Inside Groundswell: Read the Memos of the New Right-Wing Strategy Group Planning a "30 Front War"

[Bill USA]

revelations of GOP Nazi-like machinations to attack Democrats and undermine rational, democratic government....


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/groundswell-rightwing-group-ginni-thomas

Believing they are losing the messaging war with progressives, a group of prominent conservatives in Washington—including the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and journalists from Breitbart News and the Washington Examiner—has been meeting privately since early this year to concoct talking points, coordinate messaging, and hatch plans for "a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation," according to documents obtained by Mother Jones.

Dubbed Groundswell, this coalition convenes weekly in the offices of Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group. During these hush-hush sessions and through a Google group, the members of Groundswell—including aides to congressional Republicans—cook up battle plans for their ongoing fights against the Obama administration, congressional Democrats, progressive outfits, and the Republican establishment and "clueless" GOP congressional leaders. They devise strategies for killing immigration reform, hyping the Benghazi controversy, and countering the impression that the GOP exploits racism. And the Groundswell gang is mounting a behind-the-scenes organized effort to eradicate the outsize influence of GOP über-strategist/pundit Karl Rove within Republican and conservative ranks. (For more on Groundswell's "two front war" against Rove—a major clash on the right—click here.)

One of the influential conservatives guiding the group is Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a columnist for the Daily Caller and a tea party consultant and lobbyist. Other Groundswell members include John Bolton, the former UN ambassador; Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy; Ken Blackwell and Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council; Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch; Gayle Trotter, a fellow at the Independent Women's Forum; Catherine Engelbrecht and Anita MonCrief of True the Vote; Allen West, the former GOP House member; Sue Myrick, also a former House GOPer; Diana Banister of the influential Shirley and Banister PR firm; and Max Pappas, a top aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Among the conveners listed in an invitation to a May 8 meeting of Groundswell were Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News Network; Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who resoundingly lost a Maryland Senate race last year (and is now running for a House seat); Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society; Sandy Rios, a Fox News contributor; Lori Roman, a former executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council; and Austin Ruse, the head of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. Conservative journalists and commentators participating in Groundswell have included Breitbart News reporters Matthew Boyle and Mike Flynn, Washington Examiner executive editor Mark Tapscott, and National Review contributor Michael James Barton.
(more)

I have begun posting about this on M$M sites in hopes of making it known to those who may not ever hear about it. It certainly won't be brought up on the corporate media (NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS). I urge everybody to post about this in at least a few places about the web so more people will become aware of the GOP's affinity for the use of propaganda and disinformation.


also see: Audio Emerges Proving Secret Conservative Organization Behind Benghazi “Scandal” from DainBramaged

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024250469

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[TwilightGardener]

2. "Write articles on a fourth-grade level!"--clearly overestimating their base.

[pscot]

3. Primitive, paranoid morons

Mein Kampf is their political textbook.

[zeemike]

5. Or The Prince, by Machiavelli.

Kicking this for exposure.

[calimary]

4. Kicking!

So more people see this.

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Bunch of Nazis.

[rhett o rick]

7. It is essential that we develop methods for propaganda. nm

[nilesobek]

8. We have the methods and the right side of history

We have the talent and the thinkers and writers, what we dearly lack is the huge, {should be illegal}, financial machines to power it. Look at that money and their supporters. They can easily dupe simple minds.

[rhett o rick]

9. What method are available to us to get a large audience? We need a network. nm

[Doctor_J]

10. we have no methods at all

and haven't had for more than 20 years.

[Bill USA]

12. I can't believe you meant "propaganda". We need to get the truth out to people. But truth doesn't

'sell' well. People respond to messages that play to their fears, hatreds and superstitions. Unfortunately, the truth usually takes more time to tell. It's not as simple as bumper sticker slogans. I think what you meant was we need to develop more effective ways of getting the truth out to people. THis is not an easy task. Bullshit always sells well because it appeals to many people's feelings that they somehow got cheated.

There are many people who wake up one day realizing they aren't going to be living the Good Life they thought they would. I guess nobody told them that if they wanted to achieve something they would have to sacrifice and work hard - or at least harder than the other guys who also want to 'get somewhere'. Not having made the sacrifices and not having put in the hard work required, they find they are not living 'the high life' (as they imagine it: "the gravy train" ..("Money for nothin' and your chicks for free&quot ... which they don't know does not exist) and they feel they have been cheated. It's a human trait to prefer to blame other people for things you didn't get accomplished. The blacks, the Jews, the "they" or, all rolled up into one:.....THE GOVERNMENT (fall guy provided by the GOP) - which is run by the pinko Democrats to give freebies to blacks and homos and fellow commies. The largess the put-upon feel should have been theirs - is going to 'other' people.

This is what the GOP are so masterful at playing to. THe GOP is good at this because they attract those who gravitate to being con-men. That is their answer to 'working for a living'. All cheaters cheat because they don't have the confidence to believe they could win in a fair competition and also because it's easier than working for something, honestly earning it.

But we do need to do a better job of getting the truth out to people. But it is hard to get message out when the Corporations (who the GOP serves) own the networks. That's why I believe getting the message out via the internet is so important. I believe if people start speaking up on the internet we can turn things around. I believe this, because I have to believe it. Without this, the future looks pretty bleak..... and something like the French revolution.

This brings me to the one thing the GOPers never ever grasp. That if you screw people out of everything - when there is nothing left for them to be screwed out of - they then will wake up to what's been going on. At this point, having nothing left to lose, these are very dangerous people. At this point there is hell to pay for the usurpers.

[rhett o rick]

13. Propaganda may not be perfect so help me out with a better word.

I agree with your post. I dont think there is a word for getting out the truth.

[Bill USA]

15. "enlighten"? Is it necessary to come up with a single word? an observation:

Robert Reich is one very righteous individual. He speaks the truth as good as anybody that M$M will allow on 'their' airwaves. BUT - he does have a tendency to speak in a professorial, somewhat circumlocuted way. Sometimes when he is building to making a good point - he kills it by wandering off into a too-long, too multi-syllabic way of completing his point. I think he would benefit (if he wants to succeed in getting his message out to larger numbers of people) from some speech coaching. He needs to learn how to finish his points using shorter more conclusive statements to 'make the sale". This is what some call the art and science of 'messaging'. How to make your point stick; to make it remain in the minds of the listener. --- Keeping in mind he is not talking to a classroom of grad students, motivated to better understand the subject but to the general public who will stop listening after too many complex sentences.

I'm not so much concerned with finding one word to use as a name for what we are talking about ('messaging' works for me), as with focusing on the methods which help you to get your point across. Keep in mind the methods have to be varied based upon the group you are talking to or writing for. When I comment on other general news sites or M$M web-sites, my writing style is quite different than it would be for DU readers.

[Doctor_J]

11. Now you see why it's critical that we try to find common ground with these people

[rhett o rick]

14. You dont negotiate with terrorists, kidnappers, and Repukes. nm

[freshwest]

16. 'We have the technology...' Who knew the $6M Man would be the $80B Koch brothers... n/t