Politics & Pulpit Propaganda: Who delivers the message in your community ?
Catapulting the propaganda
JUDITH KRIEGER
I recently received one of those chain e-mails which implored me to pass on a set of heart-breaking photos of soldiers in Iraq. The e-mail also contained a plea to participate in a prayer wheel. “Of all the gifts you could give a US Soldier, Sailor, Coastguardsman, Marine or Airman, prayer is the very best one.”
Though I understand the sentiment, I think prayer falls quite bit short of being the best gift. The best gift to soldiers being put in harm’s way would have been honesty from the commander in chief, instigator of this war. Since it’s too late for that, the second-best gift would be an American public that demanded honesty from that same commander in chief.
Though Mr. Bush doesn’t do nuance and he often fights a losing battle with syntax and pronunciation, he somehow makes it all work to potent political effect. “See, in my line of work,” he has said, “you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda . . .”
This folksy bit of arrogance helps explain his talent for communication. While FDR insisted that repetition does not transform a lie into a truth, Bush has persevered, brazened out and repeated lies that meeker men might have buckled under. He has hidden the truth in plain sight, wrapped in the cult of personality and patriotism and been rewarded for his efforts. His hand-picked audiences respond with thunderous applause. They relish the president’s jovial delivery, happy just to let the propaganda sink in and work its magic. Cares be gone. God bless America.
The confluence of religious fanaticism, war, fear and corporatism, have indeed proven ripe for catapulting his propaganda. The Iraq war has cost the lives of 1,683 soldiers and the lives of untold numbers of civilians. More than 12,000 Americans have been wounded and the war has a price tag of $300 billion and counting.
It’s a war that Mr. Bush decided to wage nearly a year before he breathed his first lie about the weapons of mass destruction. The Downing Street Memo, a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister’s meeting on July 23, 2002 revealed that “Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than half that of Libya, North Korea and Iran.” At the time the memo was written, Mr. Bush was claiming that war was a last option. All along it was actually the only option. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. Repetition of the WMD lie sank into the American public and the war was catapulted into our lives.
Adding insult to injury, Donald Rumsfeld has reduced his own criminal negligence in the execution of this war to his succinct and cold homily that freedom is untidy. His attitude about death and destruction makes me wonder how he’d describe the tsunami in Southeast Asia. Questions about the lack of body armor and armored Humvees were met with the glib rebuttal, “You go to war with the Army you have not the Army you might want or wish to have.” He may as well have claimed his dog had eaten the war plans, so little was his regard for the question.
The evangelical political movement has provided backup more substantial than mere prayer wheels. Dr. Frank Wright, CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, says about the 141 million listeners and viewers they reach, “We don’t just tell them what the news is, we tell them what it means. And that’s appealing to people, especially in moments of cultural instability.”
NRB passed a resolution during their 2003 conference which stated, “We recognize in all of the above that God has appointed President George W. Bush to leadership at this critical period in our nation’s history, give Him thanks.” Needless to say, telling their audience what it all means likely does not include skepticism about anything Mr. Bush says or does.
Yes, the Bush administration has a way with words that would merit awe if it weren’t so shameless. But there’s a sign of life on the horizon. George W. Bush’s approval rating is now a full 20 points lower than Bill Clinton’s was on the day he was impeached. Bill Clinton had a way with words, too. He lied about a consensual sexual affair that destroyed nothing but his dignity but which still led to impeachment. I’m thinking now of the pictures of those soldiers and how they remind me of my own children and yours, too. Instead of praying for them, I wrote this letter.
Judith Krieger lives in York Township.
For more news visit ydr.com.
---------
<< Home