Too Big To Flail

This is not the Republican party I'm used to. Coming of political age in the early 1990s, I grew up with a Republican party that was downright deadly at kneecapping the political opposition, particularly President Clinton. Though eventually victorious in the court of public opinion, for his entire presidency Clinton and Hillary Clinton were constantly hounded by the Republican Noise Machine, who worked in concert with the Gingrich-led congress to do the best they could to muck up the workings of our government.

Looking back at the work they did versus Al Gore and John Kerry, as well as versus figures like Howard Dean, I'm sort of amazed that they seem so impotent right now. Sure, having their candidate lose the election by over 10 million votes surely had a role, but the conservative disinformation apparatus seems to have run into the same mistake liberals (like myself) made in opposition to George W. Bush.

From the minute Bush entered the national scene, there were competing narratives pushed about him. Either he was a simpleton of the lowest order, or a cunning right-wing Machiavelli. He was either a willing tool of the torture-obsessed Dick Cheney, or he was the Decider calling all the shots. The problem we had on the left was that we pushed both of these versions of Bush relentlessly. The problem is that they directly conflict each other. He can't be both a boob and a cunning trickster at the same time. It wasn't a coherent narrative, and a narrative is what wins or loses a political career. The popular and now default vision of George W. Bush - a gross incompetent that placed unqualified cronies in positions of importance - was not a liberal meme, but one that emerged after Katrina and was cemented by the economic meltdown on his watch that has led to Bush being considered the modern day Hoover.

The right, by contrast, has been very good about setting the narrative for Democratic leaders. Al Gore was a serial liar, they said. John Kerry was a phony war hero, they yelled. These attacks, no matter how detached from reality they might be, took hold because the right was consistent in their application.

But something about Obama has made them flail like nobody's business. Ever since he declared his candidacy for President, they have been unable to settle on a line of attack. And what many don't realize is that the line of attack and its consistent repetition via news that reflects the thesis, is what sticks in today's media culture. The moment of the single campaign "gotcha" died when Bill Clinton survived Gennifer Flowers' early allegations.

At any given moment according to the conservative disinformation apparatus (ie. Fox News, conservative blogs, and talk radio) Barack Obama is a black separatist Muslim born in Kenya who wants to surrender to Al Qaeda and Iran while forcing gay marriage on straight men and abortion on women while also being incompetent and - oh yeah - a fascist Marxist dictator. They said this when he announced his nomination, had it hit a fevered pitch in the last week of the campaign (especially at those Palin rallies) and become standard talking points as part of the teabagging protests.

It won't work. In their anger about President Obama's transformational policies, they're reduced to sputtering. And America notices. Outside of the bitter, clinging 26-30% (the same people who approve of Bush and Sarah Palin), this frenzied flailing at Obama is all for naught. Not only do the disparate messages cancel each other out, but they just don't comport to reality. You could understand, if not agree with, why the accusations of elitism leveled at Al Gore and John Kerry, could stick. But as during the campaign, the mild mannered Obama pays no resemblance to the Lenin-obsessed black nationalist we hear so much about from Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Juan Williams won't ever give up his thought that Michelle Obama resembles radical Angela Davis, but what America keeps seeing is an independent, fashionable First Lady.

It isn't just that the right's rhetoric about Obama is so unreal as to be laughable, but we are at a unique point in our modern politics where the unimportant "freak show" trivia that is the life blood of Fox News and Matt Drudge, has been placed in a proper context. Banks on the verge of collapse have a tendency to minimize whatever white noise is kicked up over the president's choice of DVDs for Gordon Brown.

Is the noise machine dead? No. As long as there are outlets like Fox and mainstream journalists like Time's Mark Halperin and Politico's John Harris to foist a neverending torrent of nonsense on the public, the noise machine remains in business. But the severity and unreality of its rhetoric continues to fall apart as America gets to know President Obama and trust him to lead us out of the crisis some of that previous nonsense helped to create.

Oliver Willis writes daily at OliverWillis.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Follow Oliver Willis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/owillis

Comments

[brooklyncitizen]

"From the minute Bush entered the national scene, there were competing narratives pushed about him. Either he was a simpleton of the lowest order, or a cunning right-wing Machiavelli. He was either a willing tool of the torture-obsessed Dick Cheney, or he was the Decider calling all the shots. The problem we had on the left was that we pushed both of these versions of Bush relentlessly. The problem is that they directly conflict each other."

I don't entirely agree with this. Bush was/is a simpleton, he could barely speak English and that was where he was most consistent. No one on the left claimed he was intelligent enough to be deciding anything on his own and most likely that is why Bush proclaimed himself as "the Decider" . When the left used that term it was in jest or tongue in cheek.

THe right's fringe element is out in full force...they are the face of the Republican party, but frankly there isn't much difference between either party, the only differences exist in degrees. Both have fringe elements but the true power in each party support a capitalist and corporatist agenda; Obamania not withstanding.

[Jezreel]

I would add that the advent of talented, professional, Left-wing journalists on our side has also helped to dispel or counter the rhetoric of the right. Whether by means of news aggregation and citizen journalism such as those on HuffPo or professional journalists like Josh Marshall and others, the Left and Independent-leaning Left and moderates have a wider array of sources from which they can parse their news.
Also, social media like Facebook, YouTube, Google Video and Twitter have improved our ability to communicate with each other and mount an effective grassroots agenda.

[Primus51]

You'll need all those journalist on your side to help the bluedogs get elected again. Obama is hanging them out to dry. The majority of bluedogs come from fiscally conservitive districts. All this spending will be a hard sell.

[LeftRight]

Don't know why, since he's doing everything that he said he would do in the campaign. It's not like we couldn't have known.

[jan4insight]

Re the social media - good point. I was talking with a friend today about what it would have been like, if we'd had the Internet and cell phones back in the 60s.

[Articulator]

I do often get a hint that much of the Conservative movement is largely comprised of older people who are still hating the "hippies" from the 60's. I listened to a few minutes of Rush talk a week or so ago about when he grew up and it was pretty clear to me that he was still fighting the social issues from back then. He has stereotyped democrats into being every hippie he ever hated and he spends every day trying to attack them. It's time to let go. There may be a reason the youth are turning away from the GOP's message. They dont have that hatred from 40 years ago burning in them. They have their future to be concerned with. I was a kid back then but I do remember there being a great divide which I now assume was loosely between liberals and conservatives. I say "loosely" because I think when such terms become stereotypes they become misleading and meaningless. People can have varied outlooks across a spectrum of issues and their opinions can change with time and additional knowledge. It just may be that this conservative movement (and therefore the GOP which is attached at to it at the hip) will disappear if it doesnt find new leaders other than the likes of Rush, O'reilly, etc. whose whole purpose in life is to attack the image of the hippies they hate from 40 years ago.

[bayside]

Republicans havent changed , ,its americans who have changed..We heard bush, cheney,fox give us downright lies by their very own controlled media and because of the internet we found out the real truth..The internet is what saved us ..The hate spewing from some republicans is obvious, its a black issue first and formost...They will either get with the 21st century program or become like the kkk..Their choice.

[debqd]

Good article, Oliver. One of the Republicans' problems is that they just can't grasp President Obama's (I love saying that) pragmatism. Republicans like to have things in a neat little box so they can control it. They're simply unable to get President Obama into a box. He keeps surprising them instead-- i.e. the pirates...­.Afghanist­an....Iraq­....Mexico­.... They are not surprised by his economic policies, but they don't know how to stop the cruise ship from turning because THEIR only proposals for a solution are the same things that failed the country over the past eight years.

We could "help" the Republicans understand...by telling them how FREE we feel now that we are out from under their hard ideological thumbs -- so free knowing that women will continue to have control over their bodies, that science will flourish, that imperialism will end, that gays will be treated with respect, that my country won't torture, that the constant pressure of the fundamentalists to be like them has been lifted from our shoulders, that the arrogance shown to the world on our behalf will stop -- and a friendly hand extended, that middle-class families will have real opportunites to succeed -- instead of waiting for the "trickle down" that never arrives. In short, we have been socially, economically, scientifically and religiously FREED.

So, Republicans -- take all the nasty shots you want at President Obama. Just remember, you're shooting at what the rest of us call FREEDOM.

[ahumbleopinion]

Well said.

[ThinkCreeps]

Diffuse attacks against Bush were honest, in the sense that pretty much anything he did could be criticized harshly. Attacks might have been ineffective, in part because of a lack of discipline in approach, but they weren't unjustified. The republicans have more trouble with Obama - they need a legitimate line of attack, not just a disciplined meme-recital.

[Badger84]

Good post Oliver. The r's seem to be flailing randomly. It reminds me of a cat trying to pin down the beam from a laser pointer.

[robadeaux]

you put it better than I could have, especially at this hour... but that's what I'd have meant!

[whitemerlot]

I think that the internet has played a HUGE role. Never before could one of these jokers go on one of their rants only to be rebuffed seconds later with a video of them circulating on You Tube completely contradicting themselves (used expertly by the Obama campaign). Also, because of the required balance in the media, these people have always used the illusion that they represent at least half of this country's opinion- today it's very easy to get a real sense of the opinions that most people actually have.

[Martha12]

250,000 people in total, for every single "tea party", out of a population of
300 , 000,000 !

