In case some of us have not quite yet caught on, the right wing has a game book with a series of plays. These plays are executed in the media playing field with stunning regularity and repetitiveness. The fuss over the disclosure of the exact address of Rumsfled and Cheney fits one of the plays.
Details after the fold.
The play is called Tit-for-Tat. And it goes like this:
- Let's say that you want to do something that might - on its own - cause some disapproval, such as advocate violence against the child of a political opponent.
- Your first move will be to accuse the other side of doing it to you by manufacturing some circumstance that can be made to fit the outrageous accusation. This is the process of "Creating Their Tat."
- You fulminate over "their Tat" and whip up as much rage and hysteria as possible.
- You then do your dirty deed ("Executing your Tit") and plead that it was merely a natural, human reaction by some people who feel very strongly and who just could not control themselves. It is best if the "strong feelings" can be wrapped in some patriotic feeling of supporting or reveering the country or its symbols or the sanctity of life or something.
- Then you accuse anyone who criticizes your "Tit" as being unpatriotic, unfeeling, disrespectful, and un-American, and you strongly endorse the heroic spirit of the persons who did the "Tit" even if you might agree that you personally would not go as far as the poor people did who just could not control themselves.
So, to make a long story short, the fuss over the so-called disclosure of Rumsfeld's and Cheney's residences, is clearly the beginning, the first step, a precursor, of a wave of threats, intimidation, and persecution of "liberals," their wives, their children, their parents, their telephone service providers, their banks, their credit ratings, their landlords, anything associated with them.
They will escalate and they will do to us what they did to reproductive health resources across this nation.