This Man Is Lying

[jducoeur]

An important political game that the Republicans are once again proving themselves good at, and the Democrats less so, is Defining The Other Guy: painting him in peoples' minds the way you want folks to see him. The Bushies are trying to paint Kerry as a flip-flopping wimp. The Democrats really ought to hit back appropriately, by socking Bush in his weak spot. He's proven himself a master of the Reagan Big Lie: if you keep lying over and over, smiling while you do so, a great number of people will believe you. That's what needs to be punctured.

So imagine this. A very simple website, called something like "this man is lying dot org". It contains little but a single-page PDF file, which is updated each week. The page has a big splash at the top, showing Bush's picture, with a headline of "This Man Is Lying about: [something]". Each week, the [something] changes, so you get:

This Man Is Lying about: Medicare
This Man Is Lying about: John Kerry
This Man Is Lying about: Iraq
This Man Is Lying about: The Economy
This Man Is Lying about: The Environment

Etc. Each week would be a different topic; I think there are enough meaty subjects to keep the thing busy from here until Election Day.

The guts of the sheet would be simple bullet points of Bush's lies on this topic. Each would show what he said (with date and context), followed by a *brief* description of its falsehood. It would be very important to pick clear falsehoods, and the corrections must be properly sourced: the Bush campaign mustn't be able to contradict any of them. That requires a good deal of work and research, but I'm fairly sure that there's enough material by now to sustain it. (I suspect that the website would need an editorial board behind it, to come up with and check the facts.)

The website is *not* the intended means of distribution, though. The reason for doing it as a one-page PDF is that you then encourage folks to print it out and make copies of it. (Hence, while the PDF might use a little color, it should be B&W friendly.) Have folks leave copies on tables. Post it on bulletin boards. Tack it up on telephone poles. Hand copies out at the supermarket. Whatever: the point is that, while you want to use the Internet as the distribution mechanism, you want the thing to become ubiquitous in the real world. Publicity for this project would be by word of mouth -- the blogosphere would eat this up with a spoon. It has the delightful quality of requiring virtually no money by modern political standards: it could run perfectly adequately off of PayPal donations for maintenance of the website.

Done properly, this would serve two important functions. First, it does a very forthright and honest job of damaging Bush's image. He's tried to paint himself exactly the same way Reagan did: a little stupid, but very much the Good Guy, so you should vote for him. By pointing out, over and over again, that he is *not* the Good Guy, you instill doubt. Not enough doubt to convince the 30% (or whatever) of the population would would vote for him even if he was found eating babies for lunch, but enough to wake up the swing voters to the fact that he's basically untrustworthy.

Second, and really just as important, it gets folks involved at the grass roots. It provides a convenient way for people to get their foot in the door, and feel like they're making a little bit of a difference. Politics nowadays often feels like it's being played out by titans, way over the heads of ordinary folks, and so they get discouraged, feeling like there's nothing they can do without giving their lives over entirely to the cause. But almost anybody can print out a page and give some copies out, helping them feel like they matter and can make a little bit of a difference. That's good for morale, a important quality that is sometimes overlooked in political campaigns.

I'll freely admit that I don't have the energy or will right now to spearhead this thing, although I'd love to help with it. Feel free to spread the idea around, and point people to this posting if you think it's a good idea -- maybe someone with the appropriate motivation and competence will take the idea and run with it...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I would suggest a slight modification: emphasize that it is Bush. "Bush is lying to you about XXX. Bush is lying to you about YYY." or even "This week, Bush lied about the environment." etc.

Also, you need to state the truth as loudly and as often they state the lie; as advertisers know well, people don't remember the truth, they remember what they heard. And as psychologists recently showed, if I tell you a lie, then confuse you briefly, you will forget to examine the veracity of what I just told you and will accept it at face value...perhaps we can use this ourselves.

[metageek.livejournal.com]

I would suggest a slight modification: emphasize that it is Bush.

Good point. And come up with an unflattering picture, maybe with a Pinocchio nose to grab attention. That's an icon that will make sure anybody who looks at the poster at all will get the message: Bush Lies.

[jducoeur]

And come up with an unflattering picture, maybe with a Pinocchio nose to grab attention.

Actually, I disagree. The appropriate picture is subtler -- Bush with a pained or confused expression. Not the usual reassuring happy expressions he likes to paint himself with, but still really him.

We're talking about a delicate game here. You want to get people to actually take this thing seriously. That means that it must not look or sound excessively strident. If it comes across as "liberal nonsense", then you've lost your target audience. The tone needs to be firm but measured: not strictly neutral, but not overtly angry. Remember, your target is people who are inclined to be sympathetic to him initially; if you appear to be nasty, they'll just tune you out.

If you win them over, *then* they can check out something like MoveOn, which really lets the bile flow freely...

[syrrichard.livejournal.com]

Bush lied about African nukes.
Bush lied about outing a CIA agent.
Bush lied about the war being over.
Bush lied about jobs.
Bush lied about the recession.
Bush lied about 9/11.
Bush lied to win the first election.
Bush lied about cocaine.
Bush lied about tax cuts.
Bush lied about Saddam-Al Queda connection.
Bush lied about Saddam-9/11 connection.
Bush lied about "coalition of the willing".
Bush lied about "leaving no child behind".
Bush lied about WMD's.
Bush lied about cabinet rivalries.
Bush lied when he played "pilot".
Bush lied about his military service.
Bush lied about drug benefits.
Bush lied about cutting medical costs.

