Tonight I welcome you all to the first of what I hope will be many Kossack Soundbit Potlucks. The idea behind this event is simple, really, and that it to help generate soundbites that we can vet and spread through the blogosphere and, eventually we hope, in to the rest of the media. What's more, this will give us practice thinking up soundbites so that we can make better quality soundbites for our side more quickly.
The rules are simple - any time you post a comment with the title "SB" it is understood that your comment contains exactly one soundbite that you're putting forward for community consideration. Then people will vote on the best soundbites by whichever ones get the most recommends. In order to spice things up, we'll make it a bit of a contest. Whoever comes up with the highest rated soundbite by the time the diary can no longer receive recommends gets to pick the topic for the next potluck. We should work out some kind of schedule for when to hold the Potlucks, but weekly seems like a good fit. Granted, it will entirely be on the honor of the participants not to violate any rules.
Before I introduce this week's topic, let's first set down some criteria for what makes a good sound bite. In no particular order, the qualities of a good sound bite are:
- Concise - this especially means being short. The statement should be able to stand on its own with as few words as possible.
- Memorable - it has to be able to stick in people's minds by either hooking on to something everyone already finds unforgettable or through some innate quality of the soundbite itself. Shortness helps here, but so does wittiness, humor, bite, and ideally rising to pithiness.
- Truthiness - Ideally this means that it's true, but sadly that is not an absolute requirement. The point is that it shouldn't illicit rejection by "Ridiculous!" and should at least sound like it could become conventional wisdom.
- Requires no Explanation - this could technically be part of conciseness, but it bears repeating. If it requires explanation it isn't a soundbite. Ideally, we could argue by explanation and leave soundbites out of it. In reality the explanations need to be saved for after people are at least convinced to be open minded by the soundbites.
- Contributes to Narrative Wars - whether attacking a Rethug narrative, bolstering one of our own, or establishing a new one, our soundbites should fit in to a larger strategy for maximum effectiveness.
Ok, now that all that's out of the way, I give to those of you still with us the topic for this week:
Topic: George W. Bush the Second, How the GOP Loves Thee
The failings of President Jr are almost too many to list, but I'll give a shot at making an incomplete one: Iraq, Katrina, Dubai Ports, torture, busting the budget, Medicare part D, corruption, attempting to dismantle social security, stem cells, coddling oil companies, global warming, and the list goes on and on. They are so numerous that it is pointless to try to remind everyone of all of them all at once. It is, however, worth our while if we can tie Bush and his failings to his Rethug enablers in Congress and elsewhere who are running for office. That's the goal for this week, anti-Bush soundbites that can also be used against the two year old in chief's crew in congress.
Edit to add: whoever wins and takes up the torch, please remember to back link to the previous potluck so that we have some kind of record in case we want to throw together a best of for some reason.