Dash wrote:
But the question is, do the people blaming the Tea Party do this because they sincerely believe it? The Krugmans and various MSNBC people and these fringe bomb throwers. Is it because they are sort of indirectly assigned to do this as cover for the mainstream politicians? Or maybe it is just that they bank their limited relevance (for lack of a better term) on being "shocking" and feeding the base red meat.
Obviously this applies to all similar examples not just this one.
I've found this concept very interesting to me as it applies to politics because it begins to take into account "chess" thinking, while most peoples grasp of political issues are more like "checkers" at best.
I'm sure the tatic has been used for many administrations, but I'm only going to use Obamas as my example because it's when I really began to look at how it's used. How many statements have been made by "advisors" or "administration officals" to test the waters of public opinion? It seems we will have Gates say one thing while Obama or other officals say something else. Whichever gets the better polling numbers they go with. "Death Panels" was one that got away from them- but what happened? The administration caved publicly and then inserted the same thing in the regulations. Quietly. A politican will have a fluid stance until the % starts getting up into the mid 60s. Then, and only then I feel they will tie themselves to a stance.
I see social media and public comment forums as no different. I know that both right and left have folks to "help" sway opinion. Remember- while in a discussion you may never convince your opponent, but you very well may convince a listener. I'm sure some folks do it for sport and to get the ole e-peen blood flowing, but I've seen the same line of thought presented on too many sites too many times for it to be anything but a coordinated effort to gin up public ire on a topic.
I'm not so sure that most folks want to start thinking in 3 dimensions when it comes to politics.
Oh one more thing- again with the "automatic weapon" bs by the media.