iran;
(c) More pollution and the after-effects of global warming;
(d) Denial of basic health care to more and more people;
"Progressive say we should not lower ourselves to their level because to fight them on their own turf is to concede the validity of their tactics.
Fine. You're in a knife fight, but you refuse to use a knife. Just resist with your fists. See how long before you bleed to death (with honor intact)."
Analogies like this are destroying America. Yes, I said it. Stop trying to simplify complex problems with folksy bullshit. Are you actually suggesting that the solution to this mess is for the left-wing to get better at "fashioning propaganda and spreading it"? I don't know who you are but I don't want you on my side anymore.
The Tao of War includes lessons on taking control of a battle. It is difficult work and discipline but it is the foundation for the most effective fighting tactics. The Tao of Strategy concurs. One doesn't have to adopt the tactics of an enemy to overcome them. But one learn them and understand them thoroughly in order to defeat them.
This requires careful and thoughtful examination of what we're dealing with and discussing it. Possibly what you referred to as Folksy BS. Nonetheless, intellectually we shouldn't be afraid of discussing it while we prepare to defeat it.
As soon as you get a bullshit, no correct option, question, laugh and hang up!
Here's an idea if you get in a knife fight...us
The same is true for what we progressives should be doing. We need to educate people so that these dirty tricks no longer work (except on the dead ender-29%ers). And if that's naive than it means there is no hope one way or another and the game is already up.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
