Here Comes The GOP Stampede
by Joshua Holland, AlterNet.org
The
conservatives don't play politics with real grassroots activism. Their
top-down style and “buy the movement” approach is better suited for
Astroturf – and this week, they're on the march.
This
weekend, the Republican Party's ground game will be out in full force.
Bush strategist Karl Rove will unveil his “72-hour plan” to knock on
the door of every last uncommitted voter in America leading up to the
election. The strategy for the stretch-drive is unambiguous: red meat
for the base, inclusiveness and security for the swing voters and
making a mockery of Sen. Kerry. To get there, conservative leadership
will mobilize their network of grassroots activists like never before,
focusing on key battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and
Missouri.
…The
drive to get out the Republican vote will be but one part of a genuine
and dangerously effective conservative mass movement that has emerged
in recent years. But there's a difference between the right's activism and that of the left.
While most progressive movements tend to be organized spontaneously by
activists in true bottom-up fashion, the right's grassroots are
top-down, disciplined and hierarchical. Many of their ground troops
have been professionally inflamed to the point that they've become
another powerful media tool for conservative leadership. Beyond a base
of dedicated activists within the evangelical community and some other
true believers – an estimated 15 million of whom made it to the polls
for Bush in 2000 – the right's populism is often a smoke-and-mirrors
affair cultivated by GOP operatives, spread with today's easy activist
tools and underwritten – sometimes indirectly – by the usual
conservative donors.
This
approach works. We saw it performed perfectly in Florida in the days
after the contested 2000 presidential vote. Pro-Bush protesters
marching in the streets of Florida convinced the Miami-Dade canvassing
board to shut down its recount before the tally was completed, sending Gore v. Bush
to the courts. According to the New York Times, the decision to halt
the recount “followed a rapid campaign of public pressure.” Republican
telephone banks urged voters of all stripes to protest the process and
conservative talk-radio hosts echoed the call. According to the Times,
one Republican attorney used a bull horn to egg the crowds on, and the
gathering protesters became violent, at one point even assaulting a
Democratic board member.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
[Well, good. I hope they waste
a lot of time and energy knocking on doors in states that aren't up for
grabs – just out of sheer greed. No one has ever accused the
neo-cons of having good judgment.]
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