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Because This Election Is That Important

McCain is a Change? Hello, Orwell!

By Eric - Oct 27th, 2008 at 9:35 am EDT

If we have had a Republican president for the last 8 years, how is another Republican president a change from anything? The fact that McCain's "maverick" status comes when he was disagreeing with his party, which was 10% of the time, is interesting. As I recall, his fellow Republicans were very angry with him for doing so, and if they were so angry not too long ago, how could they embrace his disagreement so quickly? It almost seems like they realize how badly they've messed things up in the last 8 years, and that if they want to see another 4, they have to appear to be much closer to the middle of the spectrum. But, hopefully, enough people can see through such a drastic reversal and realize that it is only window dressing for 4 more years of "steal all we can."

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Republican Election-Winning Strategy

By Eric - Oct 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am EDT

Republican Model for Winning Elections:
1) Demonize the media.
2) Attack the character of your opponent.
3) Talk about things that have nothing to do with the election.
4) Lie to people about things your opponent has done via email, your very own news channel (Fox News), AM radio hosts, push polls, flyers on windshields at select radical churches, Project for a New American Century bake sales.
5) Spread rumors that your opponent is gay, has met someone who is gay, is secretly married to another man, is supported by an organization whose members are gay, has taken a campaign donation from someone that is gay, or is so straight they must be gay.
6) Appeal to ideographs such as family values, patriotism, democracy, and freedom in an effort to cast anyone that disagrees with you as undeserving to live in the country, despite the fact that in a democracy, everyone has the freedom to express their opinion, and are a patriot for doing so even if it is different from yours. That, and family values is a marketing strategy that doesn't actually mean anything.
7) Demonize the media some more, despite the fact that for the last 8 years it has been in your pocket because the five major companies that own a majority of the media outlets in the country are too afraid to air any criticism of your own president's policies, even the illegal ones (torture, "regime change," wire tapping without warrants, Guantanamo Bay, the PATRIOT Act, etc). That, and due to its corporate ownership, is not looking to draw unfavorable attention to itself (stock prices could dip) and therefore is in service to upholding the status quo. Given that a Republican president and, for a while, a majority in the House and Senate was the status quo, I think it is more accurate to see the media as having been in your favor the whole time.
8) Remind people of the party's former glory under Reagan, and include the slogans that you used from that time which no longer apply: "tax and spend liberal," fiscal conservative, well, that's all I know, I was born the year Reagan was re-elected.
9) Suggest that every problem the country is facing right now is entirely your opponent's fault--gas prices, the tanking economy, deregulation (which is perennially a Republican rallying point--Holy crap, things got out of control, let's see if the public will buy that it was the Democrat's idea).
10) Lie about your opponent's plans for his presidency.
11) Lie some more about your opponent's voting record.
12) Bring up the fact that he served on an education policy reform board in the 1990's with a guy that was, thirty years earlier, active with the Weathermen in the 60's but was never convicted. Fail to mention that the guy had changed since the 60's, as if he still hated the country, why would he join a board that is trying to improve it, and that said board had lawyers and bankers on it also. Imply that he knew the person in the 60's, despite the fact that your opponent was EIGHT YEARS OLD and would never have met him for any reason at that time.
13) Lie to people about your opponent's religion, saying that he is secretly a Muslim. Honestly, this is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Heck, if the Democrats wanted to, they could say that McCain is a Martian, it would make the same amount of sense.
14) Appeal to people's fear and hatred to generate support.
15) Cast any dissent from your stance on the war as being unpatriotic. Never mind that a) the war has been mishandled from the day our soldiers set the first foot in Iraq, b) the war was not supposed to take resources from Afghanistan, c) Iraq will probably descend into civil war as soon as we leave, no matter when we leave, d) if democracy is of the people and by the people, how can it be forced upon someone, and e) we should never have gone in in the first place. And, because your position is ignorant of these facts, your position is flawed, and a different position that is better informed and is the harder choice to make is the correct one. Honestly, it is easy to carry forward the policies of the guy before you. But to see what must be done, even though it will not be easy, and to do it anyway shows true leadership.
--On this last note, of leadership, look at McCain's policies, they are all the same sort of pass the buck, bandaid solutions that he is saying he will act against: oil dependence--drill for more oil in places that were off-limits because of the damage to the environment and coastal tourism economies, though it will do nothing to free us of oil dependence, high gas prices--suspend the federal gas tax rather than address the real reason prices are high-lack of refining capacity, speculation, and plain old dependence on something we need not be dependent on; and, of course, the war in Iraq.
All of this, and the question that comes to mind is, if you are willing to resort to all this in order to win, do you deserve to win?

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