"They" are taking something from you and giving it to "somebody else"

[gulliver]

The idea that someone is taking something from you and giving it to someone else is a big play in the Republican handbook. It's one of the keystone techniques in the Republican "sales pitch." Since it is a technique and not an argument, the information payload need not bear any resemblance to reality. It has a gut-level appeal that bypasses real thinking. "Government is taking my hard earned money and giving it to welfare cheats." Simple syntax, simple idea, sonorous, easy to remember, emotionally charged with anger, miniscule grain of truth...it is a beautifully constructed little mental virus. You can even skip the grain of truth and it will work on a lot of people.

So Romney can say Obama wants high-priced gas and to destroy Social Security, and Republicans in general can deny global warming with impunity—as long as they get the chord structure of the jingle right. It is very easy to push people's minds into gut-level mode and then just basically tell them anything you want to tell them. It's a shame, because normally, if the Republicans were not willfully lying to try to retake power, gut-level thinking can be a good, healthy thing.

In a sense, Dems need to take a page from the Republican playbook and fight fire with fire. I definitely don't mean we need to start lying, because I fervently believe the Republicans are going to get severely gigged for it in November. What I mean is that we should not forget that it is primarily the Republicans and the people who are funding them who are taking something from Americans and giving it to someone else. We can and should sometimes use the gut-level technique Republicans use except with the truth as an information payload instead of lies.

For example, if we are talking about global warming, we can talk about how Republicans and their backers are denying something that is taking the "good climate" away from some people's land and giving it to others. Republicans and their backers are standing by and even blocking action. They delay while climate change happens before their eyes, creating a devastating and permanent form of wealth redistribution.

When it comes to jobs, Dems can talk about how Republicans and their backers twist the true meaning of capitalism in order to "justify" taking away American jobs to give to other countries. Republicans parrot capitalism in the same way the Devil quotes the Bible.

When it comes to energy, we can talk about how Republicans and their energy corporation backers are selling more and more of the world's oil to other countries. We are paying more for gas because other people are using the jobs that Republicans and their backers took from Americans to buy up gas.

We can even talk specifically about the truth itself. We can talk about how the level of lies Republicans are currently using in their politics deprives Americans of their traditional sense of honor and even their ability to trust their own gut. We can talk about how a climate of trust is important, and how people should not have to be vigilant against boldface lies. Lies ruin golf, basketball games and countries.

Finally, we can even talk about the government bugaboo that Republican politicians so much want us to fear and hate. Far from taking things away from Americans, that government is actually the vital check-and-balance needed to prevent Republicans and their backers from taking away jobs, oil, and Social Security and giving the proceeds to themselves and to foreign countries.

[RobertEarl]

1. Cut and Run Republicans

The republicans claim to want to cut, cut, cut.

But when called on their BS such as when they voted to give Bush every extra dime he wanted to spend, they run and hide.

Republicans are cutting down on our freedoms, cutting out regulations on the polluters, and cutting into our savings, and run to the rich benefactors who pay to keep them in office.

Cut and Run Republicans.

[ashling]

5. Great post

Remember Jean [strike through]Schit[/strike through] Schmidt accusing Murtha of cut and run

[JHB]

2. There is no divine right to shoot money skyward as fast as possible

I want a government that works for those trying to get ahead, not for those who already are.

Wealth and power tend to concentrate as sure as shit flows downhill, and for the same reason: those higher up have more leverage to push around those farther down.

Money is power. The American way of dealing with too much power in too few hands is to break it up: separation of powers, put in checks and balances, bust up the trusts. That what was done agaisnt the power of the King's government during the revolution, and agaist the big corporations and business interests during the trust-busting era.

How are those for talking points?

[Lint Head]

3. Just like the Trinity Broadcast Network.

[wandy]

4. I mean no offence. Actuley were I a republican it would be a complement.

Reading you're post; well you're logic is so twisted that Karl Rove would have been proud to have written it.
Take some simple easy to remember jingel; throw in some 'their getting it and I'm not' ; add a little holer than thou and their you have it.
Rick Santorum.
Oh, did I type that. Will my keyboard forgive me?
You are spot on!

[gulliver]

6. I'm glad you're not offended, but...

I would certainly hope a Republican would not take my post as a compliment. They aren't all complete idiots. I think some are just normal people who stick with their party mainly because that is the party they and their friends have always been in. Couple that with the fact that most people don't have time in their lives to research issues and there you have it, perfectly good people associating themselves with a core philosophy that a monkey would be ashamed of.

I was almost offended by your calling my logic twisted and comparing it to the "work" of Karl Rove. I actually don't intentionally lie like the ethically damaged Mr. Rove and his many imitators on the right. I hope you will explain what it is about what I am saying that you find twisted or untrue. The great thing about attacking Republicanism is that the truth is so lopsidedly on the side of the attacker.

Rove is funny and emblematic of the Republican predicament I am trying to highlight. Republicans find themselves needing to resort to ever more serious and self-damning lies, and Mr. Rove is a key figure in that. When Republicans begin to see how low they have brought themselves, they are not going to be happy with Mr. Rove,

[Aerows]

7. Use Firefox

It has a spell checker. Or use Chrome. If you can't install those on the computer you use, install a portable version on a flash stick. If you can't use a flash stick due to public policy on your computer, learn how to create a local account. If you can't do that, repeatedly crash your computer so that IT gets so pissed at you that they let you bypass AD policy

[libtodeath]

8. Government should exist to insure fairness and equity

that was what the founders wanted.

[gulliver]

9. Well I would say fairness and prosperity...and throw in freedom.

That's why Republicanism has become such an insult to the founding fathers' vision. Republicanism runs counter to Americanism.

Take the idea that Americans are supposed to basically beg corporations and the wealthy for jobs. We have to let corporations have their way with our country, according to the Republicans. If we don't let ourselves be pushed around like servants, we would be depriving others of their freedom to push us around.

It's really sad. America, whose founding fathers created an unequaled democratic engine of prosperity, is told that it has to surrender the wheel to corporations and people with money. The Republicans, in short, want to give up freedom and autonomy. They are afraid to play the strong hand with business power that our government was designed to give us all. Republicans are all about giving in.

[Stan Smith]

10. That is so right.

Our founders intention was for government to serve to the people. They even said that the general welfare should be promoted, the right wingers always miss that line. What better way to promote the general welfare than to make sure everyone is taken care of?
The rich have so much money they can't possibly spend it all, so instead of allowing them to hoard it all, some of it can be used to help out their fellow citizens. It is time we had economic fairness in this country.