2004-03-25
Editorial- SPIN AND SPINNERS- 103
In SPIN 101 and 102, we discussed the terms "Assets" and "Collateral Damage" as examples of SPIN. [Suggestion: read SPIN 101 and 102 before continuing.]
Family values is a phrase that has lost any meaning because of SPIN. Start this section by asking yourself what "family values" means to you. What are your family values? It is worth getting your whole family involved in this. Discuss what your family stands for, believes in. Make a list to refer to later. Then, put the list aside and read on.
The Bush Administration and the Christian Right have been SPINNING family values for sometime. They use it as a code word for everything they stand for. By what they "stand for," we mean their culture; all of the beliefs, attitudes, behavior patterns, institutions, thoughts, ideas, customs that they value and share among themselves.
It is important, first of all, for you to know and understand that there is no one set of family values for all of America. Think about it; there cannot be one set of values for everyone. The Mafia has family values unique to them. The father and son you read about who rob variety stores have family values unique to them. The mother and daughter who peddle drugs have family values unique to them. Each nationality has family values unique to their history and traditions. Peace groups have different values than hawkish groups and so on. Some groups share some values with other groups, but it is the totality of a group's values that give the group its uniqueness.
It is also important for you to know and understand the SPIN here. When George W. Bush tells you that WE, meaning All Americans, have to uphold, even fight for family values, he is referring to HIS family values, not yours. If he were honest, he'd accompany his family values statement with a wink, as in "you know what I really mean by family values." But George doesn't wink.
Because he knows that there are many different kinds of family values and that his may not be yours, George is spinning you. He is being deceptive. He wants you to think that your values and his are the same. He thinks that you and all of the other good people out there are stupid enough to believe that he shares all of your values. He wants you to believe that the family values that you may have, such as patriotism, trust in the president and the government, peace, prosperity, respect for the Constitution and the Law, freedom to express ideas, freedom to worship the god of your choice and freedom not to, the right to disagree with the government, the right to a good education, a fair and equitable tax system, decent health care, the right to marry whomever you want, the right to a clean, unpolluted environment, the right to protection in the workplace and equality for all regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, or gender are his values also.
Well, some might be, but are they all?
His can be determined by looking at what he has said and what his administration has done during his present term in office. So:
Here's
what you believe in if you share George W. Bush's values:
1. If you share George's values,
you believe in cutting taxes for the rich.
You believe that by doing that you are helping everyone because the rich will spend the money that they save on taxes by buying more products. You believe that the rich buying more products will stimulate the economy, thus creating more jobs and better wages for everyone.
When you are told that most of the products the rich will buy are made by slave labor in companies overseas owned by the very same rich that you gave the tax breaks to in the first place, in other words, that the rich will spend the additional money on themselves, you do not believe it.
When you are told that the tax cuts for the rich will not create more jobs and better wages and that the economy will continue its downward spiral, you do not believe it.
When you are told that the national debt will continue to pile up so that your children's futures will be burdened with paying the country's way out of the debt for most of their lives, you don't believe it.
In other words, you think that a tax break for the rich is a good thing. You support it. It's a value that you share with George.
2. If you share George's values,
you believe in and support doing away with the environmental and work area
protections that have been achieved over the past two decades.
You believe that the rules and regulations that have led to cleaner air and cleaner water for drinking, swimming and commercial and recreational fishing should be done away with.
You believe that the rules and regulations that have preserved our open spaces and our national forests and have prevented the exploitation of our natural resources for commercial use should be done away with.
You believe that all of the rules and regulations that are designed to reduce pollution of the air we breathe should be done away with. You believe in the commercialization of our national resources.
You believe that all of the rules and regulations that are designed to make the workplace safer should be done away with.
3. If you share Georges values, you believe in dumping on and trickling down to the poor, the needy and the unemployed.
You believe that the poor should be able to "pull themselves up the economic ladder by their own bootstraps;" that they are not motivated like the rich people are to make their own way and create fortunes.
You believe that it is all right that many people are poor because they have lost their jobs because those jobs have gone overseas. Like George, you say it's too bad that someone has to suffer a little, but in the long run everyone will prosper because of increased World Trade.
You believe that it was proper for George to spend billions of dollars of government funds to pay for a war in Iraq while allowing health and welfare funds for the poor, the lame, the halt and the blind, to be cut or maintained at unrealistically low levels.
You believe that it's a good thing when the children of the poor and lower middle classes can't get jobs and are forced by economic necessity to enlist in the military.
When you are told that you are engaging in a type of "circular" genocide by:
(a) killing off the poor by denying them the funds and services they require for survival;
(b) spending those funds to conduct an illegal war; and then
(c) fighting that war and killing and maiming the soldiers who are the children of the poor and whom you forced into the military in the first place by denying them job opportunities because you needed the money for the war;
you shrug that off and then you proceed to deny Iraqi war vets adequate funds to provide for their care and well-being.
4. If you share George's values, you believe in and support the Patriot Act.
Like George, you believe that in times of war, some of the rights of citizens have to be abused. You believe, like George, that under the Patriot Act, government should:
a. Collect information about what books you read,
what you study, what you buy, your personal finances and your medical
history. [Section 215]
b.
Search your home and not even tell you.
[Section 213]
c. Label you a "terrorist" if you belong
to an activist group [Sections 411, 802]
d.
Monitor your e-mails and watch what Internet sites you visit [Section 216]
e.
Take away your property without a hearing [Section 806]
f.
Spy on innocent Americans [Sections 203, 901]
g.
Put immigrants in jail indefinitely [Section 412]
h.
Wiretap you under a warrant that doesn't have your name on it [Section 216]
5. If you share George's values, you believe that soldiers are expendable assets. They can and should be used in the pursuit of wealth (for example, oil and lucrative government contracts for your friends and their companies) and power.
If you share George's values, you believe in the saying "An eye for an Eye." Not only that, but like George, you also believe in a leg, an arm, a head, a foot, a boy, a girl - for oil, for money, for power.
6. If you share George's values, you believe in talking the talk of compassion, but not in walking the walk of implementation. For example, you agree with George's behavior when he preaches about the worth of Education and 'No Child Left Behind' and then does not appropriate funds to support the preaching.
7. Finally, if you share
George's values, you believe in spinning the truth, lying, deceiving, breaking
promises, playing on people's fears, pushing the limits of good taste to their
extremes and that the ends justify the means.
Now, you can go back to the list of values that you and your family were asked to write earlier, and you can compare your family values with some of those of George W. Bush, all of which are documented in various places on this website.
If you find that there's a substantial difference between your values and George's, then you know exactly what to do.
You just vote according to your family values.
Wink. Wink.