GET OUT AND VOTE ANYWAY

Despite recent campaign silliness, tell your friends to register and to vote in November.

To my mind, the recent Bush campaign ad that shows Democrats talking too loudly* interspersed with clips of Hitler talking too loudly -- a clear and intentional comparison,** despite attempts by the Bush campaign to pass it off as mere information about speech on the Democratic fringe -- ironically casts the campaign in the proper light. Bush wants the campaign to be about Democrats, not about him. Fair enough. But he also wants to depress the vote by filling the air with negativity -- even as he sends out messages of "optimism." I fear that engaging the discourse can only help spread that negativity and help the Bush campaign achieve its goals. Nonetheless, it's worth underlining that the purpose of this negativity is reasonably clear: vote suppression.

Don't let it get to you!

* phrase "talking too loudly" stolen shamelessly from Bob Somerby.

** I have to disagree with Josh: the claim that Move.On said it first does not obviate the intentional, gut-level comparison that Bush's campaign produced here. Not that hard to see. For an example, imagine pictures to go along with the following text:

Some folks on the Republican - libertarian fringe, in other words, BUSH SUPPORTERS, have compared Democrats to STALINISTS. I repeat: President BUSH's supporters have compared Democratic leaders to STALIN. Imagine that! BUSH folks compared Democrats to STALIN. BUSH, to STALIN! For shame. For shame.

Again, not that hard to see.

Plus, I'm saddened that the Bush campaign folks have taken the tack of complaining that Kerry's campaign hasn't expressed enough "outrage" at the speech of others, speech, moreover, that is in many cases distorted by the Bush campaign's characterizations. Can we call this the "blogification" of campaign rhetoric?