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All too often, Democrats are swiftboated, ozoned, attacked and smeared and after the attacks happen, sometimes they respond -- sometimes they don't.
We have had enough.
Here's what we know and here's what we're going to do about it.
On Monday, Al Gore has a new book coming out next week, titled, "The Assault On Reason."
Because he is standing up, telling the truth and because he simply is a Democrat and Progressive leader, Al Gore will be smeared mercilessly by the right-wing smear machine. He will be ridiculed, made fun of and mocked. They will tease and make fun of him.
They will rush to say that he is bitter about 2000, crazy, insane, pontificating and out of touch.
They will bring up his utility bills and the boards he is a member of. They will talk about his kiss with Tipper, her crusade against vulgar rap lyrics.
They will bring up his weight and the beard. And say it's all about 2008.
But what they will not do: Talk about what's in the book.
Why are we so sure?
Because this is the core of the Right Wing tobacco-driven strategy. You distract. You create doubt. You sell fear and mock those that are not cool.
You have to do this if you are them because you simply can't talk about the facts. Smoking kills -- how are you going to sell that little fact? By ignoring the facts and selling smoking as 'Marlboro Country' clean healthy outdoor living. Right Wing programs and policies are not good for the average American. So how do you sell them? Same way. Ignore the facts. Instead, try to kill the messenger.
In this book, Al Gore is going to go straight up against the Right Wing smear and noise machine -- the one that we have been writing about at Smoking Politics. And we know what that means.
Over at Amazon you'll find this description
A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason... We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions.
See more stories tagged with: al gore, right-wing smear machine
Dave Johnson blogs at Seeing the Forest and is a Fellow at the Commonweal Institute. He has over 25 years of technology industry experience. James Boyce is a blogger, t.v. analyst and radio show host who is a passionate believer and supporter of the progressive community online. Johnson and Boyce blog together at Smoking Politics.
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