The Republicans do not have a plan for the economy, for the collapsing credit market, for the weak dollar, for healthcare, for the housing market, or for the constant export of jobs by Walmart and Corporate America. The plans they do have are akin to Herbert Hoover's "volunteerism" plan to end the Great Depression.
The Republican's do not want to end the War in Iraq and in fact want to start a war with Iran.
The Republican Party and the Conservative Movement is dead wrong on the issues. They know it and know that on the merits they can't win.
So how do you win a Presidential Campaign when you are wrong on the issues? Smear. Dredge up tenuous associations with dubious figures and try to imply some sort of mutual congruence between those people and Barack Obama. We've seen it with Reverend Wright, we've seen it with William Ayers, and we are about to see another decent person dragged through the mud and then nailed to Obama's Campaign bus.
Meet Larry Lessig.
Who is Lawrence Lessig? His Wikipedia page provides a quick enough introduction to the man:
Academic career
Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Lessig earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Management (Wharton School) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge (Trinity) in England, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
Prior to joining Stanford he taught at the Harvard Law School, where he was the Berkman Professor of Law, affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and the University of Chicago Law School. Lessig is considered a liberal, but he clerked for two influential conservative judges: Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia.
Attitudes
Lessig has emphasized in interviews that his philosophy experience at Cambridge radically changed his values and career path. Previously, he had held strong conservative or libertarian political views, desired a career in business, was a highly active Teenage Republican serving as the Youth Governor for Pennsylvania through the YMCA Youth & Government program in 1978 and almost pursued a Republican political career.
What was intended to be a year abroad at Cambridge convinced him instead to stay another two years to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy there and develop his changed political values. During this time, he also traveled in the Eastern Bloc, so acquiring a lifelong interest in Eastern European law and politics.
Lessig refuses to embrace the usual libertarianism. While Lessig remains skeptical of government intervention, he favors regulation by calling himself “a constitutionalist”. Because of his relative youth, and his intellectually innovative views of American legal theory, Lessig has often been cited as a potential candidate to fill vacant federal appellate judgeships in a future Democratic presidential administration.
In his blog, Lessig has come out in favor of Democratic primary candidate Barack Obama, citing the transformative nature of Obama's campaign as one of his chief reasons. A campaign to draft Lessig to run for the US Congress from the Bay Area began in February 2008.
Big deal, right? Real subversive, right? Liberal college Professor, Academic Thinker, and blogger endorses Barack Obama. Wake me up later, right? Normally you'd be right. But an election cycle were the Republican Party is on the wrong side of every issue and prohibitively unelectable is far from a normal event.
Yesterday on my morning drive to the grocery store to pick up a four pack of Red Bull I was surfing around AM radio until I hit the Right Wing Christian Talk Station and a radio show called, "Point of View". The host was some talker named Penna Dexter with a Texas Twang (I immediately picture Big Hair, Long skirts, and hushed gossip in the church pew). The guest is "some guy" named Brian Fitzpatrick.
Some Googling and I ran across his organization, Culture and Media Institutes, and his Bio which declares without irony:
Brian Fitzpatrick joined the staff of the Culture and Media Institute in October 2006 as Senior Editor. In his first week on the job, Fitzpatrick wrote “Tempting Target: Media Try to Persuade Conservatives to Stay Home,” for Human Events Online. Rush Limbaugh cited the column on October 23, 2006, giving CMI immediate notoriety.
So these two, Penna Dexter and Brian Fitzpatrick, are not average Republicans. They are the deep space fringe of the Conservative Movement that believes the Federal Reserve is Evil, Gays are freaks caused by too much soy, and eventually the U.N. is going to take away your shotgun. However it is also on places like Point of View Radio that all the really juicy Republican smear memes take foot holds. These people are the Nazi Shock Troopers of the Right Wing. They are halfway to Paris before the rest of the Republicans have had breakfast.
I'm listening to Penna toss Fitzpatrick softballs about the ABC Debate. Of course, Fitzpatrick loved the first 45 minutes of completely irrelevant questions and Penna bubbly declares that George Stephonopaulos is her "Hero". Fitzpatrick then goes onto declare that this election should all be about what religion each candidate believes in and their "character", implying Obama lacked it because of his choice in lapel adornment. Then he added, issues don't matter.
And, even for someone that sort of enjoys the Far Right Insanity that gets spun out on Christian Talk Radio this is getting on my nerves and Penna Dexter's voice is giving me Vietnam war-like flashbacks to my childhood in Church. I can practically smell the hair spray holding that woman's do together and I am picturing Penna on her back with the shades drawn doing her wifely duty for five minutes every week, and I reach to turn off the radio...
