Today’s lesson in political message warfare is the word millstoning. Often confused with character assassination, millstoning is the practice of turning someone’s own signature phrase against them. Admittedly, I coined this particular verb; but I did it for Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize the first time.
Words with universally positive value (i.e. “hope” and “change”) are impossible to millstone without tangible failures to contradict them. When a candidate has cultivated a record as close to tabula rasa as possible, one may shout “THE MOST LIBERAL RECORD IN THE SENATE!” without much effect.
So when we read that Sarah Palin
admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.
“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”
Sayeth the woman with chromosomal irony deficiency. After all, we’re talking about a woman who relies on socialist government health care to preserve that token of fecundity she carries “like a loaf of French bread.”
I propose an iron weight be laid on Sarah Palin. Tell her it is a medal, and she will probably smile while you put it round her neck. “Death panels” is a meme, but memes can be turned; the phrase should now reside on top of her neocon-magnets as an award for such sterling Stupid™.
I want to raise money and offer a large reward for the person who asks Sarah “when you were in Canada, were you looking for Teh Soylent Green Death Panelz™?”
If she answers yes, that person should whisper a follow-up:
“Did you find them?”
The primary purpose of Teh Death Panelz™ meme was to fill up clear air with smoke. Every minute the MSM spent debunking death panels didn’t make up for the amount of pollution the Faux Noise fear factory created; to clear the smoke, the media must spend time discussing self-evident tomfoolery.
“Death panels” must now become Sarah Palin’s millstone.
