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.