S&M, Republican Style

You have to hand it to the Republicans, they know how to work a crowd.

This had already been pointed out by Thomas Frank in What’s the Matter with Kansas? And you’d think that once people had this explained to them they might slap their foreheads and say “How could we have been so gullible!”

But one should never underestimate the stupidity of the American electorate. The GOP didn’t need to use social issues to get what they wanted in the midterm elections. As ever, “it’s the economy, stupid.”

Forget the smoke and mirrors; it’s all done with rhetoric. The Republicans want to shoot down health insurance reform, so they cry “big government!” and “socialism!” – despite the fact that most Americans would never want to give up Social Security or Medicare. When their target is spending, they cry “deficit!” – despite the fact that entitlements and defense carry the load, and that the GAO estimates that Obamacare will actually reduce it. When the issue is taxes, their battle charge is “cut!” – despite the fact that extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will only add to the deficit. The trick is to raise only one issue at a time so as not to reveal how one argument shoots down the other, which is appropriate for the average voter’s attention span. And as Charles Pierce points out in Idiot America, if something is repeated often enough and with sufficient gravitas, it’s accepted as truth.

The bottom line is, this agenda doesn’t serve “the American people” that the GOP constantly invokes. It benefits big business and the wealthy. Just like it’s always been.

Come to think of it, it is all smoke and mirrors. Wielded so deftly that most people don’t even know it. Except that, as with most s&m, the victim is saying “don’t stop, hurt me more.”