I've been to State Party Conventions and I've watched on TV and read about National Party Conventions. As best I can tell there are two competing agendas:
Make the base happy to work at the electioneering
Use the Media time to make an introduction to voters you want to win
Platform fooferaw is about the base that is at the Convention or the few at home at the Party meetings. It is the a game of pleasing the Party activists and giving them hope for the future direction of the Party. The wrangling and word corrections are the fodder of the purists and not to be mistaken for serious political strategy. Sure - it does tell you who that group is and where they want to take America and even who they think counts, but it is just a grown-ups game of tiddly-winks.
The selection of speakers and what they have to say starts getting to the heart of the politics. This selection portion involves what the general reputation of the speaker says about their political machinery and also works to bring forward the 'Next New Best Thing' - bestowing a mantle of Party respect and approval - and also puts the Party imprimatur on surrogates and their messaging. Any one speaker can hold a variety of those roles and sometimes without knowing the policy positions of one it would be easy to think they'd been anointed "Next" when what they really are about is tone. Chris Christie fits this slot I believe after listening to commentators proclaim his as "Next" when what I believe his role to been is to play the bully - the hard-assed hard-nose that represents how "tough" the GOP is. Christie would have to perform Mittenesque retroactive redefinitions to fit the role of "Next." The Base won't have that without a r-Money win and that puts Christie pretty far off.
I tried to listen to the speakers, but it was too much and I kept switching to the satellite Blues channel. The gist of what I heard was a play for the Base and even Wife Surrogate didn't seem to be reaching for Undecideds but rather to be trying to reassure the Base. Her "shout out" to women seemed painfully jarring considering the GOP's stance and her Hubby's stance on women's matters like contraception and choice and work rights - not to mention with an entire disconnect from the daily issues facing most women beyond somebody's platitudes. (disclosure: every time this rich bitch opens her mouth my eyes go red) ((don't start up with me, I like strong women and weak ones make me tired)) (((strong women deal with hard things and persevere - not buy their way through)))* Look, the Undecideds are going to choose on something other than race or European socialism or God-bothering and that something other will most likely be who they FEEL will care the most and do the best job of straightening up their economic pain. Damn it, they will not analyze policy points - they'll go with a general sense of that piece. Women who are flat done with the misogyny of the GOP won't change their minds because Anne says they're great and women who haven't decided because they've somehow missed having their heads kicked by it won't care Anne says they have it tough. The undecided audience is primarily white working class of the "don't bother me with this shit until later" variety. These folks are marginally convinced their vote matters and they couldn't be less interested in the high-falutin ideological fights - they just want things fixed for them and they're not real sure who is responsible for them not being fixed. Racist dog-whistling won't do much with them, not because they're committed to equality but because it requires energy to hate and it makes them uncomfortable. These folks need a reason to be reassured that r-Money gives enough of a damn about them to actually do something. I didn't hear that - at all. It is still early but these first out of the gate folks tend to set tone...
I can only hope this GOP thing is a massive failure.
*I realize that was a lot of parenthetical speaking and no I don't give a rat's patoot about MS, I've had women friends with it and they didn't have dancing horses and the money for the best medical treatment in the world and I don't give a damn about her five or eight or whatever kids and gazillion grandkids the hired help takes care of - the women I knew had a real hard go of it and did a pretty good job of living until it killed them. Yeah, it killed them and not a single one of them would have taken it as a badge for respect.
Showing posts with label Propoganda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Propoganda. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, September 08, 2008
The New and Improved GOP
Rick Davis says the GOP was born 4 days ago, a whole new GOP. This is the new and improved GOP. You've seen that blurb on packaging, stuff like wash powder and cereals; you open the box and what's inside looks the same, smells the same, seems to be the same old stuff, then you realize that what is new and improved is the label. If the GOP is new, why am I hearing the same things I've heard from them since St Ronnie?
Now I'm serious, the Palin rhetoric isn't new, it isn't different, the Republicans have been running on this same junk for a very long time. We're Christians, the Democrats are heathens and gutter tramps, killers of the Christian nation, debasers of youth, baby murdering... How old is that? It predates Rove by a long ways. I say and do exactly the same thing as every moss back Republican, get wildly cheered at the RNC and I'm different? How, exactly - gender? Her administrative experience is marked by wholesale pursuit of earmarks, the silencing of dissent, the use of executive power for personal ends and the stonewalling of legitimate inquiry. This is the Alaskan reformer, a Bush clone with female genitalia.
