Smear and Steal
Per today's NY Times report below the Republican Senatorial candidate running in New Jersey against a Democrat has launched a smear campaign against his rival. This would not be particularly news in the realm of American politics were it not becoming the standard Republican tactic at all levels of government. Every Republican seems to have his Karl Rove designing slogans to smear his opposition -- 'cut and run' being only the latest effort to discredit Democrats.
Let's look hard at some of their slogans:
"TAX AND SPEND" -- here we have several of the Republicans' primary goals embodied in a single jeer and smear:
a) Republicans want to cut the taxes for the well off, so we have the first half of this slogan with its various subsidiaries such as 'death tax' which was designed to protect the super wealthy from passing along massive fortunes to their heirs under the guise of protecting the average Joe from having his mortgage free house confiscated by the government. Needless to say virtually none of us will be able to assemble such a huge fortune ($10 million) in the face of the increasing concentration of U.S. wealth among the rich by such slogans devised to con the public. But we will have to pay taxes to make up the deficit created by this latest Republican give away!
b) The second half of this slogan targets the support systems that keep us alive -- payments of unemployment insurance when we get downsized from jobs, medical care when private insurance is not available, reduced support for our medical institutions that deliver life-saving care -- Medicare and Medicaid, affordable housing when only luxury stuff is being built and public housing projects are being destroyed by HUD, schools to provide kids with the minimal requirements for employment or military service in these days of massive high school dropout rates, or even benefits for injured veterans!
"CUT AND RUN" -- is obviously designed to cover the dual fiascoes in Afghanistan and Iraq where disenchanted peoples are beginning to turn on each other and upon any Americans who have the temerity to wonder out of protected 'Green Zone' shelters in their major cities where we and their embryonic governments huddle together.
These two lying slogans are the central Republican misrepresentations for the upcoming election, but their previous subsidiary misfires have been frightening. I don't know who came up with the slogan for our initial attack on Baghdad, "Shock and Awe," but someone must have been resonating with the central Nazi military slogan -- "Blitzkrieg" (lightening war) -- to give us that one. And another Nazi tune is echoed by our current drive to dominate the Middle East -- "Drang nach Osten" (drive to the east). The neocons seem to have the same latter day imperialist impulses as the Nazis -- but have forgotten the consequences when both Napoleon and Hitler over extended themselves and made catastrophic moves to the East. We, too, are now engaged in potential two front wars -- Iran's and North Korea's REAL WMD and their developing capacity to deliver them to Israel and/or the U.S. if we cannot cool things down!
Sloganeering was the ugly game that the Nazis played to con the German people. All one needs is an enemy -- Jew or Muslim, control of the media, an appeal to human greed, and the steady drum beat of lies, big and small!
The game being played here is to portray those who have opposed the neocon military adventures in the Middle East as neo America Firsters comparable to those who opposed halting Hitler -- but Hussein was no Hitler heading a major military/economic power. We are the ones who are playing Hitler's smear and steal game. And look what it got him!
Note the National Review assault on Kerry along these lines August 2004;
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_16_56/ai_n13781970
..................
New Jersey Senator's Rival Faults Him in 80's Corruption
Case, but History Disagrees
By JIM DWYER
In the campaign for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, the
Republican candidate, Thomas H. Kean Jr., has leveled
accusations against his opponent, Robert Menendez, that
haven't been supported by records.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/nyregion/25menendez.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
Let's look hard at some of their slogans:
"TAX AND SPEND" -- here we have several of the Republicans' primary goals embodied in a single jeer and smear:
a) Republicans want to cut the taxes for the well off, so we have the first half of this slogan with its various subsidiaries such as 'death tax' which was designed to protect the super wealthy from passing along massive fortunes to their heirs under the guise of protecting the average Joe from having his mortgage free house confiscated by the government. Needless to say virtually none of us will be able to assemble such a huge fortune ($10 million) in the face of the increasing concentration of U.S. wealth among the rich by such slogans devised to con the public. But we will have to pay taxes to make up the deficit created by this latest Republican give away!
b) The second half of this slogan targets the support systems that keep us alive -- payments of unemployment insurance when we get downsized from jobs, medical care when private insurance is not available, reduced support for our medical institutions that deliver life-saving care -- Medicare and Medicaid, affordable housing when only luxury stuff is being built and public housing projects are being destroyed by HUD, schools to provide kids with the minimal requirements for employment or military service in these days of massive high school dropout rates, or even benefits for injured veterans!
"CUT AND RUN" -- is obviously designed to cover the dual fiascoes in Afghanistan and Iraq where disenchanted peoples are beginning to turn on each other and upon any Americans who have the temerity to wonder out of protected 'Green Zone' shelters in their major cities where we and their embryonic governments huddle together.
These two lying slogans are the central Republican misrepresentations for the upcoming election, but their previous subsidiary misfires have been frightening. I don't know who came up with the slogan for our initial attack on Baghdad, "Shock and Awe," but someone must have been resonating with the central Nazi military slogan -- "Blitzkrieg" (lightening war) -- to give us that one. And another Nazi tune is echoed by our current drive to dominate the Middle East -- "Drang nach Osten" (drive to the east). The neocons seem to have the same latter day imperialist impulses as the Nazis -- but have forgotten the consequences when both Napoleon and Hitler over extended themselves and made catastrophic moves to the East. We, too, are now engaged in potential two front wars -- Iran's and North Korea's REAL WMD and their developing capacity to deliver them to Israel and/or the U.S. if we cannot cool things down!
Sloganeering was the ugly game that the Nazis played to con the German people. All one needs is an enemy -- Jew or Muslim, control of the media, an appeal to human greed, and the steady drum beat of lies, big and small!
The game being played here is to portray those who have opposed the neocon military adventures in the Middle East as neo America Firsters comparable to those who opposed halting Hitler -- but Hussein was no Hitler heading a major military/economic power. We are the ones who are playing Hitler's smear and steal game. And look what it got him!
Note the National Review assault on Kerry along these lines August 2004;
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_16_56/ai_n13781970
..................
New Jersey Senator's Rival Faults Him in 80's Corruption
Case, but History Disagrees
By JIM DWYER
In the campaign for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, the
Republican candidate, Thomas H. Kean Jr., has leveled
accusations against his opponent, Robert Menendez, that
haven't been supported by records.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/nyregion/25menendez.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 8:51 AM
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