Critical means discerning, right?
We're as gullible as the girl in every Cheatin' Johnny movie they ever made and crushed to learn that there is misdirection, obfuscation, prevarication, bluffing, slandering, misinforming, exaggeration, fabrication and lying in the service of capturing our one most precious possession: our vote. The most generous thing one can say about the media writ large is they are running out of time to claim unwitting co-conspirator status in the dumbing down of our politics. The lengths to which they go to secure their nakedly coveted access can sour that generosity quickly. (If you're in the mood for a bit of long form writing on the subject of CIA manipulation of information in the much ballyhooed free press, Global Research has posted a 50 point outline with sources duly noted for each one.)
Like wondering where the yellow went, or admitting right up front that diarrhea makes everyone squeamish so it's safe to now say diarrhea in between Ed Sullivan, so let's talk about diarrhea now that we can, the practice of politics is kith and kin, anode and cathode, systole and diastole, Homer and Jethro, realist and pragmatist, white and rice bound to the infectious lingo of the hidden persuaders.
A supporter, a month or so back, began a focus group response about why she liked Donald Trump (he's one of us, etc.) with "[A]side from the money issue..."
There are so many things wrong with that. There's the mind-blowing Donald Trump candidacy in the first place. Him being just like anyone; it is to laugh. And what on Earth does that woman mean by "issue?" Pointing it out makes one an elitist, I know. The ever-ready taunt of those pitching explicitly to a low common denominator.
When Frank Luntz is on the toilet he will be inspired with (uunph) a genius idea that is the following week's talking point. (On a good day, plural.) Phrase it this way, not that and thank you, extensive mailing list. Before the room entirely vents, there is an understanding far and wide of what needs to be repeatedly said.
Using a most talked about topic as the reason to talk about that topic might help explain the summer of Trump and all those trend-friendly leading questions which take for granted the unsubstantiated and even the patently false. Maybe too why there's a distinct softball feel to the so-called hardball. Why there's always a having to "leave it right there" or a "look over there, a bunny." (Bunnies always make for breaking news.)
Things that aren't there become there after repetitions of intimations. Why are Hillary's responses to chatter she may have broken the law so lacking in sobbing and confession? Does that mean she's got something to hide, Karl?
And we're not even to the swift boat/Reverend Wright stage of the campaign.
While some political wags are willing to endorse the importance of the September before the September before the next election, to sign contracts to appear as correspondents and commentators, the sanity caucus of the fourth estate knows full well there's a prime window to sway voters and it's not this week or next, in spite of the dog and pony show. The battle today is over what words will mean when that brief time of paying attention sweeps over the land like another season of that idol show. Will their definitions rely on months of impressions, tautologies and false premises?
How can a candidate be prepared with more than the luck of a bartender's iPhone to confront journalistic psy-ops and an electorate which is often confused about what is meant by a policy, a position or an issue and seems unconcerned by the hackneyed okey-doke being played on it?
Donald Trump's time in the Republican spotlight may yet go the way of the early conventional wisdom. If there's to be a replacement narrative, though, it won't suffer for lack of practice narratives.
Not entirely off topic, improbable as it seemed at the time, John Wayne had a hit record called "The Ballad of the Green Berets." On rock radio, Cousin Brucie played this record. It stuck out like a Jew craft accidentally slipping through inventory control at Hobby Lobby. Remember that sales determined position on the charts so in theory anyone with a budget and a large dumpster could have seriously impacted playlists. If some kind of secret string pulling was involved and that mechanism survives to this day, then I'm pinkie betting the hell out of Jeb with an exclamation. (Because his dad has connections.)
As our quadrennial ritual reaches its crescendo, critical advertising will, true to form, pass for discerning thinking.
