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Frontline recently had a show exploring the life of Lee Attwater, who was the mentor to Karl Rove in how to win at all costs in the arena of politics.  It was a fascinating show revealing how dirty politics get in the pursuit of power.

Politicians and political operatives know that perception is reality.  He who molds public perception controls what the public thinks is reality even when it obviously is not.

Through this historical look back many political operatives admitted the outright lies and manipulations they knew of, instigated, or were a part of  that were promoted to the public, you and me, to blindly influence our perceptions in service to their personal and political goals.

Before I go further, it’s important to acknowledge that this is not a demonization of Lee Attwater, the Bushes or the Republican party.  Your brain probably went to a “Republicans bad, Democrats good” or vice versa conversation.

Drop the illusion of an “us versus them” mentality.  That’s another result of blind influence from PR campaigns and the hard wiring of your brain looking to compare and be on the side of the “best team” when there isn’t a “best team.”  We’re all living creatures on the same planet who have to live with the results of our actions.

Humans of all shapes, sizes, colors and political affiliations act out versions of what is exemplified by the life of Lee Attwater.

He’s just an extreme example of a political operative like Madonna is an extreme example of a musical entertainer.  They both possess a lot more drive, charisma and chutzpah than your average human so they stand out with their over the top success in their endeavors.

This legacy lives on in tactics created by Lee Attwater that have been improved upon and are used today:

- Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat talking points, whether they are truths or lies, ad nauseum to promote your agenda and mold public opinion (Iraq has WMDs, mentioning 911 and Saddam Heussein together to link them, mentioning that Heussein is Barack Obama’s middle name, talking about Barack Obama being connected to Roy Ayers, mentioning that Sarah Palin has a pregnant daughter, etc.)

- Use symbols like American flag lapel pins or call out Obama for not having his hand over his heart while the national anthem plays. For example, Attwater had George Bush Sr. pull up his pant leg at a press conference to reveal that he was wearing cowboy boots wih the Texas flag on them to send a message that he wasn’t a WASP from Connecticut, but a salt-of-the-Earth Texan.

- Use Orwellian “newspeak” to frame or spin the story where you name something like the failed attempt to call rural dwellers “real Americans” though 80% of America’s population lives in urban areas, calling an increase in the number of troops a “surge,” renaming global warming “climate change,” naming the bill that allows corporations to pollute more the “Clean Air Act” and so on.

Frank Luntz took this to another level.  Read his book Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear for a deeper lesson in this.

- Stay on message by answering questions with the message you want to convey, even if it doesn’t answer the question.

“Spin” the story – Make sure the press hears and promotes your version of the story, even when, and especially when, it’s a lie.

There’s more, but you get the picture.  The point is to recognize these tactics so that you don’t get duped easily by them.  Newer tactics keep evolving to manipulate public perception all the time.

The way to be more immune to these tactics is to remember that what’s really going on is at least 3 to 5 steps behind the veil of the perception promoted to the public.

Back to Lee Attwater, what’s amazing is that after having no conscience about destroying people’s lives in the pursuit of building his own power he developed a brain tumor at the age of 40.  His illness caused him to rethink his positions and he apologized to everyone he had harmed before his death soon after.

He also admitted that he felt his deeds in politics had been bad for the country and had hurt America.  Lee Atttwater grew a conscience and made peace with himself, though his legacy of harmful actions are copied by today’s power hungry working on blindly influencing others for personal gain.

You have the power to see through their tactics since you now know more about how they work.