Posted on 03/11/2012 5:35:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
I was recently having a drink and cigar in the office of a good friend who runs one of the conservative movement’s most powerful advocacy groups. I’m not going to name him because this problem is not unique to his group – nor, in fact, is it unique at all.
My friend showed me his group’s latest video. It needed a little work, but overall it was excellent. The only problem is no one who matters is ever going to see it.
It will be polished a bit, put on the Internet and sent to donors. And that’s about all that will be done with it.
What we conservatives don’t seem to realize is preaching to the choir, although important, doesn’t do any real good. Conservatives already are in our camp.
We also don’t seem to realize we’re dealing with a public that is not uninformed but misinformed. To be effective, we need not only a communications strategy that focuses on message, we need one that focuses on conveying that message.
The media isn’t our friend. Relying on it to convey our message in an honest way is both stupid and lazy. Most national “reporters” are so in bed with Democrats they want free birth control to keep themselves from getting pregnant.
Creating a web video seen by hundreds while progressives control national TV newscasts viewed by millions makes no sense and no progress.
Yet, I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been in where someone from some group talks about how they’re going to make “viral videos,” and those videos will make all the difference.
Only, if simply willing a video to go viral were all it took, we’d all be YouTube millionaires. In fact, most videos produced by our side reach no one new. They end up on Facebook pages of people already convinced, or – best-case scenario – they are discussed on cable news viewed overwhelmingly by an audience of true believers.
There’s something to be said for reinforcing the beliefs of people on your side, but it’s not exactly expanding the base. We have to think differently about messaging. We must speak around the media because our opponents control it.
We do good research, but we need to spread the results effectively. We’re great at raising money, but we need to spend it more effectively.
We spend way too much time and energy pushing the wrong buttons to spread our message even though, in most cases, we know it doesn’t work. We spend lavishly on lunch for reporters who attend our events, even though these well-fed reporters rarely make the expense worthwhile.
And if they do write about it, who cares? It’s a one-day shot, quickly done, quickly forgotten and drowned out when the MSM returns to regular programming.
What we need is someone with the money and guts to break the mold. Since most people don’t watch the news, we need to go where the most people are – prime-time television.
How much of the idiotic birth control debate could have been diffused if someone put funny, common-sense ads in primetime TV saying, “Democrats spend all their time demanding taxpayers cover the cost of birth control for all women when we already provide it for those who can’t afford it and it’s available to everyone for $9 a month. So why the focus on this? Because they haven’t passed a budget in more than 1,000 days? Because their economic policies have failed? Because gas prices and unemployment are through the roof?”
Yes, that message is conveyed by talking heads most people don’t watch, in op-eds most people don’t read and in “viral videos” no one sees. But you won’t find it on the TV programs most people watch. Why? Because it costs money.
Yet, instead of investing in getting the message where it truly needs to be, our side doubles down on building huge email lists, then renting them to other groups or candidates to still more money from the same committed conservative consumers.
All so these groups can say “We led the fight” or “We have X number of members” – as if that makes America a better place in any way.
All so they can continue to spend an inordinate amount of money to inform the choir just how effective they are as we lose battle after battle. Most of the big conservative “victories” of the last 15 years have amounted to stopping bad things from getting worse. Government hasn’t shrunk. Spending hasn’t been cut. Regulations haven’t been repealed. We’re losing liberty, and these groups pat themselves on the back for extending the game. Delaying loss does not equal victory.
Part of the problem is many of the “leaders” of the conservative movement have been around too long. Their mindset is still pre-1994. They still act as if they’ve been in the minority all their lives and probably always will be. They fight under the Marquis of Queensbury rules; the left employs a guerrilla warfare designed to win at all costs.
And if it doesn’t change, we’ll continue to lose.
It’s time we dedicate our efforts to educating those who aren’t part of the base. It’s time we quit bragging about our effectiveness until we get some effectiveness to brag about – at which point, we won’t need to brag. It’s time for one of these “leading groups in the conservative movement” to actually lead.
We’ve spent enough time in the passenger seat as progressives drive the narrative and run the country into a ditch. It’s time we buy our own damn car.
