There’s no Saturday Night Card Game tonight.
I was going to write about some “Neo-Confederate” idiocy by a pretend lawyer who happens to be quite obsessed with me over at the liberal blog Glenn Greenwald calls ” a cesspool of unprincipled partisan hackdom.” When you are a liberal blog and Glenn Greenwald calls you those names, you need to reconsider your blog strategy, and your life.
But most of the way into the post I decided to spare myself. Head over to Twitchy for the details.
Anyway, I’ve been working with others on a new website which hopefully will go live Monday, which probably means Tuesday or Wednesday. But that’s a secret, so forget I told you.
Another thing I’m focused on is the developing meme that we need to be happy warriors. It was articulated by Erick Erickson in a fairly acerbic post, The Loyal Opposition:
What I am finding is that among conservatives there is too much outrage, piss, and vinegar. It makes our ideas less effective. We have become humorless, angry opponents of the President instead of happy warriors selling better ideas. We are not even selling ideas.
Conservatives, frankly, have become purveyors of outrage instead of preachers for a cause. Instead of showing how increasing government harms people, how free markets help people, and how conservative policies benefit all Americans, we scream “Benghazi” and “Fast & Furious.”
We’re off key and off message. We’ve become professional victims dialed up to 10 on the outrage meter. Who the hell wants to listen to conservatives whining and moaning all the time about the outrage du jour? Seriously?
There’s a lot wrong, very wrong with that full post, but that’s not my point here. Dan Riehl, who I consider a friend of this blog, made a similar point in a less acerbic post responding to some of Ace’s and Anne’s comments about the media:
Stop being so damned negative, always demonizing everyone and everything that doesn’t work the way you want it to. Stop wailing at the top of your lungs at every perceived slight, or wrong. That is not a recipe for attracting people, or growing a movement. It’s a recipe for putting people off and continuing to shrink a movement I see as in at least some trouble from shrinkage, already.
If we want to begin to win national elections again in a reasonably short amount of time, we are going to have to begin to put forth a positive conservative image, not one of a movement that dwells on the most negative of everything everyday, as so many would be conservatives seem to be doing these days. No one wants to join a group of people intent on being perpetually pissed off about whatever they can dig out of the headlines on a given day.
The “be happy warriors” theme makes sense at the political level. Look how far Obama has gone on those fumes.
But there are different strokes for different folks. The role we and other bloggers play is not necessarily the same as the politicians.
We fight certain fights because someone needs to, including against the politically corrupt media. That’s not something Marco Rubio or Rand Paul can do for themselves. But someone needs to do it.
Update: To show you how out of it I’ve been, I didn’t see until just now a post that went live earlier today at Breitbart.com, Palin: ‘We Haven’t Yet Begun to Fight!’—Exclusive Interview with Breitbart News
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Comments
“Perceived slight,” Riehl? Stop shouting about Bengahzi and Fast & Furious, Erickson?
I call bullshit. These posts have nothing to do with being happy warriors. They are thinly disguised attempts by Riehl and Erickson to try to force conservatives to shut up about issues that Riehl and Erickson don’t want to talk about. They are calls for unilateral disarmament in the face of leftists unrelenting negative attacks.
If outrage and negativity don’t sell, why is Obama president?
Agree. I’m a refugee from RedState, and it’s not necessary to discuss why, but even in the couple of years since I’ve been gone (others too), the abandonment of conservative values has been apparent. Erickson’s job with CNN certainly affected the words he has uttered supposedly on our side’s behalf. Might I remind people of his support for Candy Crowley’s abysmal and blatantly biased performance in the 2nd presidential debate?
Anyway, the idea that we shouldn’t be outraged at the coverup about Benghazi (let alone Fast and Furious), does dishonor to Ambassador Stevens, Smith, Dougherty and Woods.
Conservatives like Erickson telling other conservatives to shut up and get in line does nothing to further our cause either.
My apologies Professor, but I am concerned that we don’t raise our voices enough, rather than being too loud or “strident.”
