McCain, Clinton and Nixon's "silent majority" ...fence the left into minority status.

[madfloridian]

This is from The Nation's May 12 print issue. It is online as an editorial.

It is called "Bitter Politics"...the kind we have been trying to get away from this primary. But we didn't, it is still around.

Bitter Politics

"If neither candidate's chances of winning the primary was changed Tuesday, something else was. The six-week grind to April 22 featured a sustained descent into what Obama rightly called "the distractions and the silliness" that trivialize serious issues. Instead of scrutinizing the candidates' Iraq exit strategies or economic recovery plans, the press ran endless loops of a few truncated moments of Reverend Wright's sermons, images of Clinton on the tarmac in Tuzla, Obama's "bitter" comments. It all culminated in the infamous "debate" on ABC, whose moderators spent the first fifty-three minutes lingering with prurient seriousness over such details as Obama's lack of a red, white and blue lapel pin."

"But it wasn't just the media. In a recent Sunday talk-show appearance, McCain was eager to delve--unprompted--into yet another discussion about Bill Ayers, while Clinton invoked her affinity for her small-town brethren by recounting her girlhood shooting lessons. In other words, multimillionaire McCain, the millionaire pundit class and the millionaire Clintons all spent the last weeks waging a culture war against a man who spent most of his career organizing in or representing the South Side of Chicago. It was enough to make one cling to religion.

I know for myself the last few weeks have left a bitterness that will not go away. I felt the pain of Clinton's use of Wright against Obama..I am white but I felt the anger.

I have felt the pain and anger of divided local Democrats, divided because one candidate has the media in her corner....both refuse to tell the truth about who screwed up the Florida delegates.

More from The Nation:

It's Nixon's "silent majority" all over again, a category he constructed in order to fence the left into minority status. That the mainstream media have adopted these fictional categories is maddening but par for the course. What isn't par for the course is Clinton's contribution to this effort, her unabashed leftbaiting of her foe and her adoption of the vocabulary of backlash conservatism in order to paint the likely Democratic nominee as tainted by his associations with radicals. These tactics threaten to undercut a progressive rationale for her candidacy.

The irony is that Clinton has succeeded in doing what Obama could not. By tirelessly flogging these invented scandals, the Clinton campaign has given concrete substance to what had formerly been airy and abstract pronouncements from Obama about the need to get past "the old politics." Watching the last few weeks of the campaign unfold, one couldn't help but think: Yes, this is broken. This does need to change.

I remembered something Bill Nelson's office said to me about his yes vote for the IWR in 2003. I was not certain if they were just joking or what. His aides are notorious for being rather smart ass, so you just don't know.

I said we knew there were over 2000 recent calls to his office
saying not to vote for the war. I said I doubted many would call to beg him to vote for war. She said I was right.

Then she said "But he has to listen to the ones who don't call."

Bam bam...that was a reference to the "silent majority", and I was too stupid to catch it.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/11/documents/nixon.speech/

"A year after he was elected, President Nixon gave the following address on the situation in Vietnam. The war was unpopular and seemed pointless to many. Protests were rampant, so in this speech Nixon defended his decision to keep U.S. forces in Vietnam and explained why negotiations had failed so far."

Near the end of the speech he refers to the Silent Majority.

Here is one explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_majority

"The silent majority is a hypothetical large number of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. The term was first used by the U.S. President Richard Nixon in a November 3, 1969 speech, where it referred to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not engage in riots and attack police officers, who did not join in the counterculture, and who did not enthusiastically participate in public discourse or the media. Nixon along with many others saw this group as being overshadowed by the more vocal minority."

By using this tactic, we will always be the minority....just because they can refer to those who don't stand up for things.

I do not think this primary will end peacefully. There is still the threat of that lawsuit toward the DNC based on race. There is still the threat of that person to try to get it to the Supreme Court.

There are still the rallies being formed around Florida by Hillary's supporters, geared to spread divisiveness and tell people their vote doesn't count.

The editorial ends with this statement: "If the Clinton campaign continues its slouch along the low road, that promise will be severely damaged, as well may be Democrats' chances for victory in the fall. Voters and superdelegates now have to ask, at what cost is Clinton willing to continue this fight?"

[redqueen]

1. Hah... this is great.

multimillionaire McCain, the millionaire pundit class and the millionaire Clintons all spent the last weeks waging a culture war against a man who spent most of his career organizing in or representing the South Side of Chicago. It was enough to make one cling to religion.

[madfloridian]

4. I liked that statement.

:hi:

[redqueen]

6. Thanks for posting it, MF.

:hi:

[madfloridian]

8. The "silent majority" tactic worked....the left is fenced out.

And most don't even know it.

