Last November 2nd, I wrote about "How the Game is Played" in the primaries.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sparkly/64I guess I'm just old enough and cynical enough to see a lot of this as a cycle that gets repeated every time -- and yet, optimistic enough to hope we can help each other recognize the game and not get sucked into being "played" ourselves!
The next level of "the game" is about the General Election (pre-convention). Here's how I think this one goes (and some of this will continue post-convention, of course):
1. "The Rift!" The media insists the Democratic party has no unity, is in disarray, is suffering from a great "rift." The reality is that it's the Republican party polling against itself in all sorts of ways, conflicted and confused, but the story must always be: The Democrats Are in Trouble!!
2. Stupid Sharings (asinine emails, conversations at work, remarks heard while shopping, etc.) from people who assume you, too, are an idiot. Some people can be set straight; some people refuse to be. Figure out which applies to your annoyers, and if they're in the latter category, don't waste your energy. It's needed elsewhere.
3. "Running to the Center!" The Democratic nominee "runs to the center" (never walks, never flies, always "runs"). That's because the Democratic nominee is all about getting ELECTED.
4. The Great "WTF?" response to "running to the center." Some fellow sincere and well-meaning Lefties freak OUT as if it's unheard of, a big surprise, an outrage, a compromise that is completely unacceptable. How DARE a politician act like a politician, as if campaigns were all about getting elected?!?
5. The Third Party or Stay Home Threat. Lesser of two evils; no difference between parties; run two Republicans and the Republican wins every time, blah blah blah... THIS time, I don't think that'll play out as it has in the past, because the "change" about Obama is undeniable -- and yes, I mean his race -- it IS a positive, to embrace! (5a. Ralph Nader crawls out from under his rock, as he does every time there's an important election. Fortunately, he matters less and less each time.)
6. "The Wife is a Nightmare!" (Anyone else remember that?) Attacks against our candidate's wife -- she just NEVER knows her place, does she?!! :eyes:
7. The VP Pick Hysteria -- I think this varies, but the MSM always tries to make a Beauty Contest out of it, focusing on what they deem obvious names, dropping the most absurd names in an effort to appear insightful, and leaving out (what I consider) the really interesting ones. And I always hope they're wrong, but they're usually right.
8. Modern American fiction returns with new covers. There are several tomes to this collection. National Security is the Republicans' Strength! The GOP just OWNS The Military, Strength with that big macho Capital "S," and All Sorts of Other Nebulous Hyper-Masculine Mystique Imagery and Bullshit. Small Government and Fiscal Conservation are Republican -- it's all about Tax Cuts! And surely you've heard the famous tale, "Tax cuts always increase revenues?!" (Pay no attention to that 1% at the top selling the country out -- look at that lazy 1% of poor people at the bottom cheating you! Hey! Some of us WORK for a living!) Nevermind that Republicans have shown themselves over and over again to be anything BUT smart managers of national security, the economy, or anything else. They've established this fiction over three decades, and it's become the given assumption. Modern American fiction.
9. The Great Equalization. The GOP starts trying to knock out the Democratic candidate's strengths, and inoculate their candidate against his own weaknesses, by creating a ruckus or controversy that will lead to a draw. Thus, for example, they create this big brouhaha with Dan Rather about documentation of the Chimp's lack of military service, so that in the end everybody's dizzy and sick of it and the broad conclusion becomes, "Okay fine, both Chimpy and Kerry served admirably, let it drop" -- as IF they were equal! Get ready for, "They both have outrageous surrogates," "They both flip-flop," "They're both Whatever McCain Is."...
10. As in the primaries version of this game: People of all stripes act like none of this has ever happened before!!
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