Palin aims to offend liberals and entertain conservatives

In the wake of Sarah Palin's "blood libel" YouTube comment on the day of President Obama's "Civility" speech in Tucson, conservative columnist David Brooks of The New York Times made the following observation on Robert Siegel's NPR program:

"She [Palin] does not have a political strategy; she has a media strategy. And the way conservatives develop their media strategy is to offend liberals. And what she does is, she continually picks phrases and things that will offend a lot of people in the country. And this is the way she rallies conservatives to her side. And it works as a media strategy. As a political strategy, I think even a lot of conservatives say we may sort of like her, but she's not ready to be president and I'm afraid she showed that again this week."

The root of the "offend liberal" strategy lies in talk radio and talking-head television but has been exacerbated by the YouTube/Facebook/Twitter media. Many politicians use it but Sarah Palin is the master of it on social networking mediums. It's the medium that makes a media strategy possible and it's the medium that encourages short sound bites that have little impact if they aren't catchy, clever, or offensive. The old political strategy involves reasoned opinion writing, white papers, probing speeches and books on policy. The new media strategy is short, quick and polemic. A media strategy does not lend itself to political discourse furthering understanding of complex issues.

As Brooks points out, in this case the goal is to keep liberals inflamed and a segment of conservatives entertained. I say a segment, because the target audience is not necessarily fiscal conservatives whose concern is to spend public money prudently and cautiously. The target audience is a segment of social conservatives who respond to inflammatory rhetoric by voting.

Conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Palin and her counterparts at Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, and many other local talk radio hosts around the country are players in a media strategy that may or may not be coordinated -- but generally plays the same tune during each news cycle. All are part of a Republican strategy that was perfected, if not invented, by Karl Rove. Rove's most famous achievement was creating a gay marriage issue out of thin air during the 2000 election. Gays kissing on the evening news brought social conservatives to the polls in droves, swinging the closest presidential election in history to George W. Bush.

Today the message is more likely coordinated by a loose association of Republican strategists who follow Rove's principles. One of them inserted the term "blood libel" into Palin's YouTube absolution speech knowing it would upset liberals and please certain conservatives, further endearing them to her.

What media strategies like Sarah Palin's do is push pluralistic democracy further into dysfunction. James Madison described some of the problems of political factions for a democracy in Federalist Paper No. 10. In a 1990 book, "Community and the Politics of Place," Daniel Kemmis outlined some of the principles of democracy he advocated while mayor of Missoula, Mont. One of the first principles was to recognize the right of the opposite side to exist. Talk radio and related forms of media politics thrive on just the opposite, often marginalizing, demonizing and ridiculing the opposition and their points of view. To be sure, there are liberal media stars who employ the same strategy but their voices are not nearly as practiced nor so shrill as those of the right wing.

The events of Tucson have served to highlight the dangers of inflammatory rhetoric in public discourse and prompted Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., to try to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine that existed 1949-1987. It required radio and television stations using publicly owned communication frequencies to provide equal time for diverse opinion and commentary. It would likely mean the end of talk radio and talking-head TV stations that cater to a single political point of view. The Internet wouldn't be affected.

As reported on Politico.com, Fox News recognizes the problem of overheated political rhetoric that sometimes implies violence through its imagery. Fox News chief Roger Ailes told Russell Simmons, "I told all of our guys, 'Shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually.' "

Whether Sarah Palin can make her arguments intellectually and still retain her loyal following remains to be seen.

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