An angry mob is an ugly thing, but easily manipulated if you know your audience. Fox Nooze and right-wing radio knows their audience.
The propaganda machine did it's job well over the last two years, and with the help of shameless fucking shills like Evan Bayh, and the entire Village Media, they sold a bill of goods to the Angry and Ignorant out in Dumbfuckistan that culminated in the manufactured "uprising" known as the Tea Party. This re-branding of old-white-republican-bigots and anti-tax-numskulls, who five years ago were up to their asses in "Support the Troops" magnets and BUSH/CHENEY bumper stickers, required mass inducement of complete amnesia about every single fucking thing that happened before Jan 20th, 2009. That's where Old Man Murdock came in.
Just the highlights...
- Fox News execs declared network the "voice of opposition," "the Alamo"
- Fox parent company donates $2.25 million to GOP-linked groups
- FoxPAC: Fox News figures raise big bucks for GOP
- Karl Rove's shadow Republican National Committee
- Dick Morris' one-man campaign for the GOP -- and for Dick Morris
- GOP candidates "speak through Fox News"
- 2010 election features Fox News candidates
- Network heavily promoted, took ownership of tea parties
- Tea Party Express: Fox News' very own Tea Party affiliate
- Beck uses Tea Party credibility to guide them toward the GOP
- More than 30 Fox Newsers support GOP in 600-plus instances during midterms
And just for fun, here's a look at our future...
Looking forward: The 2012 Fox News presidential primary
Politico: "How does a news organization cover White House hopefuls when so many are on the payroll?" In a September 27 article, Politico reported:
With Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee all making moves indicating they may run for president, their common employer is facing a question that hasn't been asked before: How does a news organization cover White House hopefuls when so many are on the payroll?
The answer is a complicated one for Fox News.
As Fox's popularity grows among conservatives, the presence of four potentially serious Republican candidates as paid contributors is beginning to frustrate competitors of the network, figures within its own news division and rivals of what some GOP insiders have begun calling "the Fox candidates."
With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office.
[...]
At issue are basic matters of political and journalistic fairness and propriety. With Fox effectively becoming the flagship network of the right and, more specifically, the Tea Party movement, the four Republicans it employs enjoy an unparalleled platform from which to speak directly to primary voters who will determine the party's next nominee.
Their Fox jobs allow these politicians an opportunity to send conservative activists a mostly unfiltered message in what is almost always a friendly environment. Fox opinion hosts typically invite the Republicans simply to offer their views on issues of the day, rather than press them to defend their rhetoric or records as leaders of the party.
Fox News candidates "speak through Fox News" at least 269 times in 2010. Media Matters for America searched the Nexis database through September 18 for network and cable television appearances in 2010 by five potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates who currently have relationships with Fox News. The five potential candidates -- John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Rick Santorum -- have appeared 269 times on Fox News and a total of six times on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS combined.
There is always plenty of blame to go around after an electoral defeat, and some self reflection is certainly a good thing. But let's not delude ourselves into thinking that "better marketing" would've made all the difference. There's only one thing that would have really made a difference in this election for the Democrats. Don't shit on your base before a mid-term! Mid-terms are base elections, if your base turns out, you'll probably win. Republicans got it, Democrats didn't. Just ask the 29 Corporate Scrotum-Cozies, formerly known as Blue Dogs, who won't be in Congress next year.
What Democrats need to learn from this, but won't, is that there is no limit to how despicably fucking low Conservatives will go to win, and act accordingly. Quit allowing them to frame every debate, quit negotiation from positions of weakness on every issue, and quit allowing the goddamn "conserva-dems" to give those bastards cover on every fucking vote.
There is a harsh reality that needs to be faced by every progressive leader in this country:
62,040,606 people voted for George W. Bush in 2004
A large portion of those people are still with us today, and many of them obviously still think Republicans are just hunky-dory. They still watch Fox Nooze, buy Glenn Beck's books, and sing-along with Rush Limbaugh. They still believe the same bullshit about the evil "big government" taking their rights away every time a Democrat, especially a black one, get within a ten meters of the White House. They are the amnesiac, born-again, totally-brand-new Tea Party Movement. They are the willing dupes of the Corporate Grifters who sell them their poison every day, while robbing them blind and laughing all the way to the bank. But what's truly sad about these people is that they won't have it any other way. They fucking love it. Willfully uninformed, paranoid bigots who think that if only the government would stop collecting taxes, they would all be millionaires just like their idols on TV. Most of these people are beyond discussion or reason. Quit trying to make them happy, it will never work.
We will not be able to solve the catastrophic problems in this country until our leaders face the fact that the billionaire Robber Barons on the right who bankroll the Conservative Confidence Scam, perpetuating the Angry and Ignorant ,have to be removed from power. Bust The Trusts! Until they do, we will never be free of the mouth-breathing masses out there, looking for their next fix of delusional conservative smack, who continue to deliver elections to serial fail-machines like George W. Bush and his endless litter of fascist mongrels known as the modern Republican party.
Cross-posted at Barkers & Rubes