March 06, 2010 12:58 AM UTC

"Foot on Throat" Meets Its Match

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

After all the back and forth here in Colorado over secret strategy memos in the last couple of years, we can’t go into the weekend without a mention of Politico’s big report for the week:

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.”

The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18, a source at the gathering said…

The presentation explains the Republican fundraising in simple terms.

“What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House, or the Senate…?” it asks.

The answer: “Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”

…The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”

Major donors, by contrast, are treated in a column headed “Calculated Giving.”

Their motivations include: “Peer to Peer Pressure”; “access”; and “Ego-Driven.”

The slide also allows that donors may have more honorable motives, including “Patriotic Duty.”

But mostly it’s about the ‘fear’ and ‘extreme negative feelings.’

Like we alluded to at the top, Colorado Democrats were somewhat embarrassed a couple of years ago when a couple of confidential strategy memos were allegedly ferreted away from the Colorado Democracy Alliance by a mole for the Independence Institute. The one generally agreed to be accurate was a technical description of the plan to take down Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, though a disproportionate amount of time was spent on an earlier memo from 2006–claimed to be forged–that discussed “educating the idiots.” A poor choice of words (assuming its authenticity) for whoever wrote it and certainly not the impression you want to give the public, though in the end the latter memo’s overarching theme of “foot on throat” was pretty much exactly what happened.

But this memo from the RNC itself, with its open expressions of contempt for donors and tacit acknowledgment of the base emotions and ‘extreme feelings’ the GOP intends to manipulate for electoral advantage this year…seems quite a bit worse, doesn’t it?