@hightor,
Quote:What purpose does it serve other than to demonize the country and its citizens? Come on, you guys love to do this. Remember how you all criticized #44 for not explicitly identifying terrorists as "Islamic"? I think you're doing the same thing here, only with a country instead of a religion.
Yes. It's salutary to remember that Republicans, by nature of their business ties, have sophisticated marketing expertise. Recall this example:
Quote:Following up, Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, explained on Sept. 7 why the anti-Iraqi campaign had gone into high gear. “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August,” Card said in discussing the rollout of the coming war.
And in marketing (or propaganda) it's well understood that
personalizing (putting a face to) any product, issue or propaganda message works because human brains respond to this far more directly and immediately than when it is merely an abstraction.
And, as you point out, relating your message to some pre-existing negative sentiments/beliefs/responses in your target audience works in a similar fashion.