Let me postscript my comment. I do consider EE and the other writers at RS conservatives, only there has been a change in the style of how that conservatism is borne out. And, IMHO, there definitely is an attitude of being “told” how we’re to think or go as conservatives – one that is not always successful for our side – as you can see by the fact that Barack Obama was reelected.
i was banned there 2, not sure why as I seldom posted.
their site, their rules.
not a huge loss IMO,
Sorry that happened. I left voluntarily after they banned several excellent and solid community members. My writings are still there as Penguin2. Today, I write at UnifiedPatriots.com where a number of other RS refugees are located.
Professor Jacobson’s blog has been a lifesaver for obtaining honest, intellectual, and excellent legal perspectives. He is what I would consider a “happy warrior,” though now I’m thinking in terms of conservatives like us being called “determined warriors.”
‘What difference at this point does it make!?’
Lost in all the noise is the fact that this Administration can no longer say that an attack on what is arguably US soil did not happen on their watch.
United we stand, divided we fall. They are part of the wedge.
Dan and Erick are channeling David Brooks. The Professor is channeling Andrew Breitbart. My money is on the Professor.
I never liked Erickson. I remember when he first set up Red State I was banned from leaving comments because I refused to disavow Ann Coulter. He was ranting about something she said and I was agreeing with her.
He is a pompous ass who fancies himself a brilliant guy but there isn’t much there. The left uses anger, vitriol and ridicule against us all the time and it works for them. If anything we have been too polite.
Our last 2 presidential candidates were “nice guys” of the kind Erickson apparently likes but he trashed them too. I don’t get where he is coming from. As I recall he was backing Newt who can be very sardonic at times.
I don’t see how a true Conservative couldn’t be angry about what Obama is doing. The media and the left (I repeat myself) is NEVER going to like us regardless of our demeanor or if we pander to grievance groups like Rubio and Jindal are doing.
We will be told we are just a bunch of angry white guys regardless and a certain percentage of the population is going to agree no matter what. That is reality. That isn’t to say we will lose elections forever. We are headed over a cliff due to our ballooning debt so we will be proven right in the end.
Romney talked about Benghazi the very next day, and was crucified by the Leftist press. What happened? He then shut up which was their intention in order to aid Obama’s reelection. We’ve let the Left control the messaging for so long, it’s no wonder that the average Democrat and low information voter thinks Republicans are devils and wear horns.
The elitist GOP is part of the Ruling class, and the charade at the Benghazi hearings this past week, which was nothing more than a cocktail party for the political class, was a travesty.
Hillary should have been in sackcloth and ashes, instead they were toasting her. Our own establishment GOP enabled the circus.
“Stop being so damned negative, always demonizing everyone and everything that doesn’t work the way you want it to.” says Dan Riehl?? Are you kidding me? I dropped his site a couple years ago because of his incessant juvenile rants against conservatives who weren’t conservative enough (he was really railing against conservatives who were more mature than him). Dan: get a mirror. You’re welcome.
Quoted text from above, “Conservatives, frankly, have become purveyors of outrage instead of preachers for a cause.”
I think that everything necessary is needed to get the mooing masses to to react on what is being done to us, this nation and our values. Being nice is way to late.
“Stop being so damned negative, always demonizing everyone and everything that doesn’t work the way you want it to. Stop wailing at the top of your lungs at every perceived slight, or wrong.”
That is the M.O. of the current administration and when all else fails, fight fire with fire! Too much is at stake to leave ANY stone unturned.
There is NO way that you’ll ever find me being content with being a “happy warrior.”
No freakin’ way!
What we need is a lot more conservative blogs with the kind of content offered by Legal Insurrection, Reihl World News, and Red State to mention just the aforementioned. More, better funded, and did I mention more? Thanks to all of ’em for shining lights into the Obama Murk. IMO less splashin about in the puddles and more building a Giant Pond, and then a Lake, and maybe even an Ocean someday, but for all you do… this bud’s for you.
doesn’t seem to hurt the proggs.
