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kerry-is-my-prez

(10,281 posts)
Sat May 31, 2025, 07:05 PM May 2025

How the Republicans started "winning": Propaganda and Newt Gingrich.

This took many years for the Republicans to get this to work. It was perfected when Fox News and Rupert Murdoch and Roger Aiiles came along:

Republican propaganda leaflet. How Dems can fight back.
This document, a working paper from GOPAC, Newt Gingrich's political action committee, was circulated to freshman Republican members of the 104th Congress in 1995. 

-snip-

In the video "We are a Majority," Language is listed as a key mechanism of control used by a majority party, along with Agenda, Rules, Attitude and Learning. As the tapes have been used at intraining sessions across the country and mailed to candidates we have heard a plaintive plea: "I wish I could speak like Newt.”That takes years of practice. But, we believe that you could have a significant impact on your campaign and the way you communicate if we help a little. That is why we have created this list of words and phrases.


https://users.wfu.edu/zulick/454/gopac.html

 If you are already aware of the document “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control”, then you have a head start today. You already know how important the document was for GOP messaging in the 1990s and how well it worked.

As we continue with the basic messaging concept that “your enemy will teach you how to defeat him,” this means you also understand why we must revise this document for Democratic purposes in 2022 and beyond.



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/11/29/2066545/-Messaging-Monday-Language-a-Key-Mechanism-of-Control-updated-for-2022

The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare

When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump “is not an outlier; he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party.” In Burning Down the House, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our country was set on a path toward an era of bitterly partisan and ruthless politics, an era that was ignited by Newt Gingrich and his allies. In 1989, Gingrich brought down Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright and catapulted himself into the national spotlight. Perhaps more than any other politician, Gingrich introduced the rhetoric and tactics that have shaped Congress and the Republican Party for the last three decades. Elected to Congress in 1978, Gingrich quickly became one of the most powerful figures in America not through innovative ideas or charisma, but through a calculated campaign of attacks against political opponents, casting himself as a savior in a fight of good versus evil. Taking office in the post-Watergate era, he weaponized the good government reforms newly introduced to fight corruption, wielding the rules in ways that shocked the legislators who had created them. His crusade against Democrats culminated in the plot to destroy the political career of Speaker Wright.

While some of Gingrich’s fellow Republicans were disturbed by the viciousness of his attacks, party leaders enjoyed his successes so much that they did little collectively to stand in his way. Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him. It didn’t seem to matter that Gingrich’s moral conservatism was hypocritical or that his methods were brazen, his accusations of corruption permanently tarnished his opponents. This brand of warfare worked, not as a strategy for governance but as a path to power, and what Gingrich planted, his fellow Republicans reaped. He led them to their first majority in Congress in decades, and his legacy extends far beyond his tenure in office. From the Contract with America to the rise of the Tea Party and the Trump presidential campaign, his fingerprints can be seen throughout some of the most divisive episodes in contemporary American politics. Burning Down the House presents the alarming narrative of how Gingrich and his allies created a new normal in Washington.
https://history.princeton.edu/about/publications/burning-down-house-newt-gingrich-fall-speaker-and-rise-new-republican-party

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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How the Republicans started "winning": Propaganda and Newt Gingrich. (Original Post) kerry-is-my-prez May 2025 OP
He Crafted an American Culture JustAnotherGen May 2025 #1
Significant post. History. Spot on. cachukis May 2025 #2
The first link goes to a 404. House of Roberts May 2025 #3
They capitalized on racism and other divisive poisons. usonian May 2025 #4
K&R n/t ms liberty May 2025 #5
And Rush Starbeach May 2025 #6
Remember the old saying: Paladin May 2025 #7
Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him BlueTsunami2018 May 2025 #8

JustAnotherGen

(38,054 posts)
1. He Crafted an American Culture
Sat May 31, 2025, 07:21 PM
May 2025

That has,now taken over our land.

Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him. It didn’t seem to matter that Gingrich’s moral conservatism was hypocritical or that his methods were brazen, his accusations of corruption permanently tarnished his opponents. This brand of warfare worked, not as a strategy for governance but as a path to power


And nailing this: but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him

We have too many rank and file on the left that want to stick their heads in the sand, and pretend that policies matter.

They don't to maga Repubs. My first vote was in 1992. They've been shit asses since 1994.

cachukis

(3,934 posts)
2. Significant post. History. Spot on.
Sat May 31, 2025, 07:25 PM
May 2025

The method worked.
We are not generally manipulated as a whole. Factions yes.
Can we get lined up?
They are at a war we've thought anti American.
We are twenty/thirty years behind.
By the time we catch up they will be running the next step.
We missed growing the youth.
Grow the youth. Everything else will come along.

House of Roberts

(6,525 posts)
3. The first link goes to a 404.
Sat May 31, 2025, 08:54 PM
May 2025

On neither of the other two, is Frank Luntz even mentioned. Credibility is weakened without chronicling his vast contributions, election after election, which is what made Newt Gingrich the ratfucker-to-be in the 1980s and 1990s.

usonian

(25,314 posts)
4. They capitalized on racism and other divisive poisons.
Sat May 31, 2025, 08:57 PM
May 2025

Like so.



Ever since the Lee Atwater "Southern Strategy"

Did we counter racism? Only in practice, but there is no ongoing liberal presence in media to counter the hate machine.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20346651

In between elections, the DNC hibernates as if it's not their job to drive home the positive message. Hate and lies go unchallenged. And at a critical time for the party and democracy itself, they are playing musical chairs.

Admins, I am criticizing behaviors, not people because I don't know them, a testimony to their invisibility.

And they enabled, through their lack of defense of Joe Biden against snipers, and their lack of timely advice, the worst case for him. Their still not fighting the lie machine.

I listen to a lot of opera and know a powerful voice when I hear one. Someone needs to blast the whiney winers.

In between elections, seeds of truth are planted. Or the opposite.

Right now, the progressive wing, so ostracized by mainstream money grubbers, is the only group raising hell.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1324&pid=3320

That may change with the June 14 Tienamen Show, but slerping dogs only win photo contests, not majorities and offices.

Can't have a party that only shown signs of life every two years. The Party of Putin never sleeps.

Must be the amphetamines.

Starbeach

(345 posts)
6. And Rush
Sat May 31, 2025, 09:19 PM
May 2025

Limbaugh had endless hours on radio to hurl his ugly, hostile taunts and smears of the Democrats.

 

Paladin

(32,354 posts)
7. Remember the old saying:
Sat May 31, 2025, 09:24 PM
May 2025

Newt Gingrich is what stupid people think a smart person sounds like.

Heard that years ago; it's as true now as it ever was.

BlueTsunami2018

(4,988 posts)
8. Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him
Sat May 31, 2025, 09:56 PM
May 2025

Says it all right there.

Our guys weren’t even playing the same game. Hell, they weren’t even on the same field.

I’m sorry to sound like a broken record but the Republicans just wanted it more. That’s why they won.

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