[redqueen]

10. Well... it's worked handily so far...

there is some slim hope, is there not?

[Malidictus Maximus]

37. Well, if one could conduct an accurate poll

about what the Rev Wright said, I bet that a huge majority of non African American voters would agree that what Wright said (and don't give me that "taken out of context" BS, there is no 'context' in the era of youtube, all sides must deal with it) was so completely shocking that anything other than a complete, utter and immediate denunciation was insufficient. The folks I know, almost all moderates who might vote for any of the three running, reacted about like most DU'ers would if McCain, or Senator Clinton's pastor had used the 'N=word'; that is to feel 'this is beyond the pale and unacceptable under ANY circumstances.'
I read several of Wrights sermons. he speaks much that is accurate. But, like it or not, there *IS* a vast chunk of the electorate that believes people who say what he and Sharpton say are just as racist, divisive and derogatory as any crap spewing from the Aryan Nations or the right wing mega-churches.
Not talking about what should be, I am hypothesizing about what *IS*, and my bet is that the MENTION of race, racism and racial inequality hurts the Democratic party amongst exactly that 'silent majority'; the folks who DON'T march or write or donate, who don't care for either candidate, who might vote for either nominee but who, since they aren't racist themselves, regard discussion of race as not appropriate, something to be avoided and a negative for the party that discusses it. But then as a middle class, middle age white guy I could be wrong.

[livetohike]

2. Sadly, it's the only politics the Clintons know -it's what they

believe to be the right way of doing things. It's sickening and demeaning to them both.

I hope the SDs come out in force this week before May 6. It's become a vote for a breath of fresh air vs. a vote for something stale and noxious.

[madfloridian]

5. I never expected the tactics.

.

[Missouri Blue]

22. I'm going to be unpopular saying this

But this primary is the price Democrats are paying for having elected Bill Clinton. In the 90s, Bill Clinton was supported as the only thing we to prevent-- the Republicans. He held the line. He pissed them off with extraordinary skill.

However, Clinton was not a great President, he is not a great man. Between him and the Republicans, they made government in the 90s into a farce. People held their nose and elected him, in 92 to keep Bush out of office, and in 96 to keep Dole out of office. They were contests between who was worse.

Come 2000, and it was the Republicans turn to hold their nose and elect Dubya (or get him close enough, anyway). And yes, I believe they did that, twice. They knew this guy wasn't qualified to be a used car salesmen, but thought they could be covered by his staff.

But about Bill Clinton, behind his intelligence and inveterate political skills Clinton is a pretty mendacious person, would do whatever was needed to get in power and keep it. You think Hillary's election to the Senate wasn't a set-up to get her elected?

One thing for sure, it's apparent that Hillary was never the brains behind Bill. It's the other way around if anything.

[Ken Burch]

26. No quarrel there. And it takes guts for you, as a Red State Dem, to say it.

You hit that one out of the park.

[L0oniX]

32. Agreed and welcome to DU

[terrell9584]

36. 350 + electoral vote landslides

Is not a bad thing. The only thing Clinton did that was bad was NAFTA. Clinton put the Milosevic regime on its deathwatch. He for a time, made things better for people in Haiti (no one realized that Aristide would turn into a dictator), he presided over the greatest economy we ever had.

The reason that Clinton was subject to all of those character scandals is because he was a boy from in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and to many people, it was just not fitting that someone who had grown up in Hot Springs, Arkansas could be elected President. If Bill Clinton had grown up on the upper west side, going to the finest of elite academies and had married a wife from Connecticut, no one would have attacked him on character. He was attacked because people have an unfair prejudice of Arkansas.

[madfloridian]

3. Here is Nixon's speech on You Tube...saying we will stay in Vietnam

because of the ones who are not speaking out against it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3K2N7FZSXc

[madfloridian]

7. Remember the "noisy activists" referred to by the conservative Dems?

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1227

"There's a perception in some media and political circles that Democratic White House wannabes, like their Republican counterparts, must systematically bend the knee to ideologically inflexible and noisy party activists to have any prayer of nomination or election. They should pay attention to what happened in Connecticut on Nov. 7, where even in a strongly anti-war blue state, voters rejected a high-profile effort to exclude Joe Lieberman from the Democratic Party. The reality is that, unlike the Republicans who are a much more homogenous party, Democrats can only win with a broad coalition. An expanded party base depends on a spirit of inclusiveness; certainly the House Democratic caucus is more ideologically diverse than it was before Election Day. To remain in the majority, it will need to stay that way."

Guess who? Yep, you are right.

[redqueen]

9. What a shameless, spinning LIAR!

All CT proved was that repukes will cross the lines to fuck up our party!

