gulliver
gulliver's JournalThanks, American Motorists!
Dear American Motorist,
As a an oil speculator, I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know how much I appreciate the extra money. Your many contributions to my free enterprise success profits have "raised my boat." In fact, I just got a new one. It's called Sea Mitten. I named it after Mitt (heh heh, gotcha buddy!). But seriously, Mitt knows I respect him. His contributions to the world of finance are every bit as admirable as my contributions to the energy industry.
I was sorry to read that many of you are feeling the pinch at the gas pump, but I want you to know I am grateful for your courageous and willing sacrifice. It takes character to bow to the rights of others. Your respect for my right to make money without regard to how I do it...well (I'm choking up a little)...well, it's just swell. And look at it this way. That Big Mac, large fries, and large mocha Frappé weren't going to do your "bottom line" any favors anyway. Heh heh, burn!!
Some people would be angry at me, but not you. In some quarters I won't mention there are people who want to coat me with chum and throw me in the ocean. I'm glad you aren't like that, all bitter.
In closing, I just want to add a shout out to my true loyalists. You know who you are. You are the solid, salt-of-the-earth folks who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me every time you fill up. You, my friends, put the blame on Obama. You get that inexplicable something about him. Well, it saves me boo-coo dollars in Republican SuperPAC contributions, and I just wanted you to know that it "works for me." I know I speak for Iran too.
Stay in touch "y'all". Heh heh.
Your Pal,
JSU IV
"They" are taking something from you and giving it to "somebody else"
The idea that someone is taking something from you and giving it to someone else is a big play in the Republican handbook. It's one of the keystone techniques in the Republican "sales pitch." Since it is a technique and not an argument, the information payload need not bear any resemblance to reality. It has a gut-level appeal that bypasses real thinking. "Government is taking my hard earned money and giving it to welfare cheats." Simple syntax, simple idea, sonorous, easy to remember, emotionally charged with anger, miniscule grain of truth...it is a beautifully constructed little mental virus. You can even skip the grain of truth and it will work on a lot of people.
So Romney can say Obama wants high-priced gas and to destroy Social Security, and Republicans in general can deny global warming with impunity—as long as they get the chord structure of the jingle right. It is very easy to push people's minds into gut-level mode and then just basically tell them anything you want to tell them. It's a shame, because normally, if the Republicans were not willfully lying to try to retake power, gut-level thinking can be a good, healthy thing.
In a sense, Dems need to take a page from the Republican playbook and fight fire with fire. I definitely don't mean we need to start lying, because I fervently believe the Republicans are going to get severely gigged for it in November. What I mean is that we should not forget that it is primarily the Republicans and the people who are funding them who are taking something from Americans and giving it to someone else. We can and should sometimes use the gut-level technique Republicans use except with the truth as an information payload instead of lies.
For example, if we are talking about global warming, we can talk about how Republicans and their backers are denying something that is taking the "good climate" away from some people's land and giving it to others. Republicans and their backers are standing by and even blocking action. They delay while climate change happens before their eyes, creating a devastating and permanent form of wealth redistribution.
When it comes to jobs, Dems can talk about how Republicans and their backers twist the true meaning of capitalism in order to "justify" taking away American jobs to give to other countries. Republicans parrot capitalism in the same way the Devil quotes the Bible.
When it comes to energy, we can talk about how Republicans and their energy corporation backers are selling more and more of the world's oil to other countries. We are paying more for gas because other people are using the jobs that Republicans and their backers took from Americans to buy up gas.
We can even talk specifically about the truth itself. We can talk about how the level of lies Republicans are currently using in their politics deprives Americans of their traditional sense of honor and even their ability to trust their own gut. We can talk about how a climate of trust is important, and how people should not have to be vigilant against boldface lies. Lies ruin golf, basketball games and countries.
Finally, we can even talk about the government bugaboo that Republican politicians so much want us to fear and hate. Far from taking things away from Americans, that government is actually the vital check-and-balance needed to prevent Republicans and their backers from taking away jobs, oil, and Social Security and giving the proceeds to themselves and to foreign countries.
By talking about Maher, the Republicans are defending Limbaugh.
It's a lame defense of course. Take your average woman and have her watch a few cases of Bill Maher calling bomb-throwing "Mama Grizzly" Sarah Palin a naughty name for laughs. Then have that same average woman watch several minutes of Rush Limbaugh over three or four days—piggish, snarling, mean, and far from funny—going for the jugular of an average woman.
I guess some Republicans are trying to bet their political careers on women not noticing the difference. In short, some Republicans are idiots. There is absolutely no way they are going to make that sale.
But why are they trying to make that sale at all? We need to stop and ask at this point why so many Republicans are grasping at straws and dissembling to defend Rush Limbaugh after what he did. Kind of shows you how they think. Kind of a true colors moment.
Stop saying Republicans are acting against their own interests.
The argument that Republicans act against their own best interests is a loser. It actually makes them feel better. Acting against their own interests is what Republicans like to think they are doing. It's what they wish they were doing. It's what they want other people to think they are doing.
They are so not.
The real tragicomedy of middle and working class Republicans is that, through the magic of psychology, their bone deep frustration, vanity, and selfishness transmutes into an inner drama of selflessness and dignity. Dostoevsky would love them. Republicans feel like heroes and martyrs. Their suffering only sanctifies their inner anger, and tickles their vanity no end.
The only way to get middle and working class Republicans to stop creating George W. Bushes, unnecessary wars, job-exporting corporations, and Great Recessions is to stop playing into their broken inner drama. Republicans aren't hurting themselves in some long-suffering act of selflessness. They are gorging on heaping doses of self-worship and self-pity. They are acting selfishly and vainly, and in a way that can no longer be hidden from themselves and others.
Why don't Republicans object to Tricare (military health insurance) covering birth control?
Tricare covers contraception. That can only mean one thing. Our nation's military has been infiltrated by sluts and prostitutes who expect Republican people of faith to pay for their recreational sex. It is a good thing that Rush Limbaugh is carried on the armed forces network. That way he can harass these sluts and help to promote a climate of hostility toward them. Then maybe they will go back to their red light districts.
http://www.tricare.mil/mybenefit/jsp/Medical/IsItCovered.do?kw=Birth+Control
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