It is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, so with that mea culpa, we can look back over the past couple of years and see how strategies not only failed, but resulted in good intenders shooting themselves in their own feet with unforced errors, being counterproductive, complicated their contribution to their goal's success, and created an unnecessary backlash. Both Democrats and Republicans, progressives and Triumpsters, and their support groups are guilty. Not all of the issues involved have been resolved... In many cases, it is the failure of leadership, leaders elected and unelected urging bad behavior, or their inability to control passions and actions by their more radical supporters. Nowhere is that more true than in the Covid pandemic, "stop the steal" , and by some seeking social justice in voting rights and police brutality.
That "experience is the best teacher" in the long run is still true as the GOP and right-wing media are in the process of learning and many are reversing themselves. It is a slow process for human beings to admit to being fooled and assigning blame. Truth is revealed when they and their loved ones suffer before their very eyes and are now flooding emergency rooms, facing intubation and death Sadly, some have learned that getting Covid made you much sicker and at risk of worse far more than any reaction to the shot Politicization with anti-Covid vaccination messaging has hurt Trump's own supporters and pro-Trump geographical regions. The media was flooded with deceit, half-truths, and "misinformation" that was accepted as the gospel and dished out by vaccinated talk show hosts and some politicians. Some chose to get their medical advice from social media postings. . No, Covid shots will not make you sterile or impotent. No, it was not faux or a scare tactic perpetrated by the liberal media to make Biden look good. The data came from scientists using established and accepted methodology and evidence. Those who have escaped the virus until now and think they are somehow immune or the rumors of the disease effects are exaggerated must have missed the memo that the Delta variant has changed the equation. Delta is 80% of Covid virus now circulating and is more contagious and damaging than the original Covid virus version. It is also attacking younger victims than those over 65. Pfizer and Moderna are still at least 89% as effective as before in keeping victims protected and are 99% plus effective against serious illness resulting in death. I'll take those odds.I took my two shots. Lots of luck to those who did or do not. The Biden administration deserves points in political sloganeering for "Covid is a pandemic of the unvaccinated". That is about as succinct and understandable as one can get to make a point. Data supporting that message is overwhelming as well." More than 99% of COVID-19 deaths and 97% of hospitalizations are among people who have not been vaccinated, according to the CDC" .Biden grappling with 'pandemic of the unvaccinated' (apnews.com)
Promoting the "big lie" is a slowly evolving realization that it is a lie itself. The "big lie" is the tag given by the left for Trump's claim he won the election because there was widespread voter fraud. The recent disclosure that the Department of Justice had investigated claims of election fraud. and told Trump they had found no widespread fraud that would justify his attempt to overturn the election might even change some minds. It does provide some critical evidence in pinning criminal culpability in Court on Trump for the consequences of his actions and words.
"Stop the Steal" was an example of the right's most effective slogan, but it has not convinced the majority of all voters the election was stolen..Per a recent Monmouth poll, only one-third of voters believe the steal, though over 60% of Republicans believe it. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/559402-one-third-of-americans-believe-biden-won-because-of-voter-fraud-poll . https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/documents/monmouthpoll_us_062121.pdf/ Independents tend to more favor Democrat's' positions. Chickens came home to roost on a class action suit and attorneys who filed on on behalf of Trump in Colorado lost and will have to pay for opponents ' attorneys' fees of epic amounts. Colorado lawyers who filed election lawsuit must pay rivals' fees (denverpost.com) Pro-Trump Attorneys Sanctioned In Colorado Over Election Lawsuit — ‘One Enormous Conspiracy Theory,’ Judge Fumes (forbes.com) Add that one to the list of suits filed by Trump supporters: they lost every one of them in court. Trump, Republican Lawsuits Challenging 2020 Election: List (businessinsider.com)
There were even more far-reaching serious consequences. Trump persists in claiming he was elected, not Biden to this day and the big lie fueled voter suppression Jim Crow-like legislation, while also making it more inconvenient to vote for everyone in half the states. The slogan also gave the January 6 rioters their cause and cover to try to keep Biden's election being certified by Congress. DOJ members attending the meeting where Trump pressured the DOJ to lie about the election being stolen recorded his words in their contemporary notes. It is as close to a smoking gun of Trump's knowing and criminal intent to perpetuate the big lie and acting on it we have seen to date. He knew better, but he still persisted. It may not be the Nixon tapes, but contemporary notes of witnesses in the room at the time orders were given serve as legitimate fact evidence of criminal intent in courts. Whether it will change public opinion is a different question.
While great for GOP fundraising, the "forensic audit" of the Arizona 2020 ballots fizzled. Disclosure has been it was funded by Trump supporters. 'Botched': Arizona GOP's ballot count ends, troubles persist (apnews.com) Recently, the codes to election machines in Colorado's Mesa County were posted on right-wing media while the County Clerk was attending My Pillo Guy's stop the steal "seminar". The security breach resulted in disabling the current machines, buying new ones, or doing a hand count in the next election. Colorado County's Voting Machines Banned After Security Breach : NPR This is a developing story.. The Mesa county District Attorney has opened a criminal investigation.Mesa County District Attorney Conducts Criminal Investigation After Posting Of Election System Passwords – CBS Denver (cbslocal.com) Like the Arizona "forensic audit", ballot sanctity depends on keeping the chain of custody of ballots for recounts so that bad actors are not able to alter them for future official audits. Stealing passwords of tabulating machines and posting them on right-wing sites is even more serious and this is what happened in Mesa County. In Colorado, all ballots are paper ballots heavily secured. The tabulating of them by computer is a vulnerable point and this is what was attacked in Mesa County by someone who wanted to change the vote count in the future. The answer was to force Mesa County to buy new machines or to do a hand count in the next election. Who arranged, approved, permitted that to be done will no doubt be the subject of the criminal probe. By posting the passwords on a right-wing website is an indication the act was the work of a right-wing thief. Assuming paper ballots are not sabotaged by a sloppy chain of command as they were in Arizona (after at least two official audits), such tinkering with machines in Colorado would have been found out sooner or later.
