Karl Rove’s Latest Attack On Elizabeth Warren

By Simon Johnson

Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS has another ad out attacking Elizabeth Warren (video here).   This is beyond ludicrous – the ad attempts to blame Ms. Warren for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and for bank bailouts.  The principle here seems to be that when the truth cannot be slanted in a way you want, just ignore the facts and go all out for disinformation.

I count at least five misrepresentations in the ad, and I suggest the following corrections:

  1. TARP was a Republican program – proposed and implemented by President George W. Bush.  At the time, Ms. Warren was busy championing people whose rights had been trampled by the financial sector through various kinds of abuses.
  2. Ms. Warren became chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) for TARP, precisely because people in Congress – on both sides of the aisle – trusted her to provide an honest and professional check on the support provided to financial firms.  She did her highest profile work during the Obama administration, bringing relentless pressure on the Treasury and other agencies who just wanted to prop up big firms without any conditions.
  3. Ms. Warren has also been a strong supporter of all efforts to rein in Too Big To Fail banks, including by breaking them up.  She has consistently been one of the strongest advocates for curtailing the abusive power of megabanks (and others who have behaved badly).
  4. At the same time, Ms. Warren has not demonized the financial sector.  On the contrary, when charged with setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she went out of her way to work closely with those in the financial sector who provide sensible products with reasonable conditions.  Her emphasis throughout has been on transparency, fairness, and full disclosure in this sector.  You are not allowed to sell dangerous toasters in the United States; her point is that you should not be allowed to sell financial products that have been proven dangerous.
  5. The idea that Elizabeth Warren would ever side with “big banks” against the middle class is preposterous.  Time and again, she has stuck up for the middle class (and anyone who uses financial services) – even when it was deeply unfashionable to do so.  The big banks have opposed her relentlessly and on-the-record, both directly and through various surrogates.

Perhaps the more interesting point about Karl Rove’s ad is what it tells us about his strategic thinking.  His team is implicitly conceding all of Elizabeth Warren’s substantive points: big banks got out of control, they did enormous damage, and they were bailed out in an unreasonable manner.  But Mr. Rove’s group thinks it can turn all these issues against her, just because she worked hard against the interests of the banks – particularly to introduce effective consumer protection for financial products.

Will the people of Massachusetts really fall for such blatant and complete deception?

47 thoughts on “Karl Rove’s Latest Attack On Elizabeth Warren”

  1. Karl Rove finds a way to be both mendacious and pathetic. Naturally, this puts him on track to be the Republican nominee for President in 2016.

  2. The Newt that stole the election: He always has the expression on his face as if to suggest theres broomstick up there

  3. Having moved in November from NYC to Boston and talking to people here, my read is that Scott Brown was a fluke. It was a point in time reaction to where the parties were at a time and pushback against the idea that somehow the Democratic party owned Ted Kennedy’s seat. If the election were held again today, he wouldn’t win. If it were held against Warren, he DEFINITELY wouldn’t win. Granted, I haven’t been out to Springfield, Wooseter, or the Bershires yet in my time here so they may feel differently, but I think the GOP misinterpreted the tea leaves here. And it’s fun to watch them pour so much money into what I think is, in the end, a black hole. I think it had more to do with the need to disarm Elizabeth Warren and what she represents than to actually re-elect Scott Brown.

  4. I am so disappointed that GOP sponsers like Rove could make this calculation, it is a direct indictment of voters in general. In the last couple of years, I have worked hard to seek a clearer perception of political reality (if there is such a thing) and from my current vantage point this ad is absurb and offensive but before that who knows. This is the sad truth I have found, and what is even worse is that if i try to discuss this with others they find me oh so tiresome.

  5. Since when has Rover ever let truth stand in his way. In fact, it’s doubtful he and the truth are even on speaking terms. One thing he does know, however, is his dimwitted audience.

  6. Anyone who watched the house oversight hearings could see that Warren’s political career is going to be limited. She has an odd knack for getting under everyone’s skin. When she became combative in a bickering sort of way it was clear she wasn’t cut out for politics. I understand she’s done some good work and the message has some truth but if you can’t present yourself like that and expect people to take you seriously.

  7. Unbelievable the hatred still for Bush and Rove. Just the mention of their names brings venom. I would love to see Mr. Johnson and Mr Rove in a debate. I could comment on all 5 points, for brevity I will just take #1. TARP was passed by a Democratic controlled house and senate. President Bush signed it as law on the urging of Paulsen (then treasury seccretary) and the Bernake. Paulsen and Bernake only interest was saving their Goldman Sache brethren on Wall Street.

