Search engine optimization? Evil! Racism? Well, let's put millions of dollars behind the ads! Then let's attack people with Parkinson's disease, and have ABC News directly state that the media needs to win back the trust of conservatives.
After the 2004 elections, Republicans immediately called on Democrats to roll over and give in to their agenda. In the two weeks before the election, I had to suffer through Republican ads that accused Lois Murphy and Ginny Schrader of raping girls in Afghanistan. I remember thinking at the time that it was ads like that which guaranteed I would continue fighting as hard as possible, no matter what happened in the 2004 elections. Racist ads like the ones currently being run against Harold Ford, and the straight up evil attacks on Michael J. Fox make a similar guarantee. If Republicans want to know where the progressive movement came from, and why it has helped inject a general feistiness and a willingness to engage in projects such as the Googlebomb, they could look at their own attacks on Democrats and progressives for one of the main reasons. Remember these attacks, just as we remember the attacks on our patriotism for opposing the Iraq war. Keeping them in mind will give you new energy to fight back when you need it most.
