The Republican assault on "political hate speech"

SPINSANITY -- Over the last two months, the Republican Party has begun a systematic effort to label attacks on President Bush by Democratic presidential candidates as "political hate speech," a new piece of political jargon intended to delegitimize criticism of Bush. It appears this strategy will expanded in the coming months -- a recent memo from Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie urged party officials to adopt the term in their rhetoric.

In this case, the phrase associates criticism of the president with "hate speech," which generally refers to speech that attacks others on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Of course, some rhetoric directed toward President Bush could fairly be described as hateful (just like any politician), but Republicans have used the term sweepingly to try to delegitimize nearly all criticism of Bush, regardless of its substance. This is a key tactic of political jargon, which often seeks to undermine the legitimacy of criticism by invoking hazy but powerful emotional symbols.

The blanket application of "political hate speech" is being used to undermine the legitimacy of criticism and dissent in principle -- a tactic which disturbingly echoes Bush's "changing the tone" rhetoric from Bush's campaign and early months of his presidency, which implicitly defined a changed tone as the absence of opposition to the President's policies. It is also a direct descedant to the many vitriolic attacks unleashed by Republicans and conservative pundits on those who have questioned Bush or the war on terrorism, including former RNC chair Marc Racicot's attempt to preclude any discussion of replacing Bush earlier this year.

EL - I think the best tactic is to use a varation of the term against them - the Republicans are engaging in "political hate spin" in trying to delegitimize all criticism of their anti-American policies.