Opinion Forum

The Libruls Are Winning. How Can We Win Instead?

February 26th, 2013

Offer free reverse-lobotomies? Probably not. This is a rant. So sue me.

A Hell of a Lot!

The problems

An article at American Thinker is titled Three Reasons Conservatives are Losing the Battle for America. Although it struck me as excessively repetitive it’s probably correct for the most part and well worth reading. The “legitimate media”(AKA Department of Information) are substantially dominated by libruls and present all of the news that fits their world view. Libruls want nothing to do with anything, or anybody, conservative and shut their ears, eyes and therefore minds accordingly. Political correctness is running amok, which limits not only modes but also topics of discussion.

The good news is that we still have what I suppose could be called the illegitimate media, mainly small but some large blogs. Power Line, one of the best of the biggies, does not often go off on tangents which, while appreciated by our choir, are considered both tone deaf and offensive by most not in the choir; they plug their ears in response. Why? The “legitimate media” and others have infected those not in the choir with political correctness and other stoppers of both debate and thought. More about that a bit later. Here, here, here and here are some other pretty good large conservative blogs. There are many more.

PJ Media was for a long time one of the best of the biggies and I enjoyed writing for it. It continues its descent into oblivion as a source of conservative news and views by, among other things, focusing on “lifestyle” topics much as one might find in a Sunday supplement published by the “legitimate media.” Taking that tack appears to have resulted in diminishing the number and prominence of articles on conservative topics. Maybe the idea has been to provide lifestyle articles as bait for non-conservatives in the hope that some might stumble upon and even read more substantive offerings. I don’t think it has been working. On February 19th, PJ Media drastically limited the ability of readers to comment on articles, producing much outrage to which there has been no response from the powers that be. If the comments (at least ninety-six percent) averse to the change are representative, PJ Media has already lost many viewers and will probably lose more.

Solutions?

Proposing viable solutions to problems is much more difficult than identifying the problems. We all know that cancer is bad and often fatal, but there are still not enough effective cures. Mine was properly diagnosed, staged as 4A and treated (five hours of surgery followed, after I had healed sufficiently from the surgery, by five weeks of radiation therapy) fifteen years ago. It has not recurred, so maybe I was and will continue to be lucky. Conservatives need more than dumb luck to get out of the cancerous morass in which we find ourselves. Surgery, if not something akin to radiation therapy, might help.

Conservative arguments have to be relevant to audiences.

Some good stuff remains at PJ Media. At PJTV’s Next Generation, Allen West interviewed Tamon Pearson of HipHop Republicans on why conservative messages are not getting through to most Blacks. In summary, he said that messages have to be tailored to matters they find relevant and about which they want to hear. He is probably right. A wise old friend once reminded me that “you can’t sell what they aren’t buying.” He was right; some things just don’t sell well in some places: cigarettes in tuberculous wards, firearms at gun control rallies and sex toys at Jesuit meetings for example. In addition to having something to sell that is desired and can be acquired without incurring the wrath of one’s associates, it should be recognized that some topics many conservatives deem very important and highly relevant are neither important nor relevant at all to many others. Indeed, they have become anathema and that has been easy to accomplish: identify unwanted thoughts, label them disparagingly and eliminate them.

Want to be disparaged as a “birther?” Just say anything suggesting that President Obama has never been vetted and that we don’t know enough about his origins, education, associates and accomplices. That’s bad enough, but say something like “I do not know where he was born” or “I do not believe that he was born in Hawaii” and one becomes a birther, one who by definition has gone ’round the bend and whose ideology has so twisted his few brain cells that there is no point in trying to discuss that, or anything else, with him.

I do not know where President Obama was born and I do not believe that he was born in Hawaii. Knowledge needs solid based. Belief can have fuzzy bases, but leaving aside the true believers something more than has been presented is needed. Authentication of an original birth certificate (not a copy) by highly qualified and reputable examiners of questioned documents not employed by the Government and without preconceived views, for example, might help. It’s been a long time and we don’t have that. School records, indicating whether he enrolled and/or received financial aid as a foreign student? Why are they still under seal? These sorts of things make belief, at least for me, impossible.

