Propaganda and the 2010 Midterm Elections

by Kyle Roman

The midterm elections are upon us this year and the campaigning, once again, started too early. The republican party has been campaigning ever since the Presidential election by grinding this country's legislative and executive branches to a halt. In the legislative branch the Senate republicans have been using the filibuster to torpedo meaningful reform and to water down already meaningless measures aimed at attempting to correct the era of the Bush regime. They have also blocked numerous important political appointees who are in charge of key governmental agencies. These republicans have been essentially waging a war on the American People by blocking the essential functions of our government. And now the real fight is taking place in front of our eyes.

Elections are currently being run by the Public Relations industry in this country. And just like a dog that licks itself, the PR industry deceives you, because it can. These people make a luxurious living off of manufacturing the consent of average American consumers. During election season they are not selling you toothpaste, or your child a Disney toy, they are selling a candidate. They are selling you or reselling you a political party that has ballooned the deficit, waged two illegal wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, allowed corporations to ignore regulators and pollute our food water and air, and corrupted the justice department and other federal agencies with loyal political actors in violation of federal law. To do this they are using a simple game of misdirection.

Instead of talking about the paralysis of the government caused by the Senate republicans, we are talking about a mosque in lower manhattan. Now ordinarily that statement would not have any connotative meaning. But since the 9/11 attacks and the fear and deceit campaign that followed, conservatives have been looking to bring back that air of hatred to use for political power. The public relations industry is following nicely along by concocting another Us vs. Them scenario in order to return their conservative oligarch partners into high office. The season has just started but the big guns are being reserved for later. Even if there are minimal victories in this election for conservatives, the campaign has planted seeds of doubt and fear in the population. These will provide momentum towards the 2012 elections when it will be the President who is targeted.

Once again the republicans and their PR partners are waging a war on the minds of the domestic population. They want us to be obedient, consenting workers in their ideal world run by corporate power. They want us to be divided against one another and discuss a mosque in lower manhattan instead of the terrorist hostage-taking of our government by republicans. We must not be intimidated by their forceful rhetoric nor convinced by their fancy PR language. We made this country great for everyone once, and we shall do it again without the consent from our self-imposed master. We are the people that the Constitution was written for, not those who make their money from dividends or lay away in country clubs. We apathetically allowed this creeping fascism into our lives. We must confront this beast and force it back into the past where it belongs.