The Conservative Machine

For the first time in a long time, I decided to watch the morning political talk shows – flipping between Face the Nation, Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday. One reason I no longer watch these shows is the rather skewed and narrow way in which they cover the news and frame larger debates and the lack of any real depth in the reportage or commentary from the many guests (and hosts themselves). But what has always fascinated and infuriated me is the way conservatives so perfectly coordinate their talking points so that whatever channel you are on, you will hear them ad nauseum from the guests, the pundits themselves in some cases and every talking head across the Fox News empire. This week, in the wake of a defeat for the Republican House, it was funny and troubling to watch this trend taken back to the brilliant days of 2000 and the “theft in Florida” as the pundits, particularly at Fox, consistently sold a narrative claiming Republicans are actually in a stronger position than Democrats in the wake of the shutdown – essentially whitewashing the fact the nation is completely disenchanted with not only government in general, but conservatives in particular.

Another key element of this discourse and, essentially, propaganda strategy is to ignore the broader implications of what one of the two parties (or maybe 1 ¾ of 2 to be accurate) in America stands for and what it’s doing to Ameica – for example, the still historically high unemployment rates, the other debt problem (those of the American individual and family), falling wages, worsening benefits and the general decline in quality of life for the 99 percent. There was little to no discussion of how the shutdown undermines representative democracy (with one GOP Senator actually turning the tables and saying Obama was “ransoming” America, without any explanation)Instead the debate revolves around the crisis to come, who won, the strategic implications, a breakdown of every word in Obama’s speech from Thursday, representatives of the shutdown (with one saying that it was actually Reed and Obama who caused the shutdown because they refused to cowtow to GOP pressure to delay Obamacare, among other ridiculous and unfounded commentary).

But to get back to the point at hand, the most interesting thing to me was how often I heard the key GOP talking points repeated. The three main ones revolved around the fact the “Obamacare” website is down for repairs this weekend (they sure like their shutdowns), how the Head of the Department of Health and Human Services was skipping testifying before Congress to go to some Gala (though I seriously doubt they are at the same time!!!!!) and how the Republicans actually won’t be terribly hurt by the shutdown. This last point is, of course, the most important, as it is the “big lie” strategy deployed over and over again by conservative elite who firmly believe, with just cause, that many Americans will ultimately believe just about anything repeated often enough (for example the changing Iraq War rationale, that we found weapons of mass destruction there, that global warming is a conspiracy by scientists to improve the environment, that Obama is a Muslim who wasn’t born in America, that government is always bad and that the American Dream justifies Ancient Babylonian inequality).

Ultimately it is their message control that is the most impressive. They have maintained a consistent message throughout much of the past 30 years that papers over the damage caused by the Reagan-Bush-Bush junta together with a keen focus on the small details whenever the glaring failures of this agenda come to the fore. They are the great conjurers who through sleight of hand rewrite the history of the Reagan administration as a heroic and popular eight years (while he left teetering around 50 percent approval rating), push the blame for the current financial imbroglio onto Obama (who obviously inherited it from Bush II), ignore the successes of the New Deal and Great Society, find fall guys for their failures around every corner (liberalism, affirmative action, feminism, gays and “illegal immigrants”), create fictionalized crises around every corner while ignoring the real ones (for example the consistent lie about the short term sustainability of Social Security or the negative effects of Obamacare) and consistently marshal the corporate-elitist interest convergence while playing at a populism that has little to do with its roots. Reagan once said that facts are stupid things, and this seems to really be at the heart of the bamboozling strategy that has served the conservative revolution for so long. Now more than ever it might be time to reaffirm the sanctity of the truth and what it might do to save this sinking ship we call America.