Letters to the Editor
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On Message... again.
Shortly after Obama gave his economic address, (probably before it even started really) a series of systematic processes began to unfold, on time, and in unison. As strategy play books were opened all across the country to a well bookmarked page, the head war cheifs, tasked with language formulation in the event of an emergency, looked down at the page, skimmed down to a highlighted article and breathed a huge sigh of releif. There it was. the counterpoint was still there after so many years of use. It was hard to undersand why it had still not been refuted successfully to this day, but nonetheless as effective as ever. As the chiefs picked up their war phones to get the message out to their handlers, they would read the text under a heading called:
"Blanket statement to counter Democratic talking points on: The Economy, Healthcare, Social Programs, Etc."
Within minutes of the message reaching one of McCain's aids, he would proudly proclaim the following dull witted response.
"There is a tendency for liberals to seek big government programs that sock it to American taxpayers while failing to solve the very real problems we face."
So lets consider that for over as many Presidential elections as I can remember, anytime a Democrat weighs offering solution based initiatives, the tried and true counterpunch methodology from the right has simply been to utter...chant actually, "government expansion, higher taxes, bread lines, shoeless, unfed children!"
Holy Jeebus, am I bored to death with this already. The only logical explanation for why this has been so effective is the fact that Democratic politicans have been so focus group driven, so convinced that staying on message is the only viable choice, and for so long that when they are backed into a corner and asked to defend their position in real terms, they sound rediculous, petty, contrived, and soulless.
The Right has their own fiery brand of rhetoric, and even though its just as empty, it has contempt and it is chock full of venom. It strikes at the anger of its constituency and charges the base effectively.
The truth is that the Democrats have no business peddling nuetral language as people can see right through empty platitudes without at least a shred of conviction. Time after time, these tactics have caused an implosion on the Left while the school yard bully runs away with the lunch money to start the next war of the week.
Who then has the common sense, much less back bone, to disarm a simple cliche? I think its long overdue personally.