The Hollow Men, or, So We'll Go No More A Rove-Ing

[Plaid Adder]

It's obnoxious to quote yourself, I know, but something I wrote a few years ago keeps coming back to me as I read about the Republicans' shenanigans:

You'll crack without our having to do a thing to you. Just because you're hollow inside, and that's all you can do.

Dirty tricks will get you so far, but I figure there has to come a time when you pay for not having a center, and I think we're seeing it happen. I posted something here a while back after the flap over Bush using footage of dead firefighters being carried out of Ground Zero in one of his campaign ads, in which I predicted that Karl Rove had outlived his usefulness, but would nevertheless go on to run the Bush campaign into the ground. I submit that that is exactly what we're watching now.

Rove really only has two tricks in his book. Trick #1 is to put all your energy into managing the image and let the substance go to hell. Do not waste time on actually trying to develop and implement policies that make life better for the voters; that will only take up energy that you need to devote to maintaining your image. Package is everything, product is nothing.

Trick #2 is to camouflage the stink that your candidate will be emitting after 4 years of doing nothing apart from pumping up his own image by constantly attacking the other guy. Have no regard for truth, decency, restraint, or any of that; just keep throwing the shit until it sticks. With the mainstream media in the shape it's in, you don't have to wait long.

Both of these tricks work--but up to a certain point. Trick #1 only works on people who accept the projected images because they are ignorant of the reality behind them. Unfortunately for Rove and company, many American voters have been so disillusioned by their own experience of Bush's presidency that they are now basically just laughing at the images that Rove and his team try to project. All the iamges that Rove thought he would be able to use are now linked in the viewers' minds to realities that puncture them. For instance:

Bush at Ground Zero ---> Bush reading My Pet Goat

Bush in the flight suit---> Bush going AWOL/ Bush implicated in Swiftboat controversy

Bush under the "Mission Accomplished" banner--> how many American dead since he gave that speech?

Bush serving Thanksgiving turkey in Baghdad---> Troops getting their stays extended so they'll NEVER get home for Christmas

And so on. So Trick #1 is just about at the end of its rope. We're going to see some pretty desperate variations on Trick #1 at the convention next week, but I don't think they're really going to matter too much. Too many people are already primed to read those images ironically.

Rove has obviously now moved on to Trick #2--smear, smear, and smear again. And we're seeing that one backfire right now. Rove's position has always been to hell with the truth as long as it rhymes; he's never had to worry about whether the attacks he made were true or even plausible, because the whole point was just to repeat them endlessly until people accepted them as part of the background noise. That's always worked pretty well in the past, but unfortunately this time around Rove didn't just pick on his opponent; he picked on everyone in America who has ever fought, or ever had a loved one fight or die, in a foreign war. Consequently, the campaign is now being challenged by people who have no connection with, or brief for, John Kerry or the Democratic Party. And, of course, it reminded everyone that although opinion is divded over whether Bush always showed up for guard duty when he was supposed to, there's no question about whether he ever actually went to Vietnam.

Almost everything Rove has done with this campaign ahs been a mistake. Having the GOP convention in New York City, for instance. That seemed like a good idea at the time, because the only thing that ever made America like Bush was having been scared shitless on September 11, so they were looking to capture a little of that old magic. Alas for Rove, Al Qaeda struck a couple years too early to suit Bush's re-election chances. America has been working its way through the stages of grieving, past 'shock,' 'denial,' and 'bargaining,' and has now moved on to 'anger.' A lot of that anger is now directed at Bush and his team--especially in New York City, which has been abandoned and betrayed by the same government that keeps trying to capitalize on its trauma. Whatever happens with the protests next week, they will certainly be much bigger, and get a lot more press, than the protests at the DNC ever did. It will be pretty obvious to anyone who takes a look around that the GOP is not welcome there.

So why has a guy who, pure evil though he may have been, used ot be very successful made such an appalling string of blunders? Because it's all he can do. It's got to be clear to these guys that their two tricks are no longer working; but they keep using them because they don't know how to do anything else. Anything that would, you know, actually work. They don't know how to listen, for instance; they've always worked by defining the agenda and then making people accept it rather than trying to find out what's actually on the voters' minds. They think they know how to make Bush *look* compassionate, but they have no clue in the world how compassion actually works. They have no idea how to actually make things any better in Iraq; all they can do is try to make them *look* better. What the American people want now is sincerity, honesty, and a real commitment to helping them out of the trough we're all in. Rove's team has spent a lot of time learning how to simulate these things, but they have absolutely no experience with the reality. Once the smoke and mirrors fail, they've got nothing.

They're hollow inside, and they're cracking. It's all they can do. I'm going to enjoy watching Rove keep digging this hole, in a schadenfreudy kind of way, even though it's also going to turn my stomach. But I don't worry that they are going to suddenly pull something out in October that will turn everything around. They can't. The one thing we know about this administration is that they don't learn. They will keep using these old and busted tricks until they finally bury themselves, and when it's all over they still won't know what happened.

Reality bites,

The Plaid Adder

[scarletlib]

1. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks but

I know that is not true. I don't want to insult old dogs by discussing them and Rove in the same breath.

Their arrogance and ignorance has brought them down.

Arrogance because they believed they could continue with same old slime and smear tactics they have been using since Bush/Dukakis in 1988. They never believed they would be called on their lies and smears because it's always worked in the past. The media has been supine if not complicit in this little game.

Ignorance because they don't realize how much the world has indeed changed since 2000. I'm talking INTERNET now and the rise of liberal discussion boards and organizations that now do the research the media won't do. We don't let these lies and smears go unanswered any more. The mainstream media must eventually hear what we say and report it. The truth is now getting out.

Arrogance and ignorance combined. They tried to used the new technology but made a fatal mistake (hubris) in letting the links between bush/sbvt be put on their web sites. They didn't think or realize that others would research those sites and find the links.