Last night calltoliberty wrote a diary entitled Bush, Iran and the Totalitarian Fiction which I felt was so important that it could precipitate specific action.
Though I seldom diary and have indeed been so busy lately that I haven't spent as much time here as I once did, I saw something in this piece which could translate to individuals as well as collective action.
What calltoliberty specifically integrated was the basis of the administration's fiction with Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism. I haven't read this book but obviously I need to, for it reflects some of the internal debate I've been enduring lately. And I would endorse reading the diary to catch what I'm going to recommend on the flip.
The diary only drew 11 comments last night, so it did not draw as much attention as I felt it merited. However, kudos should go out to watercarrier4diogenes and the Rescue Rangers for salvaging it from the pits of time, once again proving what a valuable service they provide.
As a result, what I'm seeing is that the very supports of this administration - those specific lies we can see everyday, all day long - are the point of attack. You don't need to pull down all of them. Like any structure, you only need to destabilize one or two before it starts crumbling.
It has been obvious for some time that a broad front counterattack does little good beyond stymieing a few specific actions; Bushco is like army ants marching through the jungle. And for a long time I personally have felt - and in union with many of those here - the frustration and helplessness in the face of such a blitzkrieg. I didn't like feeling that emotion and, as a long time hunter in the traditional mode, was frustrated that no one ever saw a clear shot worth taking.
So, I've been looking for that particular vantage point - the on top of the mountain view - which I could put all of this vast massive attack into perspective, for I've long known that to attack something like this, you need a very specific goal and point of attack. And this is not to demean those who have gained traction and are on the front lines all the time. That is valuable in its own right; things must be confronted and territory must be defended. But to bring down the source of the problem requires something different because the preponderance of the evidence still hasn't tangibly changed anything. But it has cleared the ground and the evidence derived has valuable usage.
The keys are the lies you have heard every day. They are the direct supports of the foundation of this administration, and this is what calltoliberty's diary reasserted.
Fred Thompson paid allegiance to some of those in his initial entry into the race on the Leno show. Every repug debate features many of them. Fox News spouts them endlessly and so do many other national media organizations. So many all the time that it is literally a waterfall of untruths, half-truths, mistruths, McCarthyesque multiple untruths, and fictions and rationalizations large and small. You could spend a lifetime on these. However, you don't need to.
Just pick a few big lies. Calltoliberty suggested the Axis of Evil speech or the GWOT. But there are a few more that are easier and, if deconstructed, would be more deadly.
For example:
One big lie right now: the CIA screwed up the information on Iraq. Yes they did, and no they didn't. Truth and fiction right there together. The pre-Iraq info was cherry picked and massaged for the desired outcome by the administration to fulfill their base plan for attacking Iraq. Yet the current news stories about the NIE make this claim that it was the CIA who screwed up and now they're reasserting themselves. This is a fig leaf. The blame and the responsibility for the pre-war always go back to CIA, but the ones who set up the CIA are the real culprits, the ones who are being shielded by this lie. It is the pea under 20 mattresses; it is the flaw in the Death Star.
CIA may be reasserting themselves, but their screw up was being politicized and manipulated, something which happened to the CIA under GHW Bush, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. This was the completion of a cycle, not an aberrant, isolated event. This is and has been a major part of the Republican action agenda over time. And it was POTUS and specifically OVP which did this.
This is one of the great lies which gives cover for Bush to be in Iraq. Without this lie, they can not justify Iraq any longer.
Attack the lies directly, without equivocation. Turn into into a joke, into ridicule, into radioactive assertions. You don't even need to attack the people, for they are a function of the lies. Be specific and directed; knock this down. Then you go after another.
As an individual, you can correct and attack this lie every time you hear it.
When TV pundits, talk show hosts or any other visible entity says this and supports the lie, attack those statements. Nothing personal, just business. Attack the lie for what it is.
There are more lies. There are people on this site who can provide more evidence and linkage, preferably in bite-sized Joe Citizen chunks.
At the very least, you can say you don't believe their statements or you don't believe them personally. The whole set-up by the administration of propagandizing their facts into a set of beliefs is itself a means of attack. Saying now that you don't believe them and have lost faith in their words has ironically become contemporary currency. Use it against them. I know so many who have come over the line; some want facts and evidence to substantiate their position, but they all want simple validation that they have made the right choice. Give it to them.
The administration must have approval. That is the goal of the gambit. Even if the approval is low, as long as it is loud and trumpeted endlessly, it will suffice for the short time remaining.
Like partners in a relationship, the one that wants it the most is at the disadvantage, who must give up a little power, who must seek approval. This site has sought the truth relentlessly - and has sought approval because it found the truth, the evidence, in so many places. The hard truth is now that we don't need that any more. We're in a position to give approval, not seek it. We are in a position to demand the truth, not present it as some alternative to current fictions. We need to assert that every day in every way we can.
As an organism we are stating we must have a Democratic President and Congress. But before that we need to assert and demand the truth. The basis of this administration is a fiction. We do that by destroying one fiction at a time, starting with the biggest ones. And we should demand that our candidates do that, too.
We have a clear shot. Time to take it.