It’s quite simple, and boils down to two words:
1) Free
2) Trade
We’ve taken the side, of foreign competitors, against Americans. During a time of rising unemployment.
We could not adhere, to any worse political position.
All the videos and hard work when it only preaches to the choir is like peeing your pants. For that moment you have a nice warm feeling. But shortly thereafter, you're left with nothing more than cold and wet clothing and no accomplishment.
We need to take over media outlets. Also, when we do have a foot in the door, forget this “fair and balanced” crap.
No, not “we”. Only the progressives that lied to us and claimed to be conservative . . .
Hence my tagline.
So much truth in this. He is a little more pessimistic on results than he should be. Our message does get out on a lot of issues, and in polling we are winning on a vast majority off issues in terms of public opinion. Even through this whole contraception manufactured controversy, 50 percent were polling with us...only 39 percent were for mandated coverage.
We have all but won the 2nd amendment issues, and we have done well to gain in the abortion issue.
Still, all the things the author are true, we should do so much better, and need to push harder in the ways he is saying because we often win the political issues but lose in policy because the will is not there to force politicians to stand behind the tough issues. For all the political capital spent since the midterm we should have something more substantial to show for it. Yes, the bleeding as stopped to some degree and we are now cutting a little instead of spending a lot more, but we should have used better techniques to score some bigger wins....like major reform of a particular department or something that we could have gotten the public to rally behind. Instead, Obama was able to reshape the debate as gridlock and lack of compromise, giving him a lifeline in the reelection year. Our messaging sucks and our ability to get the message out widely is terrible.
Like Newt said, we are at a crossroads. This is very dangerous times.
Ironically those progressives;
Globalist, interventionist, open-borders “free trade” fanatics.
Go by the name Neocon. Neocons, who started originally in the JFK administration.
Perhaps Neocons, are what is wrong with the conservative movement.
Full disclosure, this poster is America-first Constitutional libertarian in positions.
I believe in tariffs, an aggressive pro-American trade policy, and a strong national defense.
Which we would use ... sparingly.
I guess there aren’t many conservatives left - Romney and Santorum won again yesterday. Newt is the conservative pick in this race. Didn’t anyone learn from Dole and McLame?
and there are plenty of social(ist) conservatives out there.. there are a number of them on this very site, those that wish to rule us, only from the opposite side of the political spectrum...
The message is controlled by liberals because liberals control the message.
Why? Schools produce the practitioners of the media and the schools are liberal.
Why? Because the schools are funded by the government. We therefore have a self-sustaining parasite that will feed on the producers until they die and then blame them for dying.
To paraphrase, "Have another Tocqueville of sweet American freedom." for ze joke she is over.
Lock and Load.
Those infected with "I'm smart enough to run your life and mine, too"-ism know no ideological boundaries.
smoot-hawley... yeah, let’s party like it’s 1929... free trade has nothing to do with open borders, globalism or interventionism, or any other “ism” you are trying to cram into your protectionist, isolationist attempt at policy.... head on back to the union hall, they are the ones promoting restrictions on trade policy...
At the time of smoot-hawley America dominated world trade.
We were the world’s preeminent export powerhouse.
We’re not in 1929 anymore Toto.
I was in a debate with a fellow freeper about a year and a half ago... after much debate about the regulation of morals by the fed, this person said to me, and I quote, “ Since it is obvious that you have no morals, I have no problem forcing my moral standards upon you”.... now that is not only a scary quote, but a purebread socialist right there....
Once Rick Santorum gets the nomination the wealthy conservatives will kick so much money into Superpacs (remember,the SCOTUS authorized the big money for all candidates) that the MSM will get filthy rich showing commercials that will defeat their beloved Obama.
The irony will be delicious.
do some research beyond what your brothers down at the union hall tell you... we are on the very edge of the great depression, have been for a number of years... all that is needed to kick it off is a trade war.... and by the way, who leads the world in exports and high tech????
Commence the trade war.
At this point, we have the most to gain.
And the correct answer to your questions is: China now leads in high tech. We probably still lead in selling our own food.
China took the lead in high tech about a year and a half ago. And every trend, is in China’s favor.
Open your eyes.
Then take a moment to ask: What would Ronald Reagan do?
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