Attacks On Obama

The Conservatives and Republicans are desperate; they have no solutions or answers so they are huffing and puffing in order to blow the Democrat's house down. The use of "The Big Lie", labeling, demonizing, and any other propaganda device, is having its effect on the weak minded, who in turn carry the message and expand on it. It is what they, Republicans and Conservatives, do best, propaganda, for it takes a certain mean spirited mind set to come up with lies and slogans designed to do harm. Conservative "Think Tanks" are operating at full steam picking up on anything that can be distorted and used against the Democrats. The desperation is so great they are praying for Obama's death; by any means is implied.

If the Democrats don't begin a counter campaign against this onslaught the next election will be a painful one. They are already losing many of the Independents and some Democrats.

Shaming the Conservatives/Republicans is a great tool. By pointing out their methods and wagging fingers at them, using humor, education, and insisting on having a fair share of debate time would do much to counter their propaganda. The Republicans/Conservatives are in lock step; their message is consistent and well rehearsed. You hear one Republican/Conservative you hear them all. Video is a great tool for bringing this out; by showing them one after another saying the same thing would weaken their hold on the airways.

I don't care if the Democrats or the Republicans win some petty political battle; I'm an Independent, but I am not happy with the Republicans for a number of reasons--like tapping my telephone, or being able to pick someone off the street and throwing them in a dungeon without a legal hearing, believing torture is OK, etc. Those are Fascist methods and so far Obama hasn't advocated these methods. Is Obama a socialist? So far I haven't heard him talk about nationalizing anything. Controlling, regulating, reforming, yes.

What Is the Republican's New Message?

The Republican's has made much of their new message designed to attract more voters but all it is is more Propaganda. New slogans, old ideas wrapped in new wrappings, more attacks on the Democrats, and the like. They fail to realize Propaganda fails when ideas are proven wrong.
The Republicans present themselves as being "Real Americans", patriotic, exemplars of what their forefathers held as being American, protectors of American ideals, "little government", and the like.
For eight years they have borrowed and spent, institutionalized torture, engaged in illegal wiretapping of American's communications, suspended habeas corpus, ignored due process of law, engaged in an illegal war (Iraq) for fuzzy reasons, and much much more.
Until these issues are addressed honestly Republicans will fail in their attempts to present a new message people will believe.

The Big Lie Ploy

The "Big Lie" ploy works because it is so blatant, outrageous, in-your-face that it is assumed to be true. It works too because in politics that at least 30% of one side of an ideology will believe anything said or published by their side. It works too because propagandists ardently defend it to the extent that others automatically assume that it has to be "true". Repetition of it over and over again in the face of debunking it makes it "true".
An example of the "Big Lie" is in McCain's claims about Barak Obama's tax plan, stating that Obama will raise the people's taxes when in truth 80 to 95 percent of working class people will get tax breaks.
Another example of McCain's "Big Lie" ploy is in stating that his running mate Sarah Palin, while governor, refused "ear-marks" when in fact received money for questionable projects from the Fed. McCain insisted, when confronted on "The View" about it, that Palin did eliminate ear-marks while Governor of Alaska. It will be interesting to see for how long they try to keep the "Lie" going.

Bush: Deceit and Propaganda

As long as G.W. Bush continues to use Propaganda ploys against the American people I will continue to point out how he is using it.
Besides argumentative fallacies, such as argumentum ad populum, argumentum ad hominem etc., there are Propaganda ploys, such as name calling, glittering generalities, transfer, testimonial, card stacking, plain folks, bandwagon, and missing information, which appeal to emotion rather than reason and inhibit people's thought processes.
Our presence in Iraq is the result of a vigorous propaganda program prior to it's invasion. If anyone were to take a poll of our military today the majority would say that they are fighting in Iraq because of the attack on the twin towers on 9/11. That Saddam Hussein was behind the attack etc. No such link exists but G.W. and Cheney cleverly spoke about the attack of 9/11 and Iraq in one breath in a ploy called juxtaposition; where two dissimilar instances are spoken of together to give an impression that there is a link between the two. Cheney further linked Iraq to terrorism in general because a terrorist, Al Natal, hid out in Baghdad. What Cheney failed to reveal is that Saddam had his secret police assassinate the terrorist as soon as he knew of the terrorist's presence. This is called the "missing information" ploy.
G.W. loves to use "glittering generalities"; which are virtue words, such as freedom, liberty, American people, etc. He loads his speeches with them and uses them repeatedly. He also uses the ploy, "name calling'', which is the opposite of "glittering generalities". "Liberals", taxes, murderers, "social medicine, Saddam, Osama, etc. are bad virtue words in his propaganda arsenal. We know who the bad guys and good guys are from his speeches, and which side we want to be on.
General David Petraeus is a man above reproach, a hero, Bush's man. No one could possibly question his integrity; except the Liberals. Never mind Bush gave him his fourth star at the time he was given military command of Iraq. General Petraeus is an example of the transfer symbol ploy combined with the testimonial ploy. Question Bush's strategy and you have to answer to General Petraeus, the "commander on the ground", the man above reproach who would testify against his own results and at the same time undermine his commander in chief's legacy? Not out loud anyway. Pour enough money and men into a project and you will have better success than if you did not but what is the price for success ultimately. No one is saying.
Plain folks is another ploy that G.W. loves to use. Effusive "thank yous", back drops of Boy Scouts, old veterans, new recruits, town's folks, Texas drawl, lame jokes, cutting brush on the ranch; all are a part of the plain folks ploy. You never see him in a hostile crowd or situation. He has a "ranch" yet you never see him on a horse punching cows.
Card stacking is another ploy which emphasizes favorable attributes and ignores unfavorable attributes. Not revealing details about wire-tapping, water-boarding, energy policy experts, his Air Guard record, Harken, etc. is card stacking.
What I am hoping is that the media will do their job and point out the ploys that G.W. and his administration continue to use against the American people and by their efforts future Presidents will not resort to such ploys in their efforts to promote agendas. Resorting to such ploys destroys a Democracy and promotes despotism.