August 26, 2002

24 Ways Republicans Lie

by Roger Hoppe

40 percent of the people are strongly Republican and 40 percent are
strongly Democrat. Only dishonor or some other major event will move them
to the other side. That means that every election is determined by the 20
percent of the voting public who don?t have strong views. The battle over
the middle ground is nasty. Republicans have found that lying works well.

In political campaigns, the two parties fight for time on the six o'clock
news. Whoever gets their sound bites heard wins. You can't rebut a day
later. That's too late to fix all the damage.

The point is to make the people believe what you say and disbelieve what
your opponent says. Here are the many ways this is done:

1) The end justifies the means: Republicans have no moral qualms about
this. Their philosophy is that the end (Republican rule) justifies the
means (lying to the electorate). Democrats, on the other hand, make their
bread and butter off of their honesty and character, which makes them
particularly vulnerable to character assassination.

2) Unfacts: Some statements sound like facts when they're really just
opinions or at best half-facts. I call them unfacts. An unfact is a
statement that sounds like a fact but isn't a fact. Most people can't
recognize an unfact when they hear it. A few examples would be: "There
is a growing threat of terrorism", "SUVs are safer than lighter
vehicles", "family values are on the decline". If challenged
on these points, you can easily defend them, because they're not real
facts. Simply back up the unfact with another unfact! This can go on ad
infinitum. Republicans never use a fact when an unfact will do the job just
as well.

3) "Everything he just said is either untrue or incorrect": In a
debate, it's best to start off by claiming that nothing the opponent says
is correct. If you condemn everything in blanket statements, then even if
some things are successfully refuted, some of the mud still sticks. Also,
question the motives of the opponent. If the crowd loses faith in the
opponent, he can say anything and they won't believe him.

4) Disarm your debating opponent: Many people are not capable of
determining the truth of even a simple remark such as "the capital of
Texas is Houston". This makes it easier to lie, because only a few
people catch you in it even if you're bold about it. In a debate, a
well-placed lie or unfact can disarm the opponent or color the way the
audience interprets the remainder of the debate. If a statement can't be
refuted immediately or is allowed to pass without comment, everything said
afterwards will be interpreted differently. Even if the statement is
refuted at a later time or in a different place, you've won this debate
today.

5) Misguided Science: The Republicans create their agenda first, and then
find a scientist to support it. Even if a thousand scientists agree that a
particular set of scientific evidence is valid, there is always one
scientist who says that it might be false. Republicans have found that they
can effectively combat valid scientific claims by finding the one scientist
who is willing to refute the claims of the thousand. On the 6 o'clock news,
his opinion is given as much weight as the one supported by the scientific
community. This is false science, because it isn't derived from the
scientific community as a whole or from scientific research. Nevertheless,
Republicans have begun saying, "It's not sound science" or
"science doesn't support that" or "we can do this
scientifically and protect the environment", etc. They've found that
they can use Science as a rationale for supporting the conservative agenda
simply because they know no matter what viewpoint they have, they can find
a scientist willing to back any claim they care to make. Thus they
promulgate lies ? total fabrications - with the apparent backing of
ostensibly reputable people.

6) Speaking to a crowd: If you want to be heard, first be understood; then
be believed; always elicit an emotional reaction. Republicans know how to
speak to crowds. They speak differently than Democrats. They speak to the
less intelligent members of their audience, not the more intelligent
listeners. They speak to the emotions of the audience, and thus have less
need to prove facts. They speak fewer facts and more unfacts, thus have an
easier time backing up what they say. They make their opinions sound like
facts: e.g. "the police are overworked", "teachers are
overpaid", or "Democrats rarely tell the truth".

7) Sleight of mouth: Republicans say they're doing one thing when they're
really doing another thing. The classic example is the Clear Skies
Initiative, which guts the Clean Air Act. The "Healthy Forests
Initiative" hands stewardship of the forests over to the logging
industry and allows renewed cutting of Old Growth. Saying he's helping the
Environment, Bush destroys it. He said he wouldn't allow drilling in the
National Parks and then allowed drilling in the Padre Island National
Seashore.

8) Denigrate, exaggerate and ridicule: Exaggerate any crack in the
Democratic defenses. A good example is Gore?s "invention" of the
internet. Take what they say and exaggerate it to the point where it seems
immoral or unpalatable. Make him deny it. The Republicans would love to
have the air waves full of Democrats saying "I am not a crook".

9) Find the weak spot: Republicans are constantly perusing all public
comments by democrats to find just one sentence that they can pull out of
context and quote to make the democrat sound duplicitous.

10) Make him explain it: The American media crowd being what they are, they
can be manipulated. With one well-placed sentence, a politician can cause
his opponent to be hounded many times over by reporters asking him to
explain it. Or worse, the opponent will feel it necessary to explain it
over and over. It's not so much about "make him deny it", Richard
Nixon?s favorite trick, but simply making the opponent spend all of his
time explaining why the lies are not true instead of explaining his
positions. The lies do double duty ? first, they make the Democrats look
bad, and second they make the Democrats waste all their time explaining how
the Republican claims are false.

11) Make him deny it: Like a good game of chess, the aim of political
debate is to quickly put the opponent on the defensive, and keep him there
so that all of his energy is spent defending himself and refuting your
statements, instead of making his points. When Republicans clearly state
their policies, people vote for the Democrats instead. The Democrats must
show the Republicans for what they are. A good example is
"compassionate Conservatism" ? an oxymoron. Republicans, when
faced with a damning accusation or a withering piece of logic, will not
debate it. Instead, they'll sling mud. Their goal, in any forum of debate,
is not to let the listeners know the truth, but to destroy the opposition
by any means possible. The truth takes a backseat to that because once the
opposition is destroyed there's no need to explain the facts.

