Backstage with the Hidden Persuaders
August 10, 2011 in Propaganda
You are browsing the archive for Propaganda.
Announcing Publication of: Backstage with the Hidden Persuaders
August 1, 2011 in Propaganda
At Last! I have stopped writing this book on propaganda. But as I mentioned on the back cover, I haven’t really “finished.” I have “stopped.” The story of propaganda continues on, and even appears to be picking up speed.
Backstage with the Hidden Persuaders, the ongoing story of propaganda and how it is created in the USA is available now from Lulu Publications. The book will be available to order from leading online and retail book outlets within the next 6-8 weeks.
Note: This publication of 372 pages is also available as a digital download for $5.99
Germany’s version of the Tea Party: The Freedom Party Die Freiheit
July 15, 2011 in Propaganda
Strache – photograph Wikimedia Commons, Sept 2008, Christian Jansky Author
Der Spiegel reports that Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of the right-wing populist Freedom Party (Die Freiheit) has become a force to be reckoned with in Austrian politics. It is currently neck and neck with the country’s two largest mainstream parties in the polls. Strache (born in 1969) who by training is a dental technician, has been active in the politics of Vienna since 1991.
“As chancellor,” he promised in June, he plans “not to do everything differently” but to “improve many things.” [Perfect approach so as to not frighten people who may shy away from a candidate who appears to be too radical.]
Strache was tied to the neo-Nazi community in the past and was forced to admit that he took part in militia training. Today he paints himself as a statesman in waiting and only rarely sends out signals to like-minded individuals — such as when, during a visit to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in December, he wore a cap that identified him as a lifelong member of the right-wing student fraternity “Vandalia” instead of a Jewish skullcap.” READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT DER SPIEGEL.
_________________________________________________________
iflizwerequeen comments
Strache, like many Tea Party Candidates is an expert in Dog Whistle Politics. Strache wore a Biertönnchen—the red, blue, and black cap that identifies him as a lifelong member of Vandalia, a right-wing student fraternity long associated with Pan-German nationalism and anti-Semitism. But the “Freedom Party” (“Die Freiheit” ) of Germany takes Dog Whistle politics to a new height. Strache has stooges who interpret his actions for the base. Rene Stadtkewitz, the German Freedom Party founder who was part of that tour told reporters that it was a way for Strache to tell his followers “Hey look, this isn’t what it looks like.
Strache has been quoted as saying “If the Jews accept us then we won’t have a problem.” Essentially their message today is that they were wrong about the Jews and it’s the Muslims who are causing all the trouble. I hope the Germans and particularly the German-Jews are smart enough to remember that prejudice is prejudice. It is simply hatred against “the Other.” Down through history, “the other” been identified as Muslims, Jews, gays, dark-skin people, Catholics, Protestants, Irish, gypsies, Italians, Asians, etc.
Addendum on the Freedom Party of Germany
Rene Stadtkewitz, founder of the Freedom Party was former member of Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democrats. The Freedom Party has formed a party to attract voters enthralled by Thilo Sarrazin and disappointed by Germany’s existing parties
A quote from its founder: “If we don’t get things right demographically, we’ll have Algeria in Berlin before long. Islam has always been a religion of conquest,” Stadtkewitz says in his throaty bass, the voice of a smoker who fills his lungs with cigarette smoke every two hours.
For more on Rene Stadtkewitz: ”New German anti-Muslim party calls Islam ‘totalitarian,’” by David Crossland in The National, February 7, 2011.
______________________________________________________
IRONY ALERT
While Germany’s “Freedom Party” is basically a thinly disguised neo-nazi party, people of color in the USA formed a “Freedom Party”. The birth of a new political party in the United States is built on unity and struggle. The new Black and Latino led Freedom Party founded on June 27, 2010, held its first Convention on February 12-13, 2011 to lay out its program of action and the need for a united front. MORE ON THAT FREEDOM PARTY
Sarcasm is most often the tool of the hateful and insecure
June 24, 2011 in Propaganda
Sarcasm is an example of what some researchers call unplain speaking, ways of speaking in which what is said differs from what is meant. This category of language also includes forced politeness, ritual language, affectation and speaking in aphorisms. Some people consider sarcasm to be a cruder, “lower” form of irony, or simply a verbal form of irony. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “sarcasm” derives from ancient Greek for “to tear flesh, gnash the teeth, speak bitterly.” Its first definition is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter gibe or taunt.” Although sarcasts may just intend to be funny, their words can also be very hurtful to the intended target.
