As You Know, Newt Gingrich Will Say ANYTHING!
The March 2011 They Will Say ANYTHING! Award For Valor. As soon as the Libya no fly zone was established I said to my long-suffering wife Sue, “Just watch what’ll happen. Everyone who was for a no fly zone will now be against the no fly zone.” She sighed, and then, as always, whispered “Please, go away.”
Anyway, I’d planned to look around for no fly zone (NFZ) flip flop examples but got involved in other blog entries and then fell back onto my habit of general laziness, so that was that. For me, but not for blogs like the very energetic Talking Points Memo. See their video below highlighting for posterity Newt Gingoiter’s brazen-even-for-Newt flip-flop on the issue. It’s a pip!
This is the Newt who, prior to our establishing the NFZ with a coalition including the UK, France, Qatar, and the UAE, actively supported the NFZ in every media forum that would put up with him. He went as far as suggesting that the United States undertake the NFZ without allies; just do it, said Newt. He was aghast that President Obama wouldn’t act.
Then, of course, he did act. And, as day follows night, Ginggrowth struck out on a new path. The video says it all, and is actually a summary of Newt’s political life, especially in re Obama.
Questions always arise. Newt ceaselessly self-promotes as a technology futuristic guru. So, is he unaware that video and audio can be saved for posterity?
Is he truly so inept and stupid that he doesn’t realize he flip flopped on the NFZ?
Did he really believe he would not be taken to task for it?
[Secret answers – No, No, No]
The Real Answers Are Not Necessarily Reality Based. How does one explain this apparent self immolation, this immense self destruction? It’s simple, he knows that his base will not merely accept his new position against the NFZ, Newt knows that the base will accept both opposing positions equally.
The goal here, among his (relatively few) supporters, is to defeat Obama in 2012, and to render his presidency ineffective until then. The means to do so rely upon keeping unrelenting negative pressure on the President, and the key word is “unrelenting.” As in never stop. As in oppose Obama on everything. As in he was wrong to not impose an NFZ; and he was equally wrong to impose an NFZ. Who knows what position Gingroid really supports? As far as the GOP far right is concerned, who cares? (How this Newtonian misbehavior can impress independent voters I’ll never know, and Newt’ll need them in 2012 . . .)
I wrote more on the phenomenon of far right/far left propaganda in a March 12, 2011 article, Public Sector Union Bashing: Lies, Damn Lies, And CrossroadsGPS.org.
(The references below are to Karl Rove, but they apply equally to Ginggravygut)
For Rove and other propagandists (right and left), their audience, their “base,” exists to be manipulated without mercy, regardless of their collective needs. To the Rove’s of this world, manipulation is an amoral activity, it is simply a practical necessity to gain and retain political and economic power for themselves or for their clients. Yet, one can’t succeed at manipulation without knowing one’s audience very well. And they do.
Most often, and usually through no fault of their own, many in Rove’s anti-union base are unsophisticated, under-educated, hidebound fans of FOX Newsiness, suspicious of joint action to assist anyone but their inner circle of family and friends, and just plain angry at modernity and the received history of recent times. It’s likely that the average person in the Rovian base (1) will not investigate the Crossroads GPS anti-union claims, or examine Bob Chanin’s NEA speech, and (2) will not believe any “liberal” blow back they may accidentally hear or read. Rove knows they are allergic to anything not already believed. He has, after all, been one of their principle cattle dogs, keeping them in the herd, yapping and biting at their heels and flanks, keeping them voting for politicians and policies that, for most of his base, are genuinely against their interests, and the interests of their children.
Finally, I also wrote:
Never, Never Plead Guilty! In closing, here’s an expert demonstration of the use of another arrow in the propagandist’s quiver, complete denial. Once caught in a preposterous lie, they most often simply do not admit it, and, most importantly, and with bravado and bravura,they continue to stay on the message the lie or misrepresentation advances.
Let’s keep tuned to the Newt Gingrich frequency. Watch how he denies that there are any inconsistencies whatever in his two No Fly Zone positions. He’s so oddly good at this, we’ll almost believe him.
