Saturday, September 09, 2006

the problem - the republicans are better street fighters




Sometimes, being a democrat feels like living in the scene from "My Cousin Vinnie" as the kid on trial for murder watching his assigned lawyer try to give an opening statement to the jury but the lawyer can't talk.
When you get down to it the republicans are better street fighters who are really good at the big brother and mind control thing.
one solution
the word "lie" must become our "flip flop"
Remember how they made the electorate think about "flip flopping" as if it was actually something that a person should care about in voting for a president. Wasn't it amazing to listen to people, who had never used the phrase or even thought about it before in their lives talking about "flip flopping" as if they independently came up with it as a concern? It's as if I suddenly started caring about "ring around the collar" and believing that it was my idea.
Anyway it worked - people voted for a dumb as a shoe, violent, fundamentalist, frat boy prince with very little regard for human life (unless you're an embryo or in a coma) instead of Kerry a guy with depth and proven courage - even if he did look and act like one of the talking trees that scared Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
Here's what needs to happen - Democratic candidates and talking heads must work the word "lie" into every public statement as in -our President lied to us or the American people need to decide if they think their leaders should be lying to them. Even "let sleeping dogs lie" will do in a pinch.
The theory the Haliburton boys and girls perfected is that if a word gets repeated by enough people, with sufficient frequency, it will eventually leach its way onto the lips and into the consciousness of everyday folks, who will start to discuss it as if its an independent political posiiton they came up with on their own. Before you know it Republicans will have to tell the voters what their position is on lying and whether or not by selling the Iraq war based on a lie instead of focusing on uniting the world against Al Quaeda - W has been the best thing that ever happened to Osama. It also gives cover to the dems who voted for the war, as in "they lied to us- what could we do?". Hopefully we can avoid the followup question, which is - "so tell me Senator Clinton - is it possible that you were that stupid or were you just a disappointing, spineless chameleon?