  8. Predatory Capitalism begets Predatory Democracy…

    The view taken by Wall Street of the citizen as a “mark” rather than as a fellow member of a community (in which the role of investment is SUPPOSED to add value for the community as a whole rather than to scam and transfer value that already exists from one place to another…

    has come to infect and dominate political leaders and parties as much as it has the financial services sector.

    Its true that to some extent that deception and hidden agendas have always been a part of political decision. Even a hunter-gatherer may suggest to his fellows that there’s better hunting “thataway” when his real agenda may to acquire the tasty berries he knows are now in season in the hunting area he suggests.

    But the difference between then and now is the capability for feedback. In the hunter-gatherer society that level of deception is limited by the proximity of forceful feedback from his fellows and the very conscious awareness that his own survival is dependent not only on the health of the group as a whole… but on their acceptance of him in their group. (Get too clever with your politics Mr. Ooog and you’re gonna be out on your ear trying to survive by yourself… or worse!)

    These feedback mechanisms are difficult to scale. In fact I consider this simple fact… along with the biological altruism problem as forming the needed roots for the Authoritarianism that arose with the birth of agriculture and larger social structures.

    (note re altruism: for survival reasons its a fundamental human characteristic that we will be more emotionally impacted by the death of our family dog than news of the death of a million on the other side of the world… while it is genetically based the root is in cognitive limits and how those connect to what’s sometimes called natural human community size… Dunbar’s Number… rather than any necessary genetic connection between members of the ‘in-group’.

    So the essence of biological altruism is the demarcation between in-group and out-group… its NOT about being nice. In fact biological altruism can stimulate great brutality… just try walking into a bear’s den and playing with her cub! Human boundaries are much fuzzier and influenced by culture but can’t be ignored. They’re at the root of crony capitalism and Authoritarianism itself.

    I’d suggest that concrete technologies are needed to address this.

    Now this get to the nature and role of money.

    While we typically think of money as a store of value… and that has some utility.

    It may even be more important to recognize it as a store of ‘decision rights’… it serves to transfer a decision (an idea accompanied by an intended action) from one to another. Money is a ‘decision technology’!

    Its interesting to note that it shares this characteristic with a few other technologies: guns, torture devices and advertising.

    This doesn’t suggest that we can abolish ‘money’… but it does suggest that the area needs some work.

    Perhaps its a leap for this brief comment but I’m convinced a core element of remedial technology includes a needed understanding that . and for scaling reasons, that the political microtransaction… (moreover especially in speech related areas) must be unburdened and the habit culturally incorporated.

    When the citizen… whether he/she be a hunter-gatherer or a party caterer comes to understand that they too have not only a ‘decision right’ but a decision capability…

    Only then will it be possible to cultivate and empower the individual citizen in a way the produces crowd wisdom rather than the easily manipulated mob.

    If you were to click an online button a couple of times a week to put 25 cents for or against something you thought was important would it make any difference?

    (25 cents a couple of times a week by 150 million voters is over $7 Billion per 2 year election cycle.)

  9. https://baselinescenario.com/2011/11/22/the-american-political-system/

    @Anonymous, “Anyone who watched the house oversight hearings could see that Warren’s political career is going to be limited. She has an odd knack for getting under everyone’s skin. When she became combative in a bickering sort of way it was clear she wasn’t cut out for politics. I understand she’s done some good work and the message has some truth but if you can’t present yourself like that and expect people to take you seriously.”

    Thank you for confirming that Ms. Warren’s political career is limited because she didn’t give good head at the CORRUPT oversight hearings. I’m putting the cartoon together with your attempted character assassination (as *anonymous* – the lone gunman myth?) and in this case the 1+1 = Liz is not a political whore so she has no career in politics (or religion, or education, or commerce, or….?)

    I will concede that CONTINUED *nagging* on a political stage is indicative of a lack of awareness of how to handle the *power* of a leadership position. However, I believe Warren has moved on to reclaim political control of the female domains – education and health care – as a representative seeking election for PUBLIC SERVICE. What could be MORE AMERICAN than that?

