Sunday, December 13, 2009

Framing the Rising Sun Controversy

It is something of a miracle that the Republicans still manage to keep the Democrats on the defensive even though the Democrats control both the White House and Congress. Bombarded by a constant barrage of buzz words and faux issues, the Democrats have barely been able to keep their balance and go on the offensive. The rightwing noise machine has them so cowed they self-censor their every thought less it unleashes a barrage of polemic.

It all gets down to the right’s superb ability to frame any given issue in such a way that the Democrats can only react, and in their reaction come across as weak and uncertain.

The key to framing an issue to make a blatantly false statement with such confidence and certainty that the public believes it must be true. The statement is repeated and repeated until the public accepts it as fact. This entire process is abetted by a supine press that parrots every turd tossed out by the right without questioning it.

For example, a Wingnut could express moral outrage over the Democratic Party’s belief that the sun rises in the East. Such a belief is eating away at the country’s moral fiber because studies have shown that people who support gay marriage and abortion also believe in an East-rising sun. And there the right has its buzz word, the East-rising sun conspiracy, because we all know that in the corporatist state east is west, west is east, north is south and south is north.

Immediately, the rightwing noise machine screams its abhorrence of the East-rising sun conspiracy and demands that the Democratic Party repudiate this subversive heresy.

The Democrats are in disarray. The attack on the East-rising sun conspiracy is so virulent they are too scared to point out that the sun actually does rise in the East. To do so would leave them open to attack.

At first, they try to ignore the issue. But the right refuses to let them off the hook. Why, the right demands to know, are the Democrats silent? Is it possible that they believe the sun rises in the East. Finally, the Democrats issue a statement that calls for further study of the rising sun issue.

The media, of course, laps this all up as they repeat every charge and every futile attempt by the Democrats to defuse the issue. Editorials accuse the Democrats of being weak on the rising-sun controversy. Pundits expound that there are two sides to every issue and that the Democrats are hurting themselves by their failure to take a strong position on the issue.

Pressure builds at the local level for schools to teach both sides of the question. The whole concept of an easterly direction comes under attack. Democrats start losing elections because of it. The party is reeling from the onslaught of the anti East-rising sun movement. Cable news rating soar as the controversy grows. Evangelicals join the fray and condemn the East-rising sun doctrine as another attack on Christianity.

The whole issue is nearly as absurd as death panels. But then, political trivia is just another manifestation of the bread and circuses that keep the public distracted.

It is amazing that after all these years the Democratic Party still hasn’t figured out that it is being gamed. The party has spent so many years on the defensive that it has forgotten how to mount an effective attack.

America is truly a one-and-a-half party system.

6 comments:

David M said...

Along with being half a party they seem half witted. Unlike in arithmatic where two halfs make a whole, two halfwits won't make a whole wit. With these folks its probably turns inversely exponential. I hate personal attacks but with the democrats that seems to be the only thing that works.

Case Wagenvoord said...

...and, at best, their ideas are all half vast.

Ivan Hentschel said...

There is only one party, that being the party of money. The Dems have not been outgamed or outwitted, they have played the game perfectly, becoming very adept at how to keep one foot in Washington and one foot in the bank (which might account for the half-witted-ness). Both "sides" employ the tactics of double-speak and non-speak, which is fodder for the mass media propaganda cannon: it spews spectacularity and titillation and confusion, being the self-proclaimed, pseudo-literate arm of the money machine. This what promotes the idea that east is west, war is peace,up is down and so on.

There is nothing "half-vast" about this (although that was clever): it is a vastly complete conspiracy of theives who thrive upon working in a manner which is diametrically opposed to the good of the people who elected them to office.The democratic notion is running backwards.

Nothing good can come of a system which feeds upon itself, promotes consumption over production or engourges itself on its' own young. Everyone has duped everyone else, themselves included.

And Obama is our best public example: he is a "Transformer" from the movie, and, more specifically a "Decepticon": He changes back and forth from one manner of entity to another in the blink of an eye. One day he is Ghandi in Oslo, the next he is Ghengis Kahn in a drone, bombing civilians over Pakistan.

Case Wagenvoord said...

Ivan,
I agree with everything you say except the conspiracy. There is no conspiracy; there is only blind momentum driven by ego, greed and stupidity.

Ego seeks power for power's sake; greed wants "more"; stupidity believes you can have consumption without production and that unlimited growth in a limited environment is possible.

Who needs a conspiracy when you have over-educated fools at the helm?

Ivan Hentschel said...

I was just operating on the theory that the most dangerous conspiracies are those that are created unwittingly...which would explain the government!

Case Wagenvoord said...

No argumet there, though I might substitute "habit" for "conspiracy."