VetGrl's Diary called "Shut Up And Listen" got me thinking about the Republican message(s) and how we need to go about countering it. This post will examine the Republican strategy a little closer and, in the Sun Tzu method, look at it from the "Know Your Enemy" point of view.
I think that the Republicans' (and Rove in particular) have examined Goebbel's Principles of Propaganda and have been using these to win elections and keep the American public on edge and scared. This post is not designed to give answers on how to challenge the propaganda, but to help educate Kossacks about who and what we are fighting.
Finally, for those trolls out there, I am not saying that Bush and Hitler are the same or any such thing. I am attempting to evaluate and examine a very successful and well run propaganda machine with another historical successful and well run propaganda machine.
Let us examine Goebbel's principles of propaganda and give examples of how the Republican's have used these principles. There are 19 principles. I am only going to look briefly at each one. I would welcome more examples in the comments. Unfortunately, more examples should not be hard to find.
Principle 1 - "Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion."
Now, this principle is really only saying that in order to make propaganda you must have information. Having control of the Presidency and Congress certainly provides plenty of information. So, let us move to the next principle.
Principle 2 - "Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority. a. It must issue all the propaganda directives. b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale. c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences"
This means that Karl Rove really is in charge. The Republican message machine really makes even more sense after reading this principle.
Principle 3 - "The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action."
The Republicans don't do anything in Congress unless they know what the propaganda is going to be. The few times that they have had trouble is when the bills did not match the propaganda.
Principle 4 - "Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action. a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity"
There is no question that they are able to accomplish this. A. Let us just say that the NSA wire tapping information would be "propagandistically desirable material" that would provide us with useful intelligence. They are using "national security" as a means of suppresion. B. How many Democrats have you encountered that think that putting National Guard troops on the border is a good thing? I work with a woman who hates Rove, but is totally in favor of the right wing Republican "secure the border" propaganda. C. This is where Dean sometimes gets in trouble. He gives up too much information sometimes. D. I haven't heard the Republicans talking about the Iraq War lately.
Principle 5 - "Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign."
Lots of this around for them to work with.
Principle 6 - "To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium."
Can you say TV? They clearly use Faux News and the MSM. Obviously TV is the best medium, but "Talk Radio" works great too. All I have to say is that I don't have a TV and everyone in the office this morning is talking about American Idol. Isn't that a Faux show?
Principle 7 - "Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false."
Since the real reasons for going to war in Iraq weren't credible the propaganda had to be false.
Principle 8 - "The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted."
Many times they are just ignoring the Democratic message (of course, much of the Democratic message is not propaganda). If we assume that the story last week about the Rove indictment was not a setup we can look at it as propaganda and see that they had to refute the story.
Principle 9 - "Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored."
Burn the books! If the enemy is communicating credible fact based information an option you can use is to censor it. What was the guy's name over at NASA that was censoring the information about global warming?
Principle 10 - "Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective."
But Kerry voted for the War in Iraq!
Principle 11 - "Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects."
Why did we go to war in Iraq?
Principle 12 - "Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige."
Plenty of leaders with prestige to use. The list, unfortunately, includes a large group of Democrats. Tony Blair?
Principle 13 - "Propaganda must be carefully timed. a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda. b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness"
Can you say Immigration! And in 2002, "The War in Iraq". Notice that they are not talking about the Iraq War anymore since it has now beyond the "point of diminishing effectiveness".
Principle 14 - "Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses b. They must be capable of being easily learned c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations d. They must be boomerang-proof"
Do I really need to say more then, "War on Terror"?
Principle 15 - "Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events."
This is where they must attempt to balance the religious right with the propaganda. I have hope that some of the propaganda is now boomeranging back at the Republicans!
Principle 16 - "Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level. a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves"
What is the terror level right now? Orange? Yellow? RED?
Principle 17 - "Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration. a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective"
Don't worry religious right. We've got Alito now!
Principle 18 - "Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred."
GAYS! ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS! LIBERALS! TERRORISTS!
Principle 19 - "Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both."
Deficit? What deficit? "WAR ON TERROR! WAR ON TERROR! WAR ON TERROR!"
I hope that those of you that have read this far will keep these principles in mind as we move forward to beat the Republicans in November. Many of the postings on DailyKos are aimed directly at combating the Republican propaganda machine. Like I said at the beginning of this diary, this diary is aimed at "knowing the enemy". I would love to see more thoughts and diaries examining how to defeat the propaganda machine we are up against.