This letter is associated with the following article:
Letters
Thursday, September 4, 2008 12:00 AM

The GOP's cheerful viciousness

Yet again, the GOP launches brutal personality and cultural attacks on the Democratic candidate. Yet again, Democrats seem determined to allow it to do so.

Read other letters about this article

  • Thursday, September 4, 2008 09:46 AM

    People vote their emotional resonance, for "one of us" or someone who "speaks to us" but is better than we are, who cares for "us"

    The Palin meme is a potent one. An equally potent one will be helpful to diffuse it or it may lose luster of it's own accord. I agree the Dems took the "high road," and the Repubs took the low one - with the greater meme being you MUST do this to prevail (terror, et al). Hillary lost because of this gambit (her "dog whistling") , but she lost to those predisposed to such high minded values, the "friends," not the "enemies". In the war on terror, in providing energy NOW, so goes Repub meme, we must take the harsh, low road and damn the torpedoes, damn the consequences, we need to TAKE ACTION, makes moves, get it done. Although such a rash stance may prove reckless to the point of disastrous it rouses the blood. Level-headedness is the counterpoint. But how do you get fired-up excited about level-headedness?? By exposing rashness and instability. This reveals the opposing excitement to be misguided, which is what the Repubs are attempting on the otherside to do, diffusing. They have a strong playbook. But they've got major weaknesses. Palin has a meme that works great for her but there's another one that suits her, a zealotry in her passion that can adeptly be parodied, her and McC two mad dogs waiting to be unleashed on the world, chomping at the bit with passion, but not wise. ALL emotion and little thought and understanding. A Hockey mom. A POW vet. That's feeding 'em back their own medicine WITHOUT taking the low road.

Most Active Letters Threads

740

The commendably missing element from Obama's speech

There was no pretense that human rights is our goal, or the likely outcome, in escalating the war
371

America's regression

It's almost impossible to find a nation with as many torture advocates as the U.S. has.
330

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
277

Palin: Birthers have "fair question" about Obama

Of Obama birth, the ex-governor says, "the public is still, rightfully, making it an issue" (Updated)
211

The poster boy for progressive self-delusion

Read Hayden's 2008 Obama endorsement to remember the way the left sold our centrist president to itself

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon