Republican Party's 2010 fundraising strategy: fear

[steven johnson]

Hey, appealing to fear worked for Bush. I guess the GOP is reverting to type.

Leaked document gives look into way RNC thinks of its donors; what's revealed isn't pretty

By Alex Koppelman
It hasn't been terribly hard to divine the Republicans' strategy for motivating their base this year -- they've made it pretty clear, after all. It's fear. Fear of President Obama, fear of change, fear of some giant socialist revolution, of death panels, of government bureaucrats and liberals and anything else that might pop up. Still, you wouldn't expect the Republican National Committee to come right out and admit to that.

That's exactly what RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart did, however, as part of a presentation he gave to donors and fundraisers last month. The presentation, obtained by Politico's Ben Smith, includes several slides that portray the GOP's own supporters in a very negative light, giving the impression that the RNC believes its donors are stupid, and that it plans to treat them that way.

One of the slides (three can be seen below; the full presentation is available for download in PDF form here) divides donors into two groups -- major donors and smaller ones who are reached through direct marketing efforts. The latter group, the slide says, gives for visceral reasons: "Fear" and "Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration" are listed. The slide also tags this group with a term usually used in an less-than-flattering sense: "Reactionary." The major donors don't fare much better; they give, the slide says, for "Networking Opportunities" and "Access" and they're "Ego-Driven."

Another slide sums up the message this way: "What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House or the Senate ...? Save the country from trending toward Socialism!"



Republican Party's 2010 fundraising strategy: fear

[FBaggins]

1. Why waste bandwidth

by typing "2010" for something that is a bedrock, ongoing strategy?

[Andy823]

3. Yep.

I't pretty much all they have to run on! They are good at working up the fear in old people, undereducated people and people who are just plain gullible to begin with! I know some very smart people when it comes to business, and most other things in life, but when it comes to listening to Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck, they let all their intelligence go right out the wind! They listen to these morons daily and buy into every fear tactic they come up with. They are just plain gullible when it comes to the right wing fear and smear machine!

It's a lot like some religions. If you can scare the crap out of your followers, convince them you are the only source for salvation, they will follow you, and believe everything you say, no matter what the facts say, or not matter how insane their ideas really are!

[DrDan]

2. unchanged for more than a decade . . .

[CanonRay]

4. 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986.....

One time more, same as before.

[DarrinBridges]

5. Support a local candidate

Fear mongering is horrible at all levels. We need to purge that from politics.

I'm supporting a local candidate for Mayor in Cumberland, MD. He is progressive and embodies all of the kinds of things that we really need in our community. Can anybody help with an idea of how to raise some funds to help him run? He has a website that lets you donate online at http://electbriangrim.com/contribute.htm but I was thinking if there was a way to get a bunch of people to just donate like $10.00 it would be really helpful.