"... the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious. In the long run only he will achieve basic results in influencing public opinion who is able to reduce problems to the simplest terms and who has the courage to keep forever repeating them in this simplified form despite the objection of the intellectuals." - Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.I was watching the fascinating documentary "... So goes the nation" about the 2004 election as seen at ground zero in Ohio. This has been playing on IFC. Ana Marie Cox in Time magazine summarized the main simple point about the movie - "stay on message, stay on message, don't screw up, and stay on message" should be drilled into campaigns and candidates.
There is a small percentage of people who are hard-core Republicans. For example, Ben Stein cried when Nixon resigned. Yet most people are much better than that. Instead a majority of the American voters are gullible, which is a much better word than idiots. How gullible do you have to be to vote for Dubya twice? Pretty damned gullible. How gullible do you have to be to think Bush was a bigger war hero than Kerry? Pretty damned gullible. How gullible do you have to be to think Bush really cared about abortion and stopping gay marriage and would fight for those causes? Pretty damned gullible.
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