Sorry, I don’t much care for Erickson’s sanctimonious tone here, or on his site. I have tried to remain positive, but when I see the RNC re-elect the same person who failed us, and that person sends me an email saying he is proud they met all their goals, I need to be concerned. They lost damned near everything and he met his goal? His letter began by saying they “fixed” a broken RNC. That was an unnecessary slam on Michael Steel, who presided over an unprecedented House victory. Why in God’s name did he feel it necessary to do that? The RNC is the face and voice of my party and for the past two year its face has been ugly and its voice inarticulate. I would like to see our main bloggers approach this organization en masse and try to get them on the same path we are on. As it is, they entered the fog and turned off that road quite some time ago. At some point we need to get rid of these prima donnas running the show.
Steel is “Steele”
Being a happy warrior of the right and pointing out the inanity, corruption, delusions, and ill humor of the left at the same time … are not mutually exclusive!!!
I try to engage, educate, and convert people with light-hearted humor while pointing out the left’s wrong-headed and wicked ways.
It’s like chewing gum and … and … and … let me take this gum out of my mouth so I can concentrate …
Breitbart did both!
There’s a post and numerous comments below correcting the malicious lies being told about what was said by a citizen at a gun control forum.
I’m sure Riehl and Erickson disapprove.
I have to say I am dumbfounded by the notion we demonize people and the necessary conclusion this demonization is driving people away. Really who was it that was telling voters “they’re going to put you back in chains?” Oh that would be Mr. Happy-Smiley-Face Warrior himself, Joe Biden.
If we’re not attracting new folks to vote with us, it has everything to do with being demonized, not the other way around. I have been taking Coursera courses to learn data analysis. I am also taking the argument course currently being offered. Folks on the left have no trouble demonizing Republicans. They’re blatant about it. I may well be the lone conservative of 180,000 people registered for the argument course but I noticed no one has the guts to put their name to an argument opposing these liberal posts. I put my name to it but I get why people have a problem with it. Shaming Republicans and conservatives has done wonders for the Democrats. I just hate it when folks on our side heap it on as if that is the solution.
I won’t argue we need to follow the same path as Dems but sitting politely in the corner is not a solution. Pretending we’re happy when there is very little to be happy about is not a solution either. There is blatant media bias and it works against us 24/7, should we just smile and nod our heads in agreement?
If Erick Erickson is embarrassed we sound like victims maybe he should stop and wonder why. He doesn’t need to heap on another dose of shame and blame to distinguish himself from the crowd. He has a huge profile. How about using to finally put away stupid Dem attack lines like “George Bush policies led to the financial meltdown.” These things have been drilled into the general public far better than the multiplication tables. These are the things that make people afraid to admit in public they don’t agree with every idea the progressive movement wants to shove down our throats.
Damn straight we fight certain fights because someone has to. If Republicans would fight these fights instead of wringing their hands and trying to make the media like them more people might be willing to call themselves Republican in public. They don’t have to be shrill like Debbie Wasserman Schultz but they sure as heck don’t need to be taking it on the chin either.
Rant mostly over … for now. Sorry for the long comment.
I think if Erickson fights too hard for us he loses his gig at CNN. He would rather we all quiet down so he doesn’t have to defend our actions or words.
Maybe he’s shooting for the CNN “David Gergen Squishy RINO Employee of the Month” pin.
Aw fer Pete’s sake, knock yourselves out! 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9DJ5ilPzi0
Dan says:
“Last month, many on the Right were saying the low information voter was the problem. Okay, so now we’re shifting back to saying it’s the media. But those two memes actually contradict one another. After all, if low information voters keep electing these liberal politicians, it can’t really be the fault of a media tasked with informing them, now can it?”
I strongly disagree with Dan on this. If the MSM is the primary information source of the majority of voters, those voters will be, by definition, low-information voters. No contradiction at all.
I do agree with a lot of what Dan says in his post but I also agree with Anne and Ace. We need both short- and long-term strategies and national and local strategies.
We need to engage and utilize all the diverse skills, abilities and energy available in the warrior universe…angry and happy warriors, wonky and public relations warriors, education warriors, dispassionate and passionate warriors, et., etc. As the Professor correctly points out, it takes all kinds.
The election was stolen/fraudulent in a dozen or more ways…from illegals or newly forgiven illegals voting, many voting multiple times, dead voting due to no voter IDs, etc.
“If Ronald Reagan were running today he’d be called a dirty moderate like me, unfortunately.”
