Using the Other Guy's Vitriol to Win Votes

[kskiska]

THE anger wars were officially launched last July, when Ed Gillespie gave his first speech as chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Democrats, he said, "serve up raw emotion" in place of solutions, "and that emotion is anger." Mr. Gillespie has been echoing that theme ever since. Last month, he described the Democrats as the party of "protests, pessimism and political hate speech."

As alliterative animadversions go, the line may not be in a league with " nattering nabobs of negativism," Vice President Spiro T. Agnew's dismissal of the critics of another Republican administration caught up in a controversial war. But it signals a similar intention to make the Democrats' mood itself an issue in the coming campaign, and to redefine the language of political emotion in the bargain.

Marc Racicot, the chairman of the Bush for President campaign, sent out a fund-raising letter last week warning that the president is under "venomous assault from rage-filled Democrats," even as the campaign was releasing a new ad called "When Angry Democrats Attack."

"Tired of the pessimism and angry protests?" it asks, over clips of Representative Richard A. Gephardt and Senator John Kerry harshly criticizing the president, along with one of Howard Dean growling "Thank you very much," implying that the governor's dyspepsia extends even to his expressions of gratitude.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/weekinreview/28nunb.html

[Demeter]

1. If I Were A GOP Insider

I would be afraid--very afraid.

Because when all we the people have left is the 2nd amendment, we are going to use it to take back this country.

Sic Semper Tyranis