McPOW running as a 'change' candidate is a little too rich, twenty six years in DC with the last seven as Bushbootlick signifies what change? Trickle down economics that has not done any such thing in recorded history, re-winning Vietnam with today's kids, a social agenda from the less kind and uncompassionate BushCo agenda, and a lackey to any plutocratic interest shows a Bush Premium Plus rather than anything reflective of change at all. If this seems harsh, look at what he proposes, a health care tax credit of $2500 is meaningless to the uninsured, if their federal taxes were $2500 after deductions they would still find themselves thousands of dollars short of paying for insurance. With the other hand he proposes to tax employer provided insurance. This is the person who claims Obama will hurt the working person, as he hands out tax relief to those most benefiting from the system and lays the costs on those supporting it. The Republican double game plays on, economic rape of the worker with family values as a palliative and war and terror as the whip. This is the experience that is touted by the GOP and its surrogates.
Today's economy is the handy work of Republican control of the White House and both Houses of the Congress, all remedial action proposed by Democrats short of minimum wage have been filibustered by Senate Republicans since the 2006 elections. These same Republicans threatened in the early years of BushCo to use the "nuclear option" of stripping filibusters being so outraged by Democratic usage, in considerably smaller numbers. This is the Party of Change that McPOW and his shills propose exists, these are the people the RNC supports, you are to believe that on the one hand the New and Improved GOP is all about changing itself as it acts to re-elect the very people responsible for the mess they propose they're ready to change. Their disrespect for the electorate could not be more blatant.
John McCain claims that Washington changed them from cleanup gang they entered as, something from the extinct swamps perhaps, or miasma vapors drifting from K St, certainly nothing to do with their basic ideology. Perhaps that explains Chuck Keating and McPOW, some intangible got him, certainly not the ideology of better-than and greed and power.
Finally there is one change that disgusts me, I am the child, nephew, and cousin to World War II combat veterans, men deeply and intimately experienced in warfare, they never reference it. Their levels of involvement wait for the post mortem sorting of papers, their families ignorant until death claimed the soldiers. My classmates and friends served in "the 'Nam" and they were combat troops, their silence about their experiences is deafening, the funny anecdote about a leave or chance encounter, but nothing regarding their actual business. That is for them, alone. I am a trusted friend and compatriot because I understand, without pretence of knowing. The constant references of McPOW offend them and I am offended for them. I do not question what they did or why and they ask only my understanding and respect, which I freely give. But they do not dine out on it or seek POW celebrity or veteran celebrity unlike a certain POW celebrity from Arizona with an entire political career based on and protected by getting shot down.
I do not care if Obama cannot do everything he says he wants to, I do not care if the ideas of change are exaggerated, they at least exist, they are not figments - however limited. I'll take that over the New and Improved on the box.
Now I'm serious, the Palin rhetoric isn't new, it isn't different, the Republicans have been running on this same junk for a very long time. We're Christians, the Democrats are heathens and gutter tramps, killers of the Christian nation, debasers of youth, baby murdering... How old is that? It predates Rove by a long ways. I say and do exactly the same thing as every moss back Republican, get wildly cheered at the RNC and I'm different? How, exactly - gender? Her administrative experience is marked by wholesale pursuit of earmarks, the silencing of dissent, the use of executive power for personal ends and the stonewalling of legitimate inquiry. This is the Alaskan reformer, a Bush clone with female genitalia.
McPOW running as a 'change' candidate is a little too rich, twenty six years in DC with the last seven as Bushbootlick signifies what change? Trickle down economics that has not done any such thing in recorded history, re-winning Vietnam with today's kids, a social agenda from the less kind and uncompassionate BushCo agenda, and a lackey to any plutocratic interest shows a Bush Premium Plus rather than anything reflective of change at all. If this seems harsh, look at what he proposes, a health care tax credit of $2500 is meaningless to the uninsured, if their federal taxes were $2500 after deductions they would still find themselves thousands of dollars short of paying for insurance. With the other hand he proposes to tax employer provided insurance. This is the person who claims Obama will hurt the working person, as he hands out tax relief to those most benefiting from the system and lays the costs on those supporting it. The Republican double game plays on, economic rape of the worker with family values as a palliative and war and terror as the whip. This is the experience that is touted by the GOP and its surrogates.