—Meghan McCain
Get back. Get back. Get back to where you once belonged. I’m sure if Reagan suddenly appeared today, we’d be calling him a dirty moderate and the media would show him just as much love and respect as they did in the 1980s. Sure, sure.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/meghan-mccain-compares-herself-to-ronald-reagan/
LukeHandCool (who wonders why, if Obama can compare himself to Lincoln, Meghan can’t compare herself to Reagan?)
Has Meghan McCain ever criticized a Dem? I hate that she is out there representing Republican women. You’re totally right though LukeHandCool, no reason she can’t compare herself to Reagan when Obama compares himself to Lincoln. We could include that on a reasoning test:
Barack Obama is to Lincoln as Meghan McCain is to:
a) Margaret Thatcher
b) Ronald Reagan
c) Madame Curie
d) all of the above
e) My head just exploded so none of the above.
I chose “d,” all of the above, but it made me feel like a “d” as in “dirty moderate.”
Remember, Professor Jacobson had a run in with Meghan’s boobs, or so she thought. It actually happened. It’s not just urban legend.
He’s a dirty moderate blogger.
The professor had a run in with the McBoobster and lived to tell the tale? I think there needs to be special combat pay for that duty.
Here it is.
I feel like I need a shower after reading the Professor now.
https://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/[email protected]
I must have missed that, was twitter all a…..titter…that day?
“Has Meghan McCain ever criticized a Dem?”
What?! And lose her role?!
I hate that she is out there representing Republican women.
Meghan McCain represents Republican women? Maybe to lo-info’s.
Moron McCain is useful whore of the left.
And she’s sold herself cheap, to boot.
Her father’s not much better.
go watch reagan at liberty park in 1980. he slammed carter not demonrats.
Show me a happy warrior, and I’ll show you John Boehner.
Leftist morons: war is hell, especially the coming counter-attacks by the sleeping dinosaur you awakened. If you don’t like hell, you shouldn’t have started the war.
Damn straight. Screw being civil with the scumbags. Make them squeal like the swine they are.
“Living well is the best revenge” –George Herbert
In every movement, every revolution… hell, in every PTA, there are two diametrically opposite personalities that, like two poles of a magnet, are needed to make the motor spin.
For every calculating thinker, there needs to be a person of action and fluidity. For every ordered mind, there needs to be a passionate one. For every bomb maker, a bomb thrower. For every Lenin, a Trotsky. For every Bill Bennett, a Rush Limbaugh. Otherwise, any revolution, or movement or PTA bake sale ends up one dimensional, flat and appealing only to a narrow band.
Not trying to sound like a dumb fuc*ing Progressocrat, but we need some ‘a that diverrrrrrrr-sity.
Damn, Trooper.
That was nearing poetry.
As I see it the Left wants us to be like them: coercive, bullying, childish and outraged. The Left understands these self-gratifying emotions. But the Left doesn’t understand what good people do because they are good.
Without a moral base the Left will bump up against walls of conviction, walls of conviction which are common to each person – the walls are built by God. When this happens the Left wants to turn immediately around and apply those convictions with shame onto other’s behavior’s. Mature people understand what is happening and they change their behavior – they self-govern themselves. The Left is not mature. The Left instead seeks control of others.
As a group or as an individual we can’t be “More of this and that.” We can be ourselves and succeed. The Left will come calling when things fall apart. And it will.
BTW: When I do business with a small local business I do tell these small business owners that I support their small business because I am a Libertarian with a strong belief in Capitalism and the Free Market System. I let people know why I do what I do and why I am giving them my business.
Sarah Palin is a great example of a Happy Warrior – and – she is always civil, holds to and communicates her convictions, her conservative political and spiritual values with courage, clarity and compassion and without apology. (Unlike the vulgar, vehement Obama followers in the comment section at the Breitbart article)
If you let the media do your thinking for you then Sarah is a stupid shrieking harridan.
Blogs are not for the undecided. They are meeting places for the faithful. (And trolls)
I wonder if anyone else here has seen this information that we posted on our website:
“Obama’s new litmus test for American military leaders: their willingness to murder Americans”
http://thefinereport.com/2013/01/obamas-new-litmus-test-for-military-leaders-their-willingness-to-fire-on-us-citizens/
Seen it. Dismissed as hyperbole without something concrete.
