Saturday, January 18, 2003

 
Tactic: Choose as Your Spokesperson, a Representative From Your Weakest Demographic

Despite the racist "coming out" party that Republicans have had to endure as a result of Trent Lott's admission of "White Love", Bush decided this past week to take a high profile stance against "affirmative action" as it was being heard before the United States Supreme Court.

"Policies that give minorities a leg up on white college applicants are unconstitutional discrimination and should be struck down by the Supreme Court"

Thank goodness! We certainly don't want those pesky minorities to have a leg up on those poor white folks.

Anyway, not everyone was accepting of Bush's rationale against "white oppression".

"The Bush administration is attempting to perpetrate a racist fraud," said Luke Massie, a national organizer with The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration By Any Means Necessary. "Bush consciously misrepresented Michigan policies by representing them as quotas," Massie said. "Integration and equality can't be achieved without active measures like affirmative action."

Now, all of a sudden, the Bush administration is dropping blame for the decision on Condoleezza Rice.

"National security adviser Condoleezza Rice took a rare central role in a domestic debate within the White House and helped persuade President Bush to publicly condemn race-conscious admissions policies at the University of Michigan, administration officials said yesterday."

As you might have noticed, Republicans are not very popular with African-Americans. Note: Gore received 90% of the black vote in 2000. Of course, I don't need to explain why. Trent Lott, Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and advocates of the confederacy have already done that. So what is a Republican to do if they want to mitigate the negative effects of their racist ideology (or any ideology for that matter)?

I know. How about choosing a member of the weakest demographic on any given policy to act as spokesperson for that issue? Ahhhh. Excellent idea.

Remember the Republican convention for the 2000 presidential cycle:

"In describing the opening night of the Republican convention, Associated Press reporter David Espo called it a "meticulously scripted appeal to voters in the political middle." How did Republicans try to convince the handful of viewers in TV land that they really are a moderate party of inclusive, "compassionate" conservatives? They trotted out good ol' Colin Powell. "See," the Republican Party said, 'some of our best friends are minorities.'"

We can also see this tactic used with a little "bait and switch" maneuver (or in this case "bait and eliminate"). It seems that Bush, in an attempt to attract African-American support for his "faith-based" initiative, recruited Harold Ray, a black clergyman described by the Wall Street Journal as "the president's strongest ally in the faith-based effort." Bush used Ray, as his spokesperson to push his initiative.

To further promote the initiative, "[Bush] hosted a meeting of religious leaders at the First Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, to sketch out his faith-based plan. Although Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic leaders were in attendance, the largest group represented was African-American clergy, whose presence sent an unmistakable message." However, "Despite the headlines, Bush excluded officials from the Congress of National Black Churches, which represents the eight major African-American denominations and includes 65,000 churches and 20 million members. Instead he handpicked a few politically sympathetic black ministers and featured them prominently in his public campaign."

And finally, after the Bush budget was completed, the funds which Bush pledged to the clergy in the form of the "Federal Compassion Capital Fund" were reduced …just slightly…from $700 million… to zero. This too sent an unmistakable message.


Tactic: Choose a Representative from Your Weakest Demographic to be Your Spokesperson

The Technique is simple:

1) Determine the demographic with whom your message is the weakest.

2) Get a member of that demographic to be your spokesperson. Conservatives would get female and minority members to spread the conservative agenda: e.g. Ann Coulter and Clarence Thomas are true radical conservatives. They think like old, rich, white men but look like the traditional liberal constituency.

When Republicans are called on any issues of gender or race discrimination, you can rest assured that these will be the spokespersons of choice to voice the conservative arguments, themselves serving as evidence to the contrary of the accusation. Make a point to notice that the proportion of women and minorities on TV talk shows representing Republicans is far out of proportion with the percent of the Republican constituency accounted for by them. Seeing such diversity on talk shows and editorial pages confuses the public and clouds the lines between the conservative and progressive ideologies.

The Defense against such a tactic is to call the opposition on their use of it. Stress that the spokesperson's views run counter to the general interests of the majority of the demographic they represent.

Use phrases like: "If Republicans started encouraging diversity with their actions rather than simply presenting a transparent façade of diversity, then we, as a nation, might be able to get past the issues of racial inequality".

Use words like: "Shameless", "Hollow", "Dishonest", "Superficial", "Meaningless", "Token", "Disingenuous", "Facade", etc. to describe the opponent who uses this tactic.

In any event focus on their actions, and ridicule their rhetoric.

See Also "It's Official. Bush is a racist."

posted by Thomas Ball 1:01 AM