Dirty tricks are unethical, duplicitous, slanderous or illegal tactics employed to destroy or diminish the effectiveness of political or business opponents. The term "dirty trick" can also be used to refer to an underhanded technique to get ahead of an opponent (such as sabotage or disregarding rules of engagement).
As a result of post-Watergate reform legislation, such activities are strictly regulated, though other private entities still may practice what has become commonly referred to as questionable or unethical dirty tricks.
Recent nomenclature equates a
Dirty Tricks Squad to any organized, covert attempt to besmirch the credibility or reputation of an individual or organization so as to render them ineffective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_tricks
U.S. law professor and author of the book Dog
Whistle Politics Ian Haney-Lopez described
Ronald Reagan as "blowing a dog whistle" when
Reagan told stories about "Cadillac-driving "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks" buying
T-bone steaks with food stamps" while campaigning for the presidency.[18]
Journalist Craig Unger wrote that
President George W. Bush and
Karl Rove used coded "dog-whistle" language in political campaigning, delivering one message to the overall electorate while at the same time delivering quite a different message to a targeted evangelical
Christian political base.[19]
William Safire, in Safire's Political Dictionary, offered the example of
Bush's criticism during the
2004 presidential campaign of the
U.S. Supreme Court's
1857 Dred Scott decision denying the
U. S. citizenship of any
African American. To most listeners the criticism seemed innocuous, Safire wrote, but "sharp-eared observers" understood the remark to be a pointed reminder that Supreme Court decisions can be reversed, and a signal that, if re-elected,
Bush might nominate to the Supreme Court a justice who would overturn
Roe v. Wade.[10] This view is echoed in a 2004
Los Angeles Times article by
Peter Wallsten.[20]
Economist Paul Krugman in
The Conscience of a Liberal (
2007) extensively discusses the subtle use of dog-whistle political rhetoric by
William F. Buckley, Jr.,
Irving Kristol and Ronald Reagan in building the rightist "movement conservatism".
During the 2008 Democratic primaries, several writers criticized
Hillary Clinton's campaign's reliance on code words and innuendo seemingly designed to frame
Barack Obama's race as problematic, saying
Obama was characterized by the
Clinton campaign and its prominent supporters as anti-white due to his association with
Reverend Jeremiah Wright, as only able to get black votes, as anti-patriotic, a drug user, possibly a drug seller, and married to an angry, ungrateful black woman.[21] Obama was himself accused of dog-whistling to African-American voters by using a blend of gestures, style and rhetoric, such as fist-bumps and walking with a "street lope," that carefully affirmed and underscored his black identity
.[22][page needed]
In
2012, journalist
Soledad O'Brien used the phrase 'dog whistle' to describe
Tea Party Express representative
Amy Kremer's accusation that
President Barack Obama 'does not love
America'.[23]
During the
United States presidential election, 2012, conservative political commentator
Ben Shapiro accused the
Obama campaign of anti-Semitic dog whistling after campaign staffer
Julianna Smoot stated in an email that
Paul Ryan was "'making a pilgrimage' to
Las Vegas to 'kiss the ring'" of
Republican mega-donor
Sheldon Adelson.[24] This was described as "a classic anti-Semitic dog whistle signaling voters that
Ryan is in the thrall of the '
Israel Lobby'."[
25]
During the United States Senate Republican primary election in
Mississippi, 2014, one of the familiar "code words" in many of these[26] pro-Cochran ads is the use of the "food stamps"[27] dog whistle. "Racist
Radio Address to
Blacks Saying
Tea Party Will
Steal Your
Food Stamps"
After the fallout of the primary election,
Ed Martin, chairman of the
Missouri Republican Party, wrote an op-ed calling for the censure of
Henry Barbour for his role in the funding [28] of race-based ads, as well as the censure of "any
Republicans who were involved in the racist ads." [29] He also called to censure Barbour at an
RNC summer meeting in
Chicago.[30] Henry Barbour is the nephew of former Mississippi
Governor Haley Barbour. According to this
F.E.C. filing[31] the Cochran-affiliated super
PAC "All
Citizens for Mississippi" that played the
Race card during the primary[
32]was funded by another super PAC, "Mississippi
Conservatives", which is affiliated with Former Governor Haley Barbour.
Senator Ted Cruz appeared on the
Mark Levin Show to discuss the Mississippi
Primary. He called for an investigation,[33] saying that "the ads they ran were racially-charged false attacks".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics
- published: 05 Nov 2014
- views: 742