Too “out there” to believe….so far.
Considering the source of the information — and what ‘Barack Obama’ has proved to be — where is the hyperbole, and what is lacking in concreteness?
Here’s a video interview on this topic. Interesting viewing.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-to-top-brass-will-you-fire-on-american-citizens/
As for Erick Erickson, once a daily Red State reader, I abandoned the blog soon after Erickson got those first calls to appear on CNN. He and his blog changed from that moment on. It became clear to me Erickson was now out to protect his cachet with his newfound media buddies and if his principles needed massaging accordingly, he’d do so immediately.
I reject the notion we need to be any one thing, happy, mad, passive, or whatever. What we need to be is honest. If events like Benghazi and Fast & Furious anger me, I will express that anger – I will be honest about it. The idea that I should calculate the effect before I express anger sickens me.
While I agree the GOP desperately needs to join the 21st century in terms of utilizing modern social media – something conservatives already do pretty well – I am against fighting fire with fire, the idea we must take up Alinskyite tactics against the progressive movement, as many people advise. Progressives are inherently dishonest, made necessarily so by the bankruptcy of their ideas and I want no part of their ends-justify-means tactics. I played college ice hockey and other sports as a young man and rejected the notion it’d be OK to cheat and lie to win a game I’d otherwise have lost. Those were merely games. But when it comes to my cornerstone principles it’s ought to be OK to cheat and lie if it leads to a win? I don’t think so. I’d rather lose every election than lie or cheat to win, and I will not pretend to feel other than I do for the sake of appearances or political benefit. “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (My apologies if I mangled that.)
Either we have faith in our principles and ideals or we do not. These need be immutable, not values set aside if perceived to be politically risky. What we need to do is improve our ability to communicate them, to teach them, and to change minds, a task at which the GOP has proved woefully inept in recent cycles.
———————-
On a related issue now extant in discussions on what Republicans/conservatives need to do, I hear we need to reach out more to minorities, particularly Hispanics. I hear we need to get in the face of the biased main stream media. I hear a lot of things we need to do. The problem is I’ve been hearing these same things for going on thirty years. The time for talk is over. We’ve known what to do for a long time. Time to do them. I’m Tea Party active and I donate to conservative candidates and blogs. I’m the sole earner in our house (Mrs. H is a brain cancer survivor on disability) and I’ve got six kids and a business to run. I do the most I can. The reason I’m not a registered Republican is that so few elected GOP-ers do as much as I do. Talk, sure, but they do… not… DO.
Harrumph!
(rant over)
I gave you a thumbs up for your rant, but the statements “I am against fighting fire with fire” and “The time for talk is over” seem to be at odds with each other. So if you refuse to consider Alinskyite tactics, are you thinking that you can “educate” your philosophical enemies? Do you think you can send out a “Magic Tweet” which will instantly convince millions of progressives that everything they’ve ever thought and done is wrong? If that’s the case, I propose that you don’t quite understand the nature of the enemies of American civilization.
Rush discussed your idea about 15 years ago when Clinton was running. He chastised conservatives saying (to paraphrase), “You people think if you can come up with just ONE MORE piece of information that it will change the minds of the liberals. You’re mistaken.” He was right. These people don’t care about facts or logic. They think on a perceptual level like animals do. I know it’s hard to come to the realization that there are truly evil people out there, but you’ll eventually get there.
With all due respect, perhaps you don’t understand the basic English language as I employed it. You are strawmanning me, here. I am not out to convert progressives, I am out to DEFEAT progressives, and I reject the idea that I need to abandon my principles against lying, deceit, and manipulation in order to do so. The rest of your complaint (re: Limbaugh) is based on more misreading of what I wrote.
My target is those voters who are mislabeled “low information voters”. There are those who truly are low information, but it is because they pay no mind to political events and do not vote anyway. The voters labeled ‘low info’ are in fact very high information voters, but since they get their info from mainstream media outlets, they are more accurately described as bad information voters, due to the propagandic practices of progressivist news media people, and due to the pervasiveness of liberalism in entertainment presented by the same progressive media outlets.