The intention of most sarcastic remarks is to wound the listener or the designated target, not to communicate.
However, some sarcastic remarks are made in a genuine effort to connect with the other regarding the irony of life. For example the comment, “Great weather, isn’t it?” When spoken to another as one is walking in a downpour is an effort to share with another the irony of life.
More often than not, however, sarcasm is intended to wound the listener and raise the speaker to a smug level of false superiority.
Often implied in the sarcastic insult is the belief on the part of the speaker of their intellectual superiority to that of the listener. ”If you know what you were talking about before you opened your mouth. . .” [implied: "like I do"].
If there is an audience in addition to the target who is being attacked by the sarcast, they may join with the sarcast in a kind of mental mob mentality against the target. We often see pontificators like Ann Counter and Rush Limbaugh appealing to their audiences using the device of sarcasm.
Ragging on Fox News Is Stupid
June 23, 2011 in Propaganda
Why?
Because the implication, by ignoring the short-comings of the other channels is that the other media channels–NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, etc. are so much better which they are not. Focusing on Fox News gives their other media brethren a free ride that they don’t deserve. In truth, some argument could be made that Fox News is not nearly as underhanded as many of the other media networks because Fox is so damned obvious in their corporate propaganda efforts for the rich that one would need more than a few faulty firing synapes not to see this obvious fact.
All six of the main media outlets shovel out disinformation* daily.
One of the many sites that I visit almost daily, BUZZFLASH, has a regular column BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS which is heralded by a banner “TURN OFF FOX.”
Today I posted the following comment on Buzzflash regarding this column:
_____________________________________________
My response to a Buzzflash anti-Fox News Analysis (i.e. rant)
I’ll take the “turn Fox off” a step further: TURN OFF THE TUBE. Do it for just a week and see what happens. Get your news on various alternative channels on the Internet and on some foreign press.I did it myself about three months ago. Although I watched about 3 hours a day 7 days a week (mostly the news channels of MSNBC and once in a while CNN).
Today I doubt that I even watch three hours a week. Why bother?
And you know what? I’m a lot better educated regarding the issues than I was when I allowed myself to be spoon fed by mainstream media. Try it and see what happens.
That’s a myth that is perpetuated by many: “Fox is so evil while the rest of Mainstream media is not.” That’s a lie. They are all horrible. NBC may actually be the worst of all–yes, the network that is home to Lawrence O’Odonnell, The Ed Show, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews. They are owned by GE the largest war contractor in the world. They regularly censor stories even on PBS that tell the truth about who they are. Unlike Fox News, their propaganda is much more subtle and pervasive. And contrary to conservative propaganda, the mainstream media does not have a ”liberal bias.” Quite the contrary and that include MSNBC.
You let me know the next time you hear Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Matthews or Ed Schultz on the air telling us that it is a damn crime that General Electric paid no income taxes for 2009 and 2010 even though they reported billions of dollars in profit. Then and only then will I say that I was wrong.
But it will never happen because the fortunes of these people are tied to the fortunes of GE, just as are 82 members of our Congress who own millions of dollars of GE stock and see no conflict of interest in approving military allocations to this corporate war profiteer.
_______________________________________
* Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally. It is distinguished from disinformation by motive in that misinformation is simply erroneous, while disinformation, in contrast, is intended to mislead.**
**SOURCE: Francois Nel (2005). Writing for the Media in Southern Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 57. ISBN 0195784146.
__________________________________________
In a moment of clarity, it has come to me that instead of calling corporate media patsies “sock monkeys” and “sock puppets” , I should refer to them as “stock monkeys” and “stock puppets” as that is clearly more reflective of who they are.
Purposeful Obfuscation–The Congressional propaganda tool of choice
June 23, 2011 in Congressional Antics, Propaganda
As long as they can’t see it, they don’t know – Iflizwerequeen graphic
We don’t know the half of it and that’s exactly the way the Congress of the rich, for the rich and by the rich like it. They put a lot of effort into seeing that we know as little as possible about what they are really doing.
