Demonizing Everyday Americans

There appears to be a concerted effort among the political Left and many mainstream media people to demonize and marginalize the expanding citizen-based movement known as the tea party movement. This effort flows from both a fear of what these tea parties represent and a contempt for everyday Americans. But those ordinary citizens are poised to be the ones laughing when it’s all over, when democracy takes its course.

There seems to be a consensus now among the liberal elite when it comes to the tea parties. Senior administration officials deride them, as do liberal congressional Democrats. These elitists characterize the tea partiers as extremists, some drawing analogies between these ordinary citizens and right-wing militias, fanatics, and religious zealots. Some members of Congress are even saying that these tea party people are racist, which is pretty much the worst label that can be slapped on you in modern politics.

And many leftist talking heads in the media parrot this message, with their own biting editorial, adding that some in the tea party crowd are dangerous. Some talking heads, including some Hollywood actors and others who don’t seem to have any credentials as policy analysts but are nonetheless given air time, are really playing up the racism angle, and even suggest that some tea party attendees may be domestic terrorists.

Agents of big government and their boosters in the mainstream media seem determined to throw cold water on this growing grassroots movement that is a reaction to the Obama administration’s power grab of the growth and expansion of this country’s central government.

There’s a great deal of diversity among tea party people. Some just want lower taxes, and some also want less regulation. Still others are pro-life voters or Christian conservatives that also want fiscal responsibility. Many others push for conservative judges, while still others hold up signs calling for a restoration of American sovereignty, or protecting America’s borders, or defeating cap and trade or card check.

But they all have two things in common: They all want smaller government, and oppose the trampling of the Constitution embodied in these efforts to radically expand the size and scope of government. And as part of that desire, they want this utterly-ludicrous spending binge to end before it bankrupts all of us.

There’s nothing extremist about that agenda, because common sense is never extreme.

Are there some people attending tea party rallies who are intemperate in their remarks? Sure. Whenever you get tens of thousands of regular folks together, you’ll always get a few who makes comments that they should reconsider. Even then, nothing we’ve seen is worse than the truly outrageous statements that we’ve heard from the Left in recent years about President Bush or Republicans.

Having been engaged in many gatherings of the tea party crowd, it’s offensive that many in the mainstream media are engaging in a systematic effort to marginalize American citizens who are simply trying to take a stand for individual liberty—a stand in opposition to big-government expansion. Also one of us speaking as an African-American (Blackwell), it’s especially insulting to suggest that these people’s opposition to President Obama is driven by racism.

America’s history of grassroots activism goes back to the founding of our republic. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people includes as a necessary element those same average, ordinary people being able to gather and speak out. This freedom to assemble was considered so essential to a free nation that our Founders put it in the First Amendment, right alongside the freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Ironically, these rights are set side-by-side with the freedom of the press, as well. The leftists in the media would do well to remember that their liberty to be a free press comes from the same constitutional amendment as the tea party crowd’s liberty to gather together.

And our elected leaders would do well to remember that the First Amendment exists to protect average people from the government, not the other way around.

Blackwell and Klukowski are the authors of the forthcoming book, The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency, on sale April 27.

I have lived long enough to experience being called extremist, by the same people but from two different directions. In 1970, I was called a “Baby Killer” and anyone living around then knows why. Today the SAME people from Hollywood and other Liberal hotbeds call Me an extremist because I don’t support the Pro Choice agenda. To me, it seems that they are just parroting lines given to them, as MY beliefs haven’t changed in all these years. So one has to wonder who are the people that are true to their cause, those that spout the current liberal dogma or the ones that have been following their own beliefs through Life? I also remember that those calling me a Baby Killer were burning and bombing buildings, breaking windows, turing over police cars, and generally destroying cities; while the HUGE crowds of Tea Party marchers don’t even leave trash to sweep up. But, it is the Tea Party group that is called dangerous extremists, rioting and destroying America by the MSM and Government officials. You decide which group you would rather have in charge of the Nation, in November. I can also remember, the Tea Party groups seem to have better command of soap and shampoo application...

It is a classic propaganda program. A recent example, the Spotlight event.

Fredericka Whitfield (CNN) "at least dozens of people" were in attendance.

Ok, could anyone possibly describe this as "dozens?"

Of course not. It is a clear agenda of misinformation, misdirection and demonization.

This is a full blown propaganda program. Apparently CNN and most of MSM has an agenda reminiscent of Joseph Goebbels "information" programs.

It is beyond familiar...

"Goebbels used all media of education and communications to further Nazi propagandistic aims, instilling in the Germans the concept of their leader as a veritable god and of their destiny as the rulers of the world. "

GOEBBELS' PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA

Based upon Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda by Leonard W. Doob, published in Public Opinion and Propaganda; A Book of Readings edited for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.

: 2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.

a. It must issue all the propaganda directives.
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale.
c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences; 3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.
: 4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.; a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence; b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions; c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself; d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity; 5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign
: 6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.
: 7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.
: 8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.
: 9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.
: 10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.
: 11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.
: 12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.
: 13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.; a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.; b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment; c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness; 14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.; a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses; b. They must be capable of being easily learned; c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations; d. They must be boomerang-proof; 15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.
: 16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.; a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat; b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves; 17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.; a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated; b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective; 18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.
: 19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

>>>I think we are being naive to brag that the elections will fix everything when the people we are trying to defeat are the ones who have the power to thwart the election process!
You two are seeing clearly. Most of the media are fullly on board with the propaganda/election-stealing project. Media lies about Tea Parties show Alinsky’s Rule #13 in action: identify, isolate, freeze and escalate.

Conservatives gallantly expect the Left to eventually see the truth and be “fair.” As I’ve posted many times before, that’s like expecting Lucy to finally let Charley Brown kick the football. These people are Marxists! The word “fair” doesn’t exist in their vocabularies. They are determined to win power “by any means necessary.”<<<

I worked for 20 years in the print media.

You are correct in your assessment. I’ve seen this from the inside looking out.

The solution is to create alternate sources of information to compete with the leftist-controlled media.

One example: Take that photo from Searchlight, Nev., showing the crowd, and then paste the sentence from CNN about “dozens” of attendees into the picture. Send out to everyone you know. Then put up on the bulletin board at work, or if you live in a place like Eugene, go down to Sundance and put up on the community board.

And never, ever give up tweaking these bastards.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.