HRC and Replican Style Propaganda

In his recent entry at the Huffington Post, Jon Landau berates the Clinton campaign over the "3 am" ad. The ad aside, this struck me as interesting:

Many in the pundit community who know better (and I guess I am trying to be a pundit here) will forgive or approve of the ad because they subscribe to a cynicism that postulates that anything that works is smart. Dan Abrams is on MSNBC saying that exact thing right now. Next we will hear: "Sure the Swift Boaters were creeps, but you really have to hand it to that Karl Rove...he knows what works" -- win at all costs and the ends justify the means.

My belief is that you can't be a progressive and resort to these kinds of right wing propaganda techniques.

It's interesting because it assumes that certain political orientations are precluded from certain behaviors. Likely, it wasn't the writer's intention, but it seems to imply that you can assume what sort of approach someone has (in other words, what they are or are not willing to do) by looking at the nature of their political beliefs.

Naturally speaking, I disagree.

It's something akin to saying, as a Catholic you can't lie. Obviously you can, and some of you do. Whether you should or not is another story entirely. The idea that a 'progressive' is not capable of engaging in the rampant fear mongering that got the United States where it is today is entirely baseless. The idea that a 'progressive' won't prescribe to a methodology espousing an 'ends justifies the means' approach holds as much merit - which is none.

The truth is that being a progressive is not a guarantee of anything much. All it means is that, in this particular case, Ms. Clinton holds certain political concepts in higher regard than others. How she chooses to go about achieving the ends her 'progressive' stance requires of her... is another matter entirely.

At the end of the day, it boils down to people and how they approach things.

Think about it. George Bush could have been a Democrat. It wouldn't have made his presidency anything less than the disaster it is, nor would it have made his methods any more tolerable.