The Mob Squab

Losing it.

(YouTube)

"I find this ad a little risky.... is it wise to accuse Republicans of being mobs in the streets? Are they? Or is it more the annoying talk show people."

— DR S

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I agree; it's a risky shot... in the context of standard DNC consultancy, a sensibility which normally hopes more than anything to NOT offend the opposition's constituency.



It's a very current media event in which small hoards of particularly white and peculiarly old people are showing up at a few town hall meetings and shouting down discussion of anything except Obama's birth certificate or dooms-day conspiracy scenarios of mass-euthanasia of senior citizens.

"Throughout the summer, we have been reaching out to Floridians to engage in an important debate on the future our health care system. We have heard story after story from people who are struggling to get the care they need.

"Recently, their thoughtful discussions are being interrupted by angry mobs - well funded and organized by Washington special interests - attempting to drown out the voices of the hard-working Floridians who are desperate for health insurance reform."

This mob-like belligerence is a direct export of the violence-laced invective we saw at McCain-Palin campaign rallies last fall.

The mob mentality is fomented by Faux Noose demagoguery, the inflammatory and paranoid social commentary that you mentioned, and it's facilitated by the medical industrial complex and public relations consultants who are aptly whipping the media into a wild frenzy of sensationalistic coverage that magnifies a relatively small, goaded fringe of anti-reform-naysayers into this preposterously outsized pseudo-movement.

Something from the Commentariat:

"My question is why were anti-war protesters hauled out of bush's town halls as soon as they stood up (if they were even allowed in in the first place) while these right wing corporate thugs are allowed to shout down congressmen and their constituants who actually want to have a meaningful discussion? For people who claim to be lovers of freedom and democracy, they sure do seem to hate it in action."

— Salviati137

Meanwhile, through manipulation of poll reporting, a mischaracterization abided by the press (because the perception of cultural conflict sells advertising revenue) people believe that there is rampant disapproval of creatively radical reform, even though internal Republican polling clearly shows that most people support both a strong public option AND a competitive federal payer, both available in a national package sold in a mixed public-commercial market.

Instead of depending on a naively well-meaning constituency to write this bogus demonstration off as total nonsense that no one we know would really buy into, this DNC ad is fighting back at a guerilla media manipulation campaign by characterizing it as lunacy, right when the freak show launches. The reformers can't afford to sleep through August.

The DNC wastes no time, because congressmen use this whipped-up, faux controversy as their excuse to side with the corporate interests who have already bought them off. It's ALL about having that plausible excuse, this imaginary political cover... nothing to do with truth... and the DNC aims to neutralize that preposterous claim. It's ad hominem, but the right-wing invites it by being so freaky.

Again, from the reader:

"And, by the way, do the Repubs (and Blu dawgs too) know about the Vampires and werewolves working at the National Health Service?



"Maybe you should put them onto this hot trail. It might get more press time even than O'B's birth certificate thang."

— DR S

By your command...



Back to the pitchfork weilding mob... I see your point, that it seems like an over-the-top tactical reaction to call these people lunatics, but I think the DNC has made the strategic judgment that the Republican core has been reduced to its minimal, whacky, Rapture-ready constituency, that reformist forces MUST act with an unorthodox immediacy, before the center-right campaign is able to attract that tragically flimsy-minded sub-set of the white American demographic who unconsciously believes they can afford to side with the wittiest, more entertaining contestant... in a contest that has been won by the RNC, up until recently, when the GOP core totally lost its snarky sense of humor... all because they pathologically loathe the notion of electing a black man as president.

The DNC is dispensing with conventional Democratic wisdom... acting in the moment... and baiting these racist dooms-day conspiracy zealots into reacting with even more nuttiness, with historically fanatical and violence-laced social-conservative whackery, with the anger and palpable meanness that totally failed McCain-Palin in 2008.

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