OHIO & Lakoff: The Right Wing Power Grab Frame

From Daily Kos:

OHIO & Lakoff: The Right Wing Power Grab Frame
by Paul Rosenberg

Sun Dec 19th, 2004 at 18:17:28 CDT

What matters to me most about Ohio are 3 things: (1) Racism. (2) Voter Suppression. (3) The Right Wing Power Grab.

For me, the essence of the right wing power grab as a reality is self-evident. If we do not confront and fight it directly, we will, quite simply, always being playing defense. And we will invariably lose. First let me quickly run down the reality, then I'll turn to the matter of framing.

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From at least the time of Watergate onward, major forces within the GOP have beleived that they have the right to rule America, and the the Constitution is simply a hindrance. The stealing of Carter's briefing book during the 1980 debate--as well as the never properly investigated October Suprise--were the first big electoral example. The attempt to smear Clinton in state elections before he bacame a national candidate was another piece of this same pattern. The coverup of Bush's involvement in Iran-Contra was another piece. And the two-term campaign to impeach Clinton--investigating the man to search for a crime, rather than the other way around--was a climax, of sorts. But then came Florida 2000, DeLay's unprecedented mid-term redistricting caper, the California recall, and finally election 2004, with Ohio in the center ring.

All this is perfectly consistent with the conservative Strict Father model.

In a brief telephone interview this week, George Lakoff told me, 'They [Strict Father Republicans] see themselves in all out war of good versus evil and you can use the devils own tricks against him, so that there is a no-holds-barred situation. Anything goes in confronting evil. The Democrats have assumed that the election process is not war, that it replaces war. That's why you hold elections instead of having war.'

Thus, it's perfectly consistent that the GOP feels entitled to steal elections, if necessary. They are fighting the devil. All's fair in love and war. Democrats seem to recognize this sometimes, but we fail to really see how crucial it is."