Dirtball Politics

Last night Bill Moyers' Journal visited the Abramoff years again,and reminded us that slime was taught, and learned. Interviews with several of the operatives of that machine were revealing.

SAM HARBEN: We were idealists. We were young people who thought that we were going to save the world for democracy. I mean we were fighting for the liberty of the world. And in that sense, we viewed everything as ideology. It either helps our fight against the Communists or it doesn't.

BILL MOYERS: They dreamed up headline-grabbing stunts, like this one in the shadow of the Capitol, to support Reagan's anti-communist foreign policy.

RALPH REED: Good morning. My name is Ralph Reed. I'm the executive director of Students for America...

BILL MOYERS: Ralph Reed, a junior from the University of Georgia, joined the hard-charging team as a $200 a month intern.

SAM HARBEN: It was very simple, very black and white. We used army metaphors. We talked about being "hard core."

BILL MOYERS: Volunteers sent out to organize the grass roots were told to memorize a speech from the movie Patton. But for the word "Nazis" they were to substitute the word "Democrats." "Wade into them," the young recruits repeated. "Spill their blood!"

JACK ABRAMOFF: If we're the party of composure - and not the party that ducks disclosure - then we're riding our wave. If we equivocate, capitulate, accommodate, negotiate...

The word he is searching for is LIE.

The right wing has leaned hard against those liberal facts since early in its emergence as political machine. Using people's social conscience to fight against real conscience has been disturbingly effective. It seems to be beginning to fade. Hopefully, the more the facts contradict the propaganda, the more the fade will progress.

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Hint: Vote No.