Hoodwinked by Propaganda

Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me

The Anita Dunn video about how "selectively enhanced" information carried the day for the Obama presidential campaign is another powerful warning to the nation about the dangers of tolerating any more glib politcal posturing that is characterized by invective, personal attacks, and vague generalities as way of obstructing fact-based, lucid debate about the critical issues of the day.

In the video, Dunn outlines the Obama strategy of controlling the media and hence the public through selectively presented information as the winning fundamental of their campaign. By her very words, Anita Dunn is a self-admitted propagandist. One who - through her own gift for gab - has placed herself and those she represents in the ranks of other nation-changing propagandists such as Hitler, Stalin, and Chairman Mao who relied upon disinformation schemes to seduce the populations of Germany, Russia, and China respectively.

Dunn's revelation also goes a long way in explaining her summarily dismissive response to yet another inquiry about a June 2009 speech she gave to impressionable graduating high school students in which she named Mao Tse Tung as one of her 2 most trusted philosophical exemplars. Her response to Glenn Beck's queries was to say references to Mao were an ironic, meaningless play she called  a joke, even though her speech presented Mao as a source of inspiration for these student to carry with them into the future.

As repeated by many in recent days, Dunn's candid comments in these videos are premonitions of things to come if the majority of American people continue to accept "selectively enhanced" mis-speak from the White House or Congress. Though, to her possible dismay, they have also provided much-needed insight into Obama's mystifying reluctance to assume the mantle of governance and  explains his disposition for creating a list of domestic 'enemies' who need to be silenced.

Dunn's description of how then candidate Obama was deliberately kept away from the media except as permitted to deliver calculated remarks suggests that the criticism made about his continuing campaign-mode even after inauguration is not without merit.  When all that matters regarding the public well-being is the sound-byte, not the substance behind it, then we can expect that Obama and his teleprompter will continue their uninterrupted publicity tour while the nation languishes from presidential neglect.

What the average citizen "gets" is that Dunn's instructive comments implies that these very same campaign tricks have been carried over to the governance of the nation.  They tell us to be wary of being hoodwinked again.  And urge the studious to read for themselves how propaganda shapes the fate of nations. 

The research article PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES OF GERMAN FASCISM(1) details how Hitler successfully used the following propaganda strategies that when placed in today's context bear an uncanny resemblance to the posture and conduct of the Obama campaign and now the White House:

1. "Name Calling" is a device to make us form a judgment without examining the evidence on which it should be based. Here the propagandist appeals to our hate and fear.
2. "Glittering Generalities" is a device by which the propagandist identifies his program with virtue by use of "virtue words." Here he appeals to our emotions of love, generosity, and brotherhood.
3.  "Transfer" is a device by which the propagandist carries over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something we respect and revere to something he would have us accept.
4. The "Testimonial" is a device to make us accept anything from a patent medicine or a cigarette to a program of national policy.
5. "Plain Folks" is a device used by politicians, labor leaders, business men, and even by ministers and educators to win our confidence by appearing to be people like ourselves—"just plain folks among the neighbors."
6. "Card Stacking" is a device in which the propagandist employs all the arts of deception to win our support for himself, his group, nation, race, policy, practice, belief, or ideal. He stacks the cards against the truth. He uses under-emphasis and over-emphasis to dodge issues and evade facts.
7. The "Band Wagon" is a device to make us follow the crowd, to accept the propagandist's program en masse. Here his theme is: "Everybody's doing it." His techniques range from those of medicine show to dramatic spectacle.

Sound familiar?

Considering all of that together with the five major phenomena characteristics of Fascism in Germany (listed below), one cannot turn a blind eye to rapidly evolving national events.

1.  The destruction of labor unions.
2. The destruction of "free enterprise" to bring business under the absolute control of the Führer.
3. The destruction of "free enterprise" in agriculture.
4. The destruction or silencing of members of the intellectual class—editors, professors, teachers, clergymen and others who by reason of native gifts, training, education, and experience are among the best equipped to analyze and appraise the policies and acts of the Führer and the hierarchy of Nazi officials.
5. A monopoly of propaganda, accompanied by coercion, to keep all the people subservient to the authoritarian will.

Dunn and company have already set a dangerous precedent for future campaign hopefuls who, by emulating a campaign strategy based on trickery, will ensure ethics and morality have no further place in the annals of American politics.

It behooves all thoughtful Americans to consider the many countries where populations are suffering the whims and fancies of despotic rule before dismissing due consideration to the many warning signals that something is truly amiss in the halls of the American government.

Today, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander (TN), who served in the Nixon White House, provides his observations about the dangers of today's unsavory political climate in this Roll Call article: Alexander to White House: Don't Create 'Enemies List' in which he describes some of the White House tactics that are deliberately being used to discredit anyone who objects to their policies. That's No. 4 on the list of Characteristics of Fascism in Germany.

Even more perilous is the interlude between now and 2010 elections when more bail-outs and costly entitlement programs can and will be signed into law unless the American public stops it now by petitioning the government with their grievances and concerns.

Today, Roll Call also reports: Pelosi Refuses to Call New Spending Another Stimulus Package. That sure smells like a hybrid of "Card Stacking" and "Testimonal" given this excerpt: " After trotting out a handful of economists who each backed another stimulus package, Pelosi said Democrats would consider a host of ideas to spend more money and cut taxes next year."

Yep, false campaign promises fooled a lot of plain folks. But dropping presidential approval ratings and party defections offer the promise that people of good conscience will speak up before it is, indeed, too late.