PatsFanInVa

I just realized when I watched McCain attempting to answer questions on Monday's financial collapse.

McCain is a long-time anti-regulation guy... so his first reaction was to sputter about how he'll "shake things up", and then, as if realizing he can't say he'll infuse government into finance, he defaulted to this (the key to the playbook: )

He was not going to allow "greed."

This got me thinking about the seven deadly sins as Republican gameplan. The strategy is to define a personality trait as a sin, and to accuse the other guy of enabling that sin, or to accuse some party to a pertinent problem as exhibiting that sin.

Let's look at some GOP main talking points over the years, using the Seven Deadly Sins plan:

- This campaign, McCain points out the (1) Greed of wall street, and accused Obama of (2) Pride (remember the celebrity ads?)

- Clinton was impeached for (3) Lust (and at any given point, anybody left of center can be accused of it by anybody right of center, regardless of the behavior being universal.)

- Reagan went after entitlements, accusing recipients thereof of (4) Sloth

- When it is pointed out that the rich are benefitting and the poor are suffering from a policy, the GOP cries "Class War!" or (5) Envy.

These are the stronger examples... 6 and 7 take a bit more "peg-fitting":

- Nixon ran on the (6) Gluttony (hedonist addictive consumption, in this case of drugs) among the hippie crowd and their ilk; this led to an established pattern of portraying enemies as addicts (depsite addiction behavior among their own)

- The GOP is even going after the left on charges of (7) Wrath, claiming hateful attitudes toward Bush (and now, of course, his would-be successors,) despite simultaneously considering them too soft on ooooh just about anything right-thinking people should want to nuke.


The Seven Deadlies fit pretty well, but are really best as just an example of the approach.

Democrats talk about policies, society-wide problems, etc.; Republicans attempt to form in your mind an example of a person who instantiates a sin. (I.e., the Sloth/Welfare Queen; the Prideful Candidate; the Envious poor.) The beauty of it is that the "fix" is not important; you just have to identify the bad sinful person who can not be allowed to continue his sinning.

Discuss.

PFnV

Holy Diver

interesting theory, fun to play as well.

I think its a lot more simple than that. For the 7 sins theory to work, you'd have to have the same minds involved in the campaigns of several Presidents over the course of decades.

From what I have seen, the strategy is simple and 2 fold.

Fold 1) Exploit your opponents biggest strength as a weakness (Swiftboating)
Fold 2) Wedge issues, Wedge issue, Wedge issues. If there is a topic that they are not strong on, fall back on wedge issues (Abortion, gay marriage etc)

Lately they have thrown a 3rd and 4th 'fold' into the mix, and we will see how it works.

Fold 3) Use your opponents strength as YOUR strength (McCain running as the 'Change' candidate)
Fold 4) Tell lies (untruths) and hope the uninformed voters don't check up on the facts.




I think we are seeing a diversion in strategy over the past few days/weeks. Away from the simple Karl Rove 1-2 punch and toward a 1-2-3-4 Hybrid. You could see how even Karl Rove wasn't exactly applauding the latest McCain strategy of telling 'untruths'


I believe this diversion from the simple dink-and dunk playbook that has seemed to work for the last few elections will be the undoing of McCain...

MrSparkle

I've been trying to figure out Karl's motive with that statement. The man never says anything flippantly. While it appears that he is going against his own party I'm not convinced. There must be an ulterior motive.

__________________
Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind. - Albert Einstein

When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil. - Thomas Jefferson