Monday, August 2, 2004

Yeah, what I said

What I said the other day:

Well, Bush is going back on the campaign trail, now that the Dems Convention is over, promising to answer Kerry's charges made during the convention. Do you think they'll try to attack him with substance? Nah, they're gonna be like little kids and make fun of the way Kerry looks, the way Cheney did the other day. It's gonna get infantile now. Watch.


What Josh Marshall at TPM said today:

[. . .]

The more discussion-worthy point, however, is the use of humor as a political weapon -- mockery, derision, diminishment.

Republicans are very good at this. And it can be a tool that is deceptively difficult to respond to or combat. Effective mockery is 'sticky', hard to shake off, hard to parry. And it appeals to people's appetite for fun and humor.

Indeed, it's not just contemporary Republicans who have a knack for this. There seems to be something intrinsic to the reactionary or right-leaning mentality that gravitates toward this method of political combat. Think of the Tory pamphleteers and essayists of the 18th century in Great Britain or others of a more recent vintage in the US.

This is potent stuff. And Democrats would do well not only to be on their guard but consider applying this approach to the current president, who is more than a bit ripe for such treatment.[my emphasis]


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