It occurred to me this morning that there's one very powerful narrative structure at work in American Media that basically makes it impossible for Obama, or democrats, to succeed.
With apologies to the great Naomi Klein, I've borrowed her important concept of "The Shock Doctrine" as the model to explain this.
I call this "The Mock Doctrine."
"The Mock Doctrine" is a very simple but incredibly powerful mechanism for the republicans, and it works like so:
In times of great trauma or crisis, the time when Americans are most likely to rally in support of their president, right wing media will ramp up its mocking to the greatest level to counter this impulse.
We saw it with the thwarted "attack" of the undies bomber. What should've been seen as a pitiful attempt that, granted, did require a reevaluation of security procedures, became a 24/7 campaign to attack Obama by the usual right wing suspects.
We saw it with the Haiti earthquake, a tragedy so beyond political exploitation, The Mock Doctrine nearly backfired when Limbaugh tried to use racism to slam the President.
But try they did. And try they will again.
Why is "The Mock Doctrine" essential to right wing media strategy?
Because right wing media knows that it is in the crisis moment -- 9/11, assasination attempts, terrorist attacks, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc., people automatically rally to the President. It is the moment when the binaries of "Us" and "Other -- the very fuel that fires up the Teabagger and racist republican impulse that drives the party -- breaks down.
Republican require a simple formula at all times:
- You (white Christians) are the "true Americans"
- "Others" (minorities, foreigners, gay people, liberals, city people) are not like you. They seek to destroy the America that is rightfully yours
The Mock Doctrine is the hysteria of media response to crisis that requires that democrats and the President be maintained as the "Other" in times when unity usually occurs.
Unity of the country is the enemy of right wing media.
Mocking, sarcasm and ridicule are the tools of the trade.
This is what Sarah Palin means when she spits out "community organizer" or talks about "elites." her bile is dripping with the divisive rage that there are "real Americans" and "fake Americans" and the battle lines must always be drawn.
It is the 50 + 1 strategy of divide and conquer.
This is also why we now live in a perpetual election cycle. If the campaigning ever ends, if people look at Washington as simply "the government" and not a collection of (R) and (D), then republicans will instantly lose.
The Mock Doctrine is always lying in wait, ready to whip up frothing insanity to meet the intensity of the real world cataclysmic event that automatically brings Americans together.
It is the "Shock Doctrine" of media ridicule.
Yet we always sit around, surprised to see it when it happens.
NOTE TO ALL OF US: IT WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN.
The greater the tragedy, the greater the mocking to make sure that Obama and the democrats are never seen as simply an American "just like us."
As such, we must always be ready, not just to counter the obviously repugnant racism and lies on their merits. But the core principle of divisiveness and destructiveness from these media tools who lie in wait, ready to pounce in our moments of greatest crisis and tragedy.