When did this canard begin ??

[kentuck]

That the Republicans are better at foreign policy and national defense issues? Certainly after they failed to protect us on 9/11 and after our foreign policy is discredited around the world, they cannot brag about the job they have done in recent years. It's time to put this canard to rest once and for all.

[rockymountaindem]

1. It might have started when Truman "lost China to the reds"

That, according to one of my history professors (who is/was a huge liberal) formed the modern basis of the argument that Dems are weak on security. McCarthyism probably moved the ball forward in that regard too.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I think that's about right

Nonetheless, it is unfounded .... but persistent.

Kennedy didn't help with the Bay of Pigs and Carter with Iran.

Not criticizing anyone, but those get cited as examples of why we are 'weak'.

[pansypoo53219]

12. bay of pigs was actually an EISENHOWER era idea

not that anybody knows that. heck, i just learned that. but where......

[leftofcool]

2. Since 1968

[KharmaTrain]

4. Southern Strategy...Raygun Myth...

Actually you can trace this back to the McCarthyites and Dulles crowd of the 50's...the red baiters and commie haters that emerged out of the party in that era. This also became the start of the military-industrial complex...the financial alliance between the GOOP and defense and big money contractors.

Next throw in Nixon's Southern Strategy that embraced the Wallace "law and order" concept (translation: intolerance) that grew into the meme that only GOOPers knew how to keep our streets safe and tied that to the cold war boogie man.

Then came Raygun who played up the macho image...the "peace through strength" bullshit that many of today's wingnuts were weened on. It was exagerated and spun by Gingrich, Rove, Atwater and many others in the 90's (especially via hate radio) to make the lie the assumption...and when the lie is repeated enough, it became "conventional wisdom" that was used by the GOOP and the boosh cabal not only to insulate themselves from their real nature and to tar Democrats. For years the GOOP could blame a Democratic President or Congress...it wasn't until we had 6 years of one party rule that the entire myth has been exposed and now has exploded.

Cheers...

[BadgerKid]

11. Does Nixon's China policy come into this?

IIRC, China was feeling squeezed by USSR and the US but Nixon was said to help (re?)establish relations with China. I could imagine this could have been advertised as a win to the US people. What were the people's reactions at the time?

[KharmaTrain]

14. Nixon "The Statesman"

IRC, Kissinger's Ping Pong trip then Nixon's trip to Beijing fell right at the '72 election was getting underway...and the trip was billed as a great breaktrhough and spun into how Nixon was a great statesman. China was fighting across the Amuri River with the Soviets and the US saw the opportunity to open long closed doors to China (AKA Playing the China Card)...as almost every one of our allies had already set up relations with Mao...we were, as usual, late to that party.

I can remember being impressed with the live TV coverage...opening up a world I had never seen in my life and it was truly a historic moment...one of Nixon's rare smart moves.

Cheers...

[sinkingfeeling]

5. About 1950 or so. Ike's time frame.

[SoCalDem]

6. Right wing radio & the consolidated corporate media has

pounded this meme for decades...unchallenged (because we had no representation to refute it)..

If people hear only one "story' for years and years, and hear no opposing sides, they do believe it.. propaganda works. (against us) :grr:

[Captain Angry]

7. How's that line go again?

If you repeat the lie often enough...

I like how the Republicans can say that it was stuff that one member of their party was involved in 25 years ago makes them more suited to foreign policy issues.

A Democrat can say something, and it's living in the past. They do something recent, and they have no track record.

It's all in how it's framed, and how the media perpetuates it.

[aquart]

8. Which is why the media monopolies need to go bye bye.

[liberal N proud]

9. It is from the same band of liars who claim the media is liberal

The same ones who say the Democrats are weak on the military and calling them the tax and spend party.

This is how the republicons beat Democrats, they make these fantasy mantras up and get their media who calls themselves liberal to repeat them time and again.

[kentuck]

10. But maybe we are in the beginnings of a "truth revolution"...

..and they will no longer be permitted to their own facts and lies.

[Perry Logan]

13. Wingers seem to be hard-wired to believe certain things, no matter what the facts.