They Did What !

Stephen Rose’s blog, “Family Values Or Hypocrisy” asks how and why so many Americans continue to believe elected officials who lie, make promises they never keep, and get involved in money and sex scandals. I think we all become frustrated with those who refuse to see or hear “our truth” when it is so clear to us. (It is interesting to note “they” feel the same way about us.)

That made me wonder, how did we get here from there? I am not talking about the ignorant, name calling, rabble rousers who would happily rid the world of all “demon liberals.” They are very loud but they are a minority. I am talking about regular people - intelligent, God fearing, law abiding citizens who started out with true conservative views and were capable of working in a conciliatory manner with liberals. So what happened?

The only reasonable explanation seems to be a kind of brainwashing that occurred over a period of years. It was not an accident; it was a conscious strategy with a definite goal – power. It took all the good in conservatism - fiscal responsibility, real family values, and true patriotism – and used them in a way that had nothing to do with their real meaning and purpose.

First, feeding on the conservative’s religiosity and patriotism, there was a concerted campaign to demonize liberals emphasizing divisive issues like abortion and homosexuality as if they were the only things liberals cared about. So called “patriotic” issues - flag burning, gun control, and law and order – were promoted as purely conservative concerns.

Next, the label “liberal media” was used over and over conditioning people to mistrust what they heard on mainstream news and read in major newspapers. In a 1992 Washington Post article, Rich Bond, Republican Party chair, came right out and said that the conservatives’ frequent denunciations of liberal bias in the media were part of “a strategy.”

Finally, a media machine was created, comprised of think tanks, advocacy groups, partisan outlets (Washington Times, Wall Street Journal editorial page), radio talk shows (Rush Limbaugh et al), and the icing on the cake, Fox News. Together, these entities reverberate with GOP friendly “news” stories, repeated over and over. And we all know what happens - if you say it loudly enough and often enough, people begin to believe it.

I cannot count the number of times I have been told how “fair and balanced” Fox News is; how commentators like Sean Hannity tell both sides of the story, with the unspoken but obvious underlying meaning, that therefore he is to be believed. Fox not only denies a conservative bias but maintains that it is the only unbiased network.

This strategy of aggressive denial has been practiced in everything the movers and shakers of the GOP have done for the past several decades. It is how they took control of the southern states and congress. It is how they manipulated and deceived their own people. Good people for the most part, who actually believe they are on the side of morality and family values.

Breaking through the layers of spin, half-truths, and outright lies that this media machine has been churning out for years, is like trying to cut a steak with a plastic spoon. There has been some progress in the last few years but it has not come from those of us who would persuade them of our truth. It has happened as the rot from within has begun to surface. Faced with the incompetence, power grabs, and scandals in this administration, the good people have started to question “their truth” as told by their media machine.

Experience tells us how difficult it is to undo any kind of systematic conditioning, so perhaps our best hope is the continued crumbling of the clay feet of the conditioners themselves.