One of the major differences between the progressive and reactionary world view is this. Progressives believe that if everyone knew the same things they did, and sufficient education and enough time, progressivism would be a clear majority position. Reactionaries believe that even if they control all of the major organs of government, that the majority will still be lazy, sullen, sinful and needing to be held under the threat of force to do anything right.
When they fall behind, the go for the jugular.
The most dishonest man in blogging, shows us how it is done. Presstitutes - the latest addition to the Media Whores Online/Daily Howler club of media watching - shows what can be done about it.
This is why reactionaries don't tend to wear well, they become more paranoid when in power - as they are now. But it does give them one major advantage. As soon as most progressives feel that the word is getting out, they relax, they think that "the tipping point" - which, is quite probably the most stupid meme of the last 10 years that the left has adopted - is coming, and that events will take their own course. Reactionaries, when they feel the pendulum swinging against them work harder, lie more, attack harder and get back in gear. This is how over the course of the last three elections they have managed to come out just ahead: the let down moment for progressives was their action call. They could see chaos opening up beneath them.
Today's double dose of outright deception shows how they think. The first is to use their own propaganda to discredit others, and the second is to smear the anti-war movement by identifying it with its fringe. Both of these attacks are not being carried out in the fringes of the right wing sphere, but by their proxies in the core of disourse. It shows why the only stable end points to the current crisis are either an America which has had its financial system ruined and its economy wrecked, or a concerted effort to marginalize and exclude the insanity which is right wing discourse. Simply put, they cannot be let in the same political system with sane people, because they are not, never will be, and cannot be made to be, sane.
The first is the Katrina counter attack. After having been forced out of FEMA for lying about his qualifications, bungling the response to Katrina and then foaming at the mouth at the press, former failure in chief of FEMA, the grand pooh-bah of FEBAR - Brownie himself, came back and lied to congress about FEMA's job and blamed the governor of Louisiana for everything. Louisiana has its problems, not least of which is the Republican dominance of its governor's mansion over the last 20 years, and its predeliction for electing Senators that vote against Louisiana's interests, such as Senator Vitter - but the responsibility for disasters which cross state lines or enter from outside the jurisdiction of the United States belongs with the Federal Government. Blanco is no more to be censured for not being able to turn back Katrina, than she would be for not fending off the Soviet Navy, or Governor Pataki should have been held responsible for stopping 911. That is the Federal System, and it was so from the Constitution of 1787. External defense is a federal responsibility.
However, merely replaying the mantra that the State of Louisiana is responsible for dealing with the Atlantic Hurricane season is not enough. There needs to be a meme that the press misreported. Since the right wing, and its proxies, generate a huge number of inaccurate reports, the tactic is to take one of them - namely that the Superdome was in chaos, which was pushed as part of the "black looters" meme - and use this to discredit the entire reality of New Orleans flooding.
That's right, the right wing is going to use its own discredited racism to discredit the idea that New Orleans flooded and the disaster response was a disaster. This, is beyond chutzpah.
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But there is another important prong to the counter attack. Bush is meltingdown because he is seen as not being in control. The "independents", are now breaking heavily against the Republican Party at every level. This calls for that most important of tactics - smearing the opposition. Slate.com, the Wall Street Editorial Page of the Washington Post, had no less than three pro-war articles today. All designed to tar the anti-Iraq movement as being Marxist-Leninist, by calling the peace rally an "anti-war" rally, and labelling it as being part of ANSWER. Taking a few anti-answer diaries from Daily Kos out of context, and leaving the impression that the entire rally was Answer dominated. It wasn't, and no credible reporter on the scene would describe it that way.
Here's the way to write a flagrantly biased lede by citing the opposition:
Day of protest: Anti-war protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., Saturday, in what the Washington Post called the "largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the U.S. invasion."
"Watching clips of the Answer Anti-War Rally, all I see are things that I want nothing to do with," writes NewDem, a diarist at liberal network Daily Kos. "I am a staunch supporter of Israel, and its fundamental right to exist. I bet you that the majority of Americans who are against the war are too. Yet I watch this rally and see people basically supporting the Hamas, etc., and the suicide killings of innocent Israelis in cafes, on buses, etc. … We Democrats have an opening right now. Let's not squander it. Let's focus on the one issue that unites us and unites a clear majority of the American people. Skip the subsidiary bullshit." Liberal blogger Mathew Yglesias shares his doubts about the rally at TPMCafe.
The Pro-War Post is carrying out a one media conglomerate campaign to make people believe that the majority of red blooded real Americans want to reinvade Iraq.
So there you have it people, the right wing counter attack has started.
What are you going to do about it?