Once in a while, it’s worth taking a moment to realize how very, very odd Republicans can be.
There’s a new rule at the Republican National Committee. Refer to the two leading Democratic presidential candidates simply as “Barack” and “Hillary” and you’ll be fined $10.
The reason: Using first names makes the candidates sound more likable but calling them “Senator Obama” and “Senator Clinton” makes them sound more distant and bureaucratic.
“I don’t think people are actually being fined,” says one insider. But everyone is being “encouraged” to follow the rule.
It’s like a swear jar in which people who use profanity are supposed to be put money in a pot every time they use profanity. It’s supposed to be a deterrent.
Only at the RNC, the swear jar is a humanizing-Democrats jar.
No, I usually don’t understand Republicans, either.
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think of repubs like ranchers
and we are the cattle
Sounds childish as hell to me. These are adults and they have to be told how to speak?
Must they manipulate everything?
You can call them whatever you’d like. Just call them landslide winners in ‘08.
LOL, that is so incredibly messed up! You have to admit, their crazy tactics are psychologically viable. Hell, I think I just heard a bell and salivated.
A little “fucking” difference…
(anyone who can tell me where that’s from gets the prize of the day and it proves you’re smart)
That’s soooo retarded. The problem really is that when you use the Senator title it gives them credibility. The first names are worse. Hillary constitutes Bill and thus the evil philanderer is reincarnated. Using Barack is a foreign name, not at all similar to Bill, Ted, Frank, George and thus constitutes evil foreigner and a muslim one at that.
Stupid Repukes just don’t get it.
This is why Republicans are better campaigners than Democrats. Everything is war to them and rule #1 of war is to dehumanize your adversary.
How funny. What the RNC should be doing is trying to keep Republicans from switching parties which is happening at an astonishing pace. We had a “recovering Republican” that just change his party affiliation speak at the Democratic County Committee meeting this past weekend and he gave a speech supporting Obama. It was amazing to watch. He told me that he made many calls to Republicans and Independents who are switching parties just so they can vote for Obama in the April primary. And the RNC is worried about calling Hillary, Hillary and Barack, Barack. Ha! :lol:
It’s easy to understand republicans. You remember that weird kid in the neighborhood who pulled the wings off flies, burned ants with a magnifying glass, harassed neighborhood cats and set little fires for ‘fun’ ? The one that cried and screamed like an infant and bellowed “It’s not fair!” whenever he got caught causing his usual mayhem?
That’s a republican.
What. Ev. Er.
Republicans by and large are just the well-dressed, functioning retarded. These children are running country.
2009 can’t arrive fast enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpVVpSM5_YU
I hate, hate, hate, hate Hillary. Here’s why… (satirical).
By that logic in November it will be either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama against John. So who would you trust to run the government? Senator xxx or John?
Looks like the end to the Reagan era. Liberal is the new “IN” word. All the new, young voters want to be called “Liberal”.
Barack. Barack. Barack.
Hillary. Hillary. Hillary.
Oh, well. What’s $60 to a rich Republican?
*stuffs a Ben Franklin in the swear jar*
Keep the change.
Only stuck up old white guys could be this creative. It must of been someone in Mitt’s camp. Oops I made him appear likable.
They run the RNC like capitalists run companies…like a kindergarten.
Imichael @ 15:
Ha! Not possible.
Wonder if Rove has started a similar jar at Fox yet!
I think it is a great idea! The idea of “President Bush” disappeared 2002 and he just became “Bush” I think that “Senators Obama” and “Senator Clinton” is deeply respectful even if it is not intended to be.
Who doesn’t want to have those days back when you did respect those you elected?
This is so cool I’m turning the fire up!
MargeAggedon @ 9:
That little shit lives behind me. I guess he can grow up to be president some day or at least a good republican.
What’s weird is that saying Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is a title of respect. If I were to meet them I would address them as “Senator”. I certainly wouldn’t presume a first name familiarity with them.
I wonder what the fine is for saying “Democratic Party” instead of “Democrat Party”.
what about “Hill-dawg”?
“It’s like a swear jar in which people who use profanity are supposed to be put money in a pot every time they use profanity. It’s supposed to be a deterrent.”
I saved enough for a vacation in my swear-jar during bush’’s idiotic administration.
Way back at the beginning of this war from hell, I asked a family member if she and her husband supported the war. She replied, “We are good Republicans”.
What is a good Republican? One who asks no questions and does as they are told? I guess if you have to put money in the swear jar, you’re not a real good Republican.
Wait, so what’s their policy on Ron, John, Mitt, and Mike?
I don’t know why, but I don’t usually refer to any of these by their first name… not something I thought about till now…. but a fine?
Is the RNC that hard up for individual donations?
Just this afternoon I heard Hannity (I know, I know. I’ll claim is in a “know thy enemy” policy) and a number of callers/guests calling them “Hillary” and “Barack.” Guess the memo didn’t reach him yet?
Tom @ 27:
So sorry for you Tom, were you forced to watch that by someone with a gun?
