3 toxic ingredients revealed for GOP victory plan

[Enrique]

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/04/12/3-key-ingredients-revealed-for-gop-victory-plan-dehumanization-racism-and-the-big-lie-squared/

3 Key Toxic Ingredients Revealed for GOP Victory Plan: And It Could Work

(...)


1. Dehumanize your opponent. Throughout his address, Gingrich urged all Republicans running for office to adopt the frame that they are running against Obama’s “secular, socialist machine” — not Obama or Pelosi or Reid themselves. Why? Because Obama, Pelosi and Reid are human beings. Characterizing the Democrats as a machine renders them less than human, something soulless, as reinforced by the modifiers “secular” and “socialist”. To smash a machine, especially one that is ominous, threatening and programed to do ill, is a virtue. It’s Dave versus HAL.

(...)

2. The Big Lie Squared. Already suspicious of any real news reported by mainstream media (see Obama’s birth certificate), numbers crunched by reputable organizations (see CBO) or the notion that African-Americans possess intelligence, the occupants of the GOP base are poised to believe that only that which they see on Fox News is true. How easy it will be, then, to convince them that the secular, socialist machine that is Obama and the Democrats is actually programmed by an evil force bent on totalitarianism. In fact, they don’t really need convincing; this is what they feel in their bones.

(...)


3. Dress it in racial code. Gingrich is too smart to dabble in the sort of overt racism that waves the Confederate flag or dresses Obama as a witch doctor on a Tea Party placard. No, Newt is a master at advancing the sort of racism that is hard to peg as just that. In the subtlest way possible to imply such a thing, Gingrich implied that Obama was a slick talker who didn’t really comprehend the lofty things he read, and that his keenest abilities were limited to the basketball court. (And at that, Obama isn’t exactly brilliant, he is merely “clever”.)

(...)

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. K&R

[LynneSin]

2. Doesn't Newt have a wife he should be dumping?

I mean why stop at #4?

[Fleshdancer]

5. I don't think she has cancer yet

Be patient LynneSin.

[villager]

3. And the question is what are Dems doing to counter any of this?

n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Largely agree, but...

... did Gingrich ever describe Clinton as "brilliant"?

Gingrich knows what dog whistle his audience will respond to, but framed this way, all they have to do to refute all three observations is affect righteous indignation about point #3.

[Jade Fox]

6. All this stuff was done in 2008, and it didn't work....

The article claims the GOP base is getting more and more paranoid. True, but it's also getting smaller.

This is not 1994. Gingrich is not a genius. Whatever happens this fall will be new.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Newts are toxic by nature...

A bass won't come near one.

You Say Fire Bellied Newts Have Skin Toxins - How Toxic Are They?

snip...

Summary of Simple Precautions

•Always wash your hands immediately after handling your newts

http://exoticpets.about.com/od/salamanders/f/newttoxicity.htm

[Enrique]

8. lol

Newt toxins can cause burning sensation and numbness. :rofl:

[Hubert Flottz]

9. If you don't wash your hands you could become a numbnewts.

I think that happened to the entire GOP.