George W. Bush-by-Proxy Syndrome
by Andrew BreitbartThis week’s Washington Times column:
There is an extensive body of writing from both sides of the political aisle that has analyzed the extraordinary depths of hatred leveled at former President George W. Bush.
His birth into a wealthy and politically connected family is where a lot of the animus starts. His rejection of his Connecticut roots and adoption of a rugged Texan persona naturally riled his birth-constituency. His disjointed speaking style also alienated many others – especially those who covered him in the Northeastern media. Naturally, some of his initiatives were controversial. His allies say he didn’t do enough.
But all presidents make mistakes, pursue unpopular ideas, possess off-putting personality traits and don’t do enough to appeal to their core supporters. Something far more insidious was at work in the hatred of our most recent former president.
Now that Mr. Bush is quietly going about his retirement, this strain of rage – the GWB43 virus – has spread like wildfire, finding unsuspecting targets, each granting us greater perspective into what not long ago seemed like a mysterious phenomenon isolated only on our 43rd president.
The first person to catch the virus was Sarah Palin, whose family also was infected, including, unforgivably, her children.
Then it was Joe the Plumber, for asking a question.
Next were the Mormons.
Then it was Rush Limbaugh – who hit back.
Next, tax-day “tea party” attendees were “tea bagged.”
Then there was a beauty contestant.
And a Cambridge cop, too.
And now we have town-hall “mobs.”
Smile … you’ve been “community organized.”
When put on the media stage, these individuals and groups have been isolated for destruction for standing in the way of a resurgent modern progressive movement and for challenging its charismatic once-in-a-lifetime standard-bearer, Barack Obama.
This is their time, we’ve been told. And no one is going to stand in the way.
The origins of manufactured “politics of personal destruction” is Saul Alinsky, the mentor of a young Hillary Rodham, who wrote her 92-page Wellesley College senior thesis on the late Chicago-based “progressive” street agitator titled, “There Is Only the Fight.”
Mr. Obama and his Fighting Illini, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, have perfected Mr. Alinsky’s techniques as laid out in his guidebook to political warfare, “Rules for Radicals.” In plain language, we see how normal, decent and even private citizens become nationally vilified symbols overnight – all in the pursuit of progressive political victory.
“Rule 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”
You can read the column in full here.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
372 Comments
I see it more and more, people have figured it out. At first they appeared wise and noble, now they just look patronizing and arrogant. The varnish wears thinner and thinner everyday.
[...] about Rush Limbaugh as of August 16, 2009 George W. Bush-By-Proxy Syndrome – bighollywood.breitbart.com 08/17/2009 This week’s Washington Times column: There is an [...]
Rush Limbaugh doesn't really fit. Liberals hated him before Bush.
The others are dead on proof of these sickos known as the Democrat party who need help.
George W. Bush should get a Nobel Prize in Medicine for showing us that mental illness is contagious. It can be prevented by avoiding contagions such as The New York Times, Newsweek, MSNBC, Air America (the worst), and their ilk.
It really goes back to Nixon and his impeachment, which gave the left positive reinforcement that if they demonized any major Republican politician, eventually they'd be able to beat him. The problem over the years has been at times the left couldn't get their message straight — Ronald Reagan was evil/Ronald Reagan was an idiot was played out in the left (and in the media) in the late 70s and 1980s like the old "Certs is a candy mint/Certs is a breath mint" ads, only the reaction of most people — once they became comfortable enough with Reagan and angry enough with Carter — was to ignore the spin attempts entirely ("Saturday Night Live" had their biggest success using Reagan in a bit with the Phil Hartman portrary of Reagan as a secret genius, because it played on the frustration of the left in not being able to "get" Reagan over the previous eight years).
To the left, all their political enemies have had to be either "evil" or "stupid" to justify their derangement in their own minds. In the last administration, it was "Bush stupid; Cheney (or Rove, or Rumsfeld) evil", and of course now Sarah Palin gets the "stupid" treatment, and it works with a large part of the public for now because the McCain campaign allowed the Dems and the big media to define the terms of a new political face few had heard of before. But angry liberals being angry liberals, where they're losing it is now trotting out the same evil/stupid efforts not just against Palin, or Limbaugh, Joe the Plumber, or the Mormons, but against thousands of mostly nameless people attending the Tea Parties and now the health care Town Hall meetings.
They've gone from trying to spin all major GOP/conservatives figures as evil or stupid to trying to spin a large part of the public as evil or stupid, including the moderate swing voters who helped Obama get elected, but now have worried about his programs. Telling the moderates to shut up and just listen to us is not a way to cement their loyalty to Obama and his policies and the more pragmatic Democratic operatives seem to be figuring this out. But for the hard-liners on the left, calling anyone who gets in the way of your plans stupid or evil just feels so damned good, it's going to be almost impossible for them to resist the temptation, even if they end up tagging Blue Dogs and others in their own party with that label.
Absolutely excellent.
Excellent post! However Andrew forgot one of chief corollaries to the "Rules for Radicals." This is "Feign Anger and Outrage when the Other Side Hits Back." Now that conservatives are organizing against the administration's health-care proposals virtually every MSM outlet is moaning, in their best po-mo tones, "Why can't we have health care reform without all this acrimonious debate?" Suddenly phrases like "Question Authority" and "Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism" have been submerged before an all-conquering conformity. The Obamites message can be summarized as "Shut Up and Do What You're Told." Not exactly the defiant fist of individualism that we have come to expect from the left in the last couple of decades.
"And if Mr. Obama can't get the economy rolling and continues to demonize everyday folks for his failures…"
If?
And all the opposition needs to do is stand aside and keep their mouths shut.
As Napoleon said, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
What I find amusing is that it is unfathomable to the democrats that regular people are spontaneously out there going to townhalls without benefit of organization of payment for service.
I talked to over 250 people who protested a non townhall meeting (a closed door meeting in our town for party faithful). Each and every one of them came down after seeing a blurb in the local paper about our congressman coming, but unwilling to meet with us. People are sick of it.
Oddly enough, when I asked the few folks who were there to express support for nationalized healthcare, most were from out of town and had preprinted signs.
Or the pleasant Obama twist: "Shut up and get out of the way." Such arrogance. Such stunning arrogance.
I'm 36 and distinctly remember the left's attempts marginalize Reagan by saying he was unintelligent or even senile. The next whipping boy was Dan Quayle, with "You're no Jack Kennedy.", potato(e)gate, and his remarks about Murphy Brown. I would guess that the GWB hatred stemmed from a "perfect storm" of the Florida/Supreme Court decision, 9/11 truthism, hurricane Katrina, and the rise of Michael Moore.
“Pay back is hell!” One thing our liberal myrmidons may have forgotten many of us came up in the ‘60s and ‘70s and understand the rules, and are going to give as good as we get. 2010, 2010, 2010…
Andrew – I agree with much of what you said, but not all. The president, by nature of the office commands a lot of attention. Yes, the media was against Bush, and Soros was pouring money into a vicious campaign. Still, I felt Bush was singularly poor at fighting back. Part of this was the"patrician background," that made it unseemly to get down in the dirt. Bush could have fought back. As far as Obama, he keeps going to the same playbook. It became too much the second and third time around. I think people realized if public option passed we were doomed.
Fight fire with fire…enough of the Gentleman John McCain stuff. McCain never understood that the contest between he and the Senator from Hope-and-change was not a Senate procedural debate, where he and the Dear Leader-in-waiting head out afterward and buy each other drinks at a posh watering hole.
Rush Limbaugh gets the stakes in this fight, and fought back against the Dear Leader's Alinskyite attacks. Palin understood that this was not a chivalrous contest, but for whatever reason–inexperience, bad advice, simply being overwhelmed–didn't strike back as well as she might have, even after the campaign was over and Gentleman John McCain was no longer muzzling her.
How can we fight back? The Dear Leader-as-Joker posters were a stroke of genius; we need to do more of the same. We libertarians and conservatives certainly cannot rely on the RNC, who could mess up a cup of coffee even if they didn't always fall for the "reaching across the aisle" crap. Rush and Hannity are great at fighting back, but they are only two men, and we on the ground cannot, and should not, look to them to do everything for us.
My wife and I kept our heads down raised our family, ran our business, and have never been asked to show up to anything, we’ve know been to three Tea Parties. On the other side, they are paying their rent-a-mob ten to fifteen bucks an hour to come out and protest. I understand this is through a website (Soros) at the White House. My entrepreneurial mind gets going, maybe we should sign up for the pay, protest for our side and get paid to boot, that could be fun.
I've been arguing with someone on YouTube over the Pelosi nazi thing. I asked her where all these swastikas were she kept bringing up. She told me to google health care protests and swastikas so I did. Not much in the web hits so I hit images. There were more Bush swastikas than than health care ones and the few health care ones were done in magic marker. The Bush ones looked like they were printed out at FastSigns or some place like that, real snazzy.
They have the gall to bring up terms like AstroTurf when they bus people in with matching shirts. It reminds me of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons, you know- "DUCK SEASON!", "RABBIT SEASON!" They switched the sign firgured the American people for Daffy Duck.
The only real ideological disagreement the Left has is on the subject of whether their enemies should be presumed evil before being proven to be stupid, or presumed stupid before being proved evil.
Great article Breitbart!
Toward the end of the day when we were gathered out by where we thought our congressman would exit, I took an informal poll of those waiting. None had ever demonstrated before the tea party day and those people were few. Most had never dreamed that would be one of those people with a sign. A man who drove by us told us we need to stop smiling and waving to cars if we wanted to look like real protesters. I found that amusing.
Most folks there were heads down, quietly working and raising family types.
— On Sun, 8/16/09, IntenseDebate Notifications <notifications@intensedebatemail.com> wrote:
Whatever 'dirty tricks' conservatives are being accused of by the left, it's a lead pipe cinch the left is already engaged in that very behavior.
The left is fervently in favor of free speech, until that speech disagrees with them.
The left is always trying to enact legislation 'for the children', but have no problems murdering unborn babies.
The left has the technique of 'double-standard' down to a fine art, but people have reached a tipping point with all the hypocrisy of the left, and the 'do-nothing' passivity of the GOP leadership as well.
Actually it depends on the liberal. Some liberals are stupid so they project their stupidity on their enemies. Some liberals are Evil so they project their malevolence on their enemies.
Since all liberals are either stupid or evil this is the only range that they have.
Haven't you heard we've recovered.
Ever notice how in the last year of a Republicans administration we are going into a Receission and in the last year of a Democrats we are recovering. The problem with the media is this time we are sinking into a depression and there is no denying it.
Projection combined with the assumption that everyone works the same way they do. Whenever the Party is accusing you of something, odds are they're already doing it themselves.
Of course this was a rhetorical question but… Manufactured crisis (Reichstag fire, Swine flu epidemic, fomented urban unrest?), answered by scapegoating opponents, presidential directives, crackdowns. Oh, I was thinking of Italy in the 1920s, Germany and the USSR in the 1930s. Those things could never happen here. Could they?
those not born in the great state of texas but consider themselves texans have a saying: we weren't born here, but we got here as fast as we could. so many texans were grateful that bush got here as fast as he could. i'll put him up against barry any day in the arena of integrity and honesty and plain old kickassery.
McCain didn't seem like a gentleman to me when he let his campaign staff throw Palin under the bus. That's the thing I think the Republicans are really getting wrong– they don't support their own the way they should.
Part 1
If one took the time to think it through, you'd probably come away with the fact that the Bush administration segued us into the Obama regime. Let's start with a little history. 9-11 ushered in the era of fear, and we bought it hook, line and sinker. Four hijacked planes, two United Airlines and two American Airlines, were used as cruise missiles in what can only be called a 'horrific' attack on our nation. No small deal as approximately 3000 people were killed, the WTC destroyed and the Pentagon damaged, but ask yourself; what real damage did they do? Was the heartland set afire? Did murderous hordes later storm the Capital? Was plague unleashed into our food supply or our children kidnapped? No. Why not, you ask? Simple.