Don't EVEN get me started!

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

No, no, please start! I'm taking notes...

Current outrage: the fake "news spots" on the medicare bill. WTF???!?!??!?? Approaching outrage overload again, here.

[shipbrook.livejournal.com]

It's a splendid idea.

However, as not all browsers automatically display PDF files, I'd suggest that the front page contain the text of the week's lie(s) in standard HTML, with a prominent link to the printable flyer (and perhaps a link to an archive of past flyers).

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Screen readers and such do better with simple HTML, too.

[siderea]

If someone actually wants to do the research work, I'll happily buy the domain and hosting for the project, and run the website.

However, this is the sort of thing MoveOn might be into. They have a lot of clever people who would be willing to help.

[metageek.livejournal.com]

The research work might not be a terrible burden; there are sites out there doing this sort of refutation on a scattered basis. The poster project could piggyback on them, instead of having to go to newspapers and primary sources.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

It's already been done. See misleader.org which is updated daily, with references. Tell your friends.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I hate to say it, but that site has too many words. It's not visceral enough.

Maybe we could make a daily front page / PDF for that page that has the visceral message, and then let people click through to a site like that with the actual facts, research, etc. behind the message.

Strangely, I'm having trouble finding high-quality, 300 dpi-ish images of Bush to use in my mockup. :-/ My net-fu is off today.

[siderea]

No, misleader.org does NOT do what Justin is talking about.

If it did, it would be a lot more effective!
Œ

[cellio]

Excellent idea. I don't have the energy and time to do it, but I'd contribute money toward it.

The real problem...

[siderea]

OK, the real problem is how to get these into the heartland. This idea is great, but my putting these up in Cambridge would be pretty pointless. (I gather Bush came in third in my precinct in the presidential election.)

Let's presume that we attract lefties in the heartland, willing to run around town wallpapering the place with posters. How can we facilitate that?

So here's a thought: Can we find some way to get our funding to pay their photocopy costs? Especially in the hinterlands, even B&W copies can be at $0.25/pp. Your well-meaning lefty college student may be willing to run around with a wall stapler, but not have the $50 to make 200 copies.

I have money I would happily pour into such an endeavor. I bet others here do too. So could we do something to help get the money where it will do some good?

Re: The real problem...

[syrrichard.livejournal.com]

I think with the public being as inclined toward the media as it is, this needs to be a TV thing. Perhaps starting 2 weeks before the election?

Re: The real problem...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Does kinko's do online gift cards? Do they take paypal?

Re: The real problem...

[metageek.livejournal.com]

This idea is great, but my putting these up in Cambridge would be pretty pointless. (I gather Bush came in third in my precinct in the presidential election.)

True, but there are tools now that would help somewhat here. Check out FundRace.org, which publishes FEC data, both in semi-raw form and in maps. The map of Boston lists the addresses with the largest Bush contributions in the city; putting up some posters around there might help.

Of course, a better use of this data is to get these posters to the right cities.

A complementary tactic

[metageek.livejournal.com]

A complementary tactic would be to open up a CafePress shop selling postcards and stuff with these messages on them. Cheap posters are good, but it'd be useful to have something slicker to use in smaller quantities. CafePress isn't cheap, but it's easier for people to order from CafePress than to take the materials down to a local print shop to have postcards made. (And, of course, we can provide PDFs of the postcard versions, too, for those who want to print them themselves.)

Registered domains

[metageek.livejournal.com]

bushlies.org is already registered, but unused. (It was actually registered the day after the 2000 election.)

bushislying.com is likewise registered, but unused. The guy who registered for it apparently works for The Nation.

bushlies.com is registered, and in use for promoting a book called The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception. Sounds like a good source for the poster project to reference.

Unfortunately, as of sometime last year, in order to register a .org domain, you have to be a non-profit organization (somewhere in the world).

Re: Registered domains

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, as of sometime last year, in order to register a .org domain, you have to be a non-profit organization (somewhere in the world).

Where did you see this? There was some talk of it several years ago (e.g. a Register article from 2001) and a lot of discussion in the last few years about trying to market the ORG tld to non-profits more aggressively since new registrations in that space had slowed, but according to the signup at Network Associates and the rules FAQ at ICANN, it's still wide open.

(Not that I'd mind seeing .ORG and .COM actually mean different things like they used to, but that's just me being oldschool...)

Re: Registered domains

[siderea]

bushlies.org is already registered, but unused.

I've emailed the owner and asked if he'd like to be involved. I included the URL to this discussion.

Re: Registered domains

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, folks. I'm the bushlies.org owner. I bought this URL and two others (.com and .net) the night of The Coup, 2000. I've not had the time to follow through on my plans.

Someone contacted me and I responded. Have not heard back. Do you really have the interest and will to put it to good use? If so, let's talk!

Sources by reference

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Instead of listing the sources on the poster, we could have the poster refer to the Website, and give the citations there. That (a) lets the poster be cleaner, which lets it be more persuasive, and (b) lets us update the citations if we get better ones.

How's this?

[metageek.livejournal.com]

I've done up a sample poster; take a look. Note that this file is a PNG image rather than a PDF; I can make a PDF, but, just now, it's giving me a couple of problems. (Also, the PNG is only at 72dpi; the high-resolution version was too large to be worth it for a first draft.)

Re: How's this?

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Here's a PDF version.