Posted on 02/10/2013 4:03:33 AM PST by Kaslin
Infighting continued amongst conservatives and Republicans this week. Karl Rove angered Tea Partiers by implying they don’t know how to pick candidates. Majority Leader Eric Cantor told anyone who would listen Republicans need to learn to craft their message better for a broader audience. Every conservative group and politician is scrambling to find a way to appeal to various groups of Americans in a way that will “work” to win them votes. It reeks of desperation…and it’s nothing new.
After every election loss by Republicans in the last 20 years, the media has declared them dead, particularly the conservative wing of the party. It’s a kabuki dance rarely repeated after a loss by Democrats. There was no media conversation about messaging issues or demographic problems in 1994 like there was in 1992. The media didn’t question how John Kerry lost in 2004, and they blamed Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000 on cheating by the courts.
When Democrats lose, it’s a fluke or the result of gerrymandering or other circumstances beyond their control. When Republicans lose it’s proof Americans are done forever with their way of thinking. It’s total rejection of their agenda – wishful thinking on behalf of Democrats projected through the megaphone of their fellow travellers in the media.
But poll after poll shows that, on the issues, this is a center-right nation.
So what’s the issue? Why would a country leaning to the right vote for someone like President Obama, who clearly camps on the left bank of the spectrum? Or, worse yet, why would so many right-leaning Americans stay home, not vote and leave their country to the antithesis of what they believe? The answer is less complicated than people who earn money telling you how complicated it is would have you believe.
When Ronald Reagan won in 1980, the media was just as corrupt and in the tank for Democrats. They were no more open to the conservative message than they are now. And they were the only pathway to the public – there was no internet, no cable news.
But Reagan did things few have done since him – he talked over, around, past the media, directly to the people. He didn’t do so in an apologetic way. He didn’t speak like a dog with a tail between his legs. He was clear, confident and worried more about the clarity of what he was saying than the way it would be portrayed by the media. He knew the media wasn’t going to like him, no matter how he articulated his beliefs, no matter how friendly he was to them (and he was friendly to them).
Reagan laid out a clear vision for the nation without concern for the spin the media megaphone would try to put on it. He trusted the voters. More than that, he trusted himself. He believed in his message and delivered it with confidence. Voters responded the way voters always respond to a clear, confident vision.
Since Reagan, Republicans have spent more of their time trying to be liked by the media than trying to show voters a vision for the future, with one notable exception. In 1994, New Gingrich laid out a solid, unapologetic vision for American in the Contract with America. Democrats and the media elite attacked it relentlessly, referring to it as the “Contract ON America.” But voters, as they always do when presented with a clear, strong choice, saw through the smears and handed Republicans their greatest victory to that time.
The Republican victory in 2000 was as much about a rejection of Al Gore and the Clinton years as it was an embrace of a watered-down version of conservatism. The victory in 2010 was as much a rejection of the liberal agenda as is was anything else. The losses in 2008 and 2012 were the antithesis of what happened in 1980. The Republican candidates, while likable enough, never offered a confident, conservative vision. In the absence of an alternative, or when offered a half-hearted alternative, voters always will side with confidence. And if there’s one thing Barack Obama offers, it’s confidence.
Mitt Romney was somewhat conservative, but he also seemed embarrassed by his success. He allowed Democrats to make his biography, which should have been his source of confidence and greatest asset, into an Achilles heel. Just as importantly, although personally warm and engaging in a small setting, he was one of the least-compelling speakers I’ve ever heard.
Say what you will about Barack Obama, when he’s reading a teleprompter he’s controlling the audience. Even if you disagree with what he’s saying and where he wants to lead the country, there’s no ambiguity about the fact he wants to lead it. In the magnetism column, Republicans currently have no equal.
It’s ironic Eric Cantor is out giving speeches about the importance of messaging considering just how uncompelling a speaker he is. You can have the greatest message in the world, but you’d be better off writing it down than having it delivered by someone with the charisma of a dead fish. Current Republican leadership, including Cantor, Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are yesterday’s catch. And that’s being generous in the charisma department.
As important as what you say is how you say it. If Winston Churchill had the charm and quick wittedness of the current crop of Republican leadership, history would not remember him because it never would have gotten to know him in the first place.
As so-called leaders perform an autopsy on the 2012 election, they’re really fighting each other for a bigger piece of what ultimately boils down to the purse-strings and the taste of power that brings. Money will be spent and calories will be burnt all in a public fight over what a doctor of pediatric neurosurgery showed the world – that a simple, honest and heartfelt message of self-reliance, or conservatism to put it simply, can satiate the hunger millions of Americans feel.
Of course, it probably will be ignored…because there’s no money in it.
Start by getting rid of the absolute loser: Karl Rove.The man responsible for the continuing refusal of the GOP to accept conservative candidates as legitimate GOP members.Rove has headed a movement withion the GOP to disdain and ridicule Sarah Palin. He was active ion making sure that Allan West received no GOP support in a rdistricting and electoral battle, and the result is that we have lost one of our finest voices in Congress.
No. the GOP RINO progressives have alienated not only
Hispanics and other minorities, they have completely alienated conservatives. The RINO alienation party is in full swing. Now they wonder if how to give up their policies so they can “get” votes? Nobody wants them. They have refused to stand up to Obama in Congress on the most rudimentary of functional government principals,and so they are ridiculed.Conservatives now are watchi9ng the death throws of the GOP.Soon it will be nothing more than a twitching corpse, as our nation is destroyed from within.
So be it.
Electioneering has entered a new era where national , census based data bases are used by the dems to get out the vote. Obama and the democrat party are on a continuous campaign, but the GOP is not, they cannot keep up. They do the same, informing America of the horrible effects of Obama’s policies, his roots of national socialism and fascism, or they die as a party.Hell, they are already more than 1/2 dead. No one will take them seriously unless they stand up to Obama and halt him in his tracks, and damn the consequences.