12) "Repeat after me!": Radio talk show hosts can say anything
they want. In fact, that's their job. What they say can be a bald faced
lie, it doesn't matter. The listeners believe and repeat everything they
hear. When a radio talk show host makes statements of extreme opinion
(unfacts), those unfacts are repeated as fact the next day in millions of
conversations. Those unfacts are thrown up as facts millions of times
thereafter during political discussions. In this way, the conservatives can
spread all sorts of misinformation and yet disavow it if necessary. Since
the unfacts are mean-spirited, misleading and one-sided, the radio talk
show host wins merely by saying them once.

13) Create an Urban Legend, meme, catchphrase, or slogan: In much the same
way as they repeat the radio talk show unfacts, the fans of the
Conservative Right willingly promote new urban legends, memes, catchphrases
and slogans. They're fans, so they accept without question the statements
of the extremists whom they idolize.

14) Everyone knows ads lie: Advertising is the American way. You expect
advertisers to lie. Often, when Republicans make their spiel, they're being
like other advertisers trying to sell their products. People don?t mind
this because they experience it hundreds of times a day in other
advertising.

15) Say it again!: In its effect on the listener, repetition is almost like
proof of a statement's validity. It helps if many people repeat the
statement, but even if only one person (or a commercial) repeats something
over and over, people believe it more each time they hear it. This is
especially true if they don?t hear a rebuttal.

16) It's not just black and white: Imagine pouring water into two glasses:
one you fill to the brim and the other you fill about a quarter full. Now
imagine that those glasses of water are appropriations for protecting the
environment or for destroying the environment. Republicans claim to be
doing something for the environment because they fund environmental bills.
In fact they're doing a lot less than the Democrats would on those things
and a lot more on projects that are anti-environmental. This makes it
difficult for the Democrats to say the Republicans don't care about the
environment, etc. because the issue isn't a clear cut yes vs. no but rather
is one of degrees. The Republicans support the environmental bill. They
just don?t want to spend as much money as do the Democrats.

17) Sum of the Lies: Republicans promote many versions of disinformation on
a topic, coming from many different sources. News network pundits,
conservative celebrities and conservative radio talk show hosts add their
versions of a story to the voices of legislators. By throwing out several
versions of the story, they confuse the public about what is really the
truth. The democrats give only one version ? the true version. Of the many
versions, only one is true. The law of averages says that the true version
will be believed less often than the sum of the lies.

18) Dress up like a sheep: In Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf dressed up
like grandma to fool Little Red. Several times I've heard listeners call a
radio talk show and say they were Democrats who voted for Gore, but in
their opinion (insert a Republican viewpoint here). As a listener, you want
to believe the person is who speaking truly, but you have no way of knowing
based solely on the caller's comments. Often, if the talk show host follows
up on the issue, the caller will reveal a deep conservative bias. But most
often, the caller just makes his point and hangs up, leaving the audience
thinking that liberals might possibly grant his warped viewpoint some
credibility. This technique is especially insidious.

19) Bulldogs: Rarely does a member of Congress make a bald accusation of a
public official, for the simple reason that their daily business is
scratching each other's back and making compromises. The fewer enemies one
makes the more one can get accomplished. But the Republicans have learned
the value of bulldogs ? people like Rush Limbaugh and George Will who will
make those bold statements.

20) Gerrymandering: After the 2000 census, Republican-controlled state
legislatures gerrymandered districts so that they'd be more Republican. In
states controlled by Democrats, Republican judges overturned fair
redistricting and told the legislators to redo the work so that Republicans
had more representation.

21) Reverse bribery (buying votes): Since the Republicans won control of
the federal House in 1994, legislative districts that voted Republican have
received on average $600,000,000 more apiece than those that voted for the
opposition.

22) Character Assassination #1: If you can paint your opponent as a liar,
then he will never be believed again. The Republicans jumped on Al Gore
early in the campaign, impugning his integrity in several ways. They said
he said he "invented the internet". Gore should have defended
himself. As a senator, he was there at the inception of the Internet, and
did his part as a senator (not as a scientist) to give it the early impetus
that it needed to get started. In addition, he saw its promise long before
others did, and called it the "Information Superhighway". He
never said "I invented the Internet". Instead of explaining his
comments, he let people continue to think he?d made exaggerated claims.
Journalists joined in on this feeding frenzy, which made it even worse.

23) Character Assassination #2: The best way to negate your opponent is to
make people believe that he is of bad moral character, is stupid and
misinformed, or has questionable motives.

In politics, lying is legal. It's been established in court that you can
lie about your opponent and he can't sue you for it. If you can get people
to stop listening to your opponent, then it won?t matter what he says.
That's why half of all statements by Republican candidates are slanderous
statements against the opponent. Casting aspersions on the opponent's moral
character is one way to make people ignore the opponent.

24) Character Assassination #3: Play tag team politics. Republicans always
pick on a single key Democrat ? right now it's Tom Daschle, the senate
Majority Leader. Later it will be the front-runner in the 2004 race ? maybe
John Kerry. They'd have a field day with Al Gore, of course...

Reporters, news networks such as Fox, conservative think tanks, columnists,
radio talk show hosts, administration officials, as well as politicians
bombard the public with lies about the one chosen target, on many issues,
in many ways, in a constant barrage. In this way, the combined weight of
all their lies is to destroy the target's reputation.

Roger Hoppe



-- 
Yep, I'm the Atheist. I'm chock full of Ath!

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