I was hoping to tweet this, it was a bit too much to fit into 140 characters or whatever so I’m filling it out here.

How to Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps – Not really that enlightening,  (blame the individuals, cut taxes and exploit disaster;) except for the links at the bottom to Sara Robinson’s Learning From the Cultural Conservatives series (via Digg)

Part I: Messing With Their Minds
Part II: Taking Up the Worldview
Part III: Taking it to the Street

(Bad design tip for the OurFuture.org site master: having a related series of articles and no way to link the 3 of them together is not a good idea. You can follow the links back from III to II to I; there’s no way for readers of part I to find part II and III.)

Related, excellent and also worth your time is Bruce Wilson’s article on Paul Weyrich, one of the architects of the conservative movement’s rise over the past 30 years. Weyrich’s ideas helped conservatives to reframe the arguments of modern American politics, converting mass media and popular support to a conservative worldview. Wilson and Robinson take Wyrich’s lessons and adapt them for the Left, detailing exactly how the Right has managed to win the fight.

I don’t post this out of support for the Left or liberal/progressive politics, merley as an example of the linguistic judo that is so important in America’s culture war. Christian conservatism has played a hard game with propaganda and linguistic tactics, and it seems now that it is being understood and implemented by the other side. Intellectual calls to reason have not been enough to counteract the Right’s plays to the reptilian hindbrains of the American public. The lessons learned here illustrate the brilliant way that the Republican machine has changed hearts and minds.

The tactics outlined by Wyrich are as brilliant as anything Machivelli or Sun Tsu would have written. Wyrich may very well be the Saul Alinsky of the Right, creating a playbook that has his side for decades. Obama has shown during the presidential campaign that he understands and is able to use these tactics; let’s hope that he and the rest of us not on the Right are able to use these weapons effectively for the next 30 years.