Well you are right. Every day I read more Democrat propaganda and never hear one word from Republicans except their wondering how they can kowtow to some minority to get their vote.
“Karl Rove angered Tea Partiers by implying they don’t know how to pick candidates. “
Who did this a-hole pick lately that won?
Great article. It should be painfully obvious that the media is in the tank for socialism. The collective world media praises Obama, overlooks his atrocities, and supports Soros’ Open Society agenda almost as well as the current White House.
The only way to overcome corrupt media, along with the election fraud, is to come together in overwhelming numbers and pray for our country. Realize that the Right to Life march in Washington had the largest turn out ever (600k), and was completely ignored by the world media. That is what we are up against. We have to unite under our common faith in God, and trust that He will lead the way.
Great post and I agree with you 100 percent
It wasn’t that long ago when you all called Karl Rove the Magnificent. Now he says something you don’t like and you become like a pack of Hyenas
I agree,the Republicans should stop running around like a chicken with their heads cut off,suggestion,listen to Dr.BENJAMIN Carson’s speech from the prayer breakfast the other day,MUTIPLE TIMES,an example of how you rescue the United States Of America.
As Mr.Carson pointed out he doesn’t like to just talk about our problems,he offers solutions,they are not Conservative ideas,they are common sense.
THIS MAN WAS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR! I’m so sick and tired of all the bilge we have been getting from ALL the high paid phonies and professional poverty pimps,better known as lawyers and politicians.
There is nothing in this world this country can’t accomplish,all it needs is the RIGHT message and messenger.
I submit that traditional American Values are that message and Mr.Carson showed the way.
Kapo Karl needs to buy the uniform and go work for his liberal friends.
Well, that's half of it.
The other half is to pry our collective, lazy butts away from the keyboard and monitor, and do what God expects us to do, take mental and physical action.
That means, getting in a vehicle He provided or using the feet and legs He provided, and dragging our whiney little behinds down to our monthly local, county and/or state Republican party committees and becoming members of those said committees.
That's where it starts.
I wonder if God is shaking his head in disgust at us, wondering when we'll quit only praying for him to "do something", and get off our lazy rears, quit "preaching to the choir", and do something with our own God given abilities?
I disagree that the MSM is no more negative and unbiased than it’s ever been. Ever since the emergence of the so-called “conservative” media, the old media has pretended that that conservative media is stronger and more far-reaching than it really is, and that it’s more conservative than it really is. Only Fox is a rival, and it’s never been strictly conservative, though it served the MSM’s purpose to paint it as such.
Once the MSM presented the alternative media as more powerful, and more conservative than it actually is, that freed them of the necessity to pretend to be “unbiased”, since they pretend that there’s now a counterweight to them that must be opposed.
Once Hussein, a black leftist, came onto the scene, any vestige of a pretense at non-bias was thrown to the wind. They utilise the political correctness they’ve forced on the rest of us to self-censor in his service.
I also disagree that this is still a center-right country. The GOP itself gets pulled further to the left every national election.
Who did this a-hole pick lately that won?
Ted Cruz, Paul Rand and Marco Rubio for starters.
Carl Rove telling the teaparty they don’t know how to pick candidates! Carl the bloated has f’d the American people twice with his fine selection of candidates. They all need to be defeated and conservatives must take control of the party or it is lights out for America. The bought sold threatened and go along GOP led by Carl the bloated has proven to us more than once that he and they are balless and spineless and are only capable of pulling the wool over our eyes. States must regain the strength they lost selling out to the feds and push back the enemies within
Oh I work hard every day sharing information, collecting data, and fighting for truth. A lot of that is done at the key board. I don’t assume to know what God’s opinion of us is, but prayer can help make sure He is guiding me to do what is right. I trust nothing or no one else, not even myself. He will make things right if we let Him lead the way.
This is so stupid.
With the exception of (maybe) Bush II—EACH nominee since Ronnie has been the leftmost possible candidate. RINORomney being only the most recent.
He lost BECAUSE those who could stomach MCain IN ‘08 could no longer stomach ANOTHER RINO. If they could have, RR would have won in a walk—even with all the VOTING FRAUD the GOP won’t acknowledge to this day.
Remember the LAST TIME a conservative ran, we ONLY got 49 of the 57 states.
I like Ted Cruz.
Well that was a LONG time ago in 1980 (maybe), but Karl Rove has always been a slimy, disgusting toad as far as I'm concerned. This so called “architect” couldn't lead a pack of randy gays through a San Francisco bath house with a fist of $100 bills that could choke a horse or a wallet full of plastic. This man is positively disgusting and the faster he's dethroned and banished the better it will be for the conservative brand. Rove is a big government socialist RINO elitist from inside the Beltway. Karl, and the cancer he represents, must be cut out.
Rove understands that money is what wins elections. It seems buiness interests have handed Rove a chunk of money in the desperate hope they too, can get rid of Obama. These interests run in elite circles that are influenced by the left and have little understanding of faith.
Elitists will always embrace the culture of death, homosexuality is the norm, and they will see the Tea Party as extreme as long as our American culture remains deviant. Not even Russia tolerates these UN mandates demanding homosexuals have access to children.
Rove should realize that this money may have had some value in the past, but it is nothing compared to the billions of unidentified funds coming from the middle east, China, Soros, unions, and our own Golliath government that has funneled Tarp funds, along with billions of the Trillion $ deficit, into their war chests.
Rove needs us more than we need him. May God help us.
Infighting is nothing more than the Rinos squealing while being purged.
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