That said, it seems to be a dead issue. Impeachment is the only constitutional way to depose a sitting president. To vote a bill of impeachment on any of the possible causes for impeachment (Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors) the House requires a majority vote. Conviction by the Senate requires a two-thirds vote. Two sitting presidents (Andrew Johnson and William Clinton) have been impeached by the House. Neither was convicted by the Senate. Even if President Obama were to go on national television during prime time and confess that he had been born in Kenya and that he had arranged for the forgery of birth certificates indicating otherwise, I suspect that many would ask, “what difference does it make now?” It’s a done deal and he is our President! We love him! That seems to have been sufficient for most libruls when Secretary Clinton said it in a different context.

How about another hot conservative topic, abortion? My own views are that abortion is bad, that the later it happens during a pregnancy the worse it is and that under Roe v. Wade and its progeny the States retain the authority to prohibit late term abortions in most cases. The extent of State authority, and also whether Federal funds should be used for or to encourage abortions, should be the conservative foci in presidential and congressional elections. Beyond that, it should be dealt with as a matter left for the States to decide. That’s among the reasons for the Tenth Amendment. Undesirable though it is, the abortion situation is unlikely to change no matter how loudly we yell. We tried and got only the “Republican War on Women” in return: Ms. Fluke and her rights to free contraception and abortifacients along with this clever Democrat advertisement during the 2012 campaign.

That little spot has had more than two million views, with more “dislikes” than “likes.” Here’s a parody on it. My “first time” seeing the one above I thought it had to be satire. Oh well.

That has had about twenty thousand views, with more “likes” than “dislikes.” So? The original seems to have worked. That’s why President Obama is called “The Won.”

The concept of moral responsibility? That’s not “modern” and so is too often rejected.

Can we attract some libruls?

Should we give up on libruls as a lost cause, sunk too deeply in their own pits of ignorance to waste time on? I don’t think so, at least not yet. I argued here that

Democrats realize that rational thought does not appeal to many voters and Republicans have yet to understand that emotional appeals beat rational appeals. Even when they try emotional appeals they rarely work because they don’t do a good job of it; their efforts are quickly and effectively shoved aside.

I have observed that librul opinions tend to be based principally on emotion. In the linked article, I suggested some types of emotional appeal that might, just might, work. I also suggested,

America as we know her now is broken, but not beyond repair. Continuing to tilt at windmills won’t work but finding ways to harness the entertainment industry to our wagon may. Music, films and even video games can evoke emotional responses and there seems to be no compelling reason why they can’t evoke healthy rather than unhealthy emotions. Getting the money for such projects might be difficult, but the financial rewards for those who provide it might be greater than the large financial rewards anticipated from campaign contributions — and perhaps even more prestigious than otherwise meaningless ambassadorial appointments. (Emphasis added.)

How about some more Black conservatives?

Dr. Benjamin Carson articulated a much needed conservative message during a recent prayer breakfast with President Obama. Will he be shut up before he has had a chance to get the favorable attention of Blacks? He has already captivated many other conservatives. Will he make headway despite fierce opposition by the “legitimate media” and others?

What the liberal bullies did to Marco Rubio will be child’s play compared to the meat grinder Carson is about to face. Carson is a black conservative, and every ounce of hostility and ideological bigotry will be directed at this man until he is ground into dust. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Governor Sarah Palin will just watch and shake their heads.

Every conservative is either “stupid” or “evil.” For the stupid ones, liberals repeat the words “uninformed,” “misinformed” and “uneducated” into every other sentence. The evil ones are “meanspirited,” “extremist” and “draconian.” Those pointing out ideological bigotry are called “biased,” as if one should be neutral in the face of any bigotry. Another word is “hateful,” which means disagreeing with a liberal.

Dr. Carson will most likely be thrown into the stupid category because he comes across as a nice fellow. He speaks softly and calmly, so the evil narrative does not fit. …

The issue is not whether Dr. Carson will be attacked. What matters is if Republicans praising him now will stand up for him when the attacks come. Will they throw him under the bus like they did Palin and Michele Bachmann, or will they actually demand that the ideological bigotry stop?

Dr. Carson has to be destroyed by the left because he is everything Obama is not.

Dr. Carson is Black, so isn’t it racist to attack him like that?

No it’s not! He’s fair game.
He disagrees with our President.

That is a good synopsis of the problems that all conservatives face, not only Dr. Carson, although Black conservatives stand out for special scorn. Dr. Carson would be welcomed at just about any conservative gathering. But how about in the Black community, which we perhaps unwisely seem to view as monolithic?

Dr. Carson is not likely to be welcomed broadly as a conservative, per se. As an advocate for better health care in the Black community? Maybe he could do that while reminding them, gently, of the problems they face under ObamaCare. How about while addressing Black related infant mortality? The lack of family integrity? The surfeit of gang violence? Having their attention, perhaps he could segue into other areas consistent with his beliefs and qualities.

