Onward And Upward In 2006

Here is a great piece on what is going on in the current political climate you should really read the whole thing but here are some highlights:

While Democrats knock themselves out every election cycle trying to talk to Swing Voters about The Issues, Republicans have calmly focused their attention on winning The Image Campaign. ...The Issues might actually be important to many Swing Voters early on in a political campaign, but when both sides start to pick apart each other’s facts & interpretations, the typical Swing Voter quickly becomes confused. As the debate over The Issues drags on, Swing Voters realize that they don’t understand the details well enough to make an informed decision, so they end up relying on their impressions of the candidates. Republican strategists see this clearly. That is why they continuously try to create doubts in the minds of the Swing Voters about the character of the Democratic candidate. They know that it doesn’t really matter if they can’t find any real flaws in their Democratic opponents. Accusations, insinuations, & innuendo will work just fine......The negative character attacks also provide the Republicans with one more benefit. They know that the media will give priority coverage to their personal attacks and that it will distract attention away from any of the "substance" blather that Democrats always like to talk about..... Democrats need to constantly remind themselves that it's not the economy, stupid! It's the IMAGE CAMPAIGN!.............Be sure that you intently communicate your fear of the damage that these people can do to America.............We should never be reluctant to show our fear of Bush, but we need to make it clear in our tone that our fear is appropriate and that our anger is controlled & justified.

I think the key point here is that they are able to change the subject on the substance with personal attacks. I can't tell you how many times over the past years I have seen this done. Well, everytime. They have Limbaugh, Hannity et al to push it and their "followers" have been trained like good little soliders to follow along blindly. They now automatically use the tactic themselves, usually without even knowing they are doing it. I think you call that brainwashing.