Campaigning on 'the big lie'
UNION-TRIBUNE
October 22, 2004
"The great masses of the people," wrote one of history's most infamous propagandists, "will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small lie."
John Kerry agrees. As do the 527 organizations that support the Democrat presidential nominee. For as they slouch toward Election Day, they have ginned up every big lie they can think of to scare the masses of voters away from George W. Bush.
Just this week, in fact, the Kerry campaign unveiled an ad claiming that the president "has a plan to cut Social Security benefits by 30 to 45 percent."
It's a shameless attempt by the Democratic Party standard-bearer to scare the bejeebers out of the nation's seniors. And it's a big lie, as attested by FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan Web site produced by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.
"Bush hasn't proposed any specific plan," according to the site, but has received three possible "reform models" detailed in the final report of a bipartisan commission studying ways to strengthen Social Security.
"The plan the Kerry ad refers to doesn't affect benefits for current retirees at all," it adds, and "Even for future retirees, benefits will grow under the 'reform model' the Kerry ad refers to."
Meanwhile, the 527 group America Coming Together is circulating handbills on Kerry's behalf suggesting that Republicans are planning to attack black voters to keep them from the polls.
The flyer reproduces a Civil Rights era photograph of a black man pinned against the wall of a building by water shooting out of a fire hose. "This is what they used to do to keep us from voting," it reads.
And "This is how Republicans keep African-Americans from voting now," it adds, listing several recent incidents in which blacks supposedly were discouraged from casting ballots.
"They make African-American voters stand in line for hours, and they turn them away from the polls," the flyer claims. "Now (U.S. Attorney General) John Ashcroft is trying to prevent African-Americans from voting at all."
The America Coming Together handbill is racial demagoguery at its ugliest. It is a big lie meant to keep black voters on the Democratic plantation.
Then there's the suggestion by Kerry, and by certain activist groups that support the one-time anti-war activist, that Bush has a plan to revive the military draft.
There is "a great potential" for a draft if Bush is returned to the Oval Office, Kerry told The Des Moines Register last week, ignoring that just one week earlier, during the second presidential debate, Bush stated unequivocally, "We're not going to have a draft, period."
Meanwhile, the pro-Kerry group Rock the Vote, which claims to be nonpartisan, has been sending out letters on official-looking letterhead reading "Selective Service System," and informing recipients "YOU HAVE BEEN DRAFTED."
Of course, the letter neglects to mention that a bill proposing to reinstate the draft, introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and co-sponsored by four other Democrats, was allowed to come to the House floor earlier this month, where it was rejected 402 to 2.
But why should Kerry, why should activist groups supporting the Democratic presidential nominee, let the facts get in the way of their big lie?
Their aim is to get young voters to the polls by frightening them into believing they will be conscripted into military service and sent off to fight insurgents in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Finally, there's the Kerry claim that, "After nearly four years under George Bush, the middle class is paying a bigger share of America's tax burden, and the wealthiest are paying less."
That's another big lie. The fact is that Bush lowered taxes across the board.
And when all was said and done, the highest-earning 20 percent of Americans still accounted for 63 percent of all federal tax receipts, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, compared to 10.5 percent for the middle 20 percent.
The Kerry campaign, the 527 and activist organizations that support the Democrat presidential nominee, are persuaded that the masses will easily fall victim to their big lies.
Just as the infamous Nazi propagandist cited above suggested they would.
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