Today's economy is the handy work of Republican control of the White House and both Houses of the Congress, all remedial action proposed by Democrats short of minimum wage have been filibustered by Senate Republicans since the 2006 elections. These same Republicans threatened in the early years of BushCo to use the "nuclear option" of stripping filibusters being so outraged by Democratic usage, in considerably smaller numbers. This is the Party of Change that McPOW and his shills propose exists, these are the people the RNC supports, you are to believe that on the one hand the New and Improved GOP is all about changing itself as it acts to re-elect the very people responsible for the mess they propose they're ready to change. Their disrespect for the electorate could not be more blatant.
John McCain claims that Washington changed them from cleanup gang they entered as, something from the extinct swamps perhaps, or miasma vapors drifting from K St, certainly nothing to do with their basic ideology. Perhaps that explains Chuck Keating and McPOW, some intangible got him, certainly not the ideology of better-than and greed and power.
Finally there is one change that disgusts me, I am the child, nephew, and cousin to World War II combat veterans, men deeply and intimately experienced in warfare, they never reference it. Their levels of involvement wait for the post mortem sorting of papers, their families ignorant until death claimed the soldiers. My classmates and friends served in "the 'Nam" and they were combat troops, their silence about their experiences is deafening, the funny anecdote about a leave or chance encounter, but nothing regarding their actual business. That is for them, alone. I am a trusted friend and compatriot because I understand, without pretence of knowing. The constant references of McPOW offend them and I am offended for them. I do not question what they did or why and they ask only my understanding and respect, which I freely give. But they do not dine out on it or seek POW celebrity or veteran celebrity unlike a certain POW celebrity from Arizona with an entire political career based on and protected by getting shot down.
I do not care if Obama cannot do everything he says he wants to, I do not care if the ideas of change are exaggerated, they at least exist, they are not figments - however limited. I'll take that over the New and Improved on the box.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Useful Propaganda - Baker Co Democrats, DPO
***click pic for full size***L/R Chuck, Roxanna, Mike ,Randy, Craig, Marilyn, Linda, Marie, Ed
There are a lot of ways to propagandize, George II recently showed one way at the Knesset, the kind of thing that gives the word a bad name. Then there is this way of doing it, the Baker Co Democrats of Democratic Party of Oregon would like our name associated with positive images in the public's mind; so we adopted a section of OR Hwy 86 from I84 to the base of the hill leading to the BLM Oregon Trail Interpretive Center as well as Hell's Canyon. This is a well traveled section of road leading to several of our county's more notable landmarks.
The well travelled part means that it also gets a fair share of trash deposited along side the road, so for the propaganda value of a sign stating that Baker Co Democrats have adopted the road ODOT (Oregon Dept of Transportation) gets to have volunteers clean it up a couple times per year. This is a win for each organization, ODOT doesn't have to spend money and resources cleaning that section of road and it is cleaned and BCD is publicly acknowledged as doing something in the community interest - that doesn't involve a candidate.
For organizations interested in doing this, the procedure is pretty simple, ODOT has a list of road sections, you select the one you'd like to do, and commit to doing it a couple times per year. There will be a mandatory safety orientation meeting and participants need to sign a waiver that they know what they're doing (over 16 years) and ODOT will provide signage, bags, vests, and grapplers (pick up stuff tools) and pick up the filled bags along the road. Nothing really to it other than a few hours a few times a year of picking up trash. Yes, there can be stuff you shouldn't touch, like meth lab debris and other nasties, mostly it is just the kinds of things that either blow off vehicles or are tossed by unthinking individuals. For this, ODOT will place highway signage stating "Adopted by *****."
Travelers, please note that we all live in a beautiful country, you can do your part to keep it that way, where ever you are headed there is a place to put that trash that doesn't involve spoiling the countryside. BCD appreciates the propaganda value of the sign, but we'd more enjoy it being unnecessary. BCD thanks ODOT and everyone else that participates in this worthwhile endeavor.
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