Dr. Carson is also religious. He directly credits turning to God with turning his own life around. The left will therefore look for any excuse to declare him a hypocrite, as they did with President George W. Bush.

George W. Bush is an evangelical. Clarence Thomas is black. Benjamin Carson is both. He is the worst of all possible worlds for the liberal black leadership. At some point black communities will see they have been exploited by everybody from Jesse Jackson Sr. and Jr. to Al Sharpton and Barack Obama. Barack Obama chanted “Yes, we can.” People look at Benjamin Carson and see a man who actually “did” and still does. In his world “can” actually means more than mere “being.” It means “can do.” For preaching doing over dependence and God over government, Dr. Carson will be attacked. (Emphasis added.)

Dr. Carson is a genius with a knife, but he has never experienced the receiving end of knives wielded by liberal Obama defenders. He had better be prepared. Conservatives everywhere must be.

We should be prepared and willing to defend him, not by emphasizing the harmful idiocy of the “legitimate media,” of the Sharptons, Jacksons et al, at least initially. Instead, we should focus on the merits of Dr. Carson and others like him — Black, Brown, White, Red and Yellow. When I was in the Army back in the late 1960s, there was a saying: “We don’t have any Black, Brown, White, Red or Yellow soldiers. We are all green.” Green then had a different meaning then than now; the reference was to the color of our uniforms. But the thought was that we are all in it together.

Hispanics and immigration

With the loss of the 2012 presidential election the Republican Party, with the aid of Hispanic Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, has been trying to attract more Hispanics, most of them immigrants from the lawless society of Mexico. In April of 2011, while still writing at PJ Media, I wrote Governments Rot when their Citizens let them and opined,

Britain’s culture has become no less multiculturally devalued than that of the United States. Venezuela, Cuba, and many others never, at least in recent memory, enjoyed cultures conducive to freedom and democracy. Ditto many countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, plus some of the countries they colonized. Mexico? Hardly a role model for the United States; I didn’t learn much about Mexican history or culture half a century ago in school, and I doubt that many young people in Mexico learn much today about the history or culture of the United States. Few are likely to develop cultural attitudes in contemporary Mexico compatible with life in the United States.

Citing that article, I wrote here,

There are several failed states whose discouraged citizens are coming to the United States — some for freedom, some for jobs, some to mooch and some to make the United States increasingly resemble their countries of origin. However, due to proximity we seem to receive more from Mexico than elsewhere and I very much doubt that the majority of them, generally uneducated, with no skills to sell beyond stoop labor and unable to speak or even to understand English, have significant knowledge of our history or even what the phrases “Constitutional Government” and “Rule of Law, not Rule of Men” mean. Never having lived where such notions are respected and understood, it’s difficult to appreciate them until a long time after transplantation. It’s good that some of them are socially conservative, but more than that is needed: respect for the supremacy of our Constitution and our laws. That seems quite uncommon, particularly among “differently documented” aliens of all stripes. It takes more than a brief and unlawful stay for it to develop. Even a few years of lawful stay under properly enacted amnesty is probably inadequate. While an Hispanic outreach might enlarge Republican rolls, I fear that attracting them would require giving up on much that conservatives hold dear.

I’ve now reflected on that a bit. Since our very articulate White natural born American Vice President Biden says “No ordinary American cares about their constitutional rights,” the question is probably “what difference does it make, now?” I think it still makes a big difference.

Conclusions

Is this the answer? Is it even an answer?

Might something like this stimulate enough of us sufficiently to find at least some of the answers? Or should we become resigned to what will otherwise become our fate?

“Land of the brave and proud, land of the free!” We had that but it’s been trampled upon by those who, preferring free stuff, disparage freedom. Can’t we have freedom again instead? Will we ever? Will our children and theirs? Will Proud ~~Edward~~ Obama and his minions prevail?

Remember when Britannia ruled the waves?

No more. It can’t even govern in Londonistan, England’s largest city. Will the United States suffer a similar fate? It’s up to us.

A fellow blogger, the The Mad Jewess posted this video shortly after the recent election debacle:

Will all remain just a beautiful dream from the past, or can it once again become our present and future? The spirit of American can reign again, fearless and free. But only if we want it and can convince enough others that they do too. Then, just maybe, some fine day we can do this. Otherwise, it along with the rest will remain just a forlorn hope and a fading memory.