The presiding assessment of the electorate is that one third are liberal, one third conservative, and one third ping-pong between the two from election to election – those sought after independents who can bring a plurality over the line to a majority. My goal is to educate those independents who side with liberals based on the bad info the liberal media feeds them. These indies DO respond to logic and reason **as they perceive it to be**, not as you or I perceive it to be. The progressive tactic of propaganda and lies poisons their perceptions of what is logical and reasonable well before any conservative message is received.
Ronald Reagan did a masterful job of inserting himself and his message between the lib media and the voter. Alas, there is no Ronald Reagan extant in the GOP, and the media landscape has changed drastically since 1984.
My thesis is that whatever plan evolves to change the dynamic in favor of conservatism, it ought not involve abandonment of personal principles and values simply to win political support through deceit. I personally want no part of that. The ends do not justify the means.
Nowhere did I advocate converting liberals.
This is your friendly, neighborhood Liberal, throwing another big, red, BS flag.
It’d be hard for anybody to project a “positive image” when there are a bunch of goddamn liars calling you a mean-spirited, racist, dishonest extremist.
I don’t see Conservatives ACTING or TALKING like “mean-spirited, racist, dishonest extremists,” but I sure as hell see some pretend-Liberal talking heads saying exactly that, much like that jerk Lee Goodman so adeptly filleted by Anne earlier, today.
Please, please, do not allow those jerks to mischaracterize you.
I don’t mind if that means calling a jerk, a jerk. You can do it with a smile. That works well. Here, let me show you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It0Dtm1gFFQ
Remember who won that election.
Valerie, this is a better video of that debate between Reagan and Mondale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBlfOoZD1bE
The part begins around 6 minutes in and it shows Reagan’s response to Mondale.
I’ll stick with the piss and vinegar approach, as it is at least honest. The other method of “happy warrior selling ideas” approach has worked so well to date…
The liberals through the media, education and mass entertainment control our image in the minds of many. They have managed to portray us as uncaring, racist, greedy and hate filled bigots who only care about our own pocket books.
We need to control our own image and we need to put as much effort into controlling the image of liberals as power hungry, emotional self loathing America haters as they put into controlling ours.
These people are the blood brothers of Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao. They are dangerous and, given the opportunity, will see all of us opposed to them in re-education camps, gulags, or graves.
You do great work Professor…so Good Luck on the new site…Hope it’s a righteous launch!
Erickson let it all go to his head…Don’t bother going to Red State anymore, not since the primaries.
Me either.
Reading the posts here, we’ve lost. We’re done.
One of us clearly is.
Sorry about that, Hank. It was just a little discouraging to read the knee-jerk comments here. I think the folks who regularly to the good Prof’s blog are by-and-large good thinkers, not willing to give up. It just seemed to me that Erickson’s criticism was reacted to rather than responded to.
It’s the same problem I have with the recent freak-out over Paul Ryan’s vote. Who wrote his Path to Prosperity plan if not him, praises for which so many of us sang? Why did he champion it as committee chairman, if he didn’t believe in it? But to read the responses after his vote, all of a sudden he’s turned into a RINO? Really?
Gingrich’s recent tete a tete with Piers Morgan: Gingrich didn’t say exactly what I would have said, namely the illegality of fully automatic weapons thing, but he was on the right side, fighting for it, and taking it to one of the most nauseating shills for People Control presently on television. It wasn’t a pure message, but it was a damned good one, and well executed under the circumstances.
As the good professor stated in this post, Erickson did not get it exactly right. But he does understand something more than one libertarian/conservative thinker perceives. We’re turning into the spiritual kin of Ross Perot voters, or Democrats during Bush the Younger. We bitch and moan about every little thing, all is darkness, all is outrage, all is evil.
Even Erickson said “I believe the President’s policies are destructive and will harm our economy, our nation, and our sense of national self long term. I believe his policies have the effect of turning us into subjects of the government, not citizens in charge of it. Because of his expansion of the social safety net funded through class warfare, Mr. Obama’s policies will cause too many Americans’ fortunes to rise and fall with those of the government, unable to chart a course for themselves apart from government.” Yes he also said he didn’t think it was malicious, to which I disagree, but that doesn’t invalidate his previous point.
