The rest of us:  THE MAJORITY need to remember that we ARE THE MAJORITY–NOT THEM!

Huffington Post reported that Mark DeMoss, director of the Civility Project, a two-year-old effort launched at the beginning of the Obama presidency to prompt legislators across the nation to cool political rhetoric, decided to shut the campaign down earlier this month — even before the latest resurgence of debate about “vitriol” and rhetoric sparked by the events in Arizona over the weekend. {Yes, it would be enlightening to see what the “interest” is in civility after the murders of Arizona but I doubt that it will be much different.  The physical aggression of Tea Party candidates and their followers wielded against their winning opponents in November should have been more than enough to have convinced DeMoss and other Republicans of the value of civility. ] DeMoss, an evangelical conservative with ties to some big-name Republicans, cited a general lack of interest, as well as pervading signs that the nature of political discourse appeared only to be deteriorating during Obama’s first two years as president, as justifications for halting his program.

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QUEENS COMMENTS

Yes civility is a step in the right direction.  But don’t expect much civility to be forthcoming from the Tea Party and most of the Republicans because lack of civility and physical and verbal intimidation are part of their political strategies.

Instead of discussing the issues and coming up with ANY solution beyond tax cuts for the rich and “tort reform” [another name for removing citizen’s right to the judicial arm of our government}.   If these people get their way in regard to tort reform, for example, Wall Street Corporate arbitrators would replace our judicial system for ALL cases–even including horrible cases involving criminal violence against others.  Specific example:  No less than 30 Republican Senators last October (2010) had no issues will allowing Halliburton arbitrators to settle a gang rape case of a young woman named Jamie Leigh Jones.  To their credit not a single female Republican senator voted against Senator Al Franken’s amendment to prohibit US Contractors from requiring their employees to sign arbitration agreements as a requirement for hire.

1.  STEP ONE:  DON’T EXPECT TEA PARTY AND MOST REPUBLICANS TO TONE DOWN THEIR RHETORIC BECAUSE NAME CALLING HAS BEEN A WINNING POLITICAL STRATEGY FOR THEM. Lack of civility and attacking their opponent’s character instead of their ideas and solutions is basic to their strategy and their appeal to the fringe elements of society.   This is not new.  Such tactics have been central to the conservatives for at least 20 years. Look what they did to Clinton.  At least the last four years of his presidency the Republicans in Congress did little more than attack Clinton’s character.  They wasted time and millions of taxpayer dollars with their lawsuits and attacks on Clinton’s character.

There is a title for this type of propaganda strategy and it is called Ad hominem.  Ad hominem is a Latin phrase that has come to mean attacking one’s opponent as opposed to attaching their arguments.  One example of attacking the person instead of their arguments is the campaign against Senator Kerry that was launched by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in the 2004 Presidential campaign.  Often these hate campaigns are bankrolled by the very rich–people such as Bob Perry of Houston, and the Charles and David Koch who bankroll groups like “Americans for Prosperity” who have poured millions of dollars into supporting Tea Party activists.  There is the element of the class war–the rich against the majority in all of this.

2. STEP TWO:  MANY OF THESE PEOPLE ARE BULLIES.  YES, BULLIES.  i INCLUDE GLENN BECK, SHARRON ANGLE, SARAH PALIN, ALONG WITH THEIR WALL STREET BANK ROLLERS.

This makes dealing with them especially difficult.  I suggest that those who want to make change read books and other information that teach people how to effectively deal with bully behavior.  i am totally serious about this.

3.  STEP THREE: LEARN HOW TO RECOGNIZE PROPAGANDA STRATEGIES AND CALL PEOPLE OUT ON IT WHEN YOU SEE THEM DEPLOYING SUCH STRATEGIES. As I’ve mentioned before, I am releasing a book on political propaganda strategies on February 14 that I will make available for digital download.  I am heartened to see than many Americans are already beginning to call some of the Tea Party members and Republicans out on their tactics.  The most recent example is calling out Sarah Palin on her use of the term “blood libel”.

CONFRONT THEM WITH FACTS ABOUT THEIR INFLAMMATORY RHETORIC and inaccurate and juvenile name-calling .  This would be especially helpful if more members of congress did this. For example, the title that Eric Cantor gave to H.R. 2:  Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Act.  This is nothing but pure propaganda and irresponsible name-calling to start the myth that the Health Care bill will cost jobs.  Just one way to get Americans riled up to think the health care bill will kill jobs.  When Americans hear such rhetoric coming out of the mouths of Republicans, they need to check the facts.  For example, experts predict that the health care law will have little effect on employment.

Thus for Cantor to have title the bill as such is dishonest. AND he should be condemned for it. He knew exactly what he was doing when he did this. This is wrong.  People that do things like this in Congress should be shunned.

4.  STEP FOUR: Again, we come back to the issue of voting as many millionaires out of Congress as possible. We do not have a Congress that is representative of the demographics of the USA.  We have 261 millionaires in Congress–almost half of our Congress.  These people have huge Wall Street investments and portfolios.  Clearly their votes often represent a conflict of interests.  To expect these people to be altruistic and vote against their own self-interests 100% of the time in cases when the vote for their interests vs. those of the majority are in play is absurd.  It won’t and it does not happen.  Yes, we have to be careful going down this path because the rich will bankroll people like Christine O’Donnell and other citizens that they can then manipulate once they are in office. This means that ordinary people like you are going to have to run for office–people who really do believe in the political discourse and representation of the majority.  People who are intelligent and who can talk intelligently about issues.

Proclaim the Queen!

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