Over 500 rioters on Jan.6 who were inspired by the Stop the Steal slogan have had criminal charges filed against them and their trials will dribble on over the next year and sure to keep the issue newsworthy. January 6 Capitol Riot Arrests (usatoday.com) Adding to the coverage of the Jan. 6 riot will be the House Select Committee hearings. While it is somewhat bi-partisan, it could have been like the 9/11 Commission, truly bi-partisan. but the GOP decided credulity like that was not good PR, so they opted to try to dismiss the House hearings as partisan garbage.
Top of the list of my list of dumb political slogans by the left is " Defund the Police". Its unclarity gave the right-wing an effective handle to make their mostly white supporters cause fear beyond a reason of the demographic shifts to African Americans gaining more political power. These unchecked African Americans would march right into the white suburbs. Remember Trump's oratory at the Republican Convention in 2020, "you will note safe in Biden's America" Trump Focuses on Fear to Win Over Voters | Elections | US News Whoever from the left came up with that slogan had to explain what they meant or some meant: shift the funding to mental health and social worker as uniformed police get greater support. There were still some shrill voices that defunding .was a way to punish local police for their unfair and brutal treatment of minorities. BLM became painted with this racist fear-ginning brush, fairly or unfairly and the initial popularity in polls of George Floyd protests dropped dramatically...Opponents in politics are always ready to take advantage of slip-ups, but the Defund the Police people made it easy to paint the Democrats as soft and crime, fair or not. Why make it so easy? . GOP candidates have always had success in elections with stoking fear of crime. Trump Focuses on Fear to Win Over Voters | Elections | US News. It worked for Trump as his share of women voters increased over 2016,but it was offset with Biden's increased support of men. From a Pew analysis of 2020 voters: "Trump won a slightly larger share of women’s votes in 2020 than in 2016 (44% vs. 39%)" Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory | Pew Research Center
Biden condemned the slogan within a day the slogan appeared, but the right managed to keep their followers ignorant of that. Biden's view which was: spend more money on giving police support with mental health workers and peaceful resolution of conflict training., He did not support removing funding, but increasing it. These were Biden's: promises he has made and kept. The sensational fear message was far louder than Biden's position, leaving him having constantly being on the defensive and showing what he meant by his actions and support of legislation that increased funding to law enforcement. As Trump, the candidate had publicly acknowledged: fear was the most effective political message and fear became his and the right wing's best strategic weapon.
Not necessarily in slogan form, but in the shape of an attitude and media inference has been that violence by angry minorities crowds are fine but committed by angry white men are not. The reverse is true if you are on the right: violence by angry African Americans is condemned, but ok by 1/6 rioters. Both are wrong but some are "wronger" than others. Most of the violence committed by minorities was in the form of vandalism and occasionally physically attacking police, but it was nowhere in the league of militias invading the Michigan legislature and plotting to kidnap and kill the governor and other election officials and terrorize legislators to overturn the 2020 election during the obvious events of January .6. For their efforts on January 6, the rioters are now and for the next two years, an exhibit number one of GOP's indifference to keeping democracy viable. The exceptions to the GOP stance face repercussions by their peers.
The best answer to fact-lacking memes and fake news charges is to challenge their spreaders to provide their "alternative facts". In recent days, they often just slink away because they do not have any facts whatsoever to back up their posts on social media. One social media poster I challenged just cited Twitter opinions to justify their twisted interpretation of poll results that more were having "buyers remorse" voting for Biden. The poll they cited did not address that proposition. There is value even if such challenges fall on deaf ears of the most loyal and dedicated believers. It can give ammunition to expose the fantasies and unproven theories to those with still a bit of an open mind. and to buck up the choir to which they preach with facts and data. Not every obviously silly slogan warrants challenges. Silence just adds credibility to the most dangerous unproven theories and speculation that have gained traction or need to be nipped in the bud before they do.
What minorities forgot was the warning by Martin Luther King who saw violent that demonstrations were counterproductive, creating backlashes and setbacks to the movement demanding justice. That is why MLK advocated civil disobedience, committing law-breaking activities that were not violent as a better and more effective strategy. The lessons of history which made Martin Luther King Jr. successful were his use and advocacy of civil disobedience instead of violence, but he still said violence had some value..,. King said, "riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. ... But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard." https://theweek.com/speedreads/917022/riot-language-unheard-martin-luther-king-jr-explained-53-years-ago. Before he was assassinated, Rev. King commented that riots only helped George Wallace. 1968 saw riots and racial unrest which many think led for white voters to put "Law and Order" on the top of the political agenda, leading to the strong showing of racist George Wallace and the election of Richard Nixon in that November. Violence is not protected as a first amendment right. Nonviolence | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute (stanford.edu)
Biden says federal aid to police should be based on meeting "basic standards of decency" - CBS News
Police departments use COVID funds to fight crime at Biden’s urging (police1.com)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/25/trump-team-fox-news-alleged-dead-voters-most-cases-were-either-debunked-or-actually-involved-republicans/?utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_fix&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3517441%2F61771d009d2fda9d4123
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