The War on Words: Moving the Goalposts AGAIN

[Tx4obama]

The pundit class has been talking about Olympia Snowe's retirement from the Senate in terms of the end of moderates. In an effort to pretend balance, they refer to a lack of moderates in "both parties". This is wrong on a whole bunch of levels, and to believe that meme is to miss what is really occurring. There is no middle, there are painfully few moderates, in the REPUBLICAN Party. This is not something that applies to the Democratic Party. The 21% of America that self-identifies as "progressive" would not claim our President as a member of those ranks, rather that he is a moderate Democrat. But because the GOP sets the language, he comes off looking RELATIVELY progressive. "Relatively" compared to a party that wants to return to 1850.

Take the Blunt Amendment that went down in flames yesterday: was its defeat the winning of some sort of progressive thrust? NO. The Blunt Amendment was completely out of the mainstream. The idea that birth control would be an issue in the 21st century is idiotic. Further, they couched the amendment as related to religious freedom, instead of what it was, which was an attempt to deny all sorts of insurance coverage to millions of people. People who voted for it (including the women and the Democrats) are in no way moderate, they are reactionary.

<SNIP>

Full article here: http://www.democraticconventionwatch.com/diary/5177/the-war-on-words-moving-the-goalposts-again

p.s. I recommend everyone to read DocJess' post, she's pretty darn good

[longship]

1. Love the graphic, too

R&

[Live and Learn]

2. You have to hand it to them

They have an extraordianary ability to completely obfuscate the meaning of a word and have their faux meaning stick.

[DCKit]

6. Dog-Whistles.

They don't work so well once everyone catches on.

Given that, it's little wonder the Republics have become so much more radical in the past few cycles. Now, they're just coming right out and saying what they mean, and having to backtrack, explain and obfuscate every time someone they thought of as their base opens their eyes and asks "WTF did you just say?"

They're going to hold on to the insane 23% who believe exactly as they do, but they're marginalizing the rest of the (R)s at a rate nobody could have seen coming. We can only hope that translates into a bunch of (D)-progressive Congressional seats in November.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Though, as your own thread yesterday showed, 'family' is also war on single parents

Republican Wisconsin Senator Wants Bill Equating Single Parenthood With Child Abuse

And with that, their wish to abolish contraception, and Limbaugh (still de facto leader of the Republicans, despite the cries of "he's only an entertainer!&quot trying to slut-shame any woman who speaks out in favour of contraceptions, I think we can call it a War on Women too.

[Tx4obama]

4. The 'Share and Enjoy' graphic in your signature line isn't showing up correctly ...

on DU3 the 'height' allowance is smaller than on DU2

Here's a post from EarlG: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12408676#post1

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Click on it, and search for "share and enjoy" to see the reason

Or, to hear the original radio for the relevant section, try this:

(the pictures are just what the person who put it on YouTube did, but the sound track is the original, complete with song).

[annabanana]

7. very good. . .n/t