Republican Smear Tactics?

George Herbert Walker Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988 with a racist smear campaign centered around Willie Horton, intimating his opponent was soft on crime.

George W. Bush (with the assistance of the Swift Boat cabal) ran a similar smear campaign against John Kerry centered on Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with 9/11, but alleging that Kerry was soft ("flip-flopping") on terrorism. Needless to say these smears had nothing to do with the truth -- but they worked by exploiting the anxieties of what some have called "democratic populism."

With our media largely dominated by such Republican smear tactics -- Clear Channel radio stations (1,200+), Fox News, the Washington Times, NY Post and such and a long list of Scaife funded think tanks, one wonders what will be the next line of attack, come 2006 and beyond? Too damned many pols have discovered that the way to win is to create and then exploit popular fears and the above mentioned 'entertainment' vehicles are obsessed with ratings all too conducive to exploiting fear.

Those of us who point out the facts are at a marked disadvantage in that popular fears and anxieties are so easy to exploit. And those who know the facts are ready targets for reductive ad hominem attacks -- "liberal media," "elitist academics," etc. DeTocqueville had it right. Tyranny of the majority is a characteristic American scenario. Where will they strike next? We have been conned twice now. Will the public awake -- or are we on an irreversible downward slope which will leave this nation a bankrupt outcast, despised by so many who once admired American democracy?

Hopefully they will only be able to fool some of the people next time?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights

http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/

http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp