Posted on 02/07/2012 4:41:36 AM PST by Kaslin
There are a lot of things NOT to like about liberals, but you have to give them some credit. These are people who are badly, dangerously, and devastatingly wrong on almost every issue of consequence and yet, year after year, they hang in there at a rough parity with conservatives. So, they may do a lot wrong, but there are things we can learn from the Left.
1) Fight Harder: Liberals win a lot of battles just because they're willing to fight harder. Look at what happened to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Komen decided not to keep giving free money to Planned Parenthood and liberals, who aren't even willing to oppose cancer unless some babies can be aborted to even it out, raised so much hell that Komen had to engage in a public face-saving maneuver. This is not unusual. Conservatives are constantly complaining that some insult towards Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann would never be tolerated if it were aimed at Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton. Well, of course, it wouldn't. Liberals raise hell, create blacklists, and hold permanent grudges over that sort of thing. Conservatives complain, shrug their shoulders and let it go. If conservatives get nastier, more vindictive, and less forgiving, then suddenly people will start giving conservatives the same respect liberals get.
On the other hand, ever notice that liberals can get away with everything from leaving women to die in a tidal pool to having a gay prostitution ring run out of their apartment, while conservatives are destroyed for some faux pas that wouldn't even hurt a liberal's popularity rating? There's a reason for that: liberals will stand up for liberals who are politically useful while conservatives will toss those people under the bus in some kind of misguided attempt to appear "principled." When two equally matched forces meet and one is playing by Marquess of Queensberry rules while the other has an ends justifies the means mentality, there's no question which side is going to win anywhere outside of a Disney movie. If conservatives want to save the country, we need to start playing as dirty as the Left.
2) Support Activists: If you're a popular liberal blogger and you want a better gig, you can be certain that some liberal foundation, magazine, or newspaper will hire you. If you're an activist group that helps the liberal cause, whether it's ACORN, Air America, or the ACLU, you will get the money you need. If you're a liberal with any kind of status, colleges around the country will shell out big bucks to bring you in for a speech. Money is never your biggest problem if you can help liberalism.
On the other hand, most big name conservative magazines won't hire popular conservative bloggers, there simply aren't enough conservative newspapers to do a lot of hiring, and most of the big time talk radio hosts treat blogs like a gold mine to be looted for topics, but seldom if ever mentioned on the air. While there are some conservative think tanks that do things to help to grassroots activists -- like Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity, The Leadership Institute, and the Franklin Center -- almost every activist and blogger I know is operating on a shoestring. What it all comes down to with conservatives is that if you can't fundraise or figure out how to turn a profit, it doesn't matter if what you're doing is good for the movement -- because nobody is going to come in to fund it or even give you any real help promoting it. This is why the conservative blogosphere is slowly but surely dying off. Contrast that to the Occupy Movement where a bunch of dirty hippies camping for handouts can have millions materialize out of thin air to help them out. This isn't because liberals in power love activists. There would be Democrats all over Capitol Hill high-fiving each other if Markos Moulitsas Zúniga were hit by a bus tomorrow. The difference is liberals have a better understanding of what their activists can do for the cause.
3) Embrace Identity Politics: Whether you're talking about blacks, Hispanics, women, Jews, Muslims or gays, liberals have the exact same approach to minority outreach. They find people from that group, fund them, have them claim to be spokesmen for that entire group and then their first message is always, "Conservatives hate you." There's a simple reason that liberals do that: It works! In fact, it works so well that conservatives end up buying into the hype and going to groups like the NAACP, La Raza, and CAIR for outreach and absolution. This is insanity. These groups are given power and money by the Left precisely because they're willing to smear conservatives. It's time to have our own conservative NAACP, our own La Raza, and our CAIR that are friendly to conservatism, capitalism, and Christianity. We can pout, cross our arms, and say we'll never give in to identity politics, but that argument has already been settled with the American people and we've lost. Either we can come to grips with reality and start funding our own interest groups or we can keep pursuing the same failed strategy as we inevitably lose the country as it progressively becomes less white.
4) Make Emotion-Based Arguments: Don't get me wrong: both liberals and conservatives make emotion-based arguments. However, it may be 25% of what conservatives do, while it makes up 98% of liberalism. What so many conservatives don't seem to get is that as a general rule, a powerful emotional argument will usually beat a sound, logical argument. Put another way, you can be right and still lose. It happens all the time. So while conservatives shouldn't discard logic-based arguments, we need to work much harder to tie in emotions. This isn't actually all that hard. Ask yourself whom a program benefits or hurts and explain it in emotional terms. "You support Affirmative Action? Oh, so you believe black Americans are inferior to whites and need a hand up to compete with them? That's disgusting." "You think we should turn a blind eye to illegal immigration? Why do you want to put American workers out of jobs?" "Dry and sciencey" may appeal to think tank wonks and "Big L" Libertarians, but it isn't ultimately going to be enough to move the American people our way.
5) Move the ball forward: There's a simple reason that the country seems to inexorably move to the Left no matter who gets into office. Liberals in D.C. are always trying to move the ball forward while conservatives in D.C. are always trying to hold the line. Look at the two years when Democrats were running everything in D.C. They passed everything from the biggest stimulus in history to Obamacare. What did the Republicans do when they controlled the House, Senate, and White House during the Bush years? Medicare Part D. That was after they worked with the Democrats to pass the No Child Left Behind Act and Sarbanes-Oxley. Thanks for the temporary tax cuts, Republicans, but the country moved to the LEFT domestically during the Bush years. This is one of the reasons that Scott Walker struck such a chord with conservatives: he implemented a policy that helped Wisconsin, hurt the Left, and pulled the state to the Right all in one fell swoop. Why can't conservatives in D.C. ever seem to do that any more?
“Why can’t conservatives in D.C. ever seem to do that any more?”
Because there are no conservatives in D.C.
Great article.
I would’ve added one more point: Conservatives rarely get off their fat butts and attend local government meetings, and then they wonder why their property taxes shoot up 10% a year. Asking a conservative to attend a county board meeting is like inviting a vampire to a sunrise cross worship service.
Lie, cheat and steal?
This article reminds me of the quote by Mark Twain: “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member. .... —Mark Twain ...
This guy is wrong about embracing identity politics. We’ve hade enough Balkanization. We need to promote being an American.
#4 would be very satisfying.
I especially like the idea of turning the tables with the logic fallacy of “complex question” back on them -
“why do you hate poor people so much you want to keep them dependent?”
“why do you hate young black men so much that you want to price them out of the work force?”
The one strategy I see Dems use all the time that they talked about back then was ‘framing issues’ so that their positions look reasonable and the other side's looks stupid. At the same time Republicans act like they will win public support for their actions automatically with little work, even though congressional Republicans keep getting creamed by Obama.
So Republicans take over the House last year and first thing want to take on is deficit reduction after 2+trillion of new Obama debt. So Obama lays a trap for congressional Republicans to make it look like they are opposing deficit reduction, and to look like Obama reaching out to Republicans for it ; and they walk right into Obama the trap.
Obama refuses to raise taxes on the rich with his Democrat majority (beyond what's in Obama-care), and in 2011 he frames the issue that (house) Republicans are ‘fighting to protect the rich’. Obama's message is " If only House Republicans would go along on 'asking the rich to pay a little more' then there would be no more deficits, no more debt, every public school would have plenty of teachers, plenty of police and fire-fighters, free health care,....and all it would take is a 1 or 2 % surcharge on the rich it pay for it all", when he couldnt even get the Dem congress to raise those taxes when he had the chance.
Obama's argument is so stupid...but...Republicans responses ?? "Duh"
Then there was the FICA/SS tax battle. Republicans really let Obama beat the crap out of them in reframing that issue. His message “Republicans want to raise your taxes and cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires.”
The fact that Boehner and McConnell kept those leadership positions in 2009 was a sign of coming doom. I never understood it.
I just want us to fight, even if we go down swinging. Too many people sacrificed for us to have this great nation. For the left to tear it down and make it like any other 3rd world hell hole is disgraceful and the greatest human tragedy since the rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It might be that we fail in our fight and we have to wait for Christs return, but we can stand before him knowing we tried to defeat the Satanic Left.
Liberals acquire power and fortune from government. They are as tenacious in doing that as Freeport McMoran is in clawing gold from the earth.
Ditto.
To me it sounds like a blogger who feels aggrieved because people aren’t paying him for his efforts.
There is some truth here, but the biggest issues is that libs/progs/deviants control most of the media—this is by far the most important problem.
So true, that is why the Democrats are the corrupt party and the Republicans are the stupid party. It has been this way soooo long, I doubt it will ever change.
Excellent article.
The point I’m most in agreement with is #1.
I practice it. I drop lots of campaign literature. I pound lawn signs. I write checks.
I know the complaint by a number of Republicans is “I’ve got family to look after” or “I’ve got work committments”.
So do a lot of liberals. They have families and jobs too. Well OK, there are the professional protestor types but I think you all know what I mean.
They treat their elections as a crusade, a holy war if you will. We should do nothing less.
maybe because the reality is that the whole system is screwed to insulate *them* from US...???
sadly, while the ants work, the grasshoppers are busy golfing and fine dining and cocktail partying, with each other !!!
theres no fight between em at the gut level in most cases...its all kabuki to give the illusion of 'work' ...
old comic used to say that the commies would eventually whip us cause they had all day sunday to plot & plan...i believe he was right, and it came from our own *masters*...
I agree with these points. Another is that leftists hold conservatives to the letter of the law when it comes to what conservatives believe.They insist that any departure in their personal life is hypocrisy.Meanwhile, liberals have their big formal weddings and expect their conservative relatives to honor that, give gifts, take off work, go to the ends of the earth to make it special, for example.We comply, seeing it as a nod to tradition.Maybe it is time to make them FEEL the pain they are causing, make them live the primitive, minimal life they are saying is so good, stop letting them have it both ways.Maybe it is time to scorn at their green lawns, say tsk, tsk at their fine wares and gourmet foods.I think this approach worked somewhat with Gore and his energy gobbling lifestyle.
Bastiat’s Negative Railroad explains the calculation and blessings of destruction. Bucanan/Tullock pick up on this math in The calculus of consent. Rent seekers gain more proportionally than free traders lose. h/t Lucid Discourse 4c negative railroad math.
List didn’t include the niche groups Conservatives do well with—The NRA for instance, and Church Groups. We need to be issue focused—Look at the Coalition of Black Churches, Mormons and Roman Catholics that ended gay ‘marriage’? Look at when the Government got rid of a 10 commandments plaque in a Georgia Courthouse? Protesters came out that united groups—such as Black Baptist churches and the KKK. Any issue that unites such divergent groups is where the Conservatives need to be.
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