Why talk about being "Stabbed in the Back" is Ominous

[el_bryanto]

I'm familiar with the term in regards to the interwar period (between World Wars 1 and 2). German propaganda during the war had convinced a significant number of soldiers that they were winning; that they were close to defeating the Allies. Instead, of course, they were losing and then they lost. But the cognitive dissonance of being told over and over again that they were winning, and then losing, caused them to believe that the civil authorities back home and the central command had stabbed them in the back. The Germans would have won WW2 if only the people back home hadn't chickened out (essentially).

Now we are seeing the term show up in Right Wing discourse (or at least left wing discussion of Right Wing Discourse --> Stabbed In The Back at Talking Points memo for example), and it's pretty apt. Republicans clearly believe that they have been betrayed, that they could have one if they had just held firm.

"The fact of the matter is, a majority of people in this country have been dissatisfied for a number of years about the way the country is going, and you know and I know that the people in this country who are dissatisfied with the way it's going are not dissatisfied with the Tea Party. They are not dissatisfied with Ted Cruz or Mike Lee. They are the only opposition to what's been going on.

I was trying to think earlier today, if ever in my life I could remember any major political party being so irrelevant. I have never seen it." - Rush Limbaugh

That is where their head is at; they are winning the American people - the American people are with them, but for some reason their plans aren't coming to fruition. And what's that reason? They are being stabbed in the back by the Republican Party leadership (and the media of course). And if all your media comes from right wing sources, how would you know any different? Even the few facts that trickle in from the mainstream media can be discounted as being biased.

Of course we know where the stabbed in the back meme lead in Germany; it was an organizing principal behind Hitlers appeal. He told them who had stabbed them in the back. He told them how they had failed to win the war they were clearly winning. Now I'm not saying that the Tea Partiers are a group of brown-shirts waiting to happen (there's a lot of other differences between the movement and Nazism, including demographics and economics (check out this interview at Salon which I think has a lot of good insights)). What I am saying is that we have a percentage of the people open to extreme political solutions (of which the shutdown/debt ceiling crisis was simply an example).

And that's a little frightening.

Of course the most likely scenario is that they try to primary Republicans in a number of elections, and either succeed or (more likely) fail. They could also form a third party (unlikely but it would be lovely if they could). So in reality I'm not that frightened.

Bryant

[cheyanne]

1. Stabbed in the back phrase is part of the "ideological purity" phase of an extremist group.

It's also known as eating your own.

When the group has been defeated over and over again, then their conspiracy theory is no longer enough to explain why they can't win. That's when they start to blame their own members. The group should get smaller as it loses adherents who are tired of losing and the members expelled for ideological purity. The hard core that is left is more extreme and more delusional.

[el_bryanto]

3. That's true - but if the leaders of the Tea Party can successfully scapegoat someone

outside the party - like the media - they can forstall that step a long time.

Bryant

[bemildred]

2. Yes, it is the Yawp of the cornered loon. nt

[kydo]

4. It's not just little frightening. It's extermly frightening.

That's why when people ask "What's wrong with that person or party or America?" My answer two words and two sentence.

Fox News. It is because most if not all right-wing news outlets are not news outlets, they are opinions with entertainment designed to make money. When all your news is slanted one way and you are surrounded by people exactly like you it's hard to believe anything from outside your bubble.

My solution is always the same. Turn off Fox News for 90 days and read the newspaper instead.

Honestly I do not know how people can even watch that channel. My head hurts after the first 30 seconds and I can only tolerate it 5 minutes at a time.

[LibertyLover]

5. I agree with you, but would like

to mention that on June 10, 1940, FDR used the phrase to describe Italy's declaration of war on France. He was to deliver a speech at his son's graduation from law school - UVA or William and Mary, I honestly can't remember which - and when he learned that morning about the declaration he had his speechwriters add language that castigated Mussolini for the action.

[QC]

6. dolchstoßlegende

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth

Great article on this in Harper's back in 2006, but unfortunately it is only available to subscribers now.