How To Mobilize the Wackos (As They Call Them)

I'll admit, I was a little surprised to find out that the Republican National Committee had been sending somebody to meet with the Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum as far back as February. The CRC always likes to say they're just little ol' parents and citizens of Montgomery County, you're not supposed to think they're getting coached by the Big Guys. But there it is, in the minutes of their meeting.

Those minutes only quote the RNC guy saying they were on the right track, and do not go into any detail about what strategy they were really planning.

But we don't have to wonder how they do it. As reported in Salon.com, a memo was recently read into the public record at a Senate hearing, explaining the Party's approach to getting their way. In this particular case, they were interested in using Indian casinos to launder campaign funds. Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Republican congressman Tom DeLay, sent the memo to the Indian tribe, explaining just what kind of strategy they use to get people to support them.

You will recognize this. They've used this all over the place, and if you've been following our story you will recognize that this is exactly what they have been trying to pull here in Montgomery County. Salon quotes the GOP's memo:

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." Salon.com

See how easy that is? You keep it in the churches, in the Christian radio shows that the ordinary public never listens to, you spread it through the Blah-Blah Family Blah-Blah organizations, which nobody pays any attention to, you have web sites and fax numbers and you call people.

And then, when you need to vote something down: bam. Here come the wackos, out of the woodwork.

You've seen that, right?

Think hard. The radical right turns out to vote, the complacent majority stays home ...

The beauty of this is that there's no need for public debate. Most people are caught sleeping, thinking everything's all right, and the "wackos," as the GOP calls them, never have to explain themselves or defend their views, which are often indefensible.

A guy was interviewing me yesterday, and asked something about the Recall Group's first meeting. And he had a point. At that first meeting, December fourth, they didn't talk about the curriculum and what their opinion was supposed to be. No, they had already done that, they knew what they were supposed to think about it. That first meeting was for organizing, it was for action. They formed a media committee, a funding committee, a legal committee ... they had already worked the issue using "the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees..." They only needed to meet face to face to break into subgroups.

These guys organize very quietly, below the radar of the media, where most people never notice. They want the whole thing to slip past you. Then, when you think everything's going along just fine ... they come out of nowhere.

This is why you have to keep your eyes open. This is why you need eternal vigilance.