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Thursday, March 4, 2010

A look at RNC Psychological Operations?

 "Motivation to Give"

Ben Smith's publication of the alleged  RNC fundraising memo sheds a remarkable light on modern political campaign fund raising.  What I find most shocking about it is not that the fund-raising is well-organized and comprehensive, but that RNC fund-raising leadership appears to be:

(a)  openly callous about playing on the emotions and not the intellect of small donors
(b)  poorly advised on how to protect the security of the members of its organization

Like most funding organizations, donors are effectively divided between small and large donors with separate strategies for both in the alleged document .  On slide 29 ("Motivation to Give" pictured above),  the small donors are characterized by terms that might indicate some pretty harsh psychological operations. Under the 'Direct Marketing' box are these labels:

Visceral Giving
-Fear
-Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration
-Issue/Circumstantially oriented
-Reactionary 

Those terms don't exactly seem to describe the giving Republican electorate as a body of enlightened philosophes.  There must be somewhere in history an example of a well-educated nation state whose democratic members support their political organizations on the basis of idealism, humanity, commitment to hope. If this document is indicative and real,  such an example is apparently not the current Republican Party.

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