After cruising the blogosphere these last few weeks I have discovered many thoughtful sites dedicated to the issues of the day. There are some good critiques of the Republicans and Democrats, of domestic and foreign policy and of political campaigning amongst other topics. It is my hope that DebatablePolitics.com adds to that thoughtful discussion by and large.
However, I have noticed, that the most popular sites seem to focus in on this almost visceral need to bash the Republicans non-stop with some of the same types of propaganda pieces the Republicans use against liberals. You can not defeat your enemy by doing it their way (Something Bush really should have been told about 4 years ago). You need to understand what their way is to beat them, sure, that is what a great deal of my blog is about, but adopting their tactics serves no useful purpose.
Here’s why:
- The Conservative Propaganda Machine is well oiled and very, very dirty. Oil is hard to wash off. Their tactics are dirtier than most decent liberals want their candidates to go. Draining the oil will cause their machine to lock up, that is how Democrats will win.
- Becoming your enemy plays into their hands, the negative traits you seek to combat become your own negative traits, and trust me the Republican propagandists will waste not one second in calling you out on it.
- What I hope we liberals stand for includes a higher set of standards for discourse and debate. If we stand for an elevated debate, then we need to stick to our guns on that front.
- You give them home field advantage.
I am not saying that sites like these aren't entertaining and can't generate support for our cause, but the constant stream of invective that pours out on some of these sites only ends up marginalizing blogs in general amongst the general public and the mainstream partisans. We need both groups to beat the conservative propaganda and move the debate back to where most Americans stand instead of where the right wing of the Republican Party stands.
The way you win this battle is to set the rules of the game, something Obama, in particular, is trying to do. Commentators constantly say that Obama will have to play dirty to win, he will have to abandon his high flung rhetoric, because his opponents will fight dirty. He does not. That being said, he needs to aggressively counter the attackers methods. They run a story about him being trained as a terrorist as a youth, he should respond dismissively and publicly to their claims. They attempt to make race an issue, he should call them out on it.
Not resorting to their tactics is not the same thing as rolling over like Kerry did when he got Swift Boated. Fighting back against hate inspired propaganda is not the same as engaging in those dirty tactics yourself. Obama should point out that those who do not want him to win will go to any lengths, no matter how despicable, to bring him down. He should follow that up with a declarative, "I will not stand for it!" and then go hard and heavy after his opponents rhetoric.
To beat these guys you have to call them on their tactics. When Sean Hannity sighs off camera while you are speaking, you tell him on camera that you will not return to his show due to his lack of professionalism. Call him out. Marginalize the tactic. (I know it may seem childish to do so, but if you ever watch Hannity on TV you know when he does this it effectively reduces the speakers credibility almost immediately, and he does it all the time.)
Liz Dole claims that the Democrats are 'content with losing' on Meet the Press, you slap both your hands flat on the table, lean back in your chair, role your eyes and indignantly say, "oh come on, that is ridiculous!" Liz Dole made that very claim, and then filibustered Rahm Emanuel and Russert’s other guests into commercial, while Emanuel ineffectively tried to civilly interject, even asking her to 'take it back.' You have to demonstratively interject and draw attention to the fact that her claim is unfounded and uncalled for. They make baseless accusations. You call them on it! Stop them in their tracks! Don’t let them control the conversation!
Making a counter point is not going to go anywhere. They are not making a logical argument when they deploy these tactics, they are often just making baseless claims. You can not win by trying to counter that. You have to attack the claim head on, point out how disingenuous the claim is. You have to sink them with their own language. Turn their tactical choices against them. Debating whether or not Democrats want to lose or not does nothing but reinforce the claim, it makes the Democrat seem to be equivocating, a bad place to try and win a debate from. Destroying the premise of the argument leads to taking back control of the debate, which in turn leads to victory.
Handling email propaganda, though, is a tougher nut to crack. Responding to the person that forwarded it to you can be entertaining, sure, but it does nothing to change the overall impression it creates. I have not settled it in my mind how best to attack it. Talking about them in the media could be an approach, but then, given the media’s penchant for cramming everything into 10 second sound bites, all you might do is put the outrageous claims into a wider circulation.
At the same time, the email propaganda effectively reinforces negative impressions, creating an ever growing rift between the right and the left that must be addressed. Honestly, the things people believe about the Clintons, as a result of email propaganda, would almost be funny if it wasn’t so frighteningly destructive to civil discourse and damaging to the democratic nature of our nation.
I do know the first step in figuring out how to beat the email propaganda is to understand how it is being deployed. That is why I focus a good deal of time on this blog exploring what rolls around in the conservative email universe. The hard part is figuring out what the next step should be, how to beat it.
I do know that pouring our own fuel onto the fire will only make it larger and more out of control.