    Now, YOU guys are supposed to be figuring out what that 700 trillion in the dark is all about. I’m tired of *nagging* about it :-) When Liz turned on the light, the survival instincts of dark political life forms proved to be less evolved than the cockroaches who know that when the light comes on it’s time to run and hide or get squashed.

    It’s STUPID to churn up the propaganda machine to boast that Hillary got under Putin’s skin. Putin is navigating the rapids of a 100 year *revolution* of murder and unspeakable authoritarian HORROR. Putin is a serious man as a LEADER. Frivolous, soft-power neo-con sociopaths cheerfully equating hedonistic *love* as a human right greater than PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTAL SURVIVAL should not be shoved in Putin’s face during his country’s elections.

    POLITICIANS in USA are not what We The People have judged to be our collective strength. It’s a strategic JUST WAR.

    Don’t worry, Liz, the cavalry IS coming :-)) Don’t worry about stepping on the cockroaches too stupid to run when the light came on.

  10. News Flash: Scientists discover new planet.
    The planet, known as Kepler 22, is about 600 light-years from Earth, and it’s orbit places it in the zone where liquid water, and therefore carbon-based life, may exist.
    On a side note, scientists have also identified it as the home planet of a being know only as Will Munny.
    Perhaps in the distant future, as advances in technology are realized, we may come to understand this strange life-form, and maybe begin to make sense out of what are now incomprehensible utterances.
    Others have raised the fear that there exists an entire race of these creatures, and that they may have the technological ability to travel to Earth for the purpose setting up colonies in Montana and taking over electoral processes in the United States.
    Without becoming too emotional, one can only hope that Will Munny, and strange extraterrestial creatures like him, will not invade the Earth any time soon.

  11. The origins of TARP

    The TARP Troubled Asset Relief Program was first presented by then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson back on Friday 19 September 2008.

    The troubled assets relief program was designed to take bad mortgages off the books of financial institutions in America, and onto the books of the federal government. Some refer to it as the troubled asset relief program 2008 or mortgage bailout bill.

    On 3 October 2008 the troubled asset relief program bill was approved by the House, thus reversing its Sept. 29 rejection of the bailout. This represented the government’s largest step into the financial markets since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

  12. @RichS…..The only thing you got right was that I am “light-years” ahead of you. Typical liberal, when facts don’t support your argument you have nothing but insults and personal attacks.

    @Tom Crowl….The people you are refering to are not predatory capitalist but fascist socialist or Goldman Saches partners.

  13. Am I alone in being sort of bummed out that Warren is running for office? It’s like when Spitzer quit being AG… AG was right for him. Governor was wrong. He was an interesting AG. As Governor, he was Governor… and then he was Eliot Spitzer.

    I kind of wish Warren would just retire into writing and speaking and helping the world to understand banks and finance. Oh well…

    Anyway, your last point is really fascinating. He’s conceded the people hate them so he’s trying to paint her as WITH the big banks (even tho we all know that Karl Rove is out to the defend big banks and all plutocrats).

  14. Re erik and comments about Brown and Boston
    a lot of S Brown’s win was the fear at the time, but the inept campaign by M Coakley, one of a long string of inept campaigns by MA liberals (Dukakis, Kerry, Shannon O’brien, who ran for gov against Romney …)played a part.

    During the campaign, with people loosing jobs right and left (remember, this was the hysteria period of the recession), Ms Coakley went down to the union hall in Somerville (working class town adjacent to Cambridge) and what did she talk to the guys about ? Women’s lib stuff

    Now thats important, but you wanna get elected, gotta know your audience.

    Ms Coakley was part of the national day care child rape hysteria of hte 80s and 90s; in MA, this hysteria broke out in the “Fells Acre Day Care” case; Ms Coakley tried to keep one of the poor witches (the hysteria was exactly like Salem MA 300 years ago) in jail

    During the primary campaign, Ms Coakley faced a challenge on the left. At this time, the health care bill was going thru congress, and the Dems were getting ready to sacrifce womens health to get votes; during the primary campaign, Ms Coakley said she would never vote for a bill that diminished women’s rights; soon as she won the primary, she backtracked.

    About 1 week before the vote, Ms Coakley went down to DC to have a private fundraiser with Big Pharma lobbyists; asked about this, she was deer in the headlights; this played over and over on the TV news just before the election (it didn’t help that we were having our usual MA scandals of absurdly overpaid pensions ot politicians at the time…)

  15. Simon- No suprise: Here, verbatim, is the game plan from the homepage of Luntz Global:

    “We have counseled Presidents and Prime Ministers, Fortune 100 CEOs and Hollywood creative teams in harnessing the power of language and visuals to change hearts, change minds and change behaviors. We have become a hyper-attentive nation that is quick to judge. The words and visuals you use are more important than ever in determining whether you win or lose at the ballot box, the checkout line, and the court of public opinion. We know the words that work. Do you?

