Rhetorical Brinksmanship

Much focus at the moment on the effect of violent political rhetoric. Bullseyes, reloading, Second Amendment Remedies, and all of that. I think it misses the point.

That stuff's pernicious for all sorts of reasons, but really you can find violent rhetoric anywhere you look in America, first and foremost in sports. "He's a warrior," "we're gonna kill 'em," that sorta thing. We're a rootin' tootin' gunslinging, globe-spanning, global defending cowboy, we ruggedly tamed the wild west, Nazis and Communists at the business end of untold firepower. Of course there's always gonna be talk like that.

This isn't the real danger. At least not by itself. It's a spark, but the Santa Ana winds and dead brush on the hillside is the rhetoric that casts a government in power as illegitimate and its elected officials as enemies.

This is what the right engages in, and has been engaging in with increasing effectiveness and efficiency for some time now. It can't be stated any more succinctly or slickly than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stating that his number one goal is making sure Obama is a one-term president. I can't catalog all the things that have been said by elected officials, political insiders and pundits that claim the actions of a Democratic Congress or White House are illegitimate and fundamentally dangerous to individual freedom or liberty.

There really isn't much detailed explanation by the right's message machine--let alone by any part of the MSM--of what negative consequences would flow from Democratic policies. I mean, yes, you can see it in editorials and columns here and there, but you'd have to be reading, and print is not where the message wars are waged and won.

In lieu of explanation, you get increasingly strident buzzwords and catch phrases. Job-killing, socialism, government overreach, threat to freedom. You'll never catch them explaining that while their opponents across the aisle care deeply about America and Americans, they believe that policy X is more likely to do Z than policy Y for the following reasons. That shit can't be reduced to a shout-bite. And truth be told it isn't effective at getting people to vote for you (which is even more important when your policy amounts to 1) cut taxes always and first, 2) cut military spending never, and 3) if we have any energy left, see what social safety net programs have the weakest constituencies and cut those).

What happens? A perception that what's at stake is the very survival of our nation, our way of life, the very purity of our precious bodily fluids! Voting for an opponent imperils our very survival! To do so would be treasonous, would enable appeasers and would extend tyranny over the individual! We spent decades and billions fighting godless socialists around the world, why would you want us to do any less fighting the same enemies at home?

Rhetorically speaking, there's not really anywhere to go, is there? They've pushed things to edge, much as the threat of nuclear war allowed the original diplomatic brinksmanship where diplomats would push their demands to the limit. You can only do that if everybody's convinced their very survival is at stake, and that if they don't blink and back down we all lose.

Say what you will of the Democratic party and the left's elected officials, insiders and pundits, but they are not guilty of engaging in this kind of rhetorical brinksmanship--For the most part they kick it old-school, you know, "we want to do A, B and C for X, Y, and Z reasons." Boring but honorable (kinda like Volvos: Boxy, but good). Sure, you can dig up lame name-calling from the Bush years, including Bush=Hitler stupidities, but you'll find nothing with the apocolyptic vigor coming from the right's message machine. That extreme stuff was found on signs held at protests and among people banging the message boards online. The difference is that what's on the signs and message boards these days is also coming out of the mouths of Republican elected officials, insiders and pundits. That's the difference and that is important.

But back to the boring truth. This is America. A boring truth and difficult details will always lose to a flashy lie that pushes buttons in the subconscious and in the reptile brain. The consequences of that are all around us and frightening as hell. A great example: eating fruits and vegetables and exercising will keep you healthy and happy. Why get bogged down in that when it's easier to buy food in boxes, watch tv, and take pills to alleviate your runaway acid reflux and cholesterol? 

Why get bogged down in the details and hard truths when you can call your opponent a threat to freedom and a socialist?