Symbols over substance

By Creature

TPM reader DE:

Republicans ALWAYS run on symbolic issues. Their substantive positions are not popular. People don't like tax cuts for the rich, they don't like endless military commitments, they don't like corporatism, they don't like lax regulations, etc. So Republicans always pick some symbolic, unimportant issue and make it sound like it's the most important thing in the world. This is nothing more than the flag factory, the swift boats, and Reverend Wright all over again. [...]

What ticks me off about this is they do this every election cycle. They never want to talk about substance, and they get their way-- every election cycle we talk about whatever they want to talk about. Our political system fiddles while America burns, and it's because the Republican message machine dictates the conversation

It's been this way since forever, the Muslim community center is just the latest twist.

I'd cut the right some slack if they actually believed the crap they spew, but they don't. It's all a cynical ploy to stoke fear and gain votes. A perfect example of this is Laura Ingraham. As Salon’s Justin Elliott discovered, when Ingraham first talked about the community center, with one of its founders no less, she was all for it, then, after the noise machine began whirling, with a finger to the wind, she now thinks the terrorists have won. Amazing.