But some commenters here might as well have hanged him in effigy. Erickson is not David Frum, for crying out loud. Criticize his positions, sure, but the tone I read here leads one to think Erickson is in the “progressive” camp. That’s silly.
There’s more I’d like to post, but I think my response is long enough. Buck up, people! This is not the first time our country has been led down the primrose path. Ask yourselves: was Reagan a dour, unhappy fighter for the cause? Was Buckley?
I’ll wager I’m one of the older posters hereabouts, though it doesn’t take great age to notice the ebb & flow of American politics. JFK/LBJ win two terms, Nixon wins two terms, Carter dumped after one, Reagan wins two terms, Bush Sr dumped after one, Clinton wins two terms, Bush Jr wins two terms, Obama wins two terms, and so on. Like a pendulum, back and forth, back and forth, Dems > GOP, GOP > Dems.
In my more cynical moments I wonder if all the political strategizin’ and philosophicatin’ and campaignin’ and speechifyin’ isn’t all a waste of time, that voters will elect and then reelect just about anyone, based not on political considerations, but on entertainment value, because they’re not quite tired of this or that prez yet.
Well, I do believe a big piece of the puzzle is culture. I believe we often miss the mark because we focus on politics.
I think that’s something Alinsky understood and taught about. Win the culture. Look at our culture. We live and breathe an entitlement culture. That’s why I believe we have to go into “the lions’ den” and risk bloody noses by directly opposing leftist community organizations in their communities. We have to show the vote plantation slaves that there is a way out.
I can’t say I know exactly how that should be accomplished. But I believe if we don’t win the culture back, or at least sow the seeds of doubt about the current belief structure (making us the radical counter-culture), we’ll never advance politically. Too few people understand us; too few people believe us.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, but we needn’t start there. I remember the Tea Party rally in DC the day before the ObamaCare vote. Way out on the fringe of the rally there were a few kooks with some rather unsavory signs. They were pressed out of the main rally group. If they made it back in, their signs were covered by more positive (yes, more acceptable) signs. So we have people we can blame, but we can deal with them later. In the meantime, we do all we can to minimized their damage and press on with our work.
Win the argument, then win the vote.
Well, I chased the Palin story to Breitbart but found Steve Bannon instead, talking about the Fox “Boomtown” special. Even Breitbart’s trailer of Bannon’s epic on Sarah Palin was the wrong video that was blocked by another distributor because of another movie altogether.
If you haven’t seen the movie, jump over to Netflix to watch it – you will not be sorry.
Those interested in Boomtown, might like to read an interesting and somewhat scary article in Time by Andy Fergusen entitled “Bubble on the Potomac,” available outside the paywall here.
I’ve been a happy warrior all of my life.
I’m 52 years old and it hasn’t done a dang bit of good.
I refuse to be a victim and I refuse to watch my Constitution shredded to bits. I’m pissed off and I’m fighting back.
i kinda get what these guys are saying. for instance, i’ll take the cool, calm and collected conservatism of sarah palin over the perpetually agitated and enraged style of michelle malkin any day. malkin’s ‘twitchy’ site, for instance, has quickly devolved into being little more than a ‘2-minute hate’ meetingplace for the torches-and-pitchforks crowd who rant about whatever may be deemed to be the ‘outrage!’ of the hour. it’s tiresome and does make it appear that the stereotype of conservatives as a bunch of nuts is true. certainly, we must make our positions on issues known but it needn’t be done with bugged-out eyes and wild gesticulation.
[…] Very well-worded comment left over at Legal Insurrection: […]
[…] But who cares about credibility, when you’ve already been denounced by Glenn Greenwald as ”a cesspool of unprincipled partisan hackdom”? […]
http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/dss/Pareto/PARETOW6.HTML
In the big picture, we are entertaining a false dichotomy: be loud, proud, angry, in their face, etc., or calm, reasoned, given to attraction rather than promotion or coercion, etc.
We can and should employ both extremes and everything along the continuum.
