Why Do Conservatives Often Lose?

4-13-07 | Henry David Thoreau

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

I’m hoping that the GOE indeed achieved a MAINTAINABLE critical mass. Hopefully we can adjust the trim tabs and pull up the drag flaps to achieve full speed ahead and not get knotted up and dragged down. (Deliberate mixed military metaphors and wordplay....) FULL SPEED AHEAD.

We sure need it.

Bob, I think both your podcast/radio/etc. and the Kristinn/DC Chapter major/guerrilla street events approaches have merit and weaknesses. No one approach or strategy works everywhere. We have Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Special Forces, etc.—and likewise in the battleground of ideas.

No battle plan survives initial contact with the enemy intact, as (Patton?) once said.

All the FReeping online and on street corners isn’t enough.

But it’s a start.

And— (even in the event of an obvious de facto media conspiracy of silence about major Conservative events) —that start serves to educate local communities, one individual at a time. And it serves to educate online readers, one ping/Freepmail/email/search engine hit at a time. And it serves to ENCOURAGE others who are lurking, crestfallen on the sidelines and looking for someone to lead the charge and raise the Flag on Iwo Jima LOCALLY, EVERYWHERE. If we do it with decency and intelligence and humor, we win friends and sometimes allies and even advocates to our ‘side.’ This works one-on-one, interpersonally, not when you’re dealing with mob mentality, of course.

No matter the context, if we act with hostility, frustration, condescension, violence or rage, we are lowering ourselves morally to the standard held by the anarchists we seek to morally defeat. If we would hold (and I hope that we would strive to do so) to the premise that God is on our side, are our hearts on God’s? Are we making sure no unclean thing comes from our lips? Do we hate the sin but love the sinner? Self-defense and spit shields may still be necessary....but hopefully only due to external attacks by the LEFT!

While truly ‘iron sharpens iron’ nonetheless it’s my prayer that there could be an end to unproductive squabbling. A little self-deprecating humor and a little humility will go a long way.

I pray we can all persevere and do our best to not be internally combative and instead we can help carry one another’s water and guard each others’ backs. Those I’m pinging in this post are clearly all dedicated, passionate Americans. It’s time to let auld acquaintence NOT be forgotten...though there may be strategic or personal differences, we are on the same TEAM. It takes two to tangle. Friendly fire—ISN’T. Those who are not for us are against us.

Let’s roll. Together.

Godspeed.

Lyman

[Just A Nobody]

Why Do Conservatives Often Lose?

Because of comments like this...

We got clobbered in ‘06 and are about to get waxed in ‘08

1) Clobbered? When a "conservative" frames the debate in this way, we lose.

A shift of only 3,600 votes would have kept the Senate in Republican hands, and a shift of fewer than 100,000 votes would have maintained Republican control of the House of Representatives. Hardly a clobbering!

2) Claiming a waxing this early in the '08 election cycle is nothing more than attempting a self fulfilling prophecy. The same rhetoric was used leading up to the '06 election and worked like a charm...with a little help from the dead, illegals, felons and multiple voters.

[Bob J]

So we lost the House and Senate in ‘06 due to our “rhetoric” on FR? We should have won in a landslide.

Are you one of those people who think all we have to do is think pretty happy thoughts and all our dreams will come true? We lost both the House and Senate in ‘06 and now have Reid and Pelosi running congress. If you don’t think that is an ass clobbering and can’t admit it, maybe that’s why we lose.

[Bob J]

So we lost the House and Senate in ‘06 due to our “rhetoric” on FR? We should have won in a landslide.

Are you one of those people who think all we have to do is think pretty happy thoughts and all our dreams will come true? We lost both the House and Senate in ‘06 and now have Reid and Pelosi running congress. If you don’t think that is an ass clobbering and can’t admit it, maybe that’s why we lose.

[Just A Nobody]

You know...I came to this thread because Spirit pinged me to his wonderful post. Admittedly I did not read the entire thread, but did a quick perusal of a few posts.

You asked the question; "Why Do Conservatives Often Lose?" There were several posts that referred to framing the debate which I have long agreed with.

So we lost...due to our “rhetoric” on FR?

I never said that. I said "conservative" to mean anyone on "our" side. I never mentioned FR or anyone in particular. ALL the politicians, pundits, mediots, and yes...many on FR could not line up behind the demonrats fast enough to begin spewing the demonrats new catch phrases. Dingy and Pelousy DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME. They were NOT elected by the country as a whole to set foreign policy, which is an unconstitutional act. That is the message that we should be sending. Not nitpicking at posters on a "conservative" web forum. The constant negative drum beat is taking its toll.

Demonrats claim a win for their side when they lose by a few million or a few thousand all the while contesting the vote and alluding to fraud. We lose CONgress by 103,000 total, and OUR side claims it is a clobbering, a landslide, a sweep, a devastating defeat. When we win by a few million, we claim a win by the skin of our teeth.

Also, I forgot to give proper attribution in my previous post:

"A shift of only 3,600 votes would have kept the Senate in Republican hands, and a shift of fewer than 100,000 votes would have maintained Republican control of the House of Representatives."
Vice President Dick Cheney, during his remarks to the Heritage Foundation on April 13, 2007

[Bob J]

I understand where you’re comng from a little better.

I think conservatives spend too much time attacking branches then the root causes of why libs win. For instance, people will call for rallies then complain that they get no media coverage (I assume one the goals of them is to get media attention, get a message out) and what do they do? Call for more rallies as if volume will make up for a lack of results. Wouldn’t it be a better use of time to figure out why they get not media and either fixing it or coming up with a way around it? At least before they ask people to fly across the country to stand in the streets with a sign in their hands again?

There is an initial emotional jubilation people derive from the event but that soon wears off when they realize the MSM either ignored them or portrayed them negatively. People get burned out and pessimistic when they invest so much time, effort and money into attending an event and then see no results. I’ve seen it a thousand times.

The organizers may stay motivated because they personally get much more from the event then the average attendee. They call for more and more events and then wonder why attendance dwindles. But for some reason they never stop to analyze what they are doing and whether it is accomplishing goals. Most of the time they just plain don’t know or haven’t thought it through.