The Frankfurter School

Every year I watch the Republicans exploit fear and win elections. It works so well that even you Democrats seem to still be afraid of the very issues you always lose elections with: terror and national security.  It’s time for the you use fear to win this election, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.  I take you back to 1964, the last time the Democrats used this tactic, to defeat a far-right ideologue that looks like a centrist in today’s political soup. Barry Goldwater, like John McCain, saw enemies around every corner. The spectre of his militarism causing World War III and nuclear holocaust was enough to turn the election to Johnson and soundly defeat the radical right fringe for another sixteen years.
It’s time to hit John McCain where it hurts, and I dare say it’s not a stretch.. The man terrifies me and I think its time to let middle America in on the fear. Please turn to page 10 of the Republican campaign playbook: find your opponents biggest strength and turn it in to a weakness.

The source of all of this respect and reverence for John McCain is the fact that he spent five years as a POW in a prison camp in Vietnam. This must be turned against him! People who are imprisoned and tortured like that for so long become a danger to themselves and to society. Look at the US government’s insistence on not releasing innocent prisoners for Guantanamo Bay: at this point our treatment of them has turned them all into terrorists. John McCain is unstable, impetuous, quick to anger, and a warmonger.

Play clips of him repeating “we will fight” a dozen times in his convention acceptance speech. Play video of him laughing and singing “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” like a little boy with a set of toy soldiers. Quote him calling for twice as many troops in Iraq and telling us there will be “more wars.” Remind people of his hawkish defense of Georgia against Russia and wonder where the troops will come from to fight all of his wars.

Remember Harry and Louise, the fictitious middle-class couple who were confused and scared by the Clinton health care plan? Let’s bring them back and show how scared they are when their college-bound son is drafted to go to war in the first days of a McCain Administration.  Re-make Hillary Clinton’s 3AM ad. When John McCain is awakened in the middle of the night in the White House, he’s liable to push the red button based on his famous “gut instincts” and hit the wrong people. Remember how he doesn’t know the difference between Sunni and Shia? Will Joe Lieberman live in a spare bedroom of the West Wing just to remind him who’s who in the middle of the night? Or will he turn to Sarah Palin and accidentally bomb San Francisco, since that who she perceives to be the greatest threat to America.

It’s time to play politics the way the other team is playing: do whatever it takes to win. I would be happy to start a 527 group and make these ads myself: that’s how Swift Boating works. And it’s proven extremely effective. Pardon me, Mr. Obama, you take the high road and I’ll take the low road. And please send my regards to Mr. Dukakis, Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry while you’re up there.