[img]583|left|||no_popup[/img]Watching the Republican debates the other night, I was astounded by how many people were applauding proposed policies that would cut their throats.
During the debates, I watched people whose lives are dependent on Social Security applauding enthusiastically in support of the views of Rick Perry, Republican governor of Texas, a man who is on record as saying he believes Social Security is unconstitutional.
How do politicians get people to vote against their own interests?
A classic example may be found in how the Republican Party manipulated the American people during the 1960s. When you consider how methodically conservatives mounted their assault on the liberal agenda, you recognize that it was genius.
Ironically, the conservatives took the Democratic Party's strength and made it a political liability. First they took the party's penchant for being concerned with the plight of the downtrodden and coined phrases like “bleeding heart liberals” and “tax-and-spend Democrats.”
How the Game Is Played
They played on the frustration of the middle class by tying civil rights legislation, welfare and crime together as the source of middle class woes; they attributed these problems to what they called the Democrat tendency to be “bleeding heart liberals.”
Once the connection was made —minorities, welfare, crime and the liberal agenda — it was just a matter of repeatedly hammering home the message. Whenever Republicans mentioned “liberal,” the people heard “minorities, welfare and crime.”
By associating “liberal” with any policy or individual, the person or policy became toxic. The public associated the subject with what they had been conditioned to hate. The GOP has used this technique to play on their constituency’s prejudices, and to whip them into a frenzy against their own interests.
The effectiveness of the campaign can be seen today in the Tea Party. The primary reason the GOP dubbed healthcare reform Obamacare was to play on the prejudices of their base.
Calling the plan Obamacare distracts their base from the recognition that healthcare reform is a policy that not only would benefit but protect their families. Instead, all they are thinking about is their hatred of Barack Obama, and so they act against their own interests.
Demagogues within the Democratic Party have learned this technique.
Tavis Smiley and Prof. Cornel West have used this technique to undermine President Obama and to promote their own political agenda. When West attacked Obama, he ignored specific policies and went after Obama’s overall character. He said Obama was uncomfortable with “free Black men.” Prof. West linked him with the white power structure, “plutocrats and oligarchs.”
Do These Tactics Look Familiar?
Like Republicans, West was attempting to circumvent the peoples’ minds, appealing directly to their emotions and negative attitudes many Black people and white liberals harbor toward the white power elite.
Instead of having to substantiate his claims, he used the buzz words “oligarchs” and “plutocrats” to stir emotions in the way Republicans wield “liberal.”
You always can see these people coming and identify them by asking one question:
Is the person appealing to my ability to think or trying to inflame my emotions?
Neither the GOP nor Smiley and West ever have positive ideas to add to the political debate.
They only talk about what they don’t like. Everything they do or say is designed to provoke anger. Rational thought is their enemy.
The GOP doesn’t want to discuss healthcare reform. They merely attack the overall policy as un-American., “Obamacare is un-America,” they say. “Liberals are in a socialist plot to protect your family.”
The same is true of Smiley and West. They talk about why Obama is no good – and why they haven’t been invited to the White House. If you don’t like President Obama, who should we run instead? They don’t want to answer because it might get the people thinking again.
People need to understand they are being manipulated by demagogues. We must stop depending on others to do what we need to do for ourselves. We should do less feeling and more thinking.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.
