Commentary
I have frequently been critical of the Biden administration’s oft-repeated effort to paint former President Trump as a threat to our democracy commenting on the left’s playbook of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
I’ve decided to address this issue again since Democrat Tim Walz and Special Counsel Jack Smith recently surfaced Trump’s threat to democracy in the January 6 riot on the Capitol.
I find it extremely interesting how the left, with its frequent reference to Trump as a dictator, even as Hitler, repeat the democracy threat message in the fashion of Hitler’s minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
At the heart of Nazi’s Third Reich, repetition was the essence of its propaganda. Goebbels, the Nazi head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, was the recognized genius behind it.
Democrats follow Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, where Rule #10 informs that, “If you push hard enough, it will push through and become positive.”
I found little evidence that the left’s repeated message of Trump being a threat to democracy has convinced Americans. Rasmussen Reports found a near-even split between Trump and Harris when questioned who is the greater threat.
While the media is culpable in the endless warning of the risk Trump poses to our Constitution, as evidenced by trying to engage J.D. Vance in Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 results during the recent debate, it chooses to ignore the Biden administration’s anti-democracy record.
Biden has refused to admit having a role in the phony criminal charges against his political adversary, the systematic effort with social media networks to suppress opposition speech, expansion of the regulatory state to serve the needs of the administration and providing billions of dollars to fund the student loan-forgiveness for vote buying in deference to the ruling of the Supreme Court.
Did Democrats think for a moment how democracy was ignored when Kamala Harris was given a free ride?
And, how about the anti-democratic action of keeping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off ballots, and the failure to provide him with Secret Service protection.
Perhaps the most egregious assault on our democracy is the Biden administration’s failure to protect the sovereignty of our country with its open borders policy that not only includes the southern border, but the covert flights carrying migrants from South America to various U.S. airports.
Is the Threat Working?
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported, “Although the mere exposure effect has been researched widely, surprisingly little is known about the attitudinal and cognitive effects of message repletion.”
However, I was particularly struck by the finding of the Human Communications Research organization:
“We found no evidence that these message reactions shifted linearly, logarithmically, or quadratically over time, with the exception that anger increased linearly with subsequent exposures.”
That “anger” seems to follow as television viewers tire of the repeated political messages by candidates of both parties.
Harvard used a study by the Journal of Communication to explore preexisting biases towards scientific authority influences how effective message repetition is in persuading us to take action.
“Among people who were unfavorably biased toward scientific authority, repeated exposure to climate change messages made the message more challenging to comprehend and exhausting to read. Consequently, this made them less likely to support climate change mitigation strategies.”
Repeat as they will, Americans with fixed beliefs are not easily persuaded to change their position on an issue. Democracy falls below the economy and immigration on issues of concern to voters, with abortion placing a distant fourth. They don’t want to talk about the economy and immigration.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