    Our confidence comes from decades of research, polling, and consulting to the opinion elite worldwide, with proven results that withstand the test of time.

    Remember: “It’s not what you say. It’s what people hear.””

  16. @ Anonymous 12:17 pm

    Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

    To the point !!!!!

  17. To call Karl Rove the most evil Republican liar may be a slight stretch, remembering that the first iteration of the OWS movement was the Tea Party, and, shorty after its appearance, it was coopted by the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, the competitor for most evil Republican liar, and that is Dick Armey. Strange how when one looks for the great demigoguers and liars, it is so easy to pick them out of the GOP. Think Cheyney (Liz or Dick), Barber, Behner, Cantor, et al. Somehow they seem to think that Americans are unendingly naive and ignorant. Of course, Simon, your points are spot on. Liz isn’t even particularly liberal, but she is rational, constructive and progressive. Sadly that makes her a fairly unique politician, but, with Bernie Sanders closing in on retirement, she’ll be a vital addition to our moronic Congress. Hopefully she’ll be a trend setter and make the rest look pathetic with her unabashed honesty.

  18. From your Bellingham fan club, I love them fighting words! My proposal is: every time Rove opens his mouth, we all send Elizabeth $50.- $100.00, and let him know. Any pledges? BTW, Senator Maria Cantwell had future Senator Warren out last week for a fundraiser here in Seattle.

  19. Rove is the propaganda and disinformation perception management minister of the Amerikan nazi – I mean gop party. A pathological liar paid to brute slime, distortion, and patent lies to the ignorant bigots in redneck Amerika. The socalled gop is an arch enemy of the people selling our children’s future to the predatorclass for pennies on the dollar, – eroding the people’s wealth, freedoms, rights, protections, jobs, wages, and hope – and enriching, favoring, shielding, and advantaging the predatorclass exclusively,

    Rove and all the fascists and bigots in the gop and redneckAmerika speak with forked tongues and have no ears, no eyes, and no hearts!

  20. This is Swift Boating 2.0 Recall Sen Kerry. They, the GOP actually had people arguing that Kerry’s THIRD wound was minor one because it was in the fleshy area of his thigh….brother, when they get people/media to take serious, or at least repeat, that argument they gotcha. And they got us. Now it’s Warren’s turn.

    As Kerry found out, too late, you ignore this stuff at your own peril if you want to be elected. Warren is hurting because of her rhetoric now. Previously it was her actions that hurt them. Along with her rhetoric. So you can bet you paycheck that there will be a bunch of loser Dems that will advising Warren to tone down her speeches on this stuff. If she does…she loses. My guess is she will take the advice. I will be overjoyed to be wrong…..but Dems always back down when confronted with this stuff. They try to appear ‘reasonable’.

  21. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#45596555

    As We The People start focusing on our REAL strengths to march ourselves into the future based on what the REAL problems of today are…

    it is very CLEAR that the biggest intellectual and philosophical difference of *opinion* exists in what politicians, media sociopaths, and their *rich* Global Criminal Inc. masters consider “….the smartest man I ever met…”

    and who the 99% would list as the “…smartest man I ever met…”

    the FACT that they all giggled about the *criminality* factor is yet another of millions of examples of mass-MEDIA’s ethical bankruptcy…

    What, exactly, is *funny* about the Middle Class of USA being slammed – financially – via TAX POLICY below the CRIMINALS of this insane planet?

    JUST WAR.

  22. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/elizabeth-warren-karl-rove-ad-crossroads_n_1138789.html

    Elizabeth Warren Blasts Karl Rove-Linked Crossroads GPS Ad As ‘Factually Wrong And Morally Wrong’
    The Huffington Post Luke Johnson First Posted: 12/ 9/11 10:35 AM ET Updated: 12/ 9/11 01:57 PM ET

    …”I can’t find the right words to describe how wrong that is. Factually wrong and morally wrong,” said Warren of the ad to the Boston Herald. “Karl Rove is not telling the truth, and I think anyone who is not telling the truth shouldn’t be running ads in this race,” she continued.”
    [and}
    “Warren also appeared on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” Thursday night and was asked about the ad. “I knew that Wall Street was going to come after me with everything they had. They want to make sure I’m not the next senator from Massachusetts. But it seems like the strategy now is the kitchen sink strategy. You know, throw anything you can at her and let’s see what happens,” she said.”

    summarizing the status quo:
    “She criticized bank bonuses in March 2010: “I do not understand how it is that financial institutions could think that they could take taxpayer money and then turn around and act like it’s business as usual,” she said. “I don’t understand how they can’t see that the world has changed in a fundamental way, that it is not business as usual when you take taxpayer dollars.”

    Reality:
    “A poll released Wednesday by UMass Lowell and the Herald found Warren leading Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) by a 49-42 margin. The survey suggested that early advertising both by Crossroads and the Warren campaign has mostly helped her — her name identification has gone up, while Brown’s approval rating fell…

    Amen! Halleluiah! Folks.

  25. Watchdog Groups Launch New Campaign to Stop Karl Rove’s Dirty Tricks and Dirty Money in This Year’s Elections

  28. “American Crossroads raised $28 million in the 2010 election cycle.[8] 91% of the funds raised were from billionaires.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Crossroads

    ^ Billionaires give 91 percent of funds for Rove-tied group, Salon, 20 September 2010
    ^ American Crossroads Backed Almost Entirely by Billionaires, Jesse Zwick, Washington Independent, September 28, 2010

  29. WASHINGTON — In a Thursday session featuring a lengthy and testy exchange between two commissioners and the repeated invocation of comedian Stephen Colbert, the Federal Election Commission deadlocked on a 3-3 vote on yet another controversial campaign finance issue raising the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/karl-roves-stephen-colbert-fully-coordinated-super-pac-ads_n_1123999.html
    [and]
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/super-pac-independence-stephen-colbert-karl-rove-fec_n_1086273.html

  31. @Woych

    Is their *think tank* ready to present the results of which corporations-as-people should be addressed as Miss, Missus, or Mister…

    Pretty sure it is going to be “Mr. Pfizer” (providing viagra blessings for the planet)…

    And “Mrs. Clorox” – cleaning up the CRAP…

  32. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/warren-socialist-charges_n_1089012.html
    Elizabeth Warren ‘Socialist’ Label Hammered On By Critics
    by Mollie Reilly

    “The latest red-baiting came in the form of a Karl Rove-backed attack ad. Released by American GPS, a Rove super PAC, the new ad superimposes an image of Warren over a banner promoting SocialistAlternative.org, a group that supports democratic socialism. An image of Che Guevara later appears on the screen. ”
    [and}
    “As Politico reported last month, bank lobbyists have been gearing up to combat Warren in the upcoming Senate race. However, Wall Street recognizes that any attack on Warren has to be subtle — and likely channeled through a super PAC like American Crossroads.

    According to the FEC filings, Crossroads claims a number of donors from the financial services industry, including Kenneth Griffin, CEO of Citadel.
    [and}
    “Warren’s campaign sent out a response to the American Crossroads ad on Thursday afternoon, highlighting the Wall Street connection. “Rove and his Wall Street billionaire buddies have joined together to attack Elizabeth because she stood up to them. She’s spent years fighting for the middle class and trying to get accountability for those who broke our economy one lousy mortgage at a time, and they know what they’ll be in for if she wins,” the campaign said. “That’s why they’re pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into TV attack ads against Elizabeth all across Massachusetts. And we’re not going to sit back and take it.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/warren-socialist-charges_n_1089012.html
    Elizabeth Warren ‘Socialist’ Label Hammered On By Critics
    by Mollie Reilly
    —————————————————————————————————————————
    BRAVO!!!

  33. @ANNIE
    IT IS NEITHER OF THESE… “JUDGE” THIS!
    http://www.alternet.org/story/153345/the_real_history_of_%27corporate_personhood%27%3A_meet_the_man_to_blame_for_corporations_having_more_rights_than_you?akid=7967.147584.jiZBVj&rd=1&t=2

    Berrett-Koehler Publishers / By Jeffrey Clements
    124 COMMENTS December 6, 2011 |
    The Real History of ‘Corporate Personhood’: Meet the Man to Blame for Corporations Having More Rights Than You
    The real history of today’s excessive corporate power starts with a tobacco lawyer appointed to the Supreme Court.

