Three Simple Rules To Predict TeaPublican Talking Points

One paradox of our contemporary national political situation is that polls continuously demonstrate wide-spread support for policy choices favored by Democrats and liberals, while at the same time seeing their political choices defined by their opponents and most Main Stream Media as "out of touch." A good example would be the recent Debt Ceiling so-called crisis, when House GOP leadership held a routine vote as hostage for more concessions from the President and the Democrats, while polls indicated the public supported a clean raising of the debt limit.

How can this be? The explanation is actually simple. A good starting place are the techniques used by Lee Atwater in the Bush-Dukakis campaign. Atwater viewed our national politics as a zero-sum game: I win by making you lose and policy consequences be damned. That brought us Dukakis sitting in the tank and the infamous Willie Horton ad. The major glitch in those years was when Bush I caved to economic reality and went back on his phony pledge of "no new taxes." Bush lost to Bill Clinton and ever since then, the GOP (whom I refer to today at the TeaPublicans) have stuck to a very simple game plan.

Here it is: The guiding principle is that you play to feelings not reason, since feelings cannot be subject to facts. You accomplish this with three simple steps:
1) Vilify Your Enemy;
2) Obfuscate the Simple; and
3) Project Your Negatives on Your Enemy.

A quick example is our current incoherent public debate about raising the debt ceiling.
1) Vilify Your Enemy: Labeling those who advocate government intervention to create jobs as Socialists, Communists, and Fascists (all at the same time).
2) Obfuscate The Simple: Conflate raising the debt ceiling with a massive increase in Government Spending so the average person thinks we can solve our problems by having the U.S. Government default on its fiduciary obligations.
3. Project Your Negatives on Your Enemy: Blame Obama and the Dems for the current problems when they in fact stem primarily from eight years of Bush II mismanagement, abetted by Congressional Republicans, culminating in the burst housing bubble and the Bush Bank Bailout.

When you try to explain to folks that that the Teapublicans are lying hypocrites, then you are accused of being mean and nasty and the whole process starts all over. Even the President and the Democratic leadership have fallen for this ruse, while the GOP, who got us in this mess in the first place, gain political victories at the expense of sane, rationale public policy. And it doesn't help that most media engage in false equivalence (for example, both parties do it), when it is clear that the GOP have a singular goal: take control of all branches of government while their policies are opposed by a majority of the public.

These tactics are not new. In the U.S. they have been used mostly in elections in the past; now they are used legislatively. They are being used in a disciplined manner by one major political party and their allies at Faux News and the Tea Party Express.

If you think I am wrong, I have a suggestion: In future, when you hear the President or a major Dem leader offer a policy recommendation, apply the three principles outlined above and I guarantee they are an infallible predictor of the GOP talking points that you will hear a few hours later. Go ahead. Try it!

It also important to note that these tactics are not new by any means. For better or worse, Martin Luther, Samuel Adams, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Goebbels wrote this playbook. Now it's John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity marching at the forefront of our willing descent into madness.