Amused Cynic

I’ve used this theme often to express my frustration with the current Republican leaders and supposed conservative public intellectuals.  They don’t seem to understand that they’re in a knife fight with with political equivalent of Harvey Logan (as played here by the late Ted Cassidy), and that if they persist in playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules they’re every bit as naive as Obama trying to “negotiate” with the “more reasonable Taliban” or sending YouTube apologias to the Iranian mullahs.  The party needs its next Newt Gingrich (perhaps this is why Newt seems to be back in vogue), its next youngish William F. Buckley (perhaps this is why Mark Levin attracts thousands to book signings for his latest work).  Perhaps this is why we know that Sarah Palin will be back, this time blazing away with both barrels.

Of course, we all know that the the media played a prominent, propogandist role in Obama’s campaign, something that makes fighting back that much harder when you hamstring yourself with your own desire to remain true to your own ethics.  It reminds me of the professed pacifism of some of the Quaker members of my family:  Very noble, but if you stick by your pacifist ethics when the Taliban show up, they cut your head off.  Same thing with the modern Democrat party and their MSM propaganda wing.  As Joseph Goebbels proved with his “Big Lie” theory, ”

Goebbels also discovered a talent for oratory, and was soon second in the Nazi movement only to Hitler as a public speaker. Where Hitler’s style was hoarse and passionate, Goebbels’s was cool, sarcastic and often humorous: he was a master of biting invective and insinuation, although he could whip himself into a rhetorical frenzy if the occasion demanded. Unlike Hitler, however, he retained a cynical detachment from his own rhetoric. He openly acknowledged that he was exploiting the lowest instincts of the German people … racism, xenophobia, class envy and insecurity. He could, he said, play the popular will like a piano, leading the masses wherever he wanted them to go. “He drove his listeners into ecstasy, making them stand up, sing songs, raise their arms, repeat oaths … and he did it, not through the passionate inspiration of the moment, but as the result of sober psychological calculation.

During WWII, the OSS came up with this psychological profile of Goebbels:

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

The roots of this theory came straight from The Boss, in Mein Kamp:

… in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

What is making me think such apocalyptic thoughts today? Andrew Breitbart’s column in today’s Washington Times (also at Big Hollywood blog). The Democrats and their MSM propoganda wing have been running a Big Lie machine since at least the demonization of Kenneth Starr, and amped it up for the entire Bush presidency after their success in turning a very capable, honorable legal scholar into a caricature of voyeuristic Puritanism.

You can’t fight the new Goebbels with manners and kid gloves. There are no rules in a knife fight, and thanks to the corruption of our major media, no referee. You win or you die. It is a fight for survival, for the preservation of our way of life and democratic-republican form of government.

Political leftists play for keeps. They are willing to lie, perform deceptive acts in a coordinated fashion and do so in a wicked way – all in the pursuit of victory. Moral relativism is alive and well in the land of Hope and Change and its Web-savvy youth brigade expresses its “idealism” in a most cynical fashion.

The ends justify the means for them – now more than ever.

Much of Mr. Obama’s vaunted online strategy involved utilizing “Internet trolls” to invade enemy lines under false names and trying to derail discussion. In the real world, that’s called “vandalism.” But in a political movement that embraces “graffiti” as avant-garde art , that’s business as usual. It relishes the ability to destroy other people’s property in pursuit of electoral victory.

Hugh Hewitt’s popular site shut off its comments section because of the success of these obnoxious invaders. Breitbart.com polices nonpartisan newswire stories for such obviously coordinated attacks. Other right-leaning sites such as Instapundit and National Review Online refuse to allow comments, knowing better than to flirt with the online activist left.
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So now that the right is vanquished and thoroughly out of power, why doesn’t it learn from its conquerors and employ similar tactics?

The answer is obvious. The right, for the most part, embraces basic Judeo-Christian ideals and would not promote nor defend the propaganda techniques that were perfected in godless communist and socialist regimes. The current political and media environment crafted by supposedly idealistic Mr. Obama resembles Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela more than John F. Kennedy’s America.

The Huffington Post, Daily Kos and other left-leaning sites benefit from the right’s belief that there are rules and decorum in political debate and civic engagement. Of course, every now and then, a curious right-winger will go in and engage in discussion at a left-wing site, but rarely under purely disingenuous and mass coordinated means.
[...]
As a prolific consumer of online content, I value nothing more than the sincere expression of opinion that differs from mine. Sometimes I am even moved or swayed from my dogma. But that was not the type of communication that got Mr. Obama elected.

The American right is in a heap of trouble in a media age that doesn’t shun the goons and liars that have poisoned the political process and won the American presidency by breaking the rules of fair play. It is time to fight back, but it won’t be easy. The enemy is willing to do and say anything in order to win.

And that, my friends, is the quote of the day.

Related:  Dr. Melissa on whether or not Obama’s Machiavellian politics and the fact that “he is so convinced of his own rightness that he is pursuing absolutely devastating policies that are sure to harm and he pursues them with frenzied abandon” constitutes “moral evil,” as some on the Right are apparently arguing. Perhaps not, but it sure looks to me like something wicked this way comes.