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
Taylor Marsh: Why Was Obama Awarded the Nobel?
Beyond the Bush tailspin, why was Obama awarded the Nobel? For his outreach to the Muslim community, his charge on nuclear nonproliferation, and his determination to help Afghans help themselves.
Will Bunch: Drudge, Limbaugh, and the Sad Return of "Racial America"
There's a lot there for a thoughtful, conservative critique of Obama. But that's not where the conversation is going right now -- it's all about the shiny black object.
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.
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.
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.
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!
http://obama.3cdn.net/f50f89f95367a271b5_dbm6ivqut.jpg
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?
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.
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.