Part 2
There was no plan to assault this nation other than to ignite what the terrorists knew to be a fuse to our self-immolation. That's right, how could a rag-tag band of 7th century towelheads take out a nation as powerful as the United States unless they could accurately predict our response. Or more appropriately, that of our public servants. They knew that an attack as symbolic as 9-11 would devastate us psychologically(anyone but me see that one?)and they gambled, and won, when we allowed President Bush and the corrupt congress to steal our birthrite by selling us the illusion of security while systematically dismantling our Constitution. What followed can only be described as ass-covering and mis-direction when the nauseating and gratuitous orgy of faux patriotism, stoked by the Bush administration, kept the people in the check as they passed the USAPatriot Act, a bill no one bothered to read(sound familiar)and continue to frighten us with tales of impending doom and gloom so they can perpetrate this fraud. Incidentally, a cursory look at the facts will show that the Patriot Act has been used primarily against US citizens.
Part 3
Travelers are assaulted by legions of idiots masquerading as 'security specialists' when the TSA was formed under the Department of Homeland Security(think KGB), our liberties are in question and the most intimate aspects of our lives are being 'data-mined', ostensibly to help in the 'War on Terror'. Our nation is now ruled by edict and Presidential Signing statements and the rule of law is whatever they want it to be. Dissent is not crushed(yet) but discouraged by intimidation, the the tried and true tool against those who don't fall into line. Now anyone who speaks out is labled as a 'hater' by the new, sanctioned propaganda organ(MSNBC)now used by the current administration. Al the while a splendid little war, costing billions a day, rage on three fronts; Iraq, Afghanistan and right here at home.
Part 4
The Bush administration sold our nation into indentured servitude and Mr. Obama rubber-stamps by incurring punishing new debt when they float loans to the Chinese and anyone else who wants a piece of America in an attempt radically alter the political and social landscape to further the cause of 'social justice'. And to prevent us from finding out what was happening to our nation, they cite 'National Security' as a catch-all phrase deterrent. In short, we were attacked again by the very people whom we charge with our safekeeping and our Stockholm Syndrome-like stupor is preventing us from seeing the real enemy. George Bush was all those things you described, and more. When history judges him however, it will find he and his administration to have been guilty of treason, and our progeny, if there is any, will wonder why we did nothing to stop them. On a more hopeful note, I am taking extreme satisfaction in the growing dissent over the new administration's non-stop juggernaut. Will it be enough?
Whatever happened to Certs?
Andrew Klavan's "Shut Up": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWHgUE9AD4s
You can Fool some of the people All of the time.
But you can't fool Conservatives for long.
Well Grygor, you sure did write a lot of stuff, there. I honestly don't agree with much of it at all, but don't feel compelled to tell you why. I appreciate your effort even if I feel it sounds pretty paranoid.
It's all a matter of perspective. Mine.
Or maybe they were banking on the touchy-feely types asking us all to think about what we had done to bring this on, and to be more understanding of the terrorists.
But yeah, it was meant to be a symbol, most likely of them taking a bite out of our economy (Terrorists tend to hate capitalism. I thought it was just bikinis and freedom in general, but they speak out against capitalism specifically. Maybe they've read Friedman). I'm not so sure they had something like the Patriot Act in mind as a positive for their side.
I'm not really a Bush fan, but I love your comment!
Potato(e)gate!
It's amazing how many people still think Bush stole the election after multiple selective recounts in largely blue districts that Bush won. "But wait, just give us another recount and we'll find more votes for Gore!"
Oh it's happened, with 9/11! Totally manufactured! Totally. Really.
What do you mean those particles from the WTC site that are used in bombs are also found in wallboard? It was a conspiracy!!! I know so because Bush is evil.
"It's all a matter of perspective. Mine."
How very post-modern.
Funny thing is, that the democrats preach to us to be tolerate. And they are the most intolerant people on earth.
Thing is, the people who determine who gets Nobel Prizes are also infected with GWB43.
Oh, our god OBAMA will continue to blame GWB43 until Nov 6th 2012 for everything. Nothing is ever his fault, but he'll take any credit he can grab on to.
that play did work for Al Franken, saddly enough.
I'd say that it goes back much farther than that – at least back to McCarthy and the "Red Scare". The left sees anyone speaking out against them as an enemy and a threat. Therefore, they use any weapon available to vilify, trivialize and belittle anyone that dares to speak out against them, for any reason.
Republicans are politicians that will be as conservative as they have to be to suit themselves. That means that the more Republican vs. Conservative they are, the more they'll sacrifice their conservative principles and say or do anything they have to in order to stay in office. Dims do that as a matter of course since they can't separate themselves from being liberal. I guess that you can say that they are more at ease being liberals as opposed to some Republicans not being comfortable being conservative.
Yes, I like it too. I don't understand though why he wouldn't defend himself for 6-7 years. I think a lot of our problems today are because he said nothing while the Lilliputians belittled him for all that time.
Brevity is the soul of wit!
Please don't think I'm implying GWB didn't win fair & square (he did), but that really galvanized the left, whether they had a legit reason to feel gypped or not . I thought it was interesting in 2004, when the crazy GWB hate was really at its apex, he put a good old-fashioned beat down on Kerry. The haters were focused like a single, white hot laserbeam at the time.
I preferred that he didn't spend time defending himself. It left him more time to do what he did best, "Kill Terrorists"……………..If the current a**hat in the White House spent half as much time fixing the "real" problems in this country as he does blowing smoke up our a**'s we'd probably be well on the way to recovery….. History will be kind to "W"………Barry will suffer the same fate as Carter. He'll be a footnote……
I think what really pissed off the left is that he ignored them. I am thinking that GW will be looked at like a Harry Truman – at the time Truman was unpopular but he ended the Pacific War with the Bomb, stopped the communists in Greece and instituted the policies that contained the Soviets for 40 years.
If you think about it this country should have been in the economic dumpster after 9/11 – the stuff GW faced…and overcame.
syvyn11, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Twenty years from now Barry will be blaming every single one of his monumental failures on President Bush.
"If it wasn't for George Bush's illegal war in Iraq, my healthcare plan wouldn't have bankrupted the country"…………….Right!
I couldn't have said it better. Particularly your 9/11 comment. He received zero credit for saving the economy then. People forget that we where in an economic downturn at that point. One that had been "inherited" from Bubba. That was a "true" crisis with pressure from everwhere. The child in the White House now would piss himself if he had to face a catastrophe of that scope……..
As the bumper sticker say's……….."I miss Dubya"…..
"Ever notice how in the last year of a Republicans administration we are going into a Receission and in the last year of a Democrats we are recovering."
Yes.
Heck, from what the media told me, we were in a recession or about to go into a recession for 8 years under Bush. Now they tell me that, despite the economy getting worse, Obama is "fixing" things.
I see one major flaw with those who follow brother Saul Alinsky rules. It was all developed before the Internet. No one saw the of the speed in which issues can be countered. No one then understood the power of a search engine. ooops!
If you attack without real facts they can be challenged and discredited in lightning speed. That is why we see Saul Alinsky followers reluctant to allow anyone to read the bill before it is signed. You counter with soft Jujitsu moves and let their weight fall on them. Fall they will until they follow a new leader, Saul is dead and will remain that way as long as people stay informed.
Andrew, nice article, tightly written. In support of your thesis we may recall W's response to a reporter about his (Bush's) refusal to comment on zero's shennanigans: "He (Obama) deserves my silence."
I guess Bush can read books after all, huh, libtards…see you soon with Chipper in Quincy!
My missive is not a rant or tirade but an acute observation into the last 8 years of this nation's history. Some things are glaringly obvious while others, less so, but this was a no-brainer. Don't feel compelled to respond to this as it may be only my perspective, but it's a studied one. Like I said, maybe enough people will rise against the tyranny infesting our nation to effect true change.
Liberalism is a cult of malcontents. They HATE anyone who will not step into their fascist way of thinking. The go after all conservatives both Jewish and Christian because we believe in a higher authority we have to answer too. The cultist of this Godless ideology go after people like GW Bush, Rush, Sara Palin because these people will not compromise. They fear the living hell out of Palin because in this little housewife she connects with the America they hate and they know there are more of us then all of them, the dead and illegals combined. Pailn can and will be the Joan of Arc that will drive out the malcontent cultist and this time there will be no Dauphin. We have a Republic where when the rubber hits the road, WE THE PEOPLE who fund this monstrosity will rise up and FIRE the cult of misprints that have derailed this Republic since this weekend 40 years ago when they crawled out of the mud in Woodstock. The Age of Aquarius really turned the place into a shit hole. Now, its time to clean up the mess these pigs left. VOTE them all out of office.
Boycott boycott boycott! It's working already, their numbers are WAY down and so are their dollars. I don't feel for them at all the dirty bias @#$%^ anyway.
"What I find amusing is that it is unfathomable to the democrats that regular people are spontaneously out there going to townhalls without benefit of organization of payment for service"
They just can't give us credit for being able to think for ourselves. After all we need to be led by them if you believe their BS.
hahaha, I love that word, "kickassery".
He's already WORSE then carter and in a much shorter amount of time too.
ABC told me we lost "only" a quarter million jobs last month, and this was a good sign of recovery leading to the unemployment rate going down.
Is the Kool-Aid being atomized and pumped into their air conditioning ducts?
Damn I miss Ted Koppel.
Those "black boxes" let the CIA take control of planes (they are tied into the auto-pilot), and Bush ordered them to crash the jets. Notice how the one hitting the Pentagon deliberately aimed for the one newly reinforced and practically deserted section, he knew he'd need the Pentagon staff for the wars he would create. You know this is true because the FAA is always in a hurry to recover those boxes before someone discovers their secret.
I just yanked that one out, and it makes more sense than any other 9/11 conspiracy theory I have ever heard mentioned. Please, feel free to let me know if you ever heard that anywhere else.
Would be great to see this article posted on WSJ.
Good article, Andrew. I don't remember politics becoming this vicious towards any individual before GWB's time. Of course, any objections – even civil – to B.O. are met with the same viciousness.
But as the Greeks foretold Hubris always has a downfall.
Actually I found that to be an admirable trait, part of his Texas-style gentlemanly persona. Be polite, respect others even when they disagree with you, and if someone tries to hurt you or your family then you blow their freaking head off. The world would be much more civilized if lots more people had such "old fashioned" values.
Bravo Andrew. The way things are going, we may yet see a day in this country when "progressive" becomes a dirty word.
One problem, though — it looks like you double-posted this article.
Bush did not dismantle the constitution. That´s crazy talk. And it´s "right" not "rite".
They knew that an attack as symbolic as 9-11 would devastate us psychologically
Speak for yourself. They certainly did a number on you.
So the "great unwashed" have tuned in, turned on, and focused upon what this "fake moderate" is doing and have now stood up with great outrage and umbrage over the direction Obama is taking our great country…good for us. Now, lets talk about "Cap and Trade", and lets roll back this sham *stimilus* bill, and stop idiotic programs like "Cash for Clunkers" and trash this psuedo Kenyan's entire agenda.
It's obvious that "we the people" are p.o.ed about his entire agenda, Obamacare was just the proverbial "straw that broke the taxpayer's back".
It'll be fun to watch rookie Dems squirm and blink and profess "confidence" in the President…
Hey Dems, please bring up some more contentious legislation next year, then run for re-election! Ya, right!
The democrat/liberal/radical/media assassination of the Real Americans will only cease when the GOP is as intimidated of its base as the democrats are by the radicals
The assassination of conservatives and republicans will stop when an organized/centralized party of Real Americans comes forward to defeat the democrat America haters. This group must be willing to respond and attach to the America haters with absolutely no remorse or apologies for hurt feelings caused to radicals/liberals/democrats
The truth will hurt the democrats and the right must unite and attack as one and never retreat or APOLOGIZE
In other words – the GOP must recognize the present crew of liberals/radicals/democrats as an enemy of the American Way and must treat them as such. The GOP must fight with total abandon having huevos made of the stuff that WWW2 warriors (as my father and his squad) carried on D-Day to the beach and beyond.
Can the GOP do this?
Unfortunately not in its present state. Something will have to happen to force GOP to finally support as well as unite with conservatives for the good of America. But at the present, the GOP is chasing their own special interests and that does not always agree with Americas best interest.
I dont know what the tipping point will be for the unification, but the current crew of obama radicals has started the process – unfortunately there does not appear to be a current leader of suitable fortitude or gravitas to conduct operations to defeat the obama/pelosi/media radicals.
There is no doubt that the tipping point is coming and a leader will emerge. I personally can hardly wait for return of Hope for America and its freedom and liberty
HOPE AND CHANGE FOR REAL AMERICA
I think one reason that the libertarian-conservative grass roots has been more effective this time around is because the leftists have been using that Alinsky playbook for thirty years now. The ObRhamA administration marched in and deployed the same tired tactics with a, "they'll never see this coming" attitude, not realizing that there have been best selling books about their wiles like Liberal Fascism coming out for years now. So, a lot more people were ready for it this time, and have seen right through the lies, smears, and demonization. Also, popular outrage over these leftist tactics reached a tipping point this year, and the people of good will who were previously silent finally had enough of it and stood up to be heard and counted.
The icing on the cake is that in this age of YouTube, all of the two-faced leftists have been, "hung by the tongue" with their video-recorded previous statements exposing their current lies. It really is fun to watch old video of people like Howard Dean yank on about, "the huge deficits Bush ran up" and Nancy Pelosi claim that she's a, "fan of angry protestors" in the light of their current comments on those topics vis-a-vis the ObRhamA administration. Seriously, I bust a gut laughing at some of this garbage because it's so farcical now.
Leftists have become caricatures of themselves in a reality TV comedy, so I think their credibility is completely shot. I don't think they saw that coming.
Hey, hey, hey, don't sully the true Fighting Illini by using them to identify this band of scoundrels.
"They've gone from trying to spin all major GOP/conservatives figures as evil or stupid to trying to spin a large part of the public as evil or stupid, including the moderate swing voters who helped Obama get elected, but now have worried about his programs. Telling the moderates to shut up and just listen to us is not a way to cement their loyalty to Obama and his policies and the more pragmatic Democratic operatives seem to be figuring this out."
"Whom the gods would destroy they first make blind."–Euripedes
Hubris–overwhelming hubris–will be the downfall of the Dear Leader. The question is how much He will take with Him when He falls. The branding as "ignorant", "un-American", "hate-mongerers", etc., of that majority of the electorate who opposes Obama-care is only the beginning.
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2009/08/15/
I agree. Loved the Mission Accomplished sign. The Conservatives should learn to circle the wagons. It's impossible to isolate an out-spoken, honest person when thousands of supporters defend them. Many famous Repubs and Belt-way conservatives have joined the Obamabots in burning Palin at the stake.
I think it is so funny to watch them bluster and blubber now over their hero, THE ONE. we put up with irrational hatred for 8 long years, now they can't make it six months.
So the 3000 Americans who perished in an unprovoked attack wasn't enough DAMAGE for you
This is where we differ, you believe your own life is of value and I know you are a garbabge can of human waste.
I bet you want free f**king health care paid by the families who lost loved one on 9/11/2001 so you can, in return give everyone aids-ridden disease.
FFYMF
[...] George-Bush-by-proxie syndrome: The origins of manufactured “politics of personal destruction” is Saul Alinsky, the mentor of a young Hillary Rodham, who wrote her 92-page Wellesley College senior thesis on the late Chicago-based “progressive” street agitator titled, “There Is Only the Fight.” [...]
Mr. Breitbart. Your article completely disregards why there is so much hatred for Mr. Bush. It's not that Mr. Bush was born into a wealthy family, nor is it that Mr. Bush adopted a Texas persona and often mangles the English language. No, the reason Mr. Bush is hated is because he took this great country into an unnecessary war under false pretenses, killing over 4,300 Americans and between 100,000 and 500,000 Iraqis for no apparent reason. He used the 9/11 tragedy – which could have united this country and did for a time – to polarize the nation by implementing unconstitutional domestic policies discredited and made illegal as a consequence of the Church Commission investigations of the abuses of the Nixon administration over three decades ago. Additionally, Mr. Bush is hated for besmirching the good name of the United States of America by ordering people to be imprisoned and tortured in much the same way the Josef Stalin ran the Gulags of the former Soviet Union.
This is the new debate style on the Left: demonization and ridicule. Opponents of gay "marriage" for just one example are ridiculed and shamed in an organized manner. I don't think anyone would question that. The real analytical question is has it ever worked? And what can is an appropriate and effective defense? Obviously, the left can not be disuaded from stupidity without starting from birth but while lefty A is holding up B for ridicule what can B do to affect C, the average American onlooker?
The original "non-conformists" have become demanding conformists. Obama is to young to be one of these. He was raised as a totally conforming Leftist. He will always conform to the ever-changing demands of the far Left theorists who play on paper.
Andrew is spot on about Limbaugh.
They renewed their hatred of Rush Limbaugh (and all conservative radio and TV) with a vengeance. Especially considering their dog won. They wish to destroy any and all popular voices.
Don't you right wingnuts understand? No one hates George Bush, they don't agree with (or in your parlance – hate) his political decisions. If I have to list the many, many, foolish decisions he visited upon us for you, then there is no hope for this country.
We feel pity, not hate, for Bush. How could one feel any different after reading the following George Bush quotation:
"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." –George W. Bush, in parting words to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as the two leaders looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008
Glenn Beck's got the virus big time.
Did you know that Progressive and Geico have dropped commercials on Beck's show?
Through Red State blog, I was able to shoot off a letter to both companies to tell them what I thought.
It was perfect because I am shopping for home and car insurance currently and they are now off the list.
Nice touch comparing W to Stalin–that'll get us right-wingers mad!
What are these "false pretenses" you speak of–the multiple UN resolutions demanding that Saddam show he had disbanded his WMD program, which Saddam refused to do? BTW, you forgot to blame "neo-cons" (i.e. Jews) for 9-11–sloppy, sloppy.
And who were the innocent US citizens marched off to gulags to be worked to death, if they weren't summarily executed? For your stupid Bush=Stalin analogy to work, you need to show that W killed twenty million of his own citizens. All you can come up with are those poor terrorists who got water-boarded, a comparison so far-fetched I need not waste my time explaining why it doesn't work.
You lost me at "towelheads." You are nothing but an agitator.
SAHusker, I look forward to your denunciation of Barack Obama for continuing the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, for keeping Guantanamo open and for still enforcing all of Bush's domestic anti-terrorism policies.
Go ahead, I'm waiting. Or was Breitbart right about you?
You've obviously been listening to Rush, Bill and Glen rather than finding out what's really going on the world. President Obama is extricating the U.S. from the mess Mr. Bush created in Iraq. President Obama is pursuing the war we should have been focused on in the first place, since the terrorists were in Afghanistan. As for Guantanamo, President Obama plans to close this stain upon American morality by the end of the calendar year.
Wake up. Move out of your parent's basement.
Please. the Gulag? The Soviets could have only WISHED the Gulag was like Guanatamo. Do you not see that even the way you are thinking has been conditioned by the propagandists who spent year after year attacking everything Bush did? Let me ask you something: who really wins when Bush was vilified? Follow the power…
I was over in Europe the whole time, didn't hear any of the attacks on Bush–or not as many, and I came back to the US still loving my country. On the other hand, I was appalled at how divided the country had become and how much the people hated each other. That is not coincidence. That is a campaign. It worked to get Obama elected…
[...] George W. Bush-By-Proxy Syndrome [...]
I teach in a high school, so I've become rather adept at detecting liars. When you accuse the guilty, the response is always evasion. But when you accuse the innocent, the response is generally rage. This characteristic of human nature is the flaw in Alinsky's rule #12. The MSM is attempting to portray ordinary, hard-working, taxpaying Americans as astro-turfing stooges with racist motivations. The majority of Americans know better no matter how hard the media is pressing the story. You can bet Americans will take their anger to the voting booth in 2010. Alinsky loses.
If it works, and it apparently does, reply in kind.
maybe Retsyn was determined to cause cancer in lab rats?
Whatever happened to "I want you to argue with (your neighbors)… and get in their face." Barack Hussein Obama, talking to a group of supporters on 9/17/08 ???
the political equivalent of 'private profit, public losses'. kinda like fannie mae and freddie mac…
Too much of anything will cause cancer, provided it does not kill you off faster someway. Oxygen is corrosive, too much of even that is harmful. I am sure if they really worked at it, they could establish a maximum allowable intake of pet hair.
Apparently Certs still exist, the Wikipedia article is there and does not say they went away. Perhaps they lost the shelf space wars in certain stores and chains.
as i like to say, "Show me a gracious loser and I'll show you a LOSER." long past time for the gloves to come off.
You must be logged in to post a comment.