Republican Party's 2010 fundraising strategy: fear

[Richard D]

By Alex Koppelman

It hasn't been terribly hard to divine the Republicans' strategy for motivating their base this year -- they've made it pretty clear, after all. It's fear. Fear of President Obama, fear of change, fear of some giant socialist revolution, of death panels, of government bureaucrats and liberals and anything else that might pop up. Still, you wouldn't expect the Republican National Committee to come right out and admit to that.

That's exactly what RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart did, however, as part of a presentation he gave to donors and fundraisers last month. The presentation, obtained by Politico's Ben Smith, includes several slides that portray the GOP's own supporters in a very negative light, giving the impression that the RNC believes its donors are stupid, and that it plans to treat them that way.

One of the slides (three can be seen below; the full presentation is available for download in PDF form here) divides donors into two groups -- major donors and smaller ones who are reached through direct marketing efforts. The latter group, the slide says, gives for visceral reasons: "Fear" and "Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration" are listed. The slide also tags this group with a term usually used in an less-than-flattering sense: "Reactionary." The major donors don't fare much better; they give, the slide says, for "Networking Opportunities" and "Access" and they're "Ego-Driven."

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/03/03/rnc_fundraising