Why we can't win the message game

Everyone seems to be caught up in Olympic stories of one kind or another, so I guess my brain is thinking along those lines too. One of the commentators last night said that maybe the reason Michael Phelps didn't win the really long contest but is winning the shorter ones is because he didn't train for the more demanding one. Not being much of a swimmer, I wondered how a person could be fit enough to win short races but not ready for the longer ones. What would Phelps have had to do differently? How many more shoulder and chest muscles does a swimmer need to go the distance? Then I switched channels and watched some MSNBC political stuff for awhile. One of the commentators on that channel described how the lies in Mitt Romney's TV ads get wired into voters' brains as fact. For example, one of the ads takes out of context something President Obama said about how public institutions and government agencies help provide support for entrepreneurs and family businesses trying to expand and compete for customers. The Romney hired guns took one line out of that speech and turned it into a campaign theme. "What do you mean I didn't build my company? How insulting." Of course that's not what President Obama said, but it doesn't matter. The punch line is picked up by right wing radio, and it goes out to millions of listeners. The right wing blogs pick it up and slice and dice it until it's embedded in people's minds. Then Faux News delivers the final tap of the hammer to be sure the idea is tightly sealed in the brains of people who don't bother to check the facts. So what do Democrats and the MSNBC program staff do? They research the companies mentioned in the Romney ads and reveal "the truth" about how much government assistance they received and repeat over and over how much our public education system helped prepare those managers and workers to be successful. All true, but irrelevant to the majority of voters. We Democrats like to know we're right and feel good about being on the side of truth, justice and the American Way. But that and a buck fifty will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, nothing more. There's a story in one of the really good books about the American war in Vietnam that recounts a meeting of a North Vietnamese general and an American high ranking officer many years after the American withdrawal from that country. The American told the Vietnamese general, "You know we never lost to you on the battlefield." To which his Vietnamese counterpart replied, "That may be true, but it is also irrelevant." I've thought a lot about that statement in recent days and months as Democrats carefully explain just how awful the economic situation is for the majority of American families and how we came to be in such dire straits. I love charts and graphs as much as the next person, and I read all the analyses churned out by incredibly smart scholars and writers. I'm convinced that the Republican Party, or at least its present heavy hitters, have a well-thought-out strategy to dismantle all public institutions in our country and open even more investment opportunities for the already super rich. I know the Bush tax cuts and two unfunded wars were part of the long term plan to bankrupt the country and allow them to claim we can't afford any of the programs that help individuals survive. We can afford billions for military hardware that even the Pentagon doesn't want because the money goes to private companies. But heaven forbid we should use general revenue for some kid's insulin or inhaler. We are well on our way to becoming the Corporate States of America, and all the polite presentation of the facts won't amount to a hill of beans. The Corpublicans have trained for the long distance game. They started decades ago and know that this is their best chance to complete the total disintegration of what is left of our communal consciousness, our sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves. Their ideology is based on individual self interest, every man for himself, and if you don't survive, that's no one's fault but your own. Theirs is a much easier story line to sell. Who doesn't love a winner? Heaven forbid we should criticize millionaires. After all, don't we all aspire to such wealth and power? Isn't that why so many people buy lottery tickets? What would you do with a hundred million dollars? It's fun to imagine. And the Republican masters of messaging know this. They appeal to our least evolved levels of need. God, guns, guts and glory. We've got it all right here in Branson, Missouri. Join the chorus. Let us sweep you up into the fantasy of self-certainty and righteousness. You deserve that extra Mercedes and Mediterranean cruise because you're one of the chosen. God loves you but has questions about that guy who washes your car. If God had chosen him too, why would he still be washing cars? The reasoning is simple. Let the circle be unbroken. I hope President Obama and Vice President Biden can break through the wall of lies and vitriol coming from the Romney campaign and his supporters. One thing I know for sure - all the charts and research articles in the world won't matter to them. A friend of mine told me at church the other day that she tried very politely to ask her sister why she was going to vote for Romney. The sister said she didn't want to talk about it because she knew the conversation "would deteriorate." I would really like to know how highly-educated people who aren't particularly wealthy can support a corporatist who will sell them out to the highest bidder the first chance he gets. It's too late for Democrats to train for the long distance race. We should have started supporting liberal talk shows and unabashedly liberal candidates years ago instead of thinking that our "friends across the aisle" would be reasonable. VP Biden said it right: This is NOT your father's Republican party. They really don't give a damn about you or your family's survival. How do we make that clear to voters? If they think the employment situation is bad now, just imagine the "Offshorer-in-Chief" in the White House. And David Koch on the Supreme Court. Dick Cheney's dream of a total grip on power by a handful of insanely immoral plutocrats will finally come true. I guess I'll watch those Olympic athletes again today and hope some of their drive, courage, passion and persistence rubs off on me. It's going to be tough this fall as we stretch to reach the finish line. Our opponents will use every dirty trick in the book and outspend us by millions of dollars. This is not a contest for the faint of heart. We’re competing for nothing less than the future of our democratic form of government.

