Here's my proposal. We've seen the videos, heard the statements, and witnessed the McCain campaign's strategy for the last month of the general election. It has shocked, appalled, and disgusted many people. Others have found it amusing and pathetic. I say the best way for the netroots to respond is to fight it at every opportunity, but also ridicule the strategy and its effects.
So I propose we tie every incident into a theme of "Bigots Go Berserk."
The reason why I think it would be effective is that it would diminish each new attack that is based on something related to bigotry. We have seen the "Hussein" attack. We have seen the "Muslim" attack. We have seen the "terrorist" attack. We have seen the "drug use" attack. We have seen the "communist/socialist" attack. Ayers, Wright, Rezko, that's all the McCain campaign has left.
I think "Bigot" is better as a catchphrase than some variation on "racist" because they are not all race based attacks, and "racist" is seen as a very strong word. By 'bigot' being not as harsh, I think it would be able to get more play.
Besides the obvious alliteration, I think "Berserk" is a good word to use for the kind of behavior and attitudes we see in videos from McCain/Palin rallies, and such actions as a school teacher putting a racial epithet in an acronym involving C.H.A.N.G.E. or having an Osama/Obama sign at a business. "Berserk" also ties into the Obama camp's consistent attacks against McCain's character issues. It's just a bit further down the line from 'erratic'. If we can successfully create a meme of an erratic McCain with even more erratic supporters, I think it will help win that battle of the last 5-7% of undecided voters.
I'd like headlines in the netroots like "Another episode of Bigots Go Berserk: (insert story)"
This will help push the traditional media into noticing and reporting that these kinds of attacks and incidents keep happening over and over, daily. It will help drive the theme that the GOP base is shifting to extremism in the wake of what is going to be a big Obama victory next month. It will help drive some of those moderate Republicans who are embarrassed by what they are seeing right now further away from the base.
I also think ridiculing the behavior that we are seeing at the McCain/Palin rallies is a lot more constructive than talking about nightmare scenarios about what these attacks might lead to. Instead of "I'm terrified now, look at what these people are saying," I'd like to see a daily "Bigots Go Berserk" series on dkos.
We have NOT seen the worst. Not by far. This is going to be a very long month for us all, but especially for people with bigoted views. This might be the scariest month in over a generation, and they will respond by doing even crazier things. And with the McCain campaign so far behind and with nothing positive to run on, all they have now is a strategy to sling as much mud at Obama as possible.
Thoughts?