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The flip side of, "those mean and nasty liberals" is the idea the folks on the Right are better than that.
Somehow, perhaps because the Left is less organised in its denunnciations of the attacks and smears of the Right, the folks who see them fail to realise those attacks are deliberate, and organised, efforts of the Right to villify the opposition (and being center, like me, can garner such smears... look at what happened to McCain).
Which leads to the "AARP hates soldiers and loves gays,", which ties into the whole "values" nonsense of the anti-gay marriage/equal rights for those who are different subtext running through the zeitgeist.
How to counter this? The Left Coaster on AARP flap offers some ideas.
It boils down to being organised in the response, having a measured escalation of response. Demand retractions; from the responsible parties, more demand that the Right disavow this (just as the Left is supposed to do with Churchill, and Jordan) and if those aren't forthcoming, step it up. Hold their feet to the fire, more to the point, hold the feet of those who are in positions to do it to the fire. Write to CNN, to your local paper, to Fox News, to anyone and everyone who might be looking at this (the folks who did it are going to be looking at how it plays, to see if they can do another slash and burn, then duck and cover, treatment like this). Don't let the issue become the AARP, make it the spinmeisters and meme-makers who are making the level of discourse as bad as it is.
If they lose, and keep losing, we can bring it up; maybe even get the actual issues talked about, real policy debated.
Go read the Left Coaster. Think of it as talking points.
Somehow, perhaps because the Left is less organised in its denunnciations of the attacks and smears of the Right, the folks who see them fail to realise those attacks are deliberate, and organised, efforts of the Right to villify the opposition (and being center, like me, can garner such smears... look at what happened to McCain).
Which leads to the "AARP hates soldiers and loves gays,", which ties into the whole "values" nonsense of the anti-gay marriage/equal rights for those who are different subtext running through the zeitgeist.
How to counter this? The Left Coaster on AARP flap offers some ideas.
It boils down to being organised in the response, having a measured escalation of response. Demand retractions; from the responsible parties, more demand that the Right disavow this (just as the Left is supposed to do with Churchill, and Jordan) and if those aren't forthcoming, step it up. Hold their feet to the fire, more to the point, hold the feet of those who are in positions to do it to the fire. Write to CNN, to your local paper, to Fox News, to anyone and everyone who might be looking at this (the folks who did it are going to be looking at how it plays, to see if they can do another slash and burn, then duck and cover, treatment like this). Don't let the issue become the AARP, make it the spinmeisters and meme-makers who are making the level of discourse as bad as it is.
If they lose, and keep losing, we can bring it up; maybe even get the actual issues talked about, real policy debated.
Go read the Left Coaster. Think of it as talking points.