ALEC, AMEREN and YOU

ALEC, AMEREN AND YOU While Missourians are struggling to pay their electric bills during the worst heat wave since the 1930's, their state legislators who belong to the American Legislative Exchange Council are partying at a Five Star hotel in Salt Lake City. And our electric company, AMEREN, is paying a portion of the cost of that party. Why? Because ALEC's corporate lobbyists write legislation our ALEC members in Jeff City will carry back and try to pass next spring. Several dozen companies have dropped their membership in ALEC recently because of ALEC's extreme position on a variety of different issues. ALEC is behind the attacks on the EPA (see www.alec.org/EPA's Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators.) ALEC is also pushing states to require the teaching of climate change denial as a legitimate scientific theory in our schools. (see www.alecexposed.org.) As if their allegiance to the fossil fuel and nuclear industries weren't dangerous enough, ALEC pushes laws that cripple local governmental authorities when it comes to protecting us from pollution and other environmental hazards. So why is AMEREN supporting a lobbyist group that works directly against the best interest of Missouri citizens and its rate payers? How many millions of dollars does AMEREN spend on lobbying, and why should we give them even more money to work against our health and safety? The ALEC meeting this week is being held at the Grand America Hotel which boasts "lavish amenities" including a full-service spa, a lobby lounge featuring a harp serenade, afternoon tea service and down comforters in the suites which range from 700 to 880 square feet in size. Recently, a local St. Louis man died in his mobile home because he couldn't pay his air conditioning bill. His home was probably no bigger than one of the luxurious suites our state legislators and their families are enjoying in Salt Lake City. How can legislators who make aroung $40,000 a year afford such vacations? AMEREN customers indirectly subsidize the "Missouri Night" dinner and reception. This is what passes for economic justice today. The next Speaker of the Missouri House, Rep. Tim Jones of Eureka, is co-chair of the Missouri delegation to ALEC. What are the chances that he and the other ALEC members will protect Missourians from exploitation by a monopoly utility company? Tell the Public Service Commission to JUST SAY NO to yet another rate hike. STATEMENT READ BEFORE THE MISSOURI PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION HEARING ABOUT AMEREN'S REQUEST FOR A RATE INCREASE, JULY 26, 2010.

What gall these traitors have

Every election in a democracy like ours is important, but this November voters will decide whether to defend our precious experiment in self-government or deliver the final blow that kills it. Otherwise good and honest people like Larry O'Neill of Kirkwood ("Thin skinned politician, July 21) have been convinced by clever and well-funded slogan campaigns that President Obama is at fault for all our country's woes. I give Mr. O'Neill the benefit of the doubt because his criticisms of our President are almost word-for-word from Republican websites and television ads. One of the many corporate-funded anti-Obama groups is aptly named Now or Never. That says it all. The handful of powerful families and corporations out to destroy what's left of our "one man, one vote" society know this election is their last chance for total control. On the night of President Obama's inauguration, a cabal of schemers and plotters met to lay out their plan to overthrow the duly elected government that "we, the people" had chosen. Their plan was simple - obstruct, thwart, criticize and ridicule every attempt by President Obama and the Democrats in Congress to pull the country back from the total collapse that was imminent in spring of 2009. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spelled out the Republican plan that spring: Make Barack Obama a one-term president regardless of the cost in pain and suffering to the American people. "Starve the beast" of public funding for anything that helps individuals directly and repeat ad nauseum the lie that prosperity trickles down when the wealthy have more money than they know what to do with. What is amazing to me is that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have been able to accomplish all that they have, including the so-called "failed stimulus." Ask any of the teachers, police officers and firefighters who were able to keep their jobs because of the Reconstruction and Recovery Act if the stimulus failed. Look at all the highway and road construction going on and ask yourself where the money came from for those good-paying jobs. Half of the Recovery Act was for a tax cut for all of us so we would have a few extra bucks to keep some of our neighbors working. But keeping our jobs and helping our neighbors doesn't fit into the Republican plan to bankrupt us so we'll be thankful for whatever crumbs they throw us. They know our civic spirit is the only thing left standing in their way. The American auto companies have paid back, with interest, all or most of the money we lent them to save as many jobs as possible. Ask the auto workers and millions of families that benefited from the ripple effect of that money in the economy if President Obama is too "thin skinned." I'd say he's handled himself admirably despite the traitorous attacks on him personally and professionally. Instead of blaming the President for not creating more jobs, we should be asking why corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash waiting for November's election. The "job creators" have had extra money to burn for over a decade now, so what are they waiting for? That's the question voters must answer.