THE REAL REASON WE LOST THE 2004 ELECTION

[IAMREALITY]

I have been here a few weeks now and have read so many studies and theories as to how this election was stolen. They have made my jaw drop on multiple occassions, and have convinced me further beyond a doubt that Kerry won. The problem is I have gotten so wrapped up in all the post-election data that I have lost sight of what my biggest concern of losing this election has been for a year now.

Now first let me declare I stand behind the majority of theories here, and am 100% convinced there was fraud at of least some level that came into play. I also 100% believe that the repubs undertook a tremendous effort to disenfranchise countless numbers of minority voters from voting for Kerry. But that is not what disturbs me most about our new face of politics in this country. The fraud and other dirty tactics are all abhorrent, but at the end of the day I now remember what disturbed me the most this past year, and what the cause of millions upon millions of Bush votes were due from.

We have to understand first that if the fraud is real, though it very well could've totalled enough votes for Bush to delcare victory it is still only numbered in the few millions at most. But what about the other minimum of 50 million voters that still legitimately voted for the shrub? A large part of that base is simply due to loyalty and ignorance to the issues. But the other part of that number came from a completely different source. A source that I believe to be the most disturbing part of this election year and the core of the corruptness of our government. So let me get to the point. Why did these millions of voters legitimately vote for the shrub? Because they were brainwashed. Yes, I said it, BRAINWASHED. Over the past year (and more) I had been so disturbed at the messages we were getting from our administration. The same messages over and over. We rarely heard about any other issues other than their own valued talking points, and we would hear them so reduntantly at times even the best of us may have started believing them. I also on a daily basis would feel my stomach twist when talking to some repubs about the election and about how bad of a job the shrub has done. It would amaze me that one by one, they would repeat the same messages over and over without any ability to listen to anything new. I started calling them 'Parrot Heads' cause all they could do is squawk out the same thing over and over regardless of what the question you asked them was. Even in the debates Bush used brainwashing. That is why he didn't answer half of the questions legitimately, instead he kept saying his few talking points over and over again. Now we may have thought he came off stupid and unable to answer, but in fact he was just bolstering the brainwashing efforts. I want all of you to take a moment to step back and think about how brainwashing works, how it is pulled off, then think back over the past year. It has been a propaganda machine like none I've seen in my lifetime, and brilliant brainwashing at levels never before seen in politics. This thread is getting too long already, so I won't go on in detail about the million signs of brainwashing that have occured. But what motivated me to post was that I wanted to quickly google brainwashing to see if I could fully understand how it is pulled off, and if this theory has merit, and to my surprise found countless links to how the BUSHCO has done absolutely that. Here's a good one to start with:

http://www.new-enlightenment.com/brainwash1.htm

So my point? Yes, fraud and disenfranchisement lost us hundreds of thousands or even a few million votes. But this Brainwashing cost us millions upon millions. That is why though BUSHCO has done nothing worthy of re-election (re-selection) in 4 years he still was able to get so many legitimate votes (though of course not as many as the totals show). OUR JOB IS TO DE-PROGRAM THOSE THAT ARE BRAINWASHED BEYOND THE POINT OF REASON!!

[DenverDem]

1. You are spot on. Media mind control is the key.

De-programming is a must, but a brobdingnagian task.

One on one deprogramming by hundreds of thousands of us will be the only way this can be achieved.

[knowbody0]

2. we need to find that vulnerable point of entry

we need to shock and awe the hearts and minds
the propaganda matrix has been perfected. we need immediate response to counteract each piece of misinformation. half of america is sickened by the news. the other half cheers on its war machine.
everything is in place to control demonstrations against this administration. my fear is that the internet will be its next target.

[proudtobeadem]

10. What we need is to get the media to show the coffins coming home!...

That would be a start for shock and awe.
I remember a a while ago -maybe 2 months ago there were reports of the media wanting to show the coffins (in a respectful way) but they were not allowed to,-would'n go with the **sh & co's plan to brainwash everyone.

[Hobbes199]

29. We need an Internet candidate

Can run an "open source" campaign, where people collaboratively back them up and advise them, help solve problems like how to counteract any media/spin.

Of course, first we'd need a viable candidate...

[Warpy]

3. Not a chance

of that until things get so bad and the cognitive dissonance so unbearable that even the rabid Bushbots are going to notice that something in this country has gone terribly wrong.

My guess is that the Bush gang will be only too happy to deliver.

Only when those smug expressions on the self righteous start to show a little confusion will we be able to start deprogramming them.

For now, all we can do is watch it all happen.

[peacetalksforall]

4. You're right...

...and Livergood is amazing - the way he digs in to do the research, then writes it up.

You say parrot head.
I say swallowers.
We both mean unthinkers - the antithesis of patriotism.

[intelle]

5. Yes, believe brainwashing occurred all right

but, many, if not most, of us here watched the same programs, and were able to see through the lies.

So, one needed to want to believe the propaganda in order for it to be effective.

This is why I think that, if something comes out in the near future that is very damaging to bush and his regime, most of those brainwashed people will quickly deprogram.

[jdog]

7. And I'd like to know

how many votes * REALLY got! (I agree though that the lazy-minded were brainwashed.)

[Eloriel]

6. You're right, BUT

if we don't fix the voting machine problem, as well as the massive vote suppression, the brainwashing issue will be totally immaterial.

Now, I'm not suggesting it's an either/or proposition (nothing says we can't work on both issues) -- but we DO have a somewhat finite window of opportunity on the vote fraud.

[IAMREALITY]

9. I see what you mean

That's true, there is a finite window on the fraud issue and my efforts are still fully towards its exposure. Just had to get the original post off my chest because it really disturbs me.

[MarkusQ]

14. No "finite window"

People keep saying that there is some sort of "finite window" or 4-week statute of limitations on the fraud issue.

That's just nuts.

People frequently go to jail for crimes they committed decades ago. If someone gets proof, we can still nail them, even if it takes several years. Watergate took several years, and there's no reason to think this will be quicker--unless we quickly loose by getting tricked into thinking that they have a get-out-of-jail-free card coming in their Christmas stocking. Don't buy into the "if you don't catch me by the end of the month you can't touch me" nonesense.

It's not over 'till we say it's over!

-- MarkusQ

[BlueDog2u]

8. You make a very valid and important point

[99Pancakes]

11. Shrub is King of the Dunces

Doesn't research show that his "base" basically consists of uneducated idiots (for those who aren't extremely rich and greedy)? And I don't always mean formal schooling. They don't read, they don't think....they follow the leader, so that "parrot like" trance state is easy for them. I dunno--my best guess and 2 cents on this topic.
:dunce:

[MarkusQ]

12. Humour is your best tool

As was proven in the 1960s, humour is the best weapon against this sort of brainwashing. You can't use rational argument until you get the door open, and to do that you have to get past the defenses, and the best known way to get past someone's defenses is to use humour.

For example:

• Print up a bunch of bumper stickers that say "Bush/Cheny '08". Make them look as much like the '04 stickers as you can. Distribute them widely.
  
• Try to drum up support for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being "between a fertile man and one or more fertile women." Justify it with all the usual the quotes about the whole purpose of marriage being to produce children.
  
• Write up a list of "10 ways the Bush administration is NOT like the Nazis"
  
• Get one of those "Faux News" T-shirts
  
• Get a "Live Free or Diebold" T-shirt
  
• Get one of those "Pravda meant "truth" too" shirts
  
• Get a "Got WMD?" shirt
  
• Make up your own T-shirt & pass it around. The key: don't argue, don't attack, tease.
  
• Find the best political cartoons, jokes, etc. you can, and post them, send links to them around, etc. By best, I mean the ones that make a point humourously, without attacking. Make sure that they get to people who aren't hard core pro- or anti-bush; the former won't accept them and the later don't need them.
  
• ...you get the idea.
  

-- MarkusQ

[truehawk]

17. Excellent tatic

[ClassWarrior]

13. Visit the Frame The Debate forum. We're already working on it...

And we didn't lose.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=252

NGU.

[IAMREALITY]

28. Thanks for that thread!

I get so wrapped up in this forum I forget how many others there are out there!

[AndyTiedye]

15. That is Because They Own the News

and THEY will own EVEN MORE of the media in 2 years,
and by 2008 Michael Moore won't even be able to find a movie theater
to show his movies because Carlisle will own them all.

There is huge public sentiment against media consolidation, but like
the huge public sentiment against the war, it has no input into the
political process.

