How Mass Media Failed to Sell the Tea Party

Once you get deeply into the inner workings of science, the mainstream world's concept of science is mere superstition. There is no magical thinking involved in science.

Hence, the placebo effect has a limited lifespan depending on the patient's belief that the drug works and her faith in the drug's ability to relieve her symptoms.

Another example is quantum physic's Theory of Everything.

This theory unifies gravity, strong interaction, weak interaction and electromagnetism.

While scientists are able to observe the effects of gravity, sub-atomic forces such as strong and weak interaction, and electromagnetism, their causes are subject to debate.

In the real world, superstition occurs when it is assumed that gravity on a distant planet will have the rate of acceleration that it does on Earth.

Another form of superstition occurs when the study into Higgs Boson led to unfounded fears about "the end of the world" scenario when the worst that happened was a scientist left a connection unplugged, leading to the mistaken impression that neutrinos could travel faster than the speed of light.

With regard to electromagnetism, one kind of superstition concerns a perpetual energy machine made of magnets.

Another kind of superstition occurs when the truth about the Tea Party is dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Its sympathetic supporters have been from the mass media, the Republican Party, and the business community. Yet the Tea Party is not a grassroots mass movement, nor are regular meetings of the Party being held.

Rather, the Tea Party is an invention of the radical Right designed to compete with the social activist mass movement, and is facilitated by mass media.

Rather than empowering the people, mass media appears to be empowering the Tea Party. Its popularity is measured in web hits bolstered by political marketing of the Tea Party brand on CNN after Fox News broke their story.

One example of political marketing occurred during the September 12 Tea Party debate on CNN when Republican candidates who had taken up the Tea Party mantle took issue with Texas Governor Rick Perry's controversial executive order in 2007 regarding human papillomavirus (HPV), a common STD which causes cervical cancer.

However, Perry said he had made a mistake by pushing through his executive order, and would have done it differently.

Perry's presence rankled the other candidates with Michelle Bachmann accusing the Texas governor of profiting from the vaccination program by receiving $5000 in political donations from the drug company, Merck.

Mitt Romney used the analogy of a poker player to describe Perry, to which Perry retorted, "You were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker."

However, the issue that annoyed Romney concerned Perry originally labeling Social Security "a Ponzi scheme", which led to the Texas governor asking for Social Security reform while dropping the label in a later editorial in US Today.

Romney defended Social Security strongly, stating "under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans."

CNN's intent in air the Tea Party debate was to give the other Republican presidential candidates a chance to show that it wasn't a two-person race between Romney and Perry.

In this debate, the Tea Party candidates discussed job, Social Security and Medicare, and HPV but panned President Obama regarding the $800 billion stimulus package which was supposed to create jobs.

In contrast, jobs had increased in response to the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Governor Perry's executive act gave parents the option to not let their daughter take the HPV vaccine.

Historically Social Security and Medicare tax rates had been the same since 1990.

In 2013, Social Security tax rates will rise by 2%. Also included are other changes to income tax which are too complicated to describe here.

As for jobs, during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) back on September 7, 2012, former President Clinton credited Republican presidents with creating 24 million jobs during their 28 years in office versus Democratic presidents creating 42 million jobs in their 24 years in office.

Thus, much of the rhetoric of the Tea Party presidential candidates does not fit the reality, and CNN presented the kind of political marketing that predominantly appeals to the emotions rather than a delicate balance of emotions and reason.

Consistently, the candidates presented disinformation throughout their debate while demonstrating showmanship which was not backed up with any rational content to support their emotional appeal.

Throughout it all, the Tea Party candidates tried to create the myth that Obama's second term in office would be worse than his first, which in their minds, resulted in no jobs for Americans with the prospect of higher taxes looming in 2013.

If any of the Tea Party people believe this myth, then the mass media had much to do with it. For it is myth that the Tea Party is a mass movement. Instead, the Tea Party is a political marketing ploy funded by supporters in the business community, mass media and the Republican Party. Through the use of censorship, manufactured dissent, and the radical Right, mass media tried hard to sell the Tea Party brand to save America but failed.

This is why Obama won: his market appeal increased precisely because not only did he appeal to emotions but also his rhetoric stood to reason.

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Reference:

Wikipedia: Superstition and Psychology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition#Superstition_and_psychology

Wikipedia: Tea Party movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement

Counterpunch: Anthony Dimaggio and the rise of the Tea Party
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/28/the-rise-of-the-tea-party/