I stop.
Brian Fitzpatrick follows up Blah Blah Blah Reverend Wright and Blah Blah Blah William Ayers with Blah Blah Blah Larry Lessig. A man he calls an Obama Advisor (which from what I've been able to gather is patently false; Lessig is an advisor like everyone on KOS are advisors to Barack Obama) who called Jesus Gay. He went on to say he appeared in a video showing Jesus in a diaper getting run over by a Bus. Penna declares a pouty OH MY! before cutting Brian Fitzpatrick loose to spew more bile on his own time.
I was intrigued and fired up the Google. I ran across this. And yup folks, Larry Lessig, is the new new William Ayers.
Quotes from RedState:
Now comes word that Larry Lessig and Google really could care less that so many of us revere Jesus. This time the Lord is not in a jar of urine, but singing "I will survive" in a diaper before being run over by a bus. If you are really curious, you can watch this work of blasphemy here.
The clip (linked above) is a Lawrence Lessig Presentation to Google... About what is really hard to tell. Most of the context has been edited out. The main focus of the edit is to get to the clip of "Jesus: The Musical" which features Jesus singing "I Will Survive". It is also worth noting that in no point during this presentation does Lessig call Jesus Gay or openly derides Christianity or even openly associate himself with Obama.
Though the Obama campaign is guarded in what connection Lessig has to the campaign, googling Obama's technology policy we can see that tech bloggers are widely under the impression that Obama consulted Lessig first. In fact, Lessig hosts the policy on his website.
Barack Obama's campaign has regularly cited Lessig as a key supporter on technology issues (see here too) and made sure Lessig was quoted when listing Obama's technology endorsers.
Note that they don't have any evidence that directly ties Barack Obama, or his Campaign to Lawrence Lessig as an Advisor. The best they can come up with is "some bloggers" think that Obama consulted Lessig about his technology policy. The fact is that Lessig link to Obama and his Campaign is on par with any Diarist on KOS with a bit more celebrity.
So I guess using the metric of Celebrity Support equals Advisor-ship Heidi Montag (from "The Hills") is a close personal advisor to John McCain, right? Given his Economic Policies she must be advising him.
Lessig is also known as a digital communist (read the linked article for the substance of why he's called that) Lessig believes there should be no such thing as intellectual property rights -- patents and copyrights should be tossed. Lessig's anti-property theories give businesses and a lot of regular folks the heebie-jeebies. After all, if the government can strip you of your intellectual property, why can't it take away your real property?
And that is just Stupid.
The Right Wing propaganda orifice, WorldNetDaily, also latched onto the story along with the Conservative Blog, Newsbusters.
These are the same Right Wing Propaganda Outlets where scurrilous rumors about Obama's Non-Ties to Islam, The Pledge of Allegiance Non-Story, and Nash McCabe's FlagPinGate all started. Eventually those stories all wormed their way into the Mainstream Media scandal machine. This one will too. Probably right before Indiana Primary if Hillary Clinton is still a viable candidate.
Lawrence Lessig Gate is coming and all I have to say is: STOP THE FREAKIN' MADNESS!
We've essentially reached a new crossroad of political McCarthyism were anyone who voices a controversial opinion and also publicly supports a Presidential Candidate can be used to smear that candidate. Even though that Candidate doesn't espouse those views. Even though that person used to do the smearing isn't even affiliated directly with that Presidential campaign.
Anyone can be a target. No one is safe. Nothing is off limits. Even the most tenuous and fleeting associations are to be examined in detail. From the KOS Diarist to the person with his hand out in the reception line. We are all possible targets for a quick Swift-boating.
Even worse this speaks to the loss of subtlety and nuance in our public discourse. No longer can We the People accept and tolerate people and their views even if we don't always agree with those views. Intellectual discourse is being reduced to church doctrines that have to be accepted or rejected wholesale. Along with those doctrines those people that espouse those views must either be accepted or rejected fully without any moderation.
You really like your Best Friend but you hate his music? Sorry, throw him under the bus. Like a magazine but there is one columnist that you consistently disagree with? Cancel you subscription! You and your wife disagree about politics? Divorce her and then burn her at the stake!
Slowly but surely we are becoming a nation of intolerant extremist where logic, reason, and differing opinions fail to penetrate. Reactionary ignorance is becoming the rule. You are either with or agin us, and we're either with the people you're with or agin them too.