Thursday, March 4, 2010

Conservative Voters: What the RNC Really Thinks About You!

The Republican National Committee held a $2500 per head training session for fundraisers and used this set of Power Point slides to instruct them. Let's set aside production values. And let's set aside the hyperbole about saving the country from "socialism" as well as the tendency to caricature a black man in the way the images do. Finally, let's set aside too the ineptitude of leaving this lying around the conference hotel so that someone could pick it up and send it to the nice folks at Politico who could then write this story on the topic. It is difficult to decide whether all that is comical or just pathetic.

What is truly remarkable is that the Republicans who regularly go out of their way to suggest that Democrats are elitist, Volvo-driving, latte sipping wimps (hence the penchant of right wing nutters to show up at Starbucks packing sidearms) have a view of their "base" that is so thoroughly condescending and insulting. The RNC plan? Rely less on large donations from wealthy egomaniacs and try instead to elicit lots of modest contributions based on the visceral fear that party operatives and their media mouthpieces might stir up among reactionary voters.

Notice, by the way the Randian imagery - you know Atlas, the symbol of intellectual elites, balancing the world on his shoulders. I suppose the reactionaries at the RNC of tired of that posture and instead of going on strike, they hope simply to exploit the unstable emotions of the simple folks. Democrats are elitist?