There is an aspect of human nature into which Republicans have learned to tap: the pack-animal instinct. Most humans, it seems, have an unconscious desire to follow some alpha-human (sadly, usually an alpha-male). It seems that, like dogs, humans would rather follow a leader than be in the terrifying position of being in charge of your own life and not having a fucking clue what to do. Read John Dean’s “Conservatives Without Conscience”. He talks about the studies that show the authoritarian instinct at work in the Republican Party.
Republicans don’t actually like democracy. They’re really monarchists at heart. They choose their leaders based upon emotional artifice — I mean, for crying out loud, Saint Dutch was a divorced Hollywood actor who worked with a chimp, dyed his hair and wore make-up, and they STILL manage to deify him into the Great Manly Man Who Defeated the USSR *and* Liberals! They prefer comforting lies to the honest truth (I believe they despise Carter as much as they do because he went on TV and told them that they needed to grow up and accept things the way they were, which they never want to do.) and they prefer to, as “Bob” Dobbs put it, “relax in the safety of [their] own delusions!”
Combined with a fetish for anti-intellectualism (read: ignorance), racism and fundamentalist religion, it’s a very powerful and hard to shake combination. I mean, could you imagine Archie Bunker ever waking up one morning and going, “Wait a minute — being prejudiced is a terrible idea!”?
We should all decide on how to address McCain from here on in then. I vote for McShit-head…
Ok, fair enough. In ‘08, I’ll just refer to McCain as that unemployed, batshit craze ex -Senator.
They do know that human instinct is to call people by as short a name as possible right?
Ok, here’s my $10, Mc Lame is an assh***. Here’s $10,000 for what I have said about bush/cheney.
pissed off patricia @ 25:
Ummm, a dead one?
Butt Pimple Limbaugh recently called Obama a “spade” and Clinton a “ho” — and now the Repubics are trying to denigrate them by referring to them as “Senator.”
Is it because they think that calling anybody a senator is far worse than slamming them with a rascist or sexist epithet?
When I think of “Senator” McConnell, and “Senator” Frist, and “Senator” Santorum — I can see their point!
Looks like the Rethugs understand Marketing and Branding.
Calling them by a single name would help them to establish and reinforce their Brand Identity. i.e.: Obama=Change
It’s like refering to a United States Citizen as an “American.”
Branding elicits an emotional response from the target audience, that is why it is so highly effective and why people get degrees in Marketing.
Bangkok Bob @ 28:
Nope, it was the radio show. I used to work in political satire, so for some sad, inexplicable, deranged, masochistic reason, I continue to gather material.
Speaking of swear jars, an oldie but a goodie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJJL5dxgVaM
Excellently stated, Clavis.
What’s the big deal? At least we know Republicans are our opposing team, unlike Obama…who’s like a Trojan Horse:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talk.....ills_p.php
What’s the big deal? We know republicans are our opposing team; unlike Obama who is a Trojan Horse:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talk.....ills_p.php
Speaking of swear jars (an oldie but a goodie): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJJL5dxgVaM
I understand Republicans quite well. Winning elections for Republicans trumps every other interest that could possble exist.
Just look at the 11th commandment. This is supposed to be a positive commandment in that under no circumstances do you criticise another republican. Take this to it’s logical conclusion. As a republican, and you see another republican as wrong for america and wrong for humanity, you need to shut up because of the 11th commandment? Thus, you put the republican party before the country? Before the planet?
If you are republican, yes, you do.
They relabelled the “Reagan Quotes” jar.
Tom @ 41:
Sorry for the sort of double post. This one failed (I thought). If only I had a swear jar.
it’s ALL about LANGUAGE people, and by far the republicans PARTICULARLY current administration are the masters.
it’s all about language, inculcating the minds of the public by subtle often subconscious suggestions of words.
it’s ALL about language… which can actually completely alter perceived reality.
Allowing piles of cash near these people has in the past proven to produces at least a few investigations, if not jail time.
My guess is, as soon as that jar gets filled with enough cash, and one of those weasels figures out a way to sneak the jar out of the building, this policy will change.
Josh @ 40:
lol
obama is our party’s only hope— our Obe Won Konobe to clintons darth vader
No. 1 comment, ‘They’re the ranchers, we’re the cattle’, still the best. Much as I hate to admit it. Repubs are top dog when it comes to pernicious frames. We soak ‘em up and repeat ‘em. (cf Much of the anti-Clinton stuff, ‘partial birth abortion’….don’t get me started!)
Clavis @ 29:
I think you just answered my question about “what is a good republican” that I asked in comment #25. Thanks so much. :)
I thought the Republican house rule was to call them Shrillary and Hussein.
even people who don’t like them refer to them by their first names.
In a related story, the DNC is urging its members not to refer to John McCain as “that crazy old bastard”. They feel that it might underscore McCain’s experience and remind voters of his “maverick” approach to getting things done inside the beltway.
Yo E Rock says:
“Wait, so what’s their policy on Ron, John, Mitt, and Mike?”
Who’s Ron????