They hide what they do in attachments to other bills. For example, in 2009 the Obama Administration slipped in a $100 billion appropriation to IMF in a military appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. They give bills names that belie what the bills really are about. For example, “Patriot Act” would better be named “Traitor Act as it shreds many of our rights as guaranteed by the Constitutions and enables criminals from foreign countries to take advantage of our nation’s wealth.
JUST ONE EXAMPLE FROM THE PATRIOT ACT: Due to the Treasury’s Patriot Act loopholes, US realtors and escrow agents aren’t required to ask who is sending funds to them or to scrutinize or disclose whether the sender is on an international list of “politically exposed persons” (PEP) who have been red-flagged for dubious activities. That exemption, the report shows, allowed Teodoro Obiang, the high-flying son of the despotic president of Equatorial Guinea, to use realtors and escrow agents as conduits to dodge US law—ultimately enabling Obiang to buy a $38.5 million jet and a $30 million house in Malibu. MORE
_____________________________________________________________
It is not easy to find out how your Congressperson voted on a particular bill. For example, Congress stuck the renewal of the Patriot Act into H.R. 3961, a bill titled Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act.
The only way to be absolutely certain as to what your representative voted for is to follow this torturous process. At the end of this one example, you will find proof from the Congressional Record that US Representative Sam Johnson voted to continue to suspend your Constitutional Rights by extending the nonsense in the Patriot Act instead of allowing it to expire and die the death it deserved.
For example, H.R. 3961 titled Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act was about a lot more than Medicare payment reform. It was about selling out some of the rights guaranteed to you by the Constitution.
1. Go to the Library of Congress [http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rollcallvotes.html]
2. Select the current session (or the session where you think the bill was passed) 111th 2nd session [http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/index.asp]
3. Read the list in the table and find the bill that you want more detail on. Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act. (Note the title of this bill is innocuous. You could never intuit from the title that it included a clause to extend the Patriot Act and its infringements on your Constitutional rights, could you?
4. Select the Number of the bill [HR 3961] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.03961:
5. Select Text of Legislation that appears in the table on this page. [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3961:]
6. Mercifully at the very beginning of the text of the legislation they list all the versions of the bill. Please pay attention to item 6.
Yes, that is correct. In this bill, titled “Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act” we have a provision to continue the violation of American’s Constitutional Rights by extending the provisions of the Patriot Act.
Now, you may be interested to know that Sam Johnson voted to have the suspension of your constitutional rights as a citizen extended.
But don’t take my word for it. Return to the table listing all the bills for the 111th Congress, 2nd session and select the first column in the row for this bill with the number 67 in it.
Then you can see for yourself on that page with your own eyes that Sam Johnson voted to support the further suspension of your constitutional rights.
__________________________________________________
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You can take off your blinders of trust for the 261 multimillionaires in Washington DC. and stop with the foolishness that any thing less than kicking their asses out of office will change anything.
You can make the tedious effort to read every bill or at least search on key words to find hidden legislation. When you find it, then check to see how your elected officials voted on the bill. If they voted against the people, write them a note and tell them that you know what they did. Then post the truth about this bill on as many blogs on the internet as you can, providing people with links to the proof–especially in your state and U.S. Congressional District. This is ammunition for their challengers.
The Republican Email Rumor Factory for 2012 has begun
June 15, 2011 in Class War, Pass it Forward, Propaganda
OMG! They’ve already gotten their Megaphones out!
It seems that they begin their rumor mongering factory earlier every election season. I received the following email from a friend today who was in turn forwarding it from an email that she received on Sunday.
As you know, I don’t normally distinguish one party from another any more as I have come to regard them as two parties with the same platform for the rich. However I will say this much: These rumor mongering emails come to me exclusively from members of the Republican Party. I have never to my knowledge received one from a Democrat who was promoting it as “the truth.”
The first thing that we all should do when we receive one of the emails is to check out the truth. My favorite truth checker is Snopes.com . Then we need to write a reply and send it back to all the people who received the original email rumor.
I know the temptation is to just delete and forget it. You don’t want to risk making a relative or friend angry, etc. But we all have a responsibility to promote the truth–particularly when people may be making important decisions based on misinformation.
