Selling Fear

Would someone please save the Republicans from themselves! One of the charges that gets leveled at the GOP on a regular basis is that when they don’t have anything of substance to offer, they sell fear!

Well, in an exclusive, Politico has uncovered a Powerpoint presentation used to train GOP fundraisers on what buttons to push when attempting to extract donations. The presentation demonstrates a cynical and borderline contemptuous attitude toward the Republican rank and file that it seems are are easily prone to appeals to their ego and gimmick give-aways.

The powerpoint goes on to explain that when the GOP doesn’t control the Congress or the White House, they can use fear & socialism to rouse the passions of people. Are you kidding me? Do we really have to sell fear?

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What is really disturbing though are images of President Obama done up in white face and made to look like the Joker. Note to GOP: there is a difference between smart political satire and bad taste. Someone needs to be hired over there that can distinguish the difference. Even Republican Joe Scarsbough says in the clip that not only is it childish, “its in such bad form that whoever created it needs to be fired.”

I’m currently reading Richard Hoefsteader’s book “The American Political Tradition” and in it he highlights the disdain America’s Founding Fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, had for the mob mentality on display in recent Republican stratagy .

I’m beginning to wonder if today’s GOP leaders, who so often invoke the Founders in their grandstanding, realize in what utter contempt those men would actually hold them in.