Shut up and give

What exactly is the plan for the GOP's return to power. Sure, sure: oppose everything, pull down government on top of themselves, chastise Democrats for failing to fix the problems it took them eight years to create in two... with a straight face. We all know that's the general outline and have seen it played out over the past year. But what's their actual point-A-to-Z plan to get back into power?

Well, according to RNC documents obtained by Politico, it's pretty much the plan I listed above... only with a healthy dose of seething contempt, disdain, and openly hostile scorn for the intelligence of their voters and donors, large sections of the American public, and their own lawmakers. Mostly the donors though.

The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to "save the country from trending toward socialism."

The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.
...
Manipulating donors with crude caricatures and playing on their fears is hardly unique to Republicans or to the RNC – Democrats raised millions off George W. Bush in similar terms – but rarely is it practiced in such cartoonish terms.

One page, headed “The Evil Empire,” pictures Obama as the Joker from Batman, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid are depicted as Cruella DeVille and Scooby Doo, respectively.

Ouch. Barry and Pelosi get two of the most iconic villains in American popular culture and Harry Reid is only characterized as a hungry, yet cowardly, talking cartoon dog who the Speaker may or may not turn into a magnificent coat? ....Yeah, that seems about right.

There's even a section in their presentation entitled "Visceral Giving" in which the motivation of low level GOP donors is listed as "fear" and their mood "reactionary". Big ticket donors are treated with more respect as their desires are only listed as "access" and their concerns "ego-driven" and susceptible to "peer to peer pressure". On the other hand the RNC does want to "Put the Fun Back in FUNdraising".

So just in case you were wondering, no, the Republican Party doesn't have any sort of specialized disdain for you personally or some vendetta against the country and its institutions. They just feel that way about everybody and everything. You're just lucky you haven't given money to them, because the RNC really seems to have a negative opinion about those people.

And why shouldn't Michael Steele have a healthy amount of distrust and dislike of these donors? These are, after all, people who willingly gave money to the RNC. He's justified.