Here is an example using my experience as a model:
___________________________________________________________________
HERE IS THE HALF-TRUTH ORIGINAL RUMOR EMAIL THAT I RECEIVED: [The copy in red are my interjections.]
Date: Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 9:37 AM
Subject: Everyone needs to see this- Will You Ever Sell Your House?
To:
Okay I knew our government was broken but this is ridiculous! I read the link – it categorizes real estate gains as “unearned income.” Oh, really? I guess drug dealers and human smuggles are earning their income so therefore exempt. Can’t we do something about all the illegal activity in America. Well I guess not because it’s rampant in the government! And why did anyone think taxing real estate was a good way to pay for healthcare? Which is really illness care, and funding the legal drug pushers, Big Pharma.
Check out this little surprise I bet you never knew!!!
Will You Ever Sell Your House?
DID you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it?That’s $3,800 on a $100,000 home etc. [NOT TRUE] When did this happen? It’s in the healthcare bill. Just thought you should know.
SALES TAX TO GO INTO EFFECT 2013 (Part of HC Bill)
REAL ESTATE SALES TAX
So, this is “change you can believe in”?
Under the new health care bill – did you know that all real estate transactions will be subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax? The bulk of these new taxes don’t kick in until 2013 If you sell your $400,000 home, there will be a $15,200 tax. [ NOT TRUE] This bill is set to screw the retiring generation who often downsize their homes. Does this stuff make your November and 2012 vote more important?
Oh, you weren’t aware this was in the obama-care bill? Guess what, you aren’t alone. There are more than a few members of Congress that aren’t aware of it either
Check it out at the link below.
http://www..gop.gov/blog/10/04/08/obamacare-flatlines-obamacare-taxes-home
Why am I am sending you this? The same reason I hope you forward this to every single person in your address book because another election is coming soon, be aware!
___________________________________________________
Here is my response:
Please go to Snopes for more detail.
WWW.SNOPES.COM
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp
The truth about this bill is that if you sell your home for a profit above the capital gains threshold of $250,000 per individual or $500,000 per couple then you would be required to pay the additional 3.8 percent tax on any gain realized over this threshold.
Most people who sell their homes will not be impacted by these new regulations. This is not a new tax on every seller.
In other words, a couple who sold their home would be subject to the 3.8% tax only if they made a profit of at least $500,000 on the sale, and the tax would only apply to that portion of that profit in excess of $500,000.
________________________________________________________
In case you are drowning in tears over the fact that the upper 5% might have to pay a one-time tax of 3.8% on this enormous profit, you can dry those tears if you will remember that every year, year in year out, these same people pay on average 3% less in federal income tax on their annual income than you and I do.
That’s correct. Those in the top 5% pay between 17% and 1% of their income in federal taxes. The rest of us pay between 20 and 25% of our income in Federal taxes.
So save those tears for children whose funding for Chips programs might be cut because some millionaire is whines loud enough about having to pay their taxes like the rest of us that some jerk in Congress creates yet another tax loophole for the rich. Save your tears for the children. The rich are doing just fine.
In case you haven’t noticed, we are not seated at the banquet table with them any more. Instead, many of us are on the menu.
Better wake up America. It’s time to end the minority rule.
Greatest Show on Earth coming to you from the Mainstream Media Pundit Factory
June 13, 2011 in Propaganda
Wall Street manufactures mainstream media pundits almost as fast as they manufacture lobbyists and politicians. The purpose of a Corporate owned mainstream media pundit is to add meaning where there often is none; to inflate stories by injecting their own punditry and hot air of pompous self-righteous indignation well beyond any context that could have possibly been wrung out of the original story by any normal person; to add a certain amount of entertainment value to news stories; to share and bond with their fans on inside jokes regarding how “dumb” the other side is; and above all to present their viewpoint as being the one that is the most intellectually superior.
These people all have two things in common with most of the politicians in Washington: 1) they are multimillionaires and 2) they are heavily invested in Wall Street and the broken ideology of Chicago Economist Milton Friedman who promoted an economic ideology that works for the upper 12% but makes serfs of the rest of us. To listen to some of these people, one would think that Friedman’s economic ideology came over on the Mayflower. Instead, it was born from a loud-mouthed University of Chicago Professor in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s.
