Profit Motive, Public Opinion, and the War on Terra

Avedon points to womzilla's post on why HHHillary and the DINOcrats have thrown in the towel against Cheneyburton's drive to Get Their Iran On and the '08 $election before it's even started. It's because they refuse to lay the psychological foundation that might halt another Operation Northwoods in its tracks:

...ask two groups of people a series of questions; the target group, during the test, is lead to think directly about their own death, while the control group is not. In test after test, the people in the target group were less compassionate, more authoritarian, more morbid, more xenophobic, and more insular than those in the control group. And this effect appears to function at a level almost completely removed from "conscious" awareness.

As I quoted Judis above, the applicability of this to the 2004 election is obvious:

"In their experiments, Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski make a good case that mortality reminders from September 11 enhanced Bush's popularity through November 2004. But, on the basis of their research, it is possible to draw even broader conclusions about U.S. politics after September 11. Mortality reminders not only enhanced the appeal of Bush's political style but also deepened and broadened the appeal of the conservative social positions that Republicans had been running on."

The article moves on to discuss ways in which this effect is diminishing with time and with experience--the unmitigated disasters of the Iraq War, the failure of the government to protect or restore New Orleans, and the general incompetence of the current maladministration have undermined the appeal of Bush and Co. However, the popularity of Giuliani on a national level indicates (to me, at least) that the reminder-of-death... (implies) deeper conservativism process is still functioning on deep levels.

And that brings us to Hillary Clinton's recent statement that, if there is a major terrorist incident in the US between now and November 2008, it will redound to the benefit of the Republicans. I think she's right. On a rational level, the failure of the Republicans to protect us from terrorism should hurt them. On a deep level, though, fear and death will always work to the benefit of the conservative movement. Because of that, I can't say that Hillary was wrong to make the comments she did.

However, Solomon et al.'s work indicates that this effect can be ameliorated:

"One such [reduction in effect] occurred when the experimenter repeatedly told the subjects to make a "careful" response to the questions rather than a "gut-level" or "natural" or "first" response. In those cases where the experimenter urged care and deliberation, the psychologists concluded, subjects acted on a "rational" basis that reduced the influence of unconscious anxieties."

It's important, now, to start preparing for disaster on a political level. It's vitally important for all Democrats--for all people who don't want to see a continuation of the current administration come into office in 2009--to lay the groundwork now so people will have a rational response to terror: that the current government is a failure and needs to be repudiated. And Hillary did the opposite of that. She conceded that fight implicitly before it even occurred.

This is why we need better Democrats: because the ones we have don't even understand the ground the battle is being fought on.

I think they do. HHHillary is no stranger to psychology. She's very well educated, and she's very saavy about which strings to pull to get what she wants. And even if she's not, the entire DINOcrat political machine is filled with psychology- and sociology-trained M.A.'s, M.S.'s, and Ph.D.'s.

No it's a very different motivation that keeps the DINOcrats from trying to evoke a rational response.

It's all the money the military-industrial complex has to offer.

After another Operation Northwoods, things will get bad very quickly, but only as bad as the market will allow.

Martial law quickly shuts down everthing except Fox News and its clones. That includes sites like this.

Immediately there are billions for new private security, armed for bear, and indoctrinated to shoot the godless. On sight. Although protestors will doubtless mostly be carted off to the new work camps, also run for a tidy profit by all that private security.

Cheneyburton only has the support of 20% of ’Merika. But they are the 20% with the most and biggest guns, and the 20% most likely to use them.

Think your DINOcratic representatives are going to help? Think again. Think your local police, maybe your neighbors, are going to help? Think again.

This all boils down to whether they think they can maintain their precious economy and profits in a police state. If they really think they can, we are really in trouble. I think this is the only factor that’s kept them from martial law so far: when the market and economy tanked after 9/11, the Company was really surprised and hurt in the only place they really care about.

Their wallet.