George Graham worked for Mr. Gun Grabber

Remember Assembly Speaker Joe Doria?  The Hudson County Democrat was Governor Jim Florio's legislative point man in the passage of the most restrictive weapons ban in our nation's history.

 

So it is surprising to learn that Republican Freeholder George Graham, who owns a political consulting business, worked for Joe Doria in Hudson County. In fairness to Graham, who is now the boss of the Sussex County Freeholder Board, he was a registered Democrat when he worked for Doria. 

Back when Graham was a local elected official in Stanhope, he switched from Republican to Democrat in order to vote in the 2008 Democrat presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  Graham had been a Democrat before switching to Republican but later switched back to Republican, his current party today.  Just so everyone is straight, Graham went from D to R to D to R.

Graham's political consulting business, York Strategies, which included partner James Barracato, came up with slogans like "Joe Doria is full time Bayonne" and "I'm with Joe," according to the Hudson Reporter newspaper.  Although no longer a member of the Legislature, Joe Doria is still on the campaign trail with Jim Florio, only now they campaign for gun control and against the NRA (National Rifle Association). 

At a recent gathering the two called for new constraints on the Second Amendment, with Joe Doria calling the NRA "dirty".  Not to be outdone, Florio added that the manufacturers and sellers of guns were, in his words, "Merchants of Death." 

The presence of a growing number of ex-Hudson County Democrats in the Sussex County GOP could be cause for concern as they achieve more and more power.  Remember the warning in this old Nixon ad from 1972:

The Power of Suggestion

Once upon a time there were two political consultants.  Consultant number one, a lifelong Republican, Reagan Delegate to the Republican National Convention, worked exclusively for Republicans and had worked for Sussex County Republicans since 1993.  This consultant partnered with a direct mail consultant who was so committed to the Sussex County GOP that he provided their candidates with interest-free credit for months and even years.

Consultant number two was in the direct mail business too.  But he worked for Hudson County Democrats, and was himself a registered Democrat who was elected to local office in Sussex County as a Democrat, then switched to Republican, then  switched back to Democrat in 2008 to vote in the Democrat Presidential Primary for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.  After 2008, he switched to Republican again to pursue higher office.

This Democrat consultant was conversant with the methods of Marxist writer Saul Alinsky, whose 1971 book -- "Rules for Radicals" -- provided the exact prescription for attacking his Republican opponent:  "Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It  and Polarize It." 

As the American Thinker noted in an April 24, 2009, article:

That's what Barack Obama taught his ACORN followers in all his Community Agitator classes in Chicago. That slogan defines mob scapegoating, of course. It is an exact prescription for whipping up mobs -- by race, by gender, by ethnicity, by religion. If you want to know how to whip a mob of Pakistani Taliban fascisti to whip a young girl for flirting with a young man in public, this is exactly what you do: Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It, and Polarize It.

And notice that "the target" is no longer a human being. It's an "It." 

In his famous novel, "1984", George Orwell anticipated this Marxist method of scapegoating and called it the "two minutes of hate".  Here it is portrayed in the 1984 movie of the same name, staring John Hurt and Richard Burton.  Note the orgasmic release of the mob as they shout the hate object's name:

Of course this kind of manipulation doesn't work with people who have their heads screwed on straight.  It takes an audience that is psychologically open to dehumanizing someone who they don't personally know.  It also needs a leadership so unsure of itself that it is psychologically open to doubting trusted lieutenants of long-standing, even when those doubts are suggested by dubious sources.  Rod Serling took a stab at describing the power of suggestion on such minds in this episode of the Twilight Zone from the 1960's: