So how did the republicans develop a powerful grassroots organization

[Juche]

The GOP didn't manage to control dialogue in this country (government is bad, taxes are bad, militarism is good, etc) or manage to stand for issues that only 20% of the public support (but still win elections) by accident. So I'm wondering what the history is of movement conservatism and how it managed to build into such a powerful force despite being so undemocratic and unpopular in its issue stances (abolishing medicare and social security, no abortions ever, tax cuts on the rich, endless wars, etc).

I would assume dialogue is part of it, being able to frame your opinions in such a way that they convey the values and morals people agree with while supporting your agenda. George Lakoff, Paul Waldman and Thom Hartmann are good at this. In fact Lakoff said back in 2004 (that time period) that Obama was really gifted at this, and Howard Dean is a huge fan of Lakoff's work. Now Obama is the president and Dean was chair of the DNC and is now in a leadership role in grassroots orgs. Ronald Reagan was a great communicator for movement conservative values (independence, self reliance, reciprocation) but Obama is a great communicator for progressive values (community, justice, fairness). I think Michael Moore did a great job with Sicko of promoting progressive values (justice, fairness, etc) in support of progressive agendas (HR676).

Then there are media outlets to get our message across. MSNBC has veered left lately, but now with the internet there is an efficient way to disseminate talking points, arguments and rebuttals. Media matters, message forums, updates via email or text message. They can ensure there are millions of progressive who can disable right wing talking points and promote left wing talking points and explanations for policy issues out there whenever they come up at work or at home in discussions with others.

Then there are grassroots orgs like moveon, DFA, cfc, etc. that encourage members to volunteer, spread the word. The movement conservatives had evangelical christians to do the gruntwork, progressives have the netroots and unions.

Boycotts seem to work to hold movement conservatives who cross the line to account. Media matters gives you a list of who to call to complain after they put up a video or audio file. So that can be used to encourage a more moderate media. The right wing does the same thing, claiming the media is 'liberal' and boycotting them.

Primaries from the left would also intimidate politicians to move to the left. Running ads in their home districts and primaries are useful. I once heard that several republicans wanted to vote for the stimulus but didn't because they feared a primary from the right. So using primaries from the left is a powerful tool.

Ties with wealthy organizations also is important. Labor unions, wealthy liberals and the netroots can do what corporations and wealthy conservatives did for the movement conservatives, and fund the movement.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone knows how the movement conservatives went from being a fringe group in American politics to a powerful political force, what all factors played a role int his and how the progressives can model that method to do the same. Progressives, unlike movement conservatives, are generally pro democracy and hold views that hte majority of americans agree with. So it should be easier in some ways.

It seems there are probably dozens of small things (disseminating opinions to the grassroots, effective communicators in politics and the media to frame issues, good funding, primaries, boycotts, grassroots volunteers, etc) that can all play a role in shifting the attitudes and politics of a country. Has anyone outlined them all and explained how movement conservatives and progressives can use them to be effective at promoting their goals? If so, if anyone has the name of a book like that I'd love to read it.

[grantcart]

1. It was largely based on co-opting large networks of independent conservative churches

[Turbineguy]

2. Which are tax payer subsidized.

They must have gotten the idea from Felix Dzerzhinsky. He had his entire secret service operation paid for by the enemies of the Bolsheviks.

[Juche]

4. That is part of it

But sadly we live in a country where many people probably believe private is better than public, or that low taxes are always a good thing. That can't be explained solely by coopting churches. You have to know how to influence people with your message, and have top down and bottom up ways to spread that message to get the majority of the public to agree with you on an issue like that.

[cliffordu]

8. And that started in the '50's when the churches started sponsoring HUGE

blocks of time in small local radio markets so's the born again preachers could shill all night long...The born again necons tapped into this with the godless liberal media pushback, and then the Moral Majority....leading to the talk radio sewer system we have today.

The innernets changed all that for ONE election cycle but the televangelists and the corporate "grass roots' dittoheads are adapting quickly.,

[patrice]

12. Fellowship & focus groups inside churches without any form of balanced moderation.

I ran into the fringes of it several times when door-knocking and phone banking for Kerry.

There were observers in this area who used to go to some of the most popular churches and listen to sermons on "the issues" - abortion mostly - in which the visuals were manipulatables representing the various candidates though the verbal content topic was ostensibly about stuff like "family values"

[H2O Man]

31. It was accomplished

long, long ago. And it was done by focusing organization from the local level up. It's like a school that has a high school coach who oversees the JV and lower football teams, and has their coaching staff teach the same plays, from elementary school up through high school.

My father always used to say that you can always count on the republican party to get their people out. And he was right about that.

[conscious evolution]

32. The civil rights movement

was the blueprint.
The right realized how effective it was to use the church's from Dr.King and the others and co-opted the idea for themselves.
The takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention during the late seventies-early eighties was part of the strategy.

[opihimoimoi]

3. They found a way to easily FOOL People

[notesdev]

5. Actually they didn't

The GOP as a party did its damn best to kill off its grassroots; they may call themselves "republican" but what they really are are "aristocratic". The grassroots that you see is trying to overthrow the party leadership. It built itself out of necessity, having no other outlet for its desires. By trying to bottle it up, the leadership inadvertently helped to concentrate it.

Here's video of how one of the most conservative Reps. in the GOP got received earlier this year by a conservative crowd in South Carolina:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJQVNXfKujc

[Yupster]

14. Agree notesdev

I think this anger is not to the Republicans' benefit as I see their grassroots as being as angry at them as they are at us.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Republican reps die in the primaries this year.

[baldguy]

6. There is no powerful Republican grassroots organizzation.

What they DO have is a large, stupid herd of sheep - with a few dogs at the fringes to keep them afraid & move them in the desired direction. It's all done with plenty of corporate money & plenty of RW propaganda. There's nothing "grassroots" about it.

[TxRider]

7. The same way everyone does.

You just tell a bunch of angry people where to go to protest and make a difference.

If there are enough angry people they will show, if not they won't.

[no bad days]

15. Nailed it........

Amazing some one here thinking logically. We have to face the fact that the country is divided about 50/50 and that when we win we can expect the other 50% to be pissed off and vice versa. We need not get caught up in the rights bull$h!t. Until someone comes up with a better system this is what we have to deal with.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

22. Way to roll over and play dead. (n/t)

[WorseBeforeBetter]

23. Simplistic. (n/t)

[TxRider]

34. But true

You can't go out and say your going to cut half a trillion from medicare without details and not expect seniors to get a bit worried.

You can't propose public funded health care expansion without bringing out right wingers and libertarians in protest.

And you can't ram deficit raising bills through like that have been without angering deficit hawks.

And that's who we are seeing angry out there.

All they needed was someone to say "here's where to go to complain".


It's our responsibility to explain the cuts to seniors, explain the health cost curve and deficit issues to the deficit hawks. The right wingers who will never agree with any publicly funded health care just make distracting noise, forget about them and deliver a better message to the rest.

[redqueen]

36. Not quite... you're ignoring the M$M's role... and their part is HUGE. (nt)

[WorseBeforeBetter]

37. I'm addressing the broader question posed by the OP...

read the book in #21. None of this is spontaneous, and it's been building for decades. Any "movement" is well-funded by individuals and organizations with VERY deep pockets.

[msongs]

9. republicans like to win at all costs and dems like to be bipartisan? nt

[obliviously]

11. I'm not sure it is that simple!

[unpossibles]

10. The way I saw it...

Step One: They took the dated idea of States' Rights and updated it with some American mythology, as delivered to us by Reagan. They played into the idea that we are a nation of rugged individuals who are strong and don't need help from others, the corollary of which is that anyone who does need help is weak and it's their own fault.

Step Two: They used this myth to demonize the left and increase the distrust of authority (the government) and more importantly, information (the media, schools, entertainers, intelligent people, readers, and other havens of liberal thought). If people distrust the government and the media then they are ripe for misinformation and propaganda and will ignore any evidence to the contrary of their worldview as being biased and untrue.

Step Three: They market their propaganda as the only trustable information in town - 'fair and balanced', etc. - and their radio pundits as voices of the 'regular joe' despite them being members of the wealthy elite they rail against. Sick of the biased media that we told you about? Come on in and check out our new option which is not biased at all!™®

This, combined with the human nature to share 'important information' among your friends, means that they have a whole class of people who will refuse to believe the truth and who believe the lies that they're daily told. Some of this is genuine grass roots, and some of it is manufactured, but even the genuine article is grass which is malnourished on junk information. I think this is their strength and our hurdle; no matter how much energy we put into educating people on a subject, they will undo that work with a well placed plum from one of their celebrity hacks, like Sarah Palin. She trots out the Death Panel garbage, and her followers grab it and run with it. Debunking does little good, sadly.

The problem is, we're incapable of doing the same thing; or rather if we did, I would not want any part of it. Almost every liberal I know encourages people to look up things and to dig into the backgrounds of stories, to learn more, etc. Sure, we're wrong about things sometimes (we're only human), but we generally would prefer an honest dialog, whereas the movement conservatives seem to be more interested in winning. We still want to win, obviously, but with more regard for fact-based reality it seems.

[nevergiveup]

13. After 9/11 the Republicans learned how to manipulate the politics of fear

and have become experts at exploiting one of man's most powerful emotions. In the last few weeks that have taken a public that was in favor of universal health care and with the help of a more and more conservative media have scared the shit out of the middle class, working class and the elderly. Obama trounced McCain because he was an exceptionally charismatic candidate who was able to capitalize on an absolutely dismal economy. Now it is Obama's economy and the Republicans are back in business at what they do best. This is how I see it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. They didn't, what seems like grassroots is fully financed

and supported by powerful people on the right with lots of money

The so called grassroots include things like 60+ that are not truly grassroots, places like Heritage that provide the talking points and families like the Coors family, that have provided the money. Add to that RW churches. mix well, and you have this "grassroots" movement, with newspapers et al.

In the process they have also bought media and co opted it.

The project started back in 1964 and has been just relentless... in the modern form.

But the war against the people of the US started in 1935... and the early attempts are both an unsuccesful coup, and the Family, as well as local financing of RW papers...

[Juche]

24. There are powerful people on the left who do the same thing

The left is funded in part by labor unions and wealthy liberals like the ones in the democracy alliance. So individuals and groups with deep pockets can go both ways.

However it seems there are certain things they did successfully.

Funded think tanks to create effective talking points and conservative values.
Developed top down and bottom up methods of distributing them.
manages to move politicians to the right, in part by using primary threats but probably by various other methods
Promoted GoTV efforts
Intimidated the media via boycotts and complaints into becoming more right wing.


Why are so many republicans in politics deeply conservative while so many democrats are not progressive? I think we need more primaries from the left to force dems to become more progressive. Things like that are what I'm interested in.

I wonder what role Roe V Wade played in it? Was that the event that caused the christian evangelicals to start volunteering to take over the country? I also wonder what role rejecting the hippie movement played in the rise of movement conservatism.

Also, right wing populism is real. Yeah, they are being led around by rich interests who don't give a damn about them, but there are large numbers of americans (maybe 20%) who are authoritarian in personality, which means they fear change and ambiguity deeply. These are the same people carrying guns to intimidate politicians out of supporting minor changes in health care system.

I think you guys are writing off the movement conservatives too easily. They managed to take deeply unpopular political issues and get elected to major office on them. Ending the estate tax and abolishing medicare? Most Americans are opposed to it, but the GOP still controls roughly half the country.

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Our think tanks are recent compared to the Right

We have not bought media right and left, this was part of the Right Wing project... and the movement conservatives are real, but they came AFTER all the organization was put in-place between 1962 and 1974.

As to Roe v Wade, it was and has been used as an organizational principle but I doubt they ever truly mean to repeal it.

[readmoreoften]

17. They're the ones with the money. The OWNING class.

The church has historically worked for the ruling class (with some exceptions.) The more things change...

[tjwash]

18. Republi-con astroturf movements are about as real as the freemasons being a secret society are.

There were 10 specials on TV the other day about the "secret societies of the freemasons." Yeah...real big fucking secret ya got going on there perfesser :eyes:

Likewise...there were a shitload of commercials during them, that were bought and paid for by the insurance companies that were telling people to "get on-board the grassroots movement against socialist health care" crap...complete with multiple websites, 800 numbers, you name it. The insurance companies must be dumping at least hundred million into this shit. They stand to lose billions if they even have laws enacted telling them that they can't screw people on pre-existing conditions anymore.

[GreenTea]

19. Hatred of a black man as president-funded hugely by millions of insurance dollars-Hardly grassroots

These people don't know what the fuck is going on....they are told what to do & what to say by Fox news republican talk radio,(corporate media) republican protest guideslines, backed by the insurance corporations hundreds of millions of dollars based on hate lies & greed.

I certainly wouldn't define it as grassroots that's television telling you this shit...Don't be a robot like the idiot uninformed teabaggers, birthers, government haters, health care haters., racist, etc...

With enough money and hate and playing to idiots I could start a "grassroots" to say or do anything, there's plenty of uneducated morons & sheep out there...Now you see why republicans love and keep trying more to keep Americans dumb...play on their stupid-ness & emotions threatened by everything especially minorities and to top it off they are taught & believe they are better than minorities...

[Juche]

25. You're missing the point

Yes, there are alot of right wing authoritarians who are terrified of change and ambiguity, who are having those fears stoked by corporate interests to turn them into useful idiots. I'm not denying that.

That doesn't change or explain the fact that the GOP went from being a libertarian party to a party of right wing authoritarians in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It also doesn't change the fact that many americans seem to spew right wing talking points about government or taxes rather than left wing talking points on those issues. Nor does it change the fact that the democrats tried to respond to the success of movement conservatives by moving to the right (the DLC for example).

[ProudDad]

27. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

as the man said, follow the money...

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Billions of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

to create bullshit "think tanks" and huge right-wing spin machines and newspapers and TV networks and buy congresscritters

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

and more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

That's how you sell the big lie...

You buy most of the media, scare the shit out of the rest and lie, lie, lie...

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ the answer to your question....

My question, "Where are the liberal $$$$$?"

[TexasObserver]

20. These are the same nuts that the GOP has every year.

These are the hardcore, right wing, racist Palinites who showed up and showed their asses last year.

They're the same people who championed George Wallace 40 years ago. Just older.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

21. Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America Into a One-party State

It's carefully orchestrated and funded by very deep pockets.

http://www.prwatch.org/books/bananas.html

[ProudDad]

26. $$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$

and a few more

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And more corporate $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

for their right-wing lie and spin machine...

[RandomKoolzip]

28. David Brock's essential - but now almost forgotten - book "the Republican Noise Machine" tells

the tale in much finer detail than any post on DU ever could. Go read it if you haven't.

[Juche]

35. Thanks

Any book that discusses the funding of think tanks, the takeover of the media, takeover of the GOP, etc is what I"m looking for.

Reading the synopsis on amazon, apparently the movement conservatives stole their methods from communist subversion techniques. Cool.

[Hello_Kitty]

29. It happens at the local level. But it's driven by national organizations.

I got active in local politics a few years ago and got a good education on the way that national conservative organizations wield their power. I started noticing how candidates for school board, city council, corporation commission (utility board here in AZ), and a host of other local races are being vetted by religious groups and think tanks in DC. An independent voter in my district told me that he got phone calls from the Club for Growth regarding a GOP state legislative primary race. The calls were from Virginia. Why would people in VA care about an AZ election? Well, it's because what they can't accomplish in Congress they may be able to in state capitals all over the country. They can attack environmental regulations and worker protections, because of limitations placed on Federal power. They can impose a radical reactionary social agenda on individual states, whereas it would be harder to do it in Congress, because people are more apt to pay attention to what's going on there. With local and state races, they are taking advantage of a far lower voter turnout, and can skew the direction of policy, as well as grooming a "farm team" for higher offices. Case in point: Michelle Bachmann came from the MN State Legislature. She would not be where she is today had major conservative organizations not taken an interest in promoting her. Same goes with ballot initiatives. They are an easy way for conservatives to get the base out or push a certain policy agenda.

[zbdent]

30. convincing preacher/ministers to lie to their flocks ...

I mean, if your preacher says something, it has to be true, right? Even the "religious leaders" can drool over $$$ ...

[DU GrovelBot]

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