Actually I think both tactics have merit. Incidents like Benghazi need a certain amount of sustained anger, otherwise they disappear into the media’s collective amnesia. But screaming rage at everything the Progs do and say simply wears people out. We need to learn to use both anger and reason in our public discourse.
Also, can we start using, “‘What difference at this point does it make!?’” as our answer to Leftist attacks on Conservatives? Seems to me to be a fine, MSM-acceptable response. 😉
It is my observation that, consistently, commenters blogs who write under their name or at least a real name are more cogent and influential than commenters who do not. They are also calmer in a crisis.
It is my assertion that commenters who write under their name or at least a real name are acting beneficially inside and outside the blogs and commenters who do not are not.
I will take a commenter seriously when they write under their name or at least a real name. Whether they be for strong and happy or fearful and angry, if they write under their name or at least a real name I will assume they are trying to be good and do good for themselves, their family, their neighbors and their nation. I will assume they are worth my time.
I haven’t written under my real name for several years, but for very good reasons. i am probably the most believable person you will never get to know. So, from personal experience I can say you are wrong. I can also say it’s just as well.
Well, let’s test your little bit of nonsense. Start with me:
Is Henry Hawkins my real name?
Whatever your determination, please explain how you made it.
Right you are. This is really an interesting subject. This Graham writer couldn’t prove he’s really Graham without giving over all sorts of private information.
But it says more about him than the guy who hides behind an AKA like PackersFan412 to say that if PackersFan were to allegorize the Sermon on the Mount, suddenly the Sermon would lose its authority simply because it came from a phony.
People prove their vacuousness by the words they use, not the words they use to shield their true identity.
An important subject, actually treated a little too lightly here. Tone matters now that the republic may already be lost, since restoring it will require some thinking, and writing, and speechifying outside the box.
And who does this will also matter. Blogs are or becoming irrelevant UNLESS they edify and unify. EE and Dan are right, railing about the outrages of the day are getting awfully tiresome. Many are nourished by this, and even make it sound that their caterwauling is the contribution to the Cause. They are irrelevant and should be encouraged to hang out on the sidelines, in the bleachers, and generally ignored. Instead we should when we should be inquiring into just what it is that makes the Enemy tick. (My passion, btw) The Left especially moves according to laws more ancient than Marx by centuries. They have buttons that can be pushed, squeals to be exploited, and we need to search for those and share them.
As for the blogs who spend their time ruminating on what goes on inside the beltway, especially the GOP, they will find their time better spent on things by reading and learning from places such as this.
Been reading for years.
This!
I’m very positive about one thing: this country cannot be saved as long as the establishment GOP remains as it is today. That includes the entire Bush crowd, Fox News, and some elected GOP. My main lifeline is Mark Levin’s radio show. Mr. Levin is unique in that he freely and firmly says the GOP guys in charge must be removed. He talks about and gives air time to some of our new and better faces such as Ted Cruz. The other day he had Rand Paul and Marco Rubio on (separately). So there are new people to be happy about. I don’t agree with the happy warrior suggestion in general except as it was evidenced by Andrew Breitbart. He was unique. I believe in finding positives as I’ve said but it’s a complete waste if one doesn’t know one’s enemy. It’s like having battered wife syndrome not to acknowledge what’s going on. Among other things, the GOP has used the murderous NY Times several times in recent months to viciously slander the Silent Majority and sell out the country. GOP types regularly go on tv shows and say we’re racists in so many words or close to it. Then there’s the new GOP PAC that will specifically fund both Republicans and Democrats who like to compromise. It’s being run by Boehner buddy LaTrourette. Watching this country being sold out for the past decade is not a happy thing. Being attacked as racist isn’t something to be happy about.
Regardless of outrage about Erickson, the truth is that conservatives have much to be outraged about but….where does it go from here? It’s all piss in the wind if we don’t settle on a course of action.
My friends have been so down that I resolved to only write positive posts. Consequently I haven’t been writing much.
I think humor is absolutely the best weapon. The game face has to change. If you think about it, what The Prince does is very cunning. He slices and dices verbally but does it with a smile (and a fly sometimes). I am not exactly sure how to get over my anger and concern over the direction of this country but it must be done.
The point remains. To attain tactical advantage, we need to morph. Evolve. Vigilantly.