The Republican assault on "political hate speech"

[reprehensor]

http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20031113.html

The Republican assault on "political hate speech"
by Brendan Nyhan

Over the last two months, the Republican Party has begun a systematic effort to label attacks on President Bush by Democratic presidential candidates as "political hate speech," a new piece of political jargon intended to delegitimize criticism of Bush. It appears this strategy will expanded in the coming months -- a recent memo from Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie urged party officials to adopt the term in their rhetoric.

Like "Enronomics" and "Daschlenomics", "political hate speech" is a carefully crafted term designed to create a hazy, non-logical association between two concepts. In this case, the phrase associates criticism of the president with "hate speech," which generally refers to speech that attacks others on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Of course, some rhetoric directed toward President Bush could fairly be described as hateful (just like any politician), but Republicans have used the term sweepingly to try to delegitimize nearly all criticism of Bush, regardless of its substance. This is a key tactic of political jargon, which often seeks to undermine the legitimacy of criticism by invoking hazy but powerful emotional symbols.

In addition, the phrase reverses the term "hate speech" by directing it back at liberals (another classic jargon tactic), who are associated with the term due to speech codes proscribing "hate speech" at certain colleges and universities. The use of the term "political hate speech" against Democrats thereby imparts an implicit, largely non-rational accusation of hypocrisy, even though no evidence is provided that the candidates in question support prohibitions on hate speech.

Attacks on liberals for "hate speech" have occurred before, most prominently in Bernard Goldberg's book Bias, which lists twelve alleged instances of "liberal hate speech" documented by the Media Research Center, many of which would not meet any fair-minded definition of the term. However, the RNC has recently made the term "political hate speech" central to its attacks on Democratic presidential candidates, repeating it over and over in statements, interviews and press releases. Gillespie's memo to RNC members and party officials, as quoted by ABC's newsletter The Note, instructs Republicans to "Highlight the party of political hate speech ... The presidential candidates have now called President Bush a 'miserable failure,' a 'liar,' compared him to a 'gang leader' and to Saddam Hussein himself. Americans instinctively know that anyone who's willing to demean the presidency in order to gain it is not worthy of having it entrusted to him."

[RobertSeattle]

1. Political Hate Speech: Exposing the FACTS about the Bush Administration

Just gotta love it with the RW gets to make the definitions.

[bif]

2. God they are shameless.

Makes me wanna puke. All spin, all the time.

[bushisanidiot]

3. Repukes Were Soooo In Love With President Clinton That They Showered Him

with love and affection the entire 8 years he was in the white house.

uh.. note to repukes: don't dish out what you can't take.
there is no group like "the arkansas project" to try to bring AWOL and his family down. We just wait for AWOL to open his mouth and point out the hypocrasy.. it's not hard. It's not hate. It's just stating the obvious. The kid's a moron. He has admitted it himself time and time again.

in contrast, clinton was a rhodes scholar.

time to bring honor and dignity back to the white house. get the chimp out! we are sick and tired of having a weak "president"! we want a LEADER!

[markus]

4. They're going to ritually cut all their own tongues out?

Read the last paragraph? Does that mean that the entire Republican caucus in both Houses in Congress feels disqualified from the Presidency, for their conduct in the Clinton Years?

Whew! That's a relief. The idea of Santorum-DeLay for President just gives me the willies!

[amber dog democrat]

5. Hypocracy

Is rampant. They are so thin skinned when tables are turned.
They can dish it out but reading complaints like this from the pro Chimp crowd
gives me great pleasure.

At least the conservatives are paying attention. They may have the presidency but now have to defend it.

I used to tune out the Clinton hate. I came to expect it from the same old discredited sources.

This was a stolen presidency, tainted from the start. There will be a reckoning in history. Bush will go down as the worst American president - EVER.