I believe that the right has been propagandizing people to believe that the law just doesn’t work and that there are people out in the world so bad that only a fool would want to use legal means to stop them. I believe that they have worked since 911 to apply that standard to individuals and entire nations and obtain the blessing of average American citizens to do so through constant, sometimes blatant, often subtle propaganda to do so. The is illustrated by the dog whistle line in the Republican VP nominee’s (teleprompter performance) speech attempting to insult Barack Obama by saying:
Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
On a day-to-day basis, the right-wing propaganda is more a dripping faucet than an open dam. My husband sometimes watches Fox News, and if it is something that is simply idiotic and pointless, rather than hard-right Republican propaganda, I will watch with him. Something that I have noticed on Fox is the use of their scroll. I usually expect a cable news scroll to have bulletins regarding important national or international stories. But I have noticed Fox using their scroll in a different way. Several times when I have been watching they have scrolled stories from the farthest reaches of the globe regarding some “honor killing” in a Muslim family. While I believe that religious extremism in all the major world religions is the greatest threat women face on the planet; I also believe that their motive for running these isolated stories from places like the tribal regions of Pakistan is simply to keep their viewers inflamed against Islam and Islamic people. There can be no other explanation. A story of a single, terrible murder in Pakistan or some other Islamic country just isn’t “scroll-worthy”. The fact that I see this sort of story on their scroll often, as much as I avoid Fox News, is telling to me. The Fox scroll is more subtle than when radio talk show host Michael Savage once called for the death of 100 Million Muslims, but to me similar in it’s efforts to dehumanize a large group of people. Softening us up for the idea that “some people just need killing”.
http://mediamatters.org/...
Add to this the preaching of popular Evangelical Pastors such as John Hagee, who tell their followers that God wants hideous bloodshed in the Middle East and you have a frightening propaganda "network" reaching many otherwise normal American citizens and keeping them in line in favor of war.
http://www.reuters.com/...
Throw in the hot-button issues like a woman’s right to choose and Religion and The Republican Party become identified as almost the same thing, or at least closely entwined. This is even reflected in the "main-stream" news, who seem to jump on the "holy Republican" bandwagon in order to be thought of as being "fair" to "Religion".
The right’s subtle drumbeat is that the law doesn’t work, and politicians who want to cling to silly things like the law (and almost by default, the constitution) are at best naive, at worst (and most often portrayed as) literally abetting the enemy.
The enemy then isn’t only “those who want to attack us” but people within the country who oppose the right’s agenda. How many times have the right wing radio talkers called liberals insane, and promoted stopping them at all costs? For example, Michael Savage said that Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason in 2005.
http://mediamatters.org/...
Is it any wonder that there have been recent attacks against people identified as “liberals”? The man who attacked and killed in the Knoxville Unitarian Church comes to mind, with his personal library of right-wing talking heads’ books.
I think this propaganda is something that must be addressed if we are to maintain our freedom in anything but name only. Right wing institutions are so entwined in the promotion of war and demolishing of our rights that it needs to be exposed to the light of day. These institutions such as right-wing radio and certain Religious denominations are completely in bed with the Republican Party. Even if we win in November this "network" will still be a danger to freedom.
As it is whole religious denominations push the Republican Party in ways that border on illegal (if they aren’t illegal). This happens on levels far below the pay grade of someone like John Hagee. I was told my my co-worker the story of a custodian at our workplace, a mentally challenged gentleman we both know, writing a letter to the editor of the local paper in support of the then Democratic candidate for Governor last year. He liked the candidate because somehow he got his home phone number, called it, and the candidate himself answered. He told my co-worker that his Pastor took him aside at Church after the letter was published and told him it was wrong for him to be writing in support of a Democrat.
I don’t have a solution, but I definitely see this trickle-down propaganda as a huge problem. I believe this network (whether official or simply a wink-wink, nod-nod) is a main reason why people vote against their own interests. People believe “the other guy” is so bad that their interests are overshadowed by the threat. They are told that the Republicans will fight evil-doers even if they have to go around all that sissy-ass legal crap to do so, the result of this is that laws become unimportant where agenda is concerned, especially if you can make your agenda "popular". This is the Cowboy or Maverick image they thrive on. They are told that God himself is on the side of "the" right (meaning Christian, and Christian is only represented by Republican denominations). Meanwhile it is the common person who suffers and has his rights abused. And we have a nation that tortures, lies and throws away countless lives for oil and corporate profit while we are told to pay no attention to anything but their lying theme of “weak liberal baby-killers who hate our brave military”.