The Luntz Memo
Republicans are evil. What is frightening is that they no longer are even trying to hide it.
For many years now, those on the left have suspected that the Republicans follow a script, “talking points” as they say, so that they and the pundits who are on their side (Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck, Pipes, Douthat, Malkin, Coulter, Will and Noonan, among others) can all say the same thing, and it begins to sound like conventional wisdom.
It could be a legitimate political strategy. A less generous view is that it’s propaganda. An even less generous view is that it’s mind control. In any event, nothing commercial advertisers don’t do all the time, sometimes with only a slightly elevated level of honesty.
Anyway, they’re no longer even being discrete about it.
Recently, Republican strategist Frank Luntz wrote a memo on the subject of how to kill Obama’s financial regulatory bill. He said that all loyal Republicans should use the following words, and phrases: accountability, transparency and oversight, lobbyist loopholes (note the alliteration), enforcement of current laws, bureaucrats, wasteful Washington spending, never again, government failures and incompetence, let’s help small businesses, big bank bailout bill, bloated bureaucracy, fine print, unintended consequences, special interests, hard working taxpayers, another Washington agency, unlimited regulatory powers, devil is in the details, red tape.
Never mind that Republicans tend to be the party with no accountability, transparency or oversight, the party that is far cozier with lobbyists, and the party of which most people with more than two brain cells to rub together would say “never again!” Never mind that they mentioned bureaucrats twice. Everybody hates bureaucrats although, really, it’s just a pejorative term for anyone who works in an office. Never mind that Republicans have spent billion, even trillions wastefully which is what got us into this mess.
Above all, never mind that no bill has actually been introduced yet. They will use these words to fight it with complete disregard to what is in it.
And they might win.
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