He hasn't really left, has he? No. He's still around haunting the halls of the White House and Congress infecting all of us with his uncanny propagandist skills. How can you tell? Nothing has changed. The Republicans are still defining the debates, capturing the arguments, framing the issues, and setting us up for war.
The latest trial balloon in the surreptitious Republican arsenal is RESPECT -- something Democrats supposedly lack. The Moveon.org ad was an inadvertent gift to the legacy of Karl Rove that keeps on giving. Since the patriotism argument was becoming too transparent, the respect back door leading to the same conclusions was crafted.
The Republicans have capitalized on the inability of the MSM to investigate issues and the American disinclination to read and think deeply. Combine against this backdrop an ends-justify-the-means mindset, gotcha sound bites, and a constantly famished MSM and the stage is set. The Rove disciples feed this beast only what it can easily digest and will come back for again and again.
"The architect," "boy genius," "master of the chess board" was better than most at seeing what was right before his eyes. He systematically altered the system by which the MSM get their information and left the WH with that program still intact. Get the Democrats on consistency, patriotism/respect, no plan, fear, tax increases and big spending -- again. It doesn't matter that GW put us in massive debt. It doesn't matter that the Bush tax cuts are for rich people or that Democrats are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, whether the current president went AWOL while in the National Guard, everyone else's kids are fighting the wars or that consistency is the "hobgoblin of little minds." Just keep swinging those same bats -- do it often and in the right places and the Democrats won't know what hit them. Sell the agenda on the right battlegrounds repeating the same messages. If they strike back, we'll call them "disrespectful." Gocha!!!
Democrats also still think good ideas sell themselves. They think losing the vote to give soldiers longer leave time allows people to see with no frame, no links made to callousness and lies and no repetition just how little Republicans care about the troops. THEY DON'T. When the President threatens to veto poor children's insurance coverage, the Democrats delude themselves into thinking people see the mean-spiritedness he and his party represent. THEY DON'T. You have to call the Republicans on their tactics, make clear links to their lies and liabilities, and then succinctly drive home your own arguments again and again. You have to get out in front of them instead of constantly chasing their wagon. Take hold of core-American-value issues. Never mind, "We can't do this because he'll veto" or "The Republicans will filibuster." Let them. Make them! Again and again! Systematically get the message out, nationally and locally, that Republicans are ruining what defines America.
Bob Herbert of the NYT wrote, "The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans." A list of major Republican presidential candidates won't even show up for a debate on minority issues -- what Herbert calls a "slap" to black Americans and former Oklahoma REPUBLICAN Representative J.C. Watts calls a "huge mistake." When do you suppose Democrats will notice and start saying something about that?
In medicine, not seeing what's right before your eyes is referred to as "inattentional blindness." It happens when a surgeon leaves a sponge in the patient even though he was looking right at it all during the procedure. He just doesn't register the obvious and so places the patient's life at risk. That's what's happening here. The Democrats aren't registering predictable strategies right before their eyes used on them over and over.
Karl Rove knows that when the opposition is blind and you're on a roll, you can leave the building with the doors unlocked. In fact, unless the Democrats open their eyes, Karl can go away forever because he left the keys to the kingdom in very safe place -- right on the front desk where he's confident the Democrats surely won't notice them.
Dr. Reardon is the author of It's All Politics, The Secret Handshake and The Skilled Negotiator.