Posted on 07/22/2014 2:45:47 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
There’s a lot of talk about optics in politics, and generally speaking, I am wildly opposed to the notion of optics. Optics refers to how one is viewed by the general public, how one’s actions are perceived. Optics are, in essence, a manipulation of perception. In my opinion, the top priority on a politician’s mind should not be optics, but actions. Actions–if they are driven by noble intent–should speak for themselves. Action should not require extra manufacturing. However, there is something to be said about making sure one’s actions are not perceived negatively, thus undermining one’s entire political philosophy.
We have a problem. Thousands of illegal immigrant children are flooding across the southern border, and Obama is promoting it. The reaction to this crisis has been sharply divided, with one side of the Republican Party viewing it as evidence of the necessity of amnesty, and the other viewing it as the opposite. Then there is Glenn Beck.
Glenn Beck decided that he was going to go down to the border, and distribute teddy bears, and soccer balls to the children. In a vacuum, this idea is a kind one, given that many of these kids aren’t the masterminds of their illegal crossing. They are pawns, in a way. They are being treated deplorably by the Obama administration, and they are indeed human. So, in that regard, Beck is doing something good. On the other hand, his behavior is emboldening the amnesty crowd, and making anti-amnesty conservatives look bad.
According to Beck:
“This is about mercy not just for the people coming across the border; this is about mercy to our own Americans – the people who are the farmers, the ranchers, the sheriff’s department that don’t sleep anymore, the border patrol…Don’t focus on the MS-13 gang members, rapists and the killers. That’s for the government. That’s for the government to do their job. That’s justice, and I demand justice. But we are to provide mercy.”
Beck then slammed the coverage of his trip by Breitbart, and FOX:
“Nobody’s reading [The Blaze's coverage of Ted Cruz going to border]. Our viewers and our readers are not even reading it. That should be the number-one retweeted story. If you like Ted Cruz [you should promote this story.] Where’s Breitbart on that story? Where’s Fox News on that story?”
Yes, Ted Cruz did go with Beck to the border, but there is a difference between what Beck is doing, and what Cruz did. Here’s the difference: Beck used his trip, and the coverage it garnered, to slam conservatives who didn’t support him. He also made the mistake of dismissing the legitimate concerns of many Americans regarding the unmitigated flow of gang members, sexual offenders, and drug suppliers into the United States. I doubt Glenn Beck’s intent was negative, but his choice of words, and behavior just contributed to already negative perceptions of anti-amnesty conservatives.
On the other hand, Ted Cruz used the opportunity to not only swipe Obama, and his allies, but to reinforce the notion of a secure America. Catherine Frazier, Cruz’s spokeswoman, had this to say:
“…from day one, Sen. Cruz has been leading the charge to stop President Obama’s lawlessness, which is the direct cause of this humanitarian crisis…these young children are very real victims of the President’s promise of amnesty—because of it, they have been subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse from international drug cartels smuggling them into the country…Private charities and churches are stepping up to provide food, medicine, and toys for these young children, which is a compassionate response that embodies American values…But the most compassionate response—which Senator Cruz is leading the fight to accomplish—is to end the President’s amnesty and to humanely and expeditiously reunite these children with their families back home.”
That, right there, is genius. Ted Cruz, through his spokeswoman, has laid out his position with compassion, and a thorough understanding of the law. He nailed Obama’s amnesty state while constructing his own position, which stands in complete opposition to the president’s. It’s a move that Glenn Beck doesn’t seem to understand. It is a brilliantly constructed move that uses Beck’s trip to shine a light on real conservatism, while demonstrating just how radical and slimy Obama is. I can’t say enough good things about it.
The optics of Beck’s border trip are awful. He slammed fellow conservatives, he reinforced the lie that conservatives are not compassionate, he was dismissive of a legitimate problem, and he wasted an opportunity to criticize the opposition. Cruz, on the other hand, killed it.
There is something to be said about the optics of our actions as conservatives. We cannot allow ourselves to make the mistake of reinforcing negative stereotypes, or negating our own philosophies. If we do that, the Left can and will use it against us. Unfortunately, we live in a country in which we, as conservatives, must be extra careful because the media is not on our side. The left can do, and say whatever they want because they have the media in their pocket, but we must be cautious. Ted Cruz knows exactly what he’s doing, and we need more like him to represent conservatism for what it really is.
I don’t know what Beck is doing, but Cruz is making a political point that this humanitarian crises of Obama’s own making is really the fact that theses children are being kept here away from their parents instead of sent home to their parents.
I can understand Levin’s rage. He’s just P.O.’d. It’s not ego-driven. He’s truly afraid for the Republic.
Glenn got bit in the butt by his grandiosity....he sees himself as riding the white horse to "save the constitution" and makes a fool of himself in the process.
Commentary: Glenn Beck's Oval Office
"Lest anyone fear that something has suddenly gone drastically wrong in our country, Beck's Oval Office is a movie set in Irving.
-SNIP-
Saying he will "deliver the speeches the president should have delivered," Beck promised to "activate the sleeping giant" of Christian conservatives in America with speeches from his new set on the Studios' Stage A."
Savage doesn't know how to do anything else
He said it would be the end of his presidential aspirations.
Savage is delusional...
