This Morning's Republican Meme

[peggysue2]

I've had the TV running in the background this morning. Three separate GOPers have claimed the stories of a Republican Civil War nonsense, that Republicans have always, always had battles & disagreements between themselves. Word for word, the message is being broadcast--nothing to see here, we're all on the same page.

Which, of course, belies the old standard: Republicans fall in line; Democrats need to be herded like stray barn cats. But the technique underscores the methodology of embedding the Big Lie: Repeat the Lie, again and again, until people accept it as fact. Republicans have that routine down pat.

I think we can safely assume the heat has been turned up on the pot of thrashing froggies. The Manafort story last night--State (non-pardonable) charges of money-laundering--is making a lot of people nervous and antsy. I read one report that there was panic on the Hill yesterday afternoon. Jeff Flake's speech on the floor of the Senate surely didn't help, an appetizer of things to come.

[gratuitous]

1. Republicans are good at message discipline

They get their daily blast fax or e-mail, and they parrot those talking points like a monks doing matins. It works, because the folks interviewing them rarely ask the secondary question or challenge the gloss.

[Orsino]

4. I would say rather that the Big Money that owns the GOP is a powerful disciplinary tool.

It can make them deny reality, and willingly contradict themselves.

Yes, we Democrats do need to be herded like cats. That's what democracy is supposed to be, and it's something that elected Republicans aren't good at...because they're not allowed to be.

[gratuitous]

5. Agree

Sadly, Republican message discipline plays right into the lazy wheelhouse of contemporary journalism. Instead of wondering why all the Republicans are saying the same thing, today's reporters simply marvel at how they're all saying the same thing, and report as such.

Democrats, on the other hand, tend to think for themselves and so different Democrats will say different things. This nuance and complicated handling of complicated issues puts the onus on reporters to synthesize a position for their write-up, and they're not very good at that whole critical thinking thing. They much prefer to be told what to think, and the Mighty Republican Wurlitzer is very good at telling the popular media what to think about everything, rather than try to figure out stuff.

[BSdetect]

2. Cable TV interviews are generally one sided blasts of GOP talking points.

Stop giving them any airtime.

[peggysue2]

3. Sorry

I disagree. I think as the opposition we need to know what the Republicans are doing/saying and put a spotlight on the continuous lying and dishonest game playing.

Ignoring it is not enough and, in fact, merely let's them get away with more lies. The right-wing has polluted enough minds. Time to fight back and refute what they're doing, bring the playbook into the sunlight.