How do we undo all this brainwashing?

[brindis_desala]

25. The Media IS the problem

What separates free societies from authoritarian regimes? A
free press. All doubts that the media in this country is NOT
free and open should have been obvious after the government's
virtual non-response to 9-11 went unchallenged. The Atta and
his band of hijackers story is simply ridiculous. The media's
deafening silence in the face of demonstrable election fraud
seals the case. Until we fix the MSM we can't address the
brainwash.

[newyawker99]

26. Hi brindis_desala!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[brindis_desala]

27. thanks

cheers new yorker!

[SmileMaker]

16. Agreed - we are victims of a psy-op

Thom Hartmann deals with this brilliantly on his radio show and in his writings. He is actually teaching NeuroLinguisticProgramming on his show (every Tues. at bottom of 2nd hour) so that we, too, can use the techniques that the right uses to frame our debates at an emotional level. Two articles on how they are doing it are found at link below.

We need to hear more from him (and others like him) on the radio. The left (or radical middle) needs to reach more people via commercial TV and radio.
http://thomhartmann.com/commondreams.shtml

Also, music can reach the minds of people that comedy might miss. Remember -- the religious zealots might not have a sense of humor, but music could reach them.

What Would Machiavelli Do? The Big Lie Lives On 08/26/04
There is nothing new about the Swift Boat ads. German filmmaker Fritz Kippler, one of Goebbels' most effective propagandists, once said that two steps were necessary to promote a Big Lie so the majority of the people in a nation would believe it. The first was to reduce an issue to a simple black-and-white choice that "even the most feebleminded could understand." The second was to repeat the oversimplification over and over. If these two steps were followed, people would always come to believe the Big Lie. ...continued

Cheney Speaks to the Reptile Brain 08/17/04
It's Willie Horton all over again. The Bush family is subjecting Americans to psychological operations, only the level of sophistication and deception is an order of magnitude higher than it was in 1988. And it could turn the election, if not used effectively in rebuttal. Here's how it works, and how Dick Cheney just used it masterfully: ...continued

[TennisGuy2004]

18. The 9/11 Mass Hypnosis Effect

There was definitely a hypnotizing effect after 9/11. I believe that a very large percentage of Bush voters became ultra-supportive and ultra-blind following the terror attacks.

I myself was really caught up in the patriotic fervor following 9/11. I really liked Bush for about two or three months after 9/11, and that's saying something!

By the way, did anyone hear about that great poll that was done a couple of months ago - it was by a non-partisan firm in Maryland and it showed conclusively that Kerry voters had a much clearer knowledge of Bush's policies that Bush voters did!

[truehawk]

19. A Man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest

when overtime is eliminated, and retirement benifits are eliminated, and the ReThugs divert Social Security money, then there will be a period when the people will be ansious. That is the point when they might pay attention to flyers telling them what has really happened.

[kk897]

23. lie la lie?

My husband says that nothing will really change until something happens that really makes a lot of people mad: the draft. He believes that's what pulled people together and into the streets in the 60s, and that's what will do it again in the near future.

Here's a question: do we combat media brainwashing using their own tools to brainwash people back to our position? Fight fire with fire? NLP with NLP? Frames with frames? Talk show hosts with talk show hosts? Think tanks with think tanks?

I dunno... I want people to think for themselves and not be led by the nose (not even led by the Dems or Greens or me!).

On the other hand, if there's no alternative to the rightist media, how's anyone going to wake up? They won't be able to find the information.

On the other other hand, we woke up... how'd we do it?

And do we let the others who can't or won't wake up hang themselves?

It's a toughie.

[politicasista]

20. I don't care what anyone says

The media cost Kerry the election. They always painted him as someone who was out of touch with America. As well as set Momma T up also. I don't watch much cable news anymore.

[IAMREALITY]

21. So I Bet You Think

That there was also no fraud, no supression, no brainwashing, that millions of Dem's swayed to Bush cause they simply just didn't know Kerry and trusted Bush instead, and the Bush won fair and square?

[zann725]

22. Since as Kerry said, "They're STILL counting the votes..."

this is STILL all moot for now...despite what MSM wants us to believe.
:kick:

[politicasista]

24. Absolutely not.

There was definitely fraud. Bush is an illegitimate president conceived from the state of Florida and the Supreme Court.