The Jeff Gossett Lawsuit
So, here's the deal. Image that you are a loyal dyed-in-the-wool Republican. You own a small printing company or you are a local graphic designer in the south or midwest with a small studio. Now, imagine that because you believe everything that the GOP says about the power of the individual, about wealth being easily earned with effort and poverty being the province of laziness, about cancerous big government, about evil trial lawyers, about how big corporations are as good and as big government is bad, and on and on and on, you want to help the GOP with your talent.
Because, really, you can't lose here and the Republican worldview will show you the way.
You will come up with a simple and easily understood design to help the GOP and George W. Bush that, in your opinion, gets the word out about 'W' being the man and a GOP icon for the ages. You do this because you know that they will appreciate it, you will bring your superior idea to the marketplace and be paid well and recognized while boosting your ideology. So you will not only help the President, you will be a big hero, make money, and boost the GOP all at the same time.
So... you pitch the idea of the 'W' icon to the RNC and their supply experts, and they reject it, and you go home let down but knowing that, hey, at least you tried. Maybe it wasn't the hottest idea... better luck next time. Obviously the RNC knows what it is talking about, and maybe it just wasn't the blockbuster idea that you though it was.
Until they steal it.
Jerry Gossett of Wichita Falls says he pitched his design for a logo to the RNC's supplier of campaign materials, The Spalding Group of Lexington, Ky., in 2001 and to the RNC in 2003, and was turned down.
But in early 2004, he says, a similar logo appeared on a Web site and he traced it back to the RNC. This month, Gossett's Rally Concepts LLC sued in federal court, seeking unspecified damages for copyright infringement and conspiracy.
Tracey Schmitt, the RNC's press secretary, called the lawsuit frivolous.
I look at this case and I see a mini representation of what the GOP is all about, and about how average people, even poor and blue collar folks, actually believe in it whole-heartedly... until they have a problem and then they get a dose of the way the 'real' GOP works. In this case, being spun and turned into a ankle biting parasite instead of a loyal GOPer. You go in thinking that the marketplace is all good, that powerful people don't exploit working people... they pull people up for showing good ideas and initiative, and that the GOP are the good guys... and you get clobbered. This guy, who I think is pretty naive for not trying to get some way of legally proving that this was his idea first, actually believed in the Republican view of the world... until reality slapped him in the face. Now, he's one of those folks the Fox News crowd labels 'liberals' who solve their problems with exploitative lawyers and frivolous lawsuits.
His idols, as far as he is concerned... stole from him. It must have been a bewildering experience to realize that he'd been screwed.
He pitched his idea, in good faith, they told him it wasn't good enough and let him down easy. Hey, better luck next time. Then, when he walked away back to the drawing board, they just took it in his estimation. Suddenly, another sucker sees that the image that the GOP sells its true believers is utter bullshit, he is forced to get a lawyer and sue for his recognition and reward having concluded that he had no other recourse.
Sadly, he's seems to be jaded by the experience, but its entirely possible that he is not totally awakened to the reality of what just happened to him and what it really means about the GOP.
Gossett says he is a loyal Republican and voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, but has become jaded by his experience.
"The big RNC against little me, there was absolutely no chance to win," he said.
Sad that his experience hasn't been a completely eye-opening event, but then, if you have been fed line after line for years, maybe it will take getting attacked by his idols even more before he sees that he was really duped from the start.
[Note: I am not claiming in this diary that this guy is right, because I have no idea if he actually DID create the 'W' logo. I am looking at a GOPer who passionately believed all the GOP lines... until he had a problem or an issue... and how he was treated. He finally concluded that the only answer was to get a lawyer and sue. Harldly the message that the average GOPer is sold on when he or she goes on about the party of individual freedom vs. the party of big government.
I think one of the GOP's greatest areas of vulnerability is showing how the GOP screws good and faithful GOPers when they buck the system. This, to me, exposes so many falsehoods of how the GOP portrays the real world and how money and power works.]