It started with Karl Rove

[4bonhoffer]

You take your opponents biggest strength and turn it into a liability. John Kerry served honorably. In VIiet Nam. The republicans with their billionaires and media control portrayed him as someone who lied about his service.

They then portrayed a guy who literally went awol while serving in a unit that was designed to keep its members stateside as a hero.

The draft ended when I was serving. Diversity was our strength. All cultures were represented. All economic groups were represented. We learned so much from each other. We learned that with all of differences that we really did have much more in common than we would have thought had we never met.

Diversity IS the strength of our country. Without diversity we become stagnant. A minority of our population desires us to remain stagnant, thinking only of themselves. These people are willing to destroy our country, our planet. Doesn’t matter how morbidly rich they are. They are insane. If there’s a future people will look back and ask the same question we asked about Germany in the 1930’s. How did an educated country allow itself to be taken over by insane racists. Well past time for the Democratic Party to use language that matches the moment. Shame, while not as powerful as fear, is still powerful. Well past time to shame the republicans for being the cowards that they are. We are being destroyed and too many in our party act as if being bipartisan with the people who are destroying our democracy is something special.

[Chasstev365]

1. Well written!

I would only add it also began with Newt Gingrich.

Always demonize Democrats as "the enemy", never compromise on anything even if it benefits your constituents, be as hypocritical as you want, and above all, everything should be viewed only through a partisan lens with the sole goal of getting a win in the court of public opinion.

Limbaugh, Fox and Rove took Gingrich's ideas to a new stratosphere.

[democrank]

2. Diversity IS our strength, so thank you for that.

I remember Republican hate messenger, Lee Atwater. Like Karl Rove, Joe Scarborough, host of “Scarborough Country”, also did his part in fomenting hate. The list is long and here we are.

Given today’s sorry state of affairs in our country, I would love to see Democrats improve our messaging by tossing aside consultant-speak in favor of everyday language spoken in a straightforward way.

[NewHendoLib]

3. Yep. Atwater - a real slime ball.

Nixon - Ehrichman- Mitchell - Halderman - Liddy are part of the early slimeball efforts too.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Yup, they're all Ground Zero for this.

Atwater and Nixon, in particular. Karl Rove was their best student.

[rubbersole]

6. Let's not forget to give some credit to Roger Ailes.

Limbaugh's mentor. He pitched the right wing tv channel to Murdoch. They can all rot in hell.

[markodochartaigh]

4. Here is another one from Karl Rove which seems very relevant today.

"The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

[surfered]

7. Before alternative facts we had Rove's "We create our own reality."

And helped start voter suppression concerned about voter fraud leading to unnecessary hoops to jump thru for voter IDs.

[70sEraVet]

8. Sure, Rove was all about portraying heroes as cowards,

and passing off cowards as heroes.
But I bet even HE has been shaking his head at the NFT's trump has been hawking -- with him dressed as a cowboy sheriff, an astronaut, a superhero. Rove never realized just HOW gullible a portion of the American public IS!

[ms liberty]

9. No, it started with that ahole Lee Atwater. But the rest of your rant, yes.

Mr liberty and I have several acronyms that we use in public and private. For example,
I HA is I hate Amurika or Amurikins, when appropriate. I am hereby announcing a new acronym for the fam:

I HATT SM: I hate this timeline so much.

[mopinko]

10. it started w fox news. none of their blather mattered until it was presented w/o facts/reality.

when the fairness doctrine fell, we were on a greased skid to hell.
as long as the news was a place in the real world, lies were obvious. as soon as the lies had their own channel, where they wd not b challenged by reality, we were fucked.
roger ailes, rupert murdoch, and st ronnie.

[Beatlelvr]

11. Don't forget Max Cleland

May he RIP. Another hit job by the right.

[happy feet]

12. Yes, it did.

I remember his lines every day about creating the reality and by the time the Dems the truth out they've gone onto the next lie and the next and the next.