    1973 Supreme Court
    The following is an excerpt of Jeffrey Clement’s Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It.)
    http://www.alternet.org/story/153345/the_real_history_of_%27corporate_personhood%27%3A_meet_the_man_to_blame_for_corporations_having_more_rights_than_you?akid=7967.147584.jiZBVj&rd=1&t=2

  35. @Woych

    Okay, it will be MR. Phillip Morris :-), the Grandfather Corporation.

    When crunching numbers to prove how the *middle class* was slammed – financially – below the *elite* of Global Crime Inc. and their flying monkey mercenaries, I’m just borrowing a page from your link’s saga – how the nice man bent reality to fit his theme, “…we are under attack…”.

    As the man said at the Astronomy Club meeting, “….we will always have slaves…”. So much for the space age opening up moon walkers to pursue another way of living…liberated in mind and spirit to “live free or die”…

    Just how *powerful* are *knowledge*, modern technology and creative financial instruments in preventing another gilded age of global slavery?

    Not bending my knee in homage to savage sadistic war lords drug lords and slave lords. Rove might want to re-consider how much he wants to continue to use his mouth to work for the dark side :-)

    JUST WAR, Woych. No way back to the EARNED position of financial security that the *middle class* supposedly lost to a DELUSIONAL math formula….

    Since no one seems remotely interested in making real life decisions about the future that have to do with REALITY, I guess there’s that SECRET belief going on – *prophecy* that monkey brains invented – the end of the world schtick….

    UNFAIR to have the *elite* make decisions for the future based on some cockamani belief that the world is ending in 2012….keep that up and it WILL end – FOR YOU – sooner than 2012 :-))

  37. The Occupy Wall Street movement should have two demand: 1. request that Elizabeth Warren, Paul Krugman and Simon Johnson draft a policy statement to guide reform of the financial industry, 2, organize the boycotting and withdrawal of all accounts from Chase Bank until Jamie Diamond endorses policy statement and lobbies for its passage with peers and congress.

  38. Where reason will not serve, emotion is used. Rove’s position is too weak to defend when its analyzed objectively, in a place like this forumn. So his tactics are rooted in emotion. Fear comes from ignorance. From that comes anger. And from that comes hate. He starts the process with misinformation. His following is what Bob Altemeyer would have called “right wing authoritarian followers”. They are so full of fear and hate that they simply defer rationalizing to their chosen leader. It’s an emotional reflex, one that serves militaries in combat conditions well. He’s used this tactic before. Think of swiftboating in the 2004 presidential election. His followers ended up hating a war hero based on misinformation from the misnamed “Swiftboat Veterans for the Truth”. It works. It also worked in Germany in the 30’s-40’s.

    You can’t reason with them. If you engage them in an intellectual way, if you try to reason with them, its likely to be interpreted as an attack and just reinforces the hate. It’ll be labeled an attack by “left wing intellectual elitists”. The best way to deal with this is to erode the hate and fear away. Present no threat. Take Lincoln’s advise… “The best way to vanquish your enemy is to make them your friend”. Then the anger subsides. And calmer heads may start thinking again.

  40. What is a turd blossom without the blossom? Karl is a four letter word, too!

    I think David Frum’s recent article is a must read to put this GOP ad in context. Most Republicans live in an alternative universe run by authoritarian leaders who can deceive their authoritarian followers quite easily with misinformation and demagoguery.

    This ad is just more of the same. It is outrageous by normal standards – but these are not normal times and normal standards do not apply.

    When the uneducated do not care or understand the importance of factual information, democracies suffer. The Jeffersonian obligation to be an informed citizen is not realized in these instances.

    http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/

  41. Tell our Representatives to Stop NDAA Section 1031 Citizen Imprisonment Law before Dec. 13

  45. your opening paragraph reminds me of all those super brainy engineers and scientists who can never figure out why people people, with no STEM skills, are leaders
    or
    K Rove 1, clueless economist 0
    It ain’t about the facts – its about other things
    Rather then complain about misleading ads (I’m sure the guys running for office under Hammurabi bitched all the time about unfair cuniform tablets), complaining which doesn’t do anything, how about something productive.
    In this case, find some video of Scott Brown and some other gop pol, hated in MA – say H Barbour – together

    Ps: the vast majority of blogs have you fill in your name before you fill in your email. perhaps you would consider changing BS (unfortunate, that) to std practice

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