Lee Atwater story on PBS - root cause of why our political system fails us

[NRaleighLiberal]

Notwithstanding the great hope we all have for Obama and the next four years:

We heard it in McCain's campaign speeches. We saw it in the mess of the Bush administration for 8 long years. It is clear watching Atwater on this show, and pondering Rove's behavior.

These people just don't love this country. They don't give a shit about people. They care about one thing - winning. To build their ego. To tear down the other guy. As McCain repeatedly said, "fight..fight..fight". It is about power only - lies? sure. Whatever it takes.

To make matters worse, they use religion as a tool and a weapon to prey upon those who are followers, or who need to be told how to think. If any of these people truly believed in any sort of a god, they would fear for their souls. They are essentially godless.

Another tidbit from this show - it shows young Dubya in all his dimwitted "glory"

Yes, I know that I am stating the obvious, but seeing the story line is chilling.

[mediaman007]

1. Trace their beliefs to Edward Bernays.

They don't believe the population is smart enough to be trusted. They think that the population reacts to fear and mass merchandising. They shoot for the lowest common denominator.

[dorkulon]

2. Watch the American Experience bio on Nixon

It's available online, and also very enlightening (to me) about the roots of modern campaigning. McCain ran a Nixonian campaign more than a Bush campaign. Also the section on his impeachment is depressing because it shows how much our standards have dropped since then.

[endless october]

3. watching now.

Sun Tzu would advise us to know our adversary.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Let us remember another thing about old Lee and the boys:

It was well-known in the music business, back in 86, that Atwater and his guys had the most of and the best cocaine available anywhere in the US, and they did tons of it. How do I know this? Because they would get themselves all gakked up and go throw thousands around at the titty bars across the nation. Strippers gossip, often better than they look and dance, and some of them got very high and very rewarded by Atwater and his crew.

I guess what they were playing at was what they thought was Heavy Metal Politics,

Another thing to consider is that the cities of the south that even back then, but especially these days, like Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and others, the ones that wrap themselves most tightly in the cloak of putative "religion" was where great quantities of high quality cocaine could be found at dirt-cheap prices back then. Dalla was especially interesting: the entire monied set, presumably quite Republican, were big consumers of cocaine. We would see them at shows, when we played there, and they would always have a big ol' poke of it and be willing to share.

You can learn a lot about the repukes of today by looking at them back then.

[countmyvote4real]

5. You're right. This is chilling.

It's like this election. The McCain campaign was just like Atwater's favorite sport: wrestling - totally fake and dishonest.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. I don't hate or curse easily, or many. But I hate and curse these "people".

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. "People don't vote their hopes. they vote their fears". NOT THIS YEAR!

[JCMach1]

9. hmmmm., economic fear is a powerful thing

[RB TexLa]

10. Yes it is, and it works.

[Tallison]

18. And I wonder how much that shift is generational...

...and how much is desensitization to and cynicism about negative campaigning, since it dominated an entire generation of politics. It's as if Americans have become psychologically inoculated against smear campaigns.

[malaise]

8. Amazing how Matlin tried to defend this bastard

Finding gods on your death bed change nothing.

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. Bible never taken out of the cellophane. Was spinning to the very end.

Obviously, Matlin, Rove et al saw nothing wrong with Atwater's practices...and didn't buy Atwater's mea culpa at the end.

[malaise]

13. Scum

undiluted to the end. He met his fear.

[bdamomma]

15. he died from brain cancer or something horrible like that.

Atwater.

[malaise]

21. Yep - watching him all swollen from the steriods

was something else. Guess the mirror showed him his true self. He was terrified.

[Tallison]

19. She's obtuse

I don't know how her husband finds chemistry in their differences.

[PassingFair]

25. Yeah, 'cause HE'S such a straight shooter.

:crazy:

:sarcasm:

[countmyvote4real]

12. "the bible was still wrapped in cellophane."

That's does tell you all.

[AlinPA]

14. Atwater was a truly rotten human being. Life got even with him in the end-

the cancer treatment involved steroids that swelled him up to look ugly. He deceived right up to the end.

[Tallison]

20. I read a long WaPo profile of him years ago...

according to which his social support at the end wasn't nearly as flush as you'd think from the documentary. Estranged from his wife with few friends, he died fairly alone. Only for his funeral did the establishment resurface.

[Me.]

16. This Election Has Kicked The Pants Out Of Their Southern Strategy

And may've closed the book on the Atwater/Rove playbook. They threw everything they could at him, communist, socialist, terrorist etc. Nothing worked.

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. The McCain-Palin guy worshiped that piece of shit

and now worships Rove. These people are like the Mafia.

[firedupdem]

22. OMG! I tivo'd this and I'm watching now. I'm pretty new to this

stuff and this guy is or was a piece of shit. Just like the OP said...they care nothing about the issues just dirty tricks to beat the other guy.

[kwassa]

23. He died the death he deserved

He was far worse than I knew, and I had a very low opinion with him before this documentary.

Pure evil. Undiluted.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

24. Karma will NOT be denied

Atwater met precisely the horrible fate he deserved and nothing less. He was consumed by his own evil, a fitting end.

Watching that program was like staring into a charnel house for an hour and a half. The cynicism, thuggery and sheer sociopathy of that pathetic little shit poisoned this country's politics for a generation, counting KKKarl's carrying on of Atwater's legacy of poison, lying, divisiveness and hatred.

Ed Rollins put it best: Atwater "had the eyes of a killer," and one look at the motherf%$#ing SOB told you that this was a man utterly without honor, decency, ethics or humanity.

[Berry Cool]

26. The scary thing about Atwater is that he wasn't even driven by true faith in an ideology.

He didn't believe in Republicanism; it was just a brand to him. He wanted power, that was all. And when he was young and seeking power, it seemed to him that there were more opportunities for a young Republican than for a young Democrat. So he became a young Republican, and spend what little time he had on this earth lying, cheating and smearing to help Republicans get elected.

It would have even been one thing if he truly believed in Republican philosophies of governance...then we could accuse him of letting the end justify the means. But no. Yes, he did let the end justify the means, but "the end" was not a better country as Republicans saw it. He didn't give a shit about the country. All he cared about was himself.

Sadly, I think he was probably warped for life the day his 3-year-old brother pulled an electrical cord and spilled a vat of hot fryer grease onto himself and died. That single event--the horrible, senseless death of a person one is close to, to which one is a personal witness--is enough to turn many a person into a nihilist for life. That's what I think happened to Lee Atwater. From that day on, life made no sense. So, he decided, you might as well get what you can out of it personally, and to hell with everyone else.

I don't think he had any great deathbed conversion, either. I would never say "He got what he deserved," because life isn't that neat and tidy, and horrible, painful, early death falls on those who never deserved it (like 3-year-olds who pull on electrical cords) as often as it does on the wicked. But I do think that when he was left with nothing to face but his own mortality, the weight of the evil he'd done must have rested very heavily on him.

Maybe he serves as a lesson to us all: One can die quickly or one can die slowly, but if one dies slowly, how would it be best to spend one's last days? Wringing the last good drops out of life and trying to leave a legacy of love, surrounded by all those you loved and who loved you? Or thinking about all the things you did for personal gain that hurt other people, and which you now regret, but which it's too late to undo?