Reply #5: The "voter fraud" scam was a Rovian backflip PR maneuver to blacken the

[Peace Patriot]

phrase "election fraud" before it was on everybody's lips and minds as a Republican crime. He knew what their plans were. He drew them up. He knew "election fraud" charges would be made. Creating the phrase "voter fraud" taints "election fraud" with a vaguely false or conspiratorial meaning because "voter fraud" was false. And in that case, he went further, and pressured US Attorneys to bring cases of "voter fraud" for which there was no evidence, or very little evidence--just to get the phrase out there, and to give it a disreputable ambience. To pollute the news narrative with false phrases is a Rovian signature. He did the same thing with Bush's AWOL from National Guard service. He succeeded in tainting Kerry's medaled and honorable service, so that "service" would have a blackened and confused connotation. In the GA Senate election in '02, he put ads on TV smearing Max Cleland as a friend of Osama bin Laden--Max Cleland, a paraplegic who left three limbs in Vietnam. That is the more classic technique--assessing your opponents strength (that Cleland was a wounded vet, who risked his life in war and was permanently disabled by it), and to preemptively attack on that very issue--patriotism--with lies and confusing allegations. But I mean a slightly different kind of putrid, cowardly, deceitful propaganda that twists the meaning of words before words can catch up with your crimes. It applies to the Cleland smear in the sense that the Bush Junta doesn't give crap about "terrorism" except to use it to make ungodly profits and gain more power; they were grossly negligent if not complicit in 9/11, and the Bush Cartel had a long friendship with bin Laden and funded Al Queda in the '80s; they never intended to catch him and quickly turned their attention to stealing Iraq's oil by horrendous violence. In sum, the Bush Junta are "terrorists." And so, Rove calls Cleland a friend of "terrorists"--something that could not be more untrue.

Another example is the Rovian phony "illegal immigrant" issue--another issue they were pushing on US Attorneys. The people who don't belong there, who are unamerican, and who are worthless leeches on us all--are the Bushites. Not hard-working immigrants who actually contribute something and believe in the American Dream. It is the Bushites who are stealing us blind, and brutalizing people--torturing prisoners--killing masses of innocent people. They are vile scum. The "illegal immigrants" are actually quite virtuous, and very often have strong family values and many admirable qualities. Rove deflects the vileness of the Bushites, and their illegitimacy, by preemptively scapegoating another group as somehow bad and illegitimate.

It's the Puritan preacher man, fulminating about "sin" from the pulpit, who is a secret lecher. The sermons are flak, meant to cover up his sexual activity or his sex crimes.

But with Rove it's more than hypocrisy. It's a conscious strategy of mind-boggling reversals and preemptions, intended to change the meanings of words, and spread confusion. Voter fraud. Election fraud. Bush as 'Christian' is another one. Could there be anyone more un-Christian than Bush, a billionaire who can't get enough money for himself and his buds, who told an audience of fatcats that he liked being there "with the haves and have-mores," who tortures and slaughters people for profit, with no sign of remorse, who lusts after more and more power? He is the exact opposite a Christian. Jesus lived with the poor, preferred the company of the poor, and preached generosity, love and non-violence. Rove has succeeded in changing the meaning of the world "Christian." It has begun to mean wingnut and bloodthirsty Crusader. Bushites cheat, steal, lie, and kill, and this has always been their program. Ergo, Rove set out to associate it with Christianity, which, in its modern form, has become humanistic and ecumenical--a great achievement of the Christian religions. I was just reading about a Catholic nun, advocate of the poor and protector of the forest, in the Amazon in Brazil. She was just shot dead by a rightwing hit squad. That, to me, is a Christian--someone with love in her heart, who puts herself at risk for others. Rove tried to coopt that kind of halo for the purpose of stealing from the poor and killing them.

The Bushites are a stewpot of sexual licentiousness. Rove knows this (they are spying on everybody). So what does he do? He makes gay marriage an issue, to make the Bushites look virtuous and to preempt any disclosures of their low sexual morals. The irony is that gay marriage is an indicator of faithfulness, or real loyalty and commitment. But Rove knows well how to twist things around into their opposite meanings, and, what is more, how to get those opposite meanings, out there, in the news stream and in the public consciousness. The Bush regime is the most immoral government we have ever had--taking all their crimes together. But who is immoral--in their perverted PR game? Faithful, committed, truly loving gay couples.

Voter fraud. Election fraud. How many people are now confused about which is which? One is virtually non-existent. The other was a fascist coup, and the worst political crime in our history.