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• Thursday, March 1, 2007 08:50 PM

  Paul and Bullsmith

  Thanks for engaging on this topic. It seems to me that this – after you boil away all the impurities and extraneous gunk – is the crux of what we are battling on every front, and once we best learn how to negate its power and effectiveness only then can things improve.

  I understand exactly what you are saying needs to be done, to hold these empty jokers to their words over and over again, but even assuming we somehow got the press back on the side of doing its job and asking/answering such questions along with us, the bottom line is the great majority of people frankly are tuned out and don’t care. What they remember is the original slander, and everything after us just yakity yak he/she said, details, explanations, etc. … boring and convoluted. Emotional gut- (or lower) level lies, distortions, and name-calling is what resonates, and once you move on to the next stage of that story, people are already on to the next thing. Those now in power and on the right know this – that’s why they don’t care about the follow-up or us pressing them. All they need to do is repeat their talking points and lies, and in the end I go talk to folks I know and hear about how Saddam flew planes into the towers and how liberals are weak and just spend and hate America– reality is not a concern.

  Even assuming such battling back works, there are two depressing results: (1) We get smeared along with the offending right wingers – the public doesn’t discern – all political folks are corrupt and scum in their mind – they all do it is the common refrain; and (2) The average person has been conditioned to believe base power and authoritarian behavior is “better” and “stronger” than thinking, pragmatic and logical behavior (the hallmark of enlightened progressiveness) , so while we might win in the short-term, soon it comes back around. All I remember is the hangover after Watergate when Carter was in power, and how people’s craving for a strong and fatherly leader to just “take care” of them – even someone as hollow and stagecraft as Reagan – carried us to the next conservative wave.

  I don’t want this to sound negative – being progressive, I am eternally optimistic things will work out. But nothing is going to change until people’s perceptions of this country and what strength and leadership really is change, too. And it starts not only at home but in the schools and the teaching of civics … a place that the conservatives smartly focused on starting in the ‘80s when they started advancing their agenda in textbooks and school presentations (leading the alarming number of rabid wingers in their 20s that I see these days – scary and appalling). We need to do a better job early on so people are receptive and engaged to enlightened thinking. I hope we succeed.

  —Nick
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