GOP Character Assassination Time: The Teleprompter Meme is Part of a Decades Long Campaign

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

In this time of nano-second news cycles that have little if any historical context, it is easy for some to forget that the GOP art of character assassination has been its hallmark for decades, patricularly the last 20 years.  But BuzzFlash, celebrating its 10th year online on May 11th, doesn't forget it for a moment.  It's a large reason that I started BuzzFlash in 2000.

I was sick and tired of the Republicans using personality misrepresentations of Democratic leaders -- which the corporate mainstream press repeated ad nauseum -- to try to turn them into negative caricatures, an endeavor in which they have been largely successful.  They did it to both Clintons; to Al Gore; to John Kerry. It even goes back to Michael Dukakis and further.

What is most alarming is that the Democrats rarely seem to be able to counterattack successfully.  That's what is particularly distubing about the latest "Obama uses a teleprompter" meme that has infested the mainstream media, egged on by Sarah Palin and the Republican PR/media echo chamber. It's beyond ludicrous: do they think George W. Bush memorized his speeches?

Democratic leaders, including the current White House, tend to dismiss character attacks with a disdainful shrug.  Because the GOP character assassination strategy appears to be unreasonable, the Dems in D.C. figure the public won't buy it.

But because our modern television news age -- and the NYT and Washington Post, among others, have even aided and abetted the GOP emphasis on caricaturizing Dems, just take Gore and Kerry as examples -- emphasizes personality over public policy, the GOP strategy works to a great degree.  It defines Dems in a negative way that goes right to the subconscious of many Americans, enough to foul up democracy and obstruct the workings of government, not to mention defeat Democrats.

Obama is a brilliant, logical man who recognizes the role of people like Frank Luntz and Roger Ailes in the GOP attack machine (he even singled out Luntz during his chastening of GOP Reps in Baltimore a short time ago), but he appears to disdain their efforts rather than taking up Excalibur and countering them.

Meanwhile, as the Dem leaders fail to get that this is the age of celebrity politics and GOP character assassination moves from fiction to accepted fact in the mind of many Americans via the power of television corporate "news," ludicrous memes such as the "teleprompter" attack will continue to be launched with success.

It is not enough for the White House to be smug and dismissive of GOP character assassination.  Just ask the Clintons, Gore, Kerry and Dukakis among others.

But this Dem White House appears not to have learned the very important lesson that BuzzFlash knew in 2000 when we started. Fight off their death by a thousand negative personal caricatures at every turn and go on the offensive. 

Start acting like your character and integrity matter by fighting back and going after the Republicans.  They are extremely vulnerable, but you won't stop them with promises of "bi-partisanship," an act that they only interpret as a sign of vulnerabilty and weakness.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG