The Narcissist-in-Chief surveys his realm.
I am a college professor. Look no further than public education.
Short term, the PR works. Short term.
Maybe 6 months, max. Then things begin to implode.
By mid-terms the GOP wins a significant number of seats.
What concerns me is all this negativism. We should be working to improve things. Obama cannot be re-elected. We need the economy to improve.
Stop talking about it failing.
The Socialists have a giant, active propaganda machine in the American media.
If you want to identify the enemy, it is first and foremost the media.
The average American will not go deeper than what they hear or don’t hear from the Socialist Media Machine.
The Narcissist-in-Chief surveys his realm.
Rove finally admitted in 2009 that it was a mistake to sit around for eight years and allow every liberal argument against Bush to stand. Many of us were saying so back in 2001. That of course led right into John McCain's "reach across the aisle" campaign of 2008. With a golden opportunity at the time to demonstrate Democrat ties to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and bankrupt energy policies -- he instead told us that ANWR is gorgeous and that our problem was "unfettered capitalism." Now, four years later, shifting the blame to the rightful owners is going to be exponentially harder.
As if that was not enough, McCain assured us that we had "nothing to fear from an Obama presidency."
You can also add the media telling voters 24/7 that if they did not vote for Obama, they were racists. I’m sure that played a role a few times in the booth.
“So let’s add up Romney-Ryan’s case against Obama: the economy is Bush’s fault. Obama is holding his own with job-creation. He also got Osama. GM is kicking butt. Everything with Sandy is fine and dandy.
“Damn. Obama’s a nice guy, and he has been so unlucky. He deserves a second chance. Bush, and by extension all conservatives, left him such a mess. Heck, even McCain, Romney, and Ryan say so. Can I vote for Obama now?”
You can’t timidly accept the oppositions premises and somehow expect to come out on top.
Another excellent piece, Mr. Wright. I love the “KKK” monkier, hope it sticks.
I agree, the democrat party and it’s media echo-chamber dictates the script, and for reasons unknown, the Republican candidates seem content to read their lines on cue and play their part in what obviously is the other side’s version of how things should be.
When, why, and how did this start? One point I think we can put our finger on is the “Saddam has WMDs” argument, Colin Powell et al, and the subsequent “Bush Lied” meme. Neither Bush nor the Republican Party did anything but lie down and take that nonsense, and maybe it was the tipping point, because they’ve gotten away with it ever since.
I might push back a bit on your claim that we can’t do anything about the educational system and the media. I’d maintain that we could, but we aren’t trying very hard. For example, we’re living in a visual/internet media world - yet were is the “Conservative Cable Channel”? If Bill Buckley were alive, I doubt he’d be limiting himself to writing books on dead trees. Talk radio is fine, but how many non-traditionalist, non-conservatives, and under age 40 listen to Rush or any of the others? And who could stand to listen to someone like Hannity, who seems to think that repeating the same words like a mantra to people who agree with him is somehow persuasive?
Education - today about 35 million kids are subject to public school indoctrination vs. about 4 million in private schools (grade 8 and under). That’s not a majority but it’s fairly significant, especially considering that private schools are 2-3 times more cost-efficient than unionized public schools. We could do more, I think.
But we don’t have a common view or strategy, much less a common and integrated approach to reversing the underlying problem that has led to the timidity you point out: ignorance of conservatism and the failures of liberalism, and the critical thinking skills needed to know the difference.
Romney and Ryan are both really nice guys.
Real class.
However as a person who made his living selling heavy equipment for 56 years, I have been amazed at how little they understand about selling their ideas.
Either that or they had terrible advice from their “experts”.
As for mentioning the name of Karl Rove in any serious discussion of conservative values.....his name and face should be banned forever from any conservative strategy discussion..
It was Rove and the idea of compassionate conservatism that brought us the asinine compromises with the liberals, or as I prefer to call them, the Marxists; No child left behind, medicare drugs, no real border protection, ....and a dozen other capitulations to the Marxists in our midst.
If they start a civil war, remember the MSM is the enemy too
The true story of the 2012 election is the failure of a free press to report news in an unbiased way.
The Obama Loving Media has successfully duped the majority of Americans for two presidential elections in a row.
In 2008, most of the press pretended to be non-judgemental while protecting and covering for Obama.
In 2012 the press openly took sides and actively campaigned for Obama.
The racists, career moochers and socialists now run the show.
There will be no peaceful road to return the nation to an ethical, moral nation of independent, self reliant citizens.
McCain, 2008 popular vote: 58,319,442
Romney, 2012 popular vote: 58,163,978
4 years of population growth and Romney didn’t draw what McCain did......