One of the most famous quotes in its history belongs to Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief. "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." The 9/11 tragedy and the war in Iraq has been used by the Republican propaganda machine, with Karl Rove as its leader, to accomplish exactly what Goering talked about.
And so it is over. The elections have been decided and the progressive movement in the United States has been dealt a severe blow. Looking at the exit polls the Republican strategists lead by Karl Rove have done a brilliant job in dividing the country along the cultural lines. The majority of people in the country have voted against their own interests on every issue that really matters when it comes to choosing the president.
The exit polls show that everyone to whom issues like economy, healthcare and education mattered the most voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry. People who have said that they care most about terrorism and moral values have voted overwhelmingly for George Bush. In many of the Midwestern and Southern states everyday people have ignored the real issues. The scare tactics of the Bush administration have worked to perfection. And so did the brainwashing of the religious people and uneducated masses. The exit polls also show that the more educated the voters were the more they swung towards John Kerry. He picked up a slight majority among college graduates, a larger majority among masters degree earners and an overwhelming majority among scientists and professors with doctorates.
Goering also once said, "Education is dangerous - Every educated person is a future enemy." This election proved that he was right.
Here I would like to give credit to where credit is due. Karl Rove, aided by the overwhelming conservative majority in talk radio and the emergence of Fox News as a major cable television network executed the old, proven tactics of propaganda beautifully. Making people forget about real issues and facts by using emotional appeals to the most basic human feelings won them this election. Not only in terms of presidency, but also in terms of gaining even a larger majority in all legislative branches.
Rove is a scholar of historical propaganda and he has learned its lessons well. One of the most famous quotes in its history belongs to Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief. "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." The 9/11 tragedy and the war in Iraq has been used by the Republican propaganda machine, with Karl Rove as its leader, to accomplish exactly what Goering talked about.
Joseph Goebbels, the head of Nazi propaganda said, "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly... it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
"Liberal senator from Massachusetts, flip-flopper, ambulance chasers, evildoers, terrorists, patriotic Americans, good, bad, they hate our freedom" and many other terms repeated every day by conservatives on the radio, in books, on Fox News, on the Internet... terms that have become a blind answer of any good conservative to any logic, factual argument by their opponents.
The dream of Grover Norquist, a thinker of the extreme right, has come true. The conservatives now have the power to implement their real agenda, an agenda that most voters are not aware of.
Another quote from Joseph Goebbels, spoken at the time that the Nazi party won an overwhelming majority in the 1930's German parliament is appropriate here. "We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear's work, that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come."
Post-election speeches from George Bush, Dick Cheney and the leaders of the Republican party reveal that they see this election, regardless of how close it was in most states, as people's approval of their mandate. If you thought their arrogance knew no bounds in their first term wait until you see what they do now. After all, in the first four years they had to worry about reelection, now they have nothing to lose.
When creationism is taught in American schools, when preemptive wars are fought, when the draft is reinstituted, when scientific research is scaled back, when our constitutional rights are limited, when abortion is made illegal, when the government has the power to throw its citizens in jail without due process, when all our government's decisions are driven by religious zeal instead of reason, when we are hated and isolated in the world, when in future elections we have one party to vote for, when emotion and pride replaces objective thinking and understanding do not complain and wonder how it happened. We, the American people have voted for it all in this election. Do not complain that you were not aware of what you were voting for. It is no one's fault, but your own. You are responsible for becoming educated, informed voters, so that you are able to think and analyze facts rather than let yourself be misled by your government's propaganda.
Finally, just a few more pieces of wisdom from Karl Rove's virtual tutor, Joseph Goebbels. "It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion." Mission accomplished, Karl! "We have made the Reich by propaganda." Yes, Republicans, you certainly have.
Congratulations America, you deserve George Bush as your president. You have untied the hands of the Republican party and the corporate elite like never before. Celebrate the beginning of regression of everything you have accomplished in the last fifty years, polish your weapons and practice your war chants. On to victory and beyond! Gott mit Uns.