Why that's a whopping...drum roll please....­......0.08­3333333333­33334% of the population!!

That's hardly a "national movement"! What a joke!

Sweeping the nation....­....please­!

[joetherealist]

Remember this photo and how Obama had that many people at ONE campaign speech in St. Louis, now THAT is sweeping the nation....good times.

http://oba­ma.3cdn.ne­t/f50f89f9­5367a271b5­_dbm6ivqut­.jpg

[JulieSA]

550,000.

[thenorthshore]

but large enough and the message clear enough about barrys outrageous spending, people are still talking about it.

[LeftRight]

Nope, we're talking about how Faux News was creating these events, and then claiming that they were only covering them!

[scott63]

What the hell are you talking about? the scoop on Obama in Republican circles has been very consistant , Socialist, inexperienced, Empty suit, radical anti-American, ...etc The press just pooh pooh's it and gives it no traction.

[kforce]

No, the Republican scoop on Obama changes on whatever sounds better at the moment: Communist or Fascist? Muslim or Black Liberation Christian? The far-right will say whatever seems most damning at any given moment, trying to stir up people's fear and hatred. But the author is right; it just makes them look silly and pathetic and very, very tired.

[Articulator]

So true. It is amazing that they dont see how transparent their motives are. They are definitely not for America, they are for their ideology that they clutch so tightly to in denial.

I still have a hard time getting over the blatent statements that they hope Obama fails. The definition of success is that the economy recovers and America becomes prosperous again. How can they be against that, which they are when they hope for failure?

[historymatters]

Interesting analysis. I'd add that one of the reasons that Obama seems to make the right incoherent is that he represents so much of what they detest. A person of ordinary means, bi-racial, fiercely intelligent and fair-minded, raised by a single mother and his grandparents, who achieved so much by dint of intellect, grit, and hard work - no wonder they can't stand him.

[cartunes]

If something is to good to be true it probably is.t seems to me that liberals have lost their party and even as it looks that its at its strongest point i think you have being lead to believe so . But please take a look who controls the money now and who are all the big contributors are the banks, the bankers and wall street and look how well its being represented in this administration . in every cabinet position their is wall street or the bankers, so please take a good look who is the under dog now and if you start felling manipulated by big money and all the rush decisions that are being made 3 or 4 big events per week t looks to me like confusion and guess who wins when there is confusion? not us

[kforce]

"It seems to me that liberals have lost their party..." Um, oookay...

[clarryr]

Of course it was Paulson who gave the banks $350B without strings. It was Bush who hid in the White House while the economy crashed around him.

[lisakaz2]

I think you're missing the broarder narrative. The GOP got used to its hot air being seen as plausible. It is no long remotely plausibleThe insults have nothing to back them up with anyone who actually understand concepts they bandy about as slogans. In short, they've played themselves out or at least into a corner.

On the Bu$h narrative, this is easy to reconcile, as in the "Mayberry Mafia." Bu$h IS a simpleton because he sees the world in simple ways like "you're either with us or against us" and such. He doesn't understand subtlety nor wants to understand. This is why they only know how to be heavy handed. They are chickenhawks through and through who used to be Cold Warriors who don't know how to adjust. They only know how to project Cold War isms onto others. Well, my students now have NO recollection of the Cold War, so it doesn't work on them and increasingly it doesn't work on an electorate who cannot fathom how MLK could be called a communist (as he was by Sen. Helms), let alone the president.

[Dolmance]

There's an old saying - "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time."

The Republicans haven't changed a bit. The thing that's new is, people aren't buying the same old lies. And this is probably due to the fact that virtually everything the Republicans promised turned out to be a lie or just flat wrong. And when people are broke and they don't have a job, they tend to have their concentration sharpened and they tend to vote, unlike past elections where so many people stayed home all smug and uninvolved and thought they could coast along without a care in the world.

The Republicans are the same as they've always been - and for the most part, with the exception of Glenn Beck, it's the same idiots delivering the same message for their bosses - Big Oil, the Insurance Industry and Rupert Murdoch.

[cartunes]

It seems to me that this is a thee party system. Republicans, Democrats, Money follow the money and you will see that it inst with the republicans anymore bankers, lobbyist and wall street switch sides to the democrats and the liberals sold their soul to the contribution machine so good luck to you all.

[GuyRC]

So once the republicans find one good lie that they havn't heard before the moderates will flock back to the right. That pretty much meshes with my estimation of the moderate intellect.

[Montgriz]

Folks, you are losing your sense of humor, not to mention proportion. This tea bag thing is as close to political farce as anything I Have seen since Nixon's "I am not a crook" and Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman".....this is a pathetic show by the side that lost the elections and the majority of Americans see that...lighten up, all you left wing nuts....your opposites are showing their stuff....enjoy!