The Velveteen Ocelot (32,790 posts)
3. Au contraire, mon ami. Ridicule and mockery are extremely effective
because that's what the comedians, the cartoonists, the late-night guys like Letterman and Leno, and SNL and The Daily Show pick up on. That's how the message gets to the low-information voters who don't give a crap about abstract policy. If the sense in the popular media is that Romney deserves mockery and ridicule, it works. Remember what happened to Al Gore?
Yeah, and what do all of those people have in common? They're jokers. It's their job to tell jokes, not defend policy positions. When Obama does it, he comes across like the high school nerd at a party telling lame jokes to try to be popular. I don't want a Joker-In-Chief with his hand on the red button, and neither do sane Americans.
Ronald Reagan could pull it off because he had
gravitas. That, and a grandfatherly demeanor along with a self-deprecating sense of humor that made his jokes about others softer and less mean-spirited. He could pull it off because you knew he was telling it to the entire country. He could pull it off because you knew that behind the joke was an adult with a steel resolve who took his responsibilities to the nation seriously. Obama, not so much. You get the feeling he's using the joke to
escape the responsibility.
As far as "low-information voters" go, DUmmies have plenty of information. They're practically swimming in it. The problem is, this "information" comes from bloggers operating out of their basements, who in turn get
their information from other, equally clueless bloggers who heard it from some Left wing propagandist who has no more access to information than the average citizen, and 'round and 'round she goes. Meme becomes fact. Conspiracy theory and conjecture becomes truth. One-liners from a moonbat message board become holy writ.
I'd say at least ninety-percent of Lefties I've caught outside of their echo chambers online and argued with come armed with only one or two tired talking points, and after those are expended, they're out of ammunition. It either devolves into a circular argument on their part, they go to the ad hominem (Y-y-you just don't
care about poor people!), or one of their buddies show up, throws out a locker room quip, and they collapse into virtual giggles and high fives. That's why they don't let conservatives post in places like DU or Think Progress and it's why liberal talk radio doesn't fare well. They're "information" just doesn't stand up to analyses and they hate being exposed as the frauds they are.