I want to call her names now. x(

[madfloridian]

11. Damn...speaking of the rallies by the Hillary campaign..told not to wear Hillary shirts.

Among the 250 from Florida, mostly Latinos, they say....they wore shirts with other candidates on it. Yet most are Hillary supporters. They did not wear shirts with her name, only one did.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/30/963364.aspx

Brown, a superdelegate pledged to Clinton, addressed a crowd of about 150 who had been bused up to D.C. from Florida this week under the auspices of LULAC, an Hispanic advocacy group. Though Brown and another super who spoke -- Rep. Hilda Solis -- are in the Clinton camp, organizers went out of their way to remove any hint that they favored one or the other Democrat in the race. Many in the crowd wore T-shirts with the name of each Democratic candidate, from Kucinich to Dodd to Richardson to Obama, printed across the back in the shape of a rainbow. There was but one Hillary '08 shirt or button to be seen.

"We're not supposed to talk about that," confided Harriet Meltzer, 83, a member in good standing of the Del Ray Democratic Club, though she allowed that she was, in fact, a Clinton supporter. "What's he going to do when he goes to the Middle East?" she asked of Obama, who she deems to be lacking in experience. "Charm them?"

They screamed at Howard Dean and taunted him.

Protesters eventually turned their ire on Howard Dean, literally calling him out with taunting chants of, "Be a man, Howard!" and "Where is Howard!?"

Bastards...they tried to pretend they were not supporting Hillary.

Wasserman Schultz led the way.

http://www.mgwashington.com/index.php/news/article/floridia-latinos-others-protest-at-democratic-party-hqs/918/

"At the rally Wednesday, among those selected to speak behind a podium set at the entrance of DNC headquarters included Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, Fla., a national Clinton campaign co-chairwoman, and Kim Gandy, the National Organization for Women president who has endorsed Clinton. Speaking to the crowd, Wasserman Schultz suggested that disregarding the Jan. 29 primary ballot choices of 1.7 million Florida Democratic primary voters could alienate these voters in a key presidential swing-state.

“We can’t begin this general election with one hand tied behind our back,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Another speaker was Anita de Palma, 66, of Clearwater, Fla. She is a past Florida director of the League of United Latin American Citizens who is now running as a Democratic candidate for the congressional seat now held by Republican Gus Bilirakis of Palm Harbor."

As long as this crap continues, then quit asking me to stop telling about what they are doing.

Dean went to CT today. Good for him.

I am so disgusted.

[madfloridian]

12. It's lying....pretending they are not for Hillary.

It's wrong, it's misleading..it's lying.

I have so much division among state and local Democrats that I have given up hope for this state.

Using tactics like this should be reserved for the Republicans, not against our own.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/30/963364.aspx

[redqueen]

16. Great example, that Hillary campaign.

:puke:

[Demeter]

13. There Really Is a Stupid Majority, and It's a Blessing When They Are Silent

because that means they might actually be listening.

Of course, they are mostly listening to the lies that make them feel good, that feed the greed, that nurture fairy tales instead of reality.

When the Stupid Majority starts making noises like stuck pigs, that's the time when all your preparations yield results. If you've gotten some basic truths out there before the liars could sink their fangs into the Stupids, there's a chance for progress.

And that's where the Democratic Party fell down on the job, ever since Nixon: the message wasn't out there in every aspect of every issue. And so unions were gutted, safety net shredded, ERA failed, and so forth. And now we are starting on our own 2 yard line, trying to make up for lost opportunity.

[madfloridian]

15. Okay I had to chuckle...

at the "stupid majority." Yes, there are way too many, and yes it is truly a blessing when they are silent. :o

[smiley_glad_hands]

14. K&R. eom

[NJSecularist]

17. So what you are proposing is that the silent majority hates Wright?

And that the media has been successful in painting Wright as a maniac and the silent majority who don't neccesarily speak out against Wright but don't like him are firmly in Hillary's camp?

[madfloridian]

18. No...I don't think I said anything like that. Did I?

Could you show me?

[NJSecularist]

19. For there to be a silent majority, there has to be a vocal minority.

Who is the vocal minority you are speaking of?

Your post didn't make much sense.

[madfloridian]

23. Perhaps you should do a search on "silent majority"

Then you would understand.

It is really not there. See? It is a made up thing to keep the left in its place, the activists, the protestors in their place...to keep the Jeremiah Wrights of the world from criticizing the US

It pretends there is a silent group that believes the way the leaders want them to believe. It is made up stuff.

[NJSecularist]

24. I already know plenty about what a silent majority is.

And your description of it is a made up fallacy used to grind a political axe.

[madfloridian]

25. Then make up your own fallacy.

Whatever.