Here is a little more background into what these people do. Daniel J. Boorstin wrote a book titled THE IMAGE – a guide in pseudo-events in America. It was written in 1961, and according to Boorstin it is about how we hide reality from ourselves. Boorstin was confident, as am I, that what dominates American experience today is not reality. [And part of the creation of that unreality in my opinion is attributable to mainstream pundits—regardless left wing, center wing or right wing persuasion].
Boorstin’s book, although not a huge text (only about 300 pages) is far too dense with important detail to cover in this short blog. The gest of Boorstin’s concept is that public demand for news created jobs for people like these pundits—people who could make something out of nothing. Three hundred years ago, for example, we did not demand that there be an exciting news story every day.
When the first American newspaper, Benjamin Harris’ Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, appeared in Boston on September 15, 1690, it promised to furnish news regularly once a month. But as the editor explained, it might appear oftener “if any Glut of Occurrences happen.” In other words journalists were not going out there and creating news events because the public demanded it.
And, according to Boorstin, a pseudo-event has the following four characteristics:
1) It is not spontaneous but comes about because someone has planned, planted or incited it. (Not an earthquake, but an interview)
2) It is planted for the purpose of being reported.
3) Its relation to the underling reality of the situation is ambiguous and thus interest rises from the ambiguity. Did some statement really mean what it said, what were the motives? Etc.
4) Usually it is intended to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if you plan a hotel’s thirtieth-anniversary celebration by saying that the hotel is a distinguished institution, the celebration makes it one.
SUMMARY OF A PUNDIT’S REASON FOR BEING: #1 TO SERVE WALL STREET INTERESTS AND THE UPPER 12% WEALTHIEST IN THE NATION (a club to which all the pundits featured in my graphic belong).
- Act as a Public Safety Valve
Pundits relieve public hostility that might otherwise be taken to the streets and against private property (the ultimate sin in corporate America, desecration of private property). You can watch your favorite pundit and let off steam that might otherwise manifest in ways undesirable to the Wall Street owners. The last thing these people want is anarchy so when people like Beck get out of hand by inciting anarchy—which essentially is what he did—they have to cut him loose. Olbermann was let go because he was an activist against the status quo. He didn’t just talk about it or intellectualize it. He did it. He stood up for healthcare and used his program as a platform. He contributed money to politicians that he believed in. One of the mainstays of the pundit code is to not rock the status quo boat of the rich too hard. Talk about it and let people rant, but don’t give them a “how-to plan” or show them how by being the example. That constitutes treason by the Pundit Code. - Reinforce the Economic Ideology of the Rich by Persuading their Followers
No finer example of this in action than a statement made this year by Andrea Mitchell (MSNBC pundit and wife of Alan Greenspan) who went on the network who owns her (GE-owned MSNBC) and announced that “it’s time for ordinary Americans to sacrifice by giving up Social Security benefits (that she, of course, doesn’t need). [Read about it in the Colombia Journalism Review.]
The Truth About the Republican “Debate” tonight
June 13, 2011 in Propaganda
I’m not going to watch it.
The side show will be a mainstream media rehearsed and orchestrated combination of propaganda and entertainment. This is my first test of my willpower to turn off the mainstream media three-ring 2012 election circus.
US Corporate-owned and sponsored TV is no different from state owned TV in places like Syria, Bahrain, Libya, or Iran. Instead of a one dictator, we have the CEO’s associated with the six major media Outlets. But as far as propaganda and content go, there is NO difference.
It would be a total waste of my time–like watching one of the sitcoms or reality shows that mainstream media feed us 24/7.
I already know anyway that hell would freeze and thaw one million times before I would ever vote for any of these wackos. I’ve already read and know all I need to know about all of these people. It would be a dumb waste of my valuable time to watch them strut and preen when I could be reading a decent book or even watching an entertaining movie. It would be like watching a sitcom with canned applause. That’s all I need to remember. Whatever it will be tonight, it will be just another packaged bag of low-level entertainment from USA mainstream media.
Millions of Americans will tune in to yet another reality show–and the irony is that hundreds of thousands of educated Americans watching this stupidity have no doubt at least once mocked the white underclass who watch those other trashy reality shows (Jersey Housewives, etc.) that feature women throwing drinks in each other’s faces and calling one another “bitch” and the “c” word and/or those repo shows for men. I find that overwhelmingly funny and ironic.