He also said Cruz was a creation of the talk shows
Savage is delusional...but I repeat myself
Savage is jealous of anybody that people admire.
I thought Savage was way off the mark here myself. Not the end of Cruz but it was the end of my listening to Savage for the day. I tuned into Mark Levin instead.
This was a crime against humanity when the Chinese did this in Quebec and now the Obama and the Democratic party cautiously do the same thing to us.
Responding to your second paragraph first. I do not think this is cautious at all. I think this is a rapid all-out last ditch effort to turn the tables and even possibly, and illegally, get a few million onto the voter roles before this coming November. If we can stop this now we may have a chance to save our Country so they have to do this now and fast.
Answering your first paragraph, it makes me so sad and frustrated that the left does not truly understand what will happen if they are successful. With this third world minority becoming a majority within a few election cycles they will vote in their own people and the leftists in office now will be out.
These people do not like white people and have been taught in their home countries that we are the source of all evil and the reason they are stupid and poor. They do not know freedom and will honestly enslave the white population with no remorse and that will include all the wealthy leftists trying to instigate this. Their money will not save them unless they leave this country. Since they are not too friendly with black people there will not be much love lost with them so the blacks will remain a minority but will not get the great treatment (free stuff and jobs) they have now.
I am not being hyperbolic. This will be the end of the game and the end of the USA.
Glenn Beck is just a man, trying desperately to find out what God wants him to do.
He is sincere, and I believe he is basically honest.
Yes, he makes mistakes, like this one.
But who hasn’t?
Beck is NOT a political genius, nor does he claim to be. He is just a man trying to do what he considers right. I too got very agitated by his coddling of these weaponized kids.
But for all he knows, there is 20 times the things he doesn’t know.
He is NOT MR. Perfect with the Perfect answer every time.
Let’s not forget, he pointed a finger and named Mr. Stitch by name, and outed him. He pointed fingers where others would not DARE to point fingers, and he NAMED NAMES!
Yea, I think this a mess. OTH the good that he’s done far outweighs his strictly emotional reaction to those kids.
After all, Mr. Stitch (AKA BEEHOE) put those kids in harm’s way deliberately to distract Beck and those like him.
Beck is just a man.
Anyone wanting Mr. Perfect needs to rethink their own outlook on life.
I think you overestimate the numbers here, and therefore the speed at which this will happen.
It will take a generations at a higher reproductive rate for them to take compete control of our country independent of the left.
Even if they imported their entire population there is simply fewer of them than there is of us. But they don’t need a majority merely small numbers to shift the balance of each elections sliding us into a country very much like the hell hole from which they came.
I’ll give him Cloward_-Piven until somebody else proves otherwise, but he may have learned about Soros right here on FR. You could give him a lot of credit for Pigford I’d say. one name he knows for sure is Huntsman, and I’ll bet it’s Huntsman keeping him out of bankruptcy to be Jon’s media outlet for 2016.
I sure hope you are right but with the 10 to 20 million illegals already here the vote could turn really fast. Even though we know many of them already vote illegally I am pretty sure a vast majority of them do not. If the Dems can somehow get them signed up really fast we could see trouble.
I don't agree with Glenn's view of how the illegal alien kids should be dealt with. He's focusing on one aspect of the problem, and he is not seeing the whole picture of the problems at hand. Glenn will have to work this out for himself.
My impression always was that Glenn found out about Soros, Cloward Piven and Alinsky from reading FreeRepublic.
If I remember correctly, I learned about these things here first and later noticed Beck had joined the outcry against them.
Glenn is only paving the road to hell with good intentions. It has to do with his wrong choice in church.
Don’t worry about Ted, Linda. He’s one guy who never takes his eye off the ball.
Savage eats his own all the time. On the same show, though, he coronated the guy who gave in-state tuition to illegals, Rick Perry. But Savage doesn’t know that. Anyway, no human being can satisfy Savage, unless he or she appears on his show. 60% of his show is very good; the other 40% is goofy or vindictive. Bob
“I sure hope you are right but with the 10 to 20 million illegals already here the vote could turn really fast. Even though we know many of them already vote illegally I am pretty sure a vast majority of them do not. If the Dems can somehow get them signed up really fast we could see trouble.”
I don’t hope im right, a sudden shift would wake people up, and allow us to start a revolution in a free part of the country. A slow shift will simply redefine politics far to the left while dragging the US down the same path as South & Central America of economic instability due to political uncertainty & instability.
A path you will note we are already on sense not long after Obama Took office.
Without certainty of economic liberty you can’t build a company because your legal and financial foundation are like sifting sand. Only the very big boys with enormous start-up capital are likely to be able to build and sustain a business under that situation. Thus levying the country with a narrow, some say elite spectrum of economic mobility. With that comes the non-competitive powers of cartels and monopolies that divide those already above the new starting line and those now perpetually stuck below.
“Glenn is only paving the road to hell with good intentions. It has to do with his wrong choice in church.”
I think Glenn is genuinely confused and lost. He doesn’t know what to do. There was a time when he was on Fox news bring forth real stories that he was doing a great deal of Good.
But those days appear to be behind him along with his fox news spot.
Savage actually made a comment on something other than his stomach or how great he is? When he’s actually doing his own show that is.
I admit, it is a little unbelievable.
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