"Hate politics? Then thank Newt Gingrich"
Newt-endorsed GOPAC memo, 1995: "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control."
"A Brief History of Political Hatred:"
In the 1978 Senate campaign, NCPAC's shock ads "took out" veteran Democratic Senator Dick Clark. Thrilled with their initial results, they attacked six incumbents in 1980, and beat four - John Culver (IA), George McGovern (SD), Frank Church (ID), and Birch Bayh (IN). They narrowly missed Alan Cranston (CA) and Tom Eagleton (MO).
NCPAC proved that vicious personal attacks worked. While they started "outside" the Republican Party as an independent expenditure effort, their tactics were quickly adopted by the GOP itself and its candidates. In the 1990's, Newt Gingrich turned NCPAC's campaign messaging strategy into an everyday GOP dictionary of hatred through GOPAC.
Soundtrack: "You can't fool all the people all of the time, but if you fool the right ones, then the rest will fall in line."
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Wandering further into the desert
Majority of Iowans embarrassed by Chuck "Lie of the Year" Grassley.
Previously "Republican Sweep in 2010: Mission Accomplished"
Not so much?
Add to the list the rise of
Add to the list the rise of politicized think tanks, political marketing, and a vertically integrated knowledge industry and you have un-packed the Republican knapsack. The rightward shift in American politics over the past 30-40 years was not accidental.