because of Iraq

…politicians have gone ape-shit.

First it was the Republicans with a monstrosity which it pains me to display. You can read about it here, on Abu Aardvark’s site. (I often don’t agree with him, but I agreed with him about the bizarre “These Are the Stakes” ad. And he is very informative about the Arab-language media.)

And now the Dems have pushed back hard with a viciously effective ad:

Attempts to puncture its effectiveness, such as Michele Malkin’s, will be to no avail. You’re wasting your energy when you try to refute effective advertising, which hits people in the gut: where they live. That’s why it’s effective.

As Edward Bernays, the father of PR, explained: effective advertising from the other guy (bad PR for your side) can’t be refuted; it can, however, be topped. Again and again, ad infinitum. Until you’ve reached critical mass, that is. Until you reach the tipping point. Until you’ve changed the narrative. Until you’ve scored a paradigm shift.

Then you’ve got something like, say, the Republicans’ brilliant (and devastating for the Democrats) Southern Strategy.

Expect an orgy of nastiness in the next couple of years. It will be awful, disgusting, infuriating, and appalling: in other words, entertaining. Even though the stakes are so very high.

No, I’m not falling for the Republicans’ crap. The stakes are high. But human beings are weak. They tend to choose the path of least resistance. They don’t heed warnings.

(1934) Nazism: An Assault on Civilization

(1936) The Yellow Spot

So it goes.