No, I'm not talking about the second-rate rockers with a first-rate stage act. Even if they were "Knights In the Service of Satan" they weren't political. I'm talking about a tried and true method applied in the business world to many tasks: "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"
KISS is a beautiful strategy for several reasons. First, a KISS-based approach is easy to explain, remember, and manage. Second, KISS appeals to those who like simple solutions, which are also often the most effective. Third, provided it is not blatantly at odds with their basic interests, the recipients--the ones on the receiving end of the strategy--can embrace it without hesitation. Here's how it works:
With the right KISS you can go far, even in politics--maybe ESPECIALLY in politics. The Regressives (i.e., the opposites of PROGRESSIVES) now in office have proven KISS works.
This explanation should make sense to those among us who now realize that Regressives have spent an entire generation preparing and executing a KISS strategy against the political establishment--both Conservatives and Liberals. They had their first big opportunity in the run-up to the 1980 presidential election. President Carter was simply not competent to handle three problems that overwhelmed him: spiking inflation and interest rates, the first oil shock, and the Iranian takeover of the U.S. Embassy (debate Carter's presidency elsewhere, OK?). He was vulnerable to KISS as all Hell.
Enter Ronald Reagan: Morning in America; "Government IS the problem"; Trickle Down Economics; A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats; "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Did I leave anything out or did that pretty much summarize two campaigns and eight years in office? The majority of Americans regard the Reagan presidency as a successful tenure (again, pick a fight on this somewhere else). The foundation was built: the claim that Conservatism WORKS had legs it hadn't had since Eisenhower.
Of course, the Dems were asleep at the switch, fat and happy, when the insidiously brilliant part of the Regressive KISS approach began. Job Number Two was to shape the word "Liberal" in the public mind into such an overtly negative context it could be freely used to discredit opposition to the Regressive agenda. Over a period of time and funded by skillions of dollars, this was done using think tanks for the elite levels, right-wing radio bombast for the grunt-work, and a free launching pad provided by Carter and a few meltdowns at just the right time in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Liberals are incompetent, weak, and corrupt--if you don't believe us, just look for yourself.
The Democrats' "brand name" was gradually redefined by their competition. It was like Ford allowing GM to say openly and repeatedly for years that Fords suck out loud in every way and at everything. So effectively was it established in the minds of the those who just can't be bothered to think critically that "Liberal" meant "bad," "Conservative" now also meant "good" by default.
The Regressives had changed the political connotation of these two words so fundamentally there was no need to consider the merits; just rubber-stamp the ideas and the people who supported them. I once marveled at the fact that by the time members of Congress had web sites, Democrats wouldn't even put the word "Democrat" on their sites, but the words "Republican" and "Conservative" were liberally (ahem) sprinkled throughout the sites on the other side of the aisle.
The spadework had been done to prepare the soil. People were more than eager to be told that their problems could be solved simply by making the government smaller and removing it from areas where it had taken up residence. The only deviation from the plan was the one-term presidency of George H.W. Bush who was also done in partially by a KISSian maxim: "It's the economy, stupid!" Politically, of course, it was also pretty stupid to say, "Read my lips--no new taxes" then cave in, demoralizing the base (note that "stupid" is the tripartheit point of intersection in these dynamics).
Not content with victory over the Liberals, the Regressives, powered as we know now behind the scenes by the neocons and their ruthless Straussian philosophy of aggression, deceit and espousing a divine right to rule, stole the Conservative mantle. True Conservatives needed the Regressives in order to stay in power. Those Republicans with a conscience like Arlen Specter who didn't sign on whole-hog to the program became "RINOs" deemed Republican in name only, the token moderates.
Now "Conservative" would mean any point of view or person the Regressives supported. We can see how this operated over time. The most crystal-clear example: voting against funding U.S. troops en route to Bosnia was a Conservative (good) vote, but voting against anything to support the current Iraq war is a Liberal (bad) vote. (Frankly, Operation "Bosnia As Live-Ammo NATO Exercise" was as suspect a cause as "Operation Iraqi Freedom" but again, please debate Iraq vs. Bosnia elsewhere.)
It got worse when the Regressives and the Christianists figured out how to coordinate the use of sanctimonious piety to chrome-plate their complimentary agendas. Liberal was not just bad, it was now immoral, anti-God, and out of the mainstream. We can verify their tactical effectiveness by looking at how Regressives helped George W. Bush beat that Lesbian-loving Ann Richards for the Texas governorship. So began the "values war" with Bill Clinton supplying the Regressives with a WMD to help take the White House and the momentum (plus tricky redistricting) to finally capture Congress. Positions were locked and loaded. We'd been KISSed all over and didn't even get dinner.
Of course, the interchangeable demonizing of the very words "Democrat" and "Liberal" were not the only Regressive applications of blatant KISSified redefinition. I have to admire the chutzpah of saying black is white and up is down and having it stick over and over again: Shame on those who would wage class warfare against the rich! Goodness no, it's not religion; it's the scientific theory of intelligent design! Of course this law will give us clean skies, it's called the "Clean Skies Act." "Osama--Dead or Alive" becomes "Osama--Sooner or Later." "No Child Left Behind" sounds way, way better than "No Public School Left Standing." Want to gut a federal program that's working? Do it in the name of promoting "state flexibility." Judges who applied the conservative rule of law and refused to legislate against gay marriage from the bench when the state hadn't bothered to do so were "activists." The list is endless.
Like any theory, however, KISS has its flaws. Some problems really ARE complex and require more than KISS. Second, as The Great Communicator said, "Facts are stubborn things"; you can make up crap and attribute it to Al Gore and otherwise lie, exaggerate and suppress, but sooner or later, incompetence, greed, and arrogance will ug its rearly head. You can KISS your ass off but it won't make stranded flood survivors, exposed cronyism, hard-core evidence of torture in the name of America or, ultimately, criminal indictments go away.
Finally, KISS is a two-way street, which raises the question, what kind of KISS do we need to restore sanity and serious debate in the marketplace of political ideas? I'm still mulling it over, but stay tuned for a new diary--after your suggestions.