And then there are the sideshows
Then as if the main show in the center ring is not enough, educated Americans who should know better will watch yet another hour of television while their favorite pundits dissect every word that these morons uttered during their display of insanity. We will have the liberals watching their beloved MSNBC and the conservatives watching their beloved Fox pundits. All of this is a stupid waste of one’s time. [I'm not saying that it is a waste of time to learn about candidates. I'm saying its a waste of time to think that you are going to learn anything about the candidates by watching the canned propaganda of mainstream media and/or the pundit sideshows.]
__________________________________________________________
AS FOR THE SIDESHOWS LATER TO COME FEATURING THE DEMOCRATIC AND THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE DEBATES.
I’m not watching that fake BS either. The leadership of the Democratic and the Republican parties formed a 501(c)(3) corporation in 1987 called The Commission on Presidential Debates. The purpose of this commission is for the leadership of both parties to decide the topics of the debates as well as who can and cannot participate in the debates. It other words: to control the outcome of the presidential elections. [MORE]
Walter Cronkite referred to it as the biggest fraud that was ever perpetuated on the American people and he was absolutely correct.
Who pays the bills for this corporation? Why Wall Street corporations pay their bills. That is why you will never hear real debates that feature real topics such as war, poverty, jobs, etc. Instead, you will hear such nonsense as “debt ceilings” ”big government spending” [when in fact, big government spending is a proved myth. You will NEVER hear the candidates discussing what the $2.3 trillion dollars that were given to the rich with the Bush tax cuts could have bought for the people of our nation. No, trust me, you will never hear those discussions on corporate mainstream media’s fake debates.
How they fool us into believing the myth of a two-party system.
June 11, 2011 in Propaganda
Americans are about to launch into yet another presidential campaign cycle where members of each party go at one another like pit bulls on speed. I’ve held the opinion for at least five years now that there is no appreciable difference between the leadership of either party (ever since we elected a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress in 2006 and not only did they not honor the mandate on which they were elected to bring the troops home by the end of 2008, they increased our assaults in the Middle East by sending 100,000 more of our boys and girls over there to die and be maimed for Lockheed Martin).
Yet, it’s puzzled me for some time as to how the two parties can continue to maintain the appearance of being so different, when in fact, their leadership are united in their efforts to maintain the status quo of Wall Street and the rich. This is obvious because that is and has been the outcome of their leadership and resulting legislation for the past 20 years–Democrat and Republican. And BOTH party leadership subscribe to the same broken economic ideology of Milton Friedman.
At last I understand how they continue to manage to look so different when in fact they are exactly the same. The answer lies in their strategy and tactics.
_____________________________________________________________
Both Parties are led by Wall Street Multimillionaires who are united in strategy but who, according to party affiliation, deploy different tactics, the style of which is crafted to appeal to their base.
The strategy is the underlying plan of action that is designed to achieve a particular goal. In the case of the leadership of the Democratic and Republican party multimillionaire leadership, the goal of their strategy in simple terms is for the rich to get richer. That is their plan. That is their goal. The leadership of BOTH parties are united in this strategy.
Tactics are the actions and overall style and execution of seeing that the strategy is carried out and thus the goal is achieved. Their tactics are many and varied, but each party has its own distinct style.
______________________________________________________________
An illustration of a difference in tactical approaches is shown in how the leadership of each party handle dissent:
Both parties are united in the strategy to not allow dissent against the Party leadership.
The Democrats appeal to the social conscience of their base. Thus their attempt to squelch dissent within their ranks are more along the lines of “shame on you” –or social castigation and judgment such as “your behavior is inappropriate.” A recent example of this happened just yesterday at a Social Investment Forum Conference when Sen. Tim Johnson’s General Counsel Dean Shahinian told AFL-CIO Special Policy Counsel Damon Silvers that a comment made by Silvers was “inappropriate.”
The Republicans appeal to the Patriotic Pride and often blind allegiance to nationalism of their base. Thus when they want to discredit any remark that might get in the way of their rich get rich strategy, they squelch dissent by suggesting that it is unpatriotic to disagree with them. To disagree with the leadership of the Republican Party is to be a traitor. Thus we have people like Rand Paul calling remarks and opinions of those who disagree with him as being “unAmerican.”
