I think we're ALL starting to smarten up about the mitt scandal and Dems gutsy response. We need to!
It was suggested that this be a post of its own. But it's worth repeating. There's far more strategic sophistication operating here than I've seen before. More of us are "getting" the schemes and tactics that the enemy's using, which enables us to respond far more shrewdly and effectively. They have far more practice at it than we do, but we learn! This came from a thread by alcibiades_mystery, where we were all kicking this around. We should do MORE of that. The better to be able to out-think and out-maneuver these guys:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002953031
So many of us are recognizing what's REALLY going on here.
This is IT.
It's all strategy. You accurately and shrewdly point out that they're used to this tactic working. Turn it back on the Dems and make them AND it the story. Deflect, deflect, and then deflect some more. But - gasp! - it isn't working. They can't deflect because this haughty elitist would-be king and his queen, the lady ann of dressage, are so accustomed to their word being taken as law instead of taken out for an un-spin-cycle spin. The questions keep coming and at least SOME reporters and writers and bloggers are smelling smoke and building themselves a hard-on to find the inevitable fire somewhere nearby.
And they're not used to this. They've been experts at attacking and deflecting and distracting for years! It's always worked the way they schemed and manipulated and timed and dictated. But it's always depended on the same accompanying conditions: that Dems would always cave, back down, capitulate, apologize, resign or otherwise fall on their swords, and go away quietly. These seem to be different Dems, though. They don't act as expected - OR AS PREDICTED. They're outside the comfortable, well-worn, long-established parameters of the playing field. It's a lot harder to manage. The GOP's desired result depends on a set group of conditions being met, establishing a climate, a foundation, that leads to that desired result. That's why they like to stack the deck. They're all about tilting the playing field. They have to - because that's the only way they're assured of winning. (Why do you think they're all over voter suppression at the state level these days?)
The nice thing here is this:
We talk a lot about battle tactics. Some of us have read or at least skimmed Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." Some here have studied other warriors' tactics and strategies, based on the premise that this is actually a war we're fighting. This is war. The other side has certainly declared it against us. The GOP is falling back on some of their old tricks. Their default positioning. Do this, the Dems react like that, then you close the deal by doing thus. It's worked for years! And what happens after you've seen the same tactics always work in the same way? You start getting used to it. It's always worked, so you figure it's always GONNA work. You have no evidence to the contrary - BECAUSE it's just always worked. So you fall into complacency and start getting arrogant, and maybe just a very tiny bit, you drop your guard a little. It's a pattern, a habit, and soon enough, a republi-CON "law of nature." It becomes an "IS" is you will. As in, this just IS. That's how it IS. Remember those snot-nosed rich ladies driving into and out of the romney fundraisers in the Hamptons - about how it just IS - the common people simply don't understand how things are and how things work. The template is in place.
Meanwhile, however, the opposition has changed it up a little. They're not following the unspoken rules about how they're supposed to react, and how their response is supposed to go. Suddenly, the ol' reliable template doesn't fit anymore. If you're suitably preconditioned to something always working the way you expect it to, you will be thrown for a loop as to how to respond when something suddenly STOPS working the way you expect it to. You won't have the ol' template to work from, because all of a sudden the template doesn't work in this case. THAT IS WHY so many teabaggers and other knuckledraggers have trouble articulating beyond the talking points and the bumper-sticker sloganeering. The response template was provided to them free, reinforced with repetition and effective results, and they didn't have to think about this or reason it out for themselves, and frankly, they didn't even have to understand it - just like we "common people" were told was how things work.
And what happens when you don't exercise your muscles? They become flabby. Then sometimes they go as far as to atrophy. Well - works the same way in the human mind. That's why so many experts recommend stuff that keeps the mind active - to Alzheimer's patients. Keep it exercised and nimble. That's not what the GOP has preconditioned most of its operatives below the rove/kristol/ailes/luntz/romney level on the zigurrat to respond to. They're all rendered a bit psychologically lazy, spoiled, and flabby after so many years of the same reliable template working for them so well, like it always did. But it's a mile wide and a millimeter deep. Barely scratch the surface or ask the wrong question or probe just a bit below the veneer and the whole thing starts to go to pieces. They have no experience or practice dealing with anything else.
They're probably gonna be hiring a whole bunch of crisis-management PR firms in the next week to try to get out in front of this again. But there may be nothing left to get out in front of. The train, as they say, may already have left the station with a solid majority of the electorate on it. Remember the mistakes of John Kerry and how easily he was swiftboated on his military experience. That meme was left un-tamped-down by his campaign until it had already started sinking in through the national pores. And once it did that, he was sunk. Oh yeah, he finally woke up and started raising a defense and tried to go on offense, but we waited for a week while the Kerry campaign did nothing and the questions grew and he just started looking worse and worse and fishier and fishier, and they gave up on their ivory-tower "don't DIGNIFY it with a response!" shit. Which clearly wasn't working. Once it seeps into the public consciousness - either consciously or unconsciously, the seeds of doubt are sown and take root. And the candidate is done. If this sinks in deep enough in the public mind, it won't matter how many hundreds of millions of dollars they throw mitt's way. The impression will have been made. First impressions and all that. And as we all know, if those first impressions are negative, you spend the rest of your life living them down.
The Dems just have to hold firm, defiant, NON-COMPLIANT and CERTAINLY non-apologetic, and keep asking questions. The enemy is all standing their with their dicks caught in their zippers and they do not know what to do or how to respond. This is unfamiliar territory to them and they don't have an effective counter-strategy for it. Blind-sided like Tom Cruise, who wasn't expecting any pushback from his "mousy little wife" he thought he knew and had under control, who'd never dare to defy him. Nicole Kidman let herself get rolled. Katie Holmes is DIFFERENT. Same thing going on there as the GOP is grappling with now. This is not the Nicole Kidman party they're dealing with (at least in this case). If this sinks in deeply enough, it may already be too late to turn around.
Funny - does that mean it's OUR turn to be the "Party of NO"?
Even the "common people" know when they start smelling a rat.
