GOP: Manufacturing Consensus

The GOP has been orchestrating letterwriting campaigns to newspapers around the country to try to create the illusion of support for the Bush administration: its evidence-free war, right-wing judicial nominations, its rich-focused economic stimulus plan, etc. Fake grassroots letters--aka "astroturf"--have appeared in papers cross-country, from The International Herald Tribune to the tiny Wausau Daily Herald in my hometown. A Google search by The Inquirer generated three pages of hits on the phrase "When it comes to the economy President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership"--all written by different "authors." Turns out the GOP is paying people GOPoints for each letter they write; if they collect enough points they can get great Republican schwag, from bumperstickers to a leather portfolio. Plus, the GOP has a spam engine that The Faithful can use to automate letters to the editor.

What to do? Write letters back! When you find form letters on the OpEd page (see previous link for examples of the seven letters), write your own listing all the other papers the letter has already run in.