You probably don't even know you do it. And you almost certainly don't know how much you do it...how deep into your head the Republican BrainWorm has dug.
Or to put it another way, in the legendary Battle for Hearts and Minds...The Republicans may not have won any hearts lol, but they sure did infiltrate a lot of minds.
Karl Rove's job was not just to win elections, Karl Rove's job was to to change the lexicon of politics, to change the language....
And by changing the language change the perception...
And by changing the perception of issues....change the way people thought, and by changing the way WE thought, change the way we act.
The aide (Rove) said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do
If you can change the way people THINK about an issue you can...and Rove did...change the way people talk about it and act on it. And it worked.
We are STILL operating in the Republican reality. And the proof of that is that we are still playing defense....defense against Republican born framing and perception on every issue we face.
George Bush and Kral Rove and Dick Cheney changed the way even Liberals think about issues, by imposing their framing, their desired perceptions, on all of us, and on every issue, for eight years.
Especially...on the Press. And through the Press on all of America. And while the most damaging aspect of that change has been in the way Democratic Politicians think, and thus speak and act.....always on defense, they changed US too.
We are STILL reacting to the reality they created and still thinking about that 'reality' in the way they want us to.
We are still defending against the Republican Reality...instead of making OUR own reality.
We are still...despite the fact that their "reality" failed catastrophically ....acting as if their reality is THE reality.
From health care, to the two wars, to immigration and Climate Crisis, the catastrophically failed and discredited and unpopular with voters Republicans are still framing the debate.
And the Left and the Dems are still playing defense on every level.
Not just caring what the failed republicans think....but actually adjusting and changing the way we think and act because of the Republican imposed perception of every issue.
Somewhere in the back of our mind a nagging little voice cries out to us..."What will the Republicans think."
"How will the Republicans react?"
And the meaning of that voice is...."How can we PRE-compromise to the Republicans?"
In the Dem politicians mind, that translates into mental, almost unthought about, nearly unconscious phrases like... We have to GIVE THIS to the Republicans or they will be mad."
In bloggers minds that translates into mental, almost unthought about, nearly unconscious phrases like.... "We can't have Single Payer or a strong Public Option."
"We can't call for an end in Afghanistan."
"We have to compromise on Coal, even though it is killing the planet."
"We have to use the (demonizing) phrase illegal alien."
And of course the worst one, the grand daddy of them all, used by both the Polilticians and the Bloggers.....
"We don't have the votes."
Well I have a question for us all.
When are WE going to stop living in the Republican Reality?
When are WE going to start imposing OUR reality on them?
Instead of letting them continue to define reality....even after their reality has failed and that failure has cost so much?
Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery...to the Republican reality.
It is time to stand up for what WE believe in and stop reacting to and defending against THEIR reality.