Technique: Determine what you want the world to see tomorrow and then tell people that such a world is here today. E.g. Republicans want the populace to believe that the nation is shifting fundamentally to the right (despite the fact that Gore beat Bush by over a half million votes) so they point to the 2002 election where fewer than 45,000 votes (0.02% of the voting population) swung in the favor of the republicans, giving them control of the Senate while they ignore the democratic gains in governorships in some of the most conservative states like Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. The right-wing propaganda machine goes to work cranking out story after story and analysis after analysis concluding that the Democrats are going down the tubes because the nation has OBVIOUSLY shifted to the right. They express outrage that Nancy Pelosi, tagged a "San Francisco Liberal" by them has been elected as House Democratic Leader. "How could they do this when the nation is CLEARLY shifting to the right?" and people believe them.