[Ken Burch]

27. HRC is campaigning as this year's Nixon! Doesn't that bother you at all?

You can't bash activists and then be a progressive president.

[Ken Burch]

28. What we're proposing is that Wright would never have mattered if your cultural conservative campaign

hadn't artificially made him into an issue.

Your campaign is using the tactics of the Nixon/Agnew campaign. No one can do that and still have the right to call herself a Democrat. We are supposed to be the party that brings the country together, and HRC is creating an artificial divide between workers and progressives, when no such divide existed before she started using Nixonian rhetoric.

[madfloridian]

29. Well said.

An artificial issue.

[beezlebum]

33. before, i said i'd have a hard time

voting for her. then i said i likely wouldn't vote for her, not w/o a lot of convincing.

after all of this, if she somehow gets the democratic nomination, goodbye du, because goodbye democratic party. goodbye politics. goodbye amurka. i'm leaving for the Netherlands.

everywhere i looked yesterday there were stories about how wright is bringing obama down, and it's all such nonsense. using the tactics of a republican, of nixon to try to bring obama down is disgusting. i want nothing to do with her or any club she belongs to.

[crimsonblue]

20. K and R for the Nation!

:kick:

[Missouri Blue]

21. Being new here, I've R'd but I don't know what K is.

Clinton should know that maneuvers like taking it to court will end her political career, and possibly end Chelsea's even having a thought about one.

[beezlebum]

34. welcome to DU

K is for kick. and i agree- it will end her political career.

:hi:

[me b zola]

30. The same silent reality

that gave CNN's Candi Crowley an award for her "political coverage". I watch network & cable news and it is enough to make my head spin with the reality that they attempt to create.



NOT THIS TIME!

[beezlebum]

35. really, after about 2.346 seconds

i get vertigo, i see red, and i forget my name for a few minutes- the confusing reality the corp media tries to create is devastating. i wonder if some people buy into simply because they are so overwhelmed by the absurdity that they think they themselves must be the ones with something wrong.

feels like we fell down the rabbit hole; i wonder if we shall fall right through the earth.

[McCamy Taylor]

31. Attempts to interject "the silent majority" into the Dem primary are flawed.

The Democratic Party does not include the nation's racists, bigots, fundamentalists, hawks,right wing extremists or Archie Bunkers. It includes the nation's poor, minorities, immigrants, women, gay, disadvantaged, disabled and other groups which have traditionally been excluded from the political dialog. Many of them are "silent" because the MSM does not want to hear them. When John Edwards attempted to provide a voice for the poor, he was the target of a $60 million bounty from the nations' Chambers of Commerce.

The members of the press do not want people without educations----the people who carry their luggage or who trim their grass or who wait their tables---to have a seat at the table. They want only those who are like themselves to call the shots. They will always favor the John Kerrys and the George Bushes and they will always be horrified by the Clintons who cook their own meals---what upstarts! trying to act like middle class people. Didn't the Clintons know that everyone in America aspires to live like the people in Dynasty?

The poor have no one to speak for them. They often do not dare to speak up for fear of losing their jobs. They are so happy to have anyone take their side in the political debate. And they do not trust anything they hear on the news---which just burns the MSM up.

The problem with the MSM's attempts to keep the Democratic Party all for themselves---for the elite with money and education and "class" is that it alienates the poor and the working class who then are easy pickings for a Republican like McCain who can run as a "war hero" and get a lot of votes just for that.

[LiberalLovinLug]

38. Odd mix

I agree that ONE of the 'silent majority' are those that the MSM does not want to hear from, and those groups you listed. But there are multiple 'silent majorities'.

Those that have no patience to cut through the cynicism of pundits and politicians hypocrisy and think that by not paying attention to voting or bills passed etc. they can escape it.

Those that are in survival mode, working eating sleeping, just to barely pay the bills. Who have no time to invest in researching the news and find out whats going on.

Those who are young and might even be listening to the issues, but to actually take the time to go to a polling station and vote is something someone else will do for them. It hasn't sunk in yet that every vote counts.


You lost me with "The members of the press do not want people without educations" and then "they will always favor <..> George Bush"

And then going on to proclaim that "they will always be horrified by the Clintons who cook their own meals":wtf:
Wow, Hillary is a superwoman candidate. She has time to run for office and still manages to rush home every night to get the potatoes on the boil for Bill and Chelsea!

Why do I find that difficult to believe? And no mention of Obama who grew up in a much more modest household than any of the the other candidates or pundits.


Then "the MSM's attempts to keep the Democratic Party all for themselves". :wtf:
Tell that to FAUX or all of the other MSM who ignore McCain's Blame-America preacher and gorge us with Rev. Wright.