Why Lakoff’s latest is so IMPORTANT – how to awaken the cult.

Cell Whitman

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Wed Jun-28-06 11:56 AM
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Why Lakoff’s latest is so IMPORTANT – how to awaken the cult.

Edited on Wed Jun-28-06 12:06 PM by Cell Whitman

The article has been posted before but the subject is way, way too important for just one post. It is the whole ballgame and should have a dozens of posts discussing it and on how to implement its points.

Rockridge has a piece out which might best be titled “IT’S THE CONSERVATISM STUPID!!!" It explains that we are wasting our firepower criticizing Bush. He is NOT running in ’08 and is not the problem - it is conservative ideology. The right has demonized “liberalism” with lies and propaganda to the point where they don’t have to honestly debate a single issue. All they do is get the word out to their cult that a person is a “liberal” (even if he isn't) and their followers shut down their minds to anything that person says.

It is time we demonized conservatism with the effing TRUTH!! If we don’t get this, we don’t win! It is as simple as that.

For my addition I wanted to make two points.

One is that some will say that there are “fiscal” conservatives who oppose Bush’s policies so somehow they have a firewall protecting them from criticism. Well, they support EVERYTHING else conservatives do which is taking our nation to a very, very dark place. They vote for today's conservative movement, they enable it, so stop making excuses for them.

You also have the conservative who blinds people with what I call the “Good Old Uncle Ernie Syndrome.” You know Uncle Ernie; he makes you think “Good Old Uncle Ernie is a conservative and he ain’t so bad. He means well.” So you give a pass to the right, thinking somehow Good Old Uncle Ernie will rise again and take back his movement from the theocrats, homophobes, corporate shills, traitors and Godwin’s Law be damned, fascists who have a death grip on it now. Uncle Ernie blinds us from reality; he is who makes us think conservatism is not as intensely destructive to our nation as it most certainly is.

You see, Good Old Uncle Ernie, has NO control over today’s conservatism NONE, NADA, ZERO. If he got beyond the fake patriotism and had any real concern for his country he would have seen this and LEFT the movement. But no, good old Uncle Ernie will go down and vote for the destruction of his country in ’06 and ’08 just like he did in ’00, ‘02 and ’04. Uncle Ernie is a huge part of the problem, he enables the destroyers.

We must make the country understand what conservatism is doing to the nation, that it is their view of the world which is taking us to hell - which I repeat, it most certainly is.

Now for my second point and I won’t go into a lot of detail here... But not only in communicating with the country but on an individual basis when communicating with a conservative - please keep this in mind...

People who study the best ways to talk to folks caught up in cults will tell you NOT to attack the cult leader. That only makes them close their minds because they have been conditioned to believe he is their persecuted and misunderstood leader. If you want to get to them, talk about their ideology and how that has mislead them and define your terms because what you are talking about is not always what they are talking about.

Individually - If you get them to see what their movement’s policies are doing that are digging us deeper into this hell hole, if you get them to agree, don’t stand over them like you have beaten them. Don’t pound your chest and say “I told you so!!” Put your arm around them and tell them it isn’t their fault, they have been mislead by their movement.

Let me finish by putting it bluntly -- If we don't "get" this article we DON'T GET THE PROBLEM. If we don’t get the problem we will NEVER win. No, Bush is not running in '08 and they have already started this frame that he isn't a "good conservative" - that is a huge fraud. They will put lipstick on another extremist and tell the country he is Bush without the baggage, he is "new and improved" conservative. They will pull it off if we don't attack the real problem, CONSERVATISM, which I repeat is a homophobic, anti-science, theocratic, corporate shilling, anti-constitution, nation destroying movement. You see it, now go after it. It is the enemy of the future of our nation and must be exposed for what it is.

IT’S THE CONSERVATISM STUPID!!!

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/incompetent

Bush Is Not Incompetent
by George Lakoff, Marc Ettlinger and Sam Ferguson

Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush’s plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush's "failures" and label him and his administration as incompetent. ;b]For example, Nancy Pelosi said “The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue for me, and that is the competence of our leader." Self-satisfying as this criticism may be, it misses the bigger point. Bush’s disasters — Katrina, the Iraq War, the budget deficit — are not so much a testament to his incompetence or a failure of execution. Rather, they are the natural, even inevitable result of his conservative governing philosophy. It is conservatism itself, carried out according to plan, that is at fault. Bush will not be running again, but other conservatives will. His governing philosophy is theirs as well. We should be putting the onus where it belongs, on all conservative office holders and candidates who would lead us off the same cliff.

To Bush’s base, his bumbling folksiness is part of his charm — it fosters conservative populism. Bush plays up this image by proudly stating his lack of interest in reading and current events, his fondness for naps and vacations and his self-deprecating jokes. This image causes the opposition to underestimate his capacities — disregarding him as a complete idiot — and deflects criticism of his conservative allies. If incompetence is the problem, it’s all about Bush. But, if conservatism is the problem, it is about a set of ideas, a movement and its many adherents.

The idea that Bush is incompetent is a curious one. Consider the following (incomplete) list of major initiatives the Bush administration, with a loyal conservative Congress, has accomplished:

*Centralizing power within the executive branch to an unprecedented degree
Starting two major wars, one started with questionable intelligence and in a manner with which the military disagreed

*Placing on the Supreme Court two far-right justices, and stacking the lower federal courts with many more

*Cutting taxes during wartime, an unprecedented event

*Passing a number of controversial bills such as the PATRIOT Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Medicare Drug bill, the Bankruptcy bill and a number of massive tax cuts

*Rolling back and refusing to enforce a host of basic regulatory protections
Appointing industry officials to oversee regulatory agencies

*Establishing a greater role for religion through faith-based initiatives

*Passing Orwellian-titled legislation assaulting the environment — “The Healthy Forests Act” and the “Clear Skies Initiative” — to deforest public lands, and put more pollution in our skies

*Winning re-election and solidifying his party’s grip on Congress

These aren’t signs of incompetence. As should be painfully clear, the Bush administration has been overwhelmingly competent in advancing its conservative vision. It has been all too effective in achieving its goals by determinedly pursuing a conservative philosophy.

It’s not Bush the man who has been so harmful, it’s the conservative agenda.

much much more...