Posted on 02/02/2015 6:17:07 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of this Slate article, “Divide and Conquer,” by Jamelle Bouie. He has done the GOP a favor by revealing the Democratic party’s strategic plan for defeating Scott Walker in 2016: smearing him as a “divisive” candidate who will send dog whistles to his white supporters and seek to run the table with the still-majority white voters to win the White House.
This article is the 2015 equivalent to the Zimmerman Telegram, and the GOP deserves to lose the White House if it ignores it. Governor Walker and the RNC will repeat Mitt Romney’s fatal mistake if they let this become the national narrative. Romney failed to respond to Obama’s early attacks on his wealth, and was painted into a corner as an out-of-touch plutocrat who tied his dog to the roof of his car. Romney never recovered from the populist suspicion.
Now, after eight years of what objective observers must describe as the most divisive presidency in American history — a presidency marked by IRS targeting of conservatives, by explicit appeals to minority groups, by a chief executive telling those who oppose law enforcement that he is “their” president, by the tarring of financiers as “fat cats,” by the smearing of religious folk as “bitter clingers” — the Democrats seek to pull an act of political legerdemain and paint Scott Walker as the divisive danger to America’s future.
And they will win, if Republicans and Walker don’t fight back.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Just saw the first Dem. shot across the bow of Walker in Bloomberg Column by liberal Al Hunt. Article is prefaced with “Should the next President have a College Degree?”. Walker dropped out of college after 3 years to take a job and has talked about completing it while Governor. Hunt takes many paragraphs to subtly and not so subtly demean Walker for not having the Degree.
That is hardly a new strategy. Romney was a perfect candidate to use this on.
Sometimes Rush and Levin seem to be telling their listeners that its still 1984 and whites are the only ones who will decide the POTUS elections, as we regularly but not always do in off year elections.
How do they mean to defeat Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum or Ben Carson, while we’re playing “fantasy football” with the 2016 elections?
Jamie Bourie/Slate:
“If any candidate could run a rigid campaign of polarization—aimed at winning as many white voters as possible—it’s Walker. His language is already there. In his Iowa speech, he touted voter-identification laws and portrayed disadvantage as a pure product of personal failure. “In America the opportunity is equal for each and every one of us but … the ultimate outcome is up to each and every one of us individually.”
Walker, in other words, represents the other path: The chance to win without broadening your base or changing your priorities. Victory, but at the price of greater racial polarization. It’s a seductive vision—and an inherently divisive one.......”
Michael Auslin/NRO:
“Sadly, this is a view that can only feed on itself. It has no room to grow, no ability to see beyond its self-imposed limits. It cannot provide an optimistic view of the future, because it cannot see how to transcend the divisions it reifies (and celebrates) to engender something larger.
Ultimately, this is because the progressive vision does not embrace freedom at its core, but rather the technocratic imposition of expertise. There is no real role for the American citizen, other than as the bill payer for socially transformative programs (all of which must be defended without question) and the electoral source of legitimacy for the elites, to whom he turns over the keys to society.
Conservatives, however, ignore the genius of the progressive strategy at their peril. Progressives pretend to defend a united American society while portraying anyone truly interested in empowering citizens as a threat to the larger community as well as to minorities, the working class, pro-choicers, etc.”
No degree? Given the bullsh-t taught in colleges, that’s a plus.
Hey Al Hunt: shouldn’t the brains behind Apple have a degree? He doesn’t. The brains behind Microsoft? How about the man who saved and then totally revolutionized the entire talk radio industry?
They don’t want those guys to be defeated. They’d LOVE LOVE LOVE for one of those guys to win the nomination.
Poor Arthur Zimmermann. 98 years later, still getting his name misspelled all the time.
All ya gotta remember about this tripe is that
“hatin’ YT”
is just a proxy for hating the Western Culture.
And the reason they hate Western Culture is that it is based on Judeo-Christian values.
A female and/or minority VP nominee would help that.
Walker is an amnesty candidate (even if he doesn’t call it that) and is soft on the Common Core and gay marriage.
They have tried this in Wisconsin twice (elections two and three). Because Walker is so non-threatening in his speech, it doesn’t really stick. His beginnings are humble, so Romney-style attacks won’t really work on him, either. He also has NONE of the smug condescension that northeast liberals like Romney and Kerry exude.
Let the Dems try this strategy. See how it works when its HRC/boring liberal white guy against Walker/Jindal or Walker/Susana Martinez.
‘Walker/Jindal or Walker/Susana Martinez.’
I like those choices. You’re right - we need a woman or a non-white VP on the ticket. ;)
The liberals and some on this site are scared to death of Walker. Of course when Reagan was running they were scared of him. I think that if you put up Walker and Reagans governing together they are identical in results. I honestly believe that Governor Walker is the exact person as President Reagan. I think a President Walker will be as successful if not more than President Reagan.
And that my FRiends is why I will support this honorable man to the end.
Expect them to harp on the fact that SW does not have a college degree, either,
Leo, as you will see in this article, Walker didn’t finish college. Now consistent with your other opinions, this should be a huge negative in your book. What say you?
Expect that harping to fail, too.
I see George Pataki just announced that he’s seriously considering running.
*sigh*
The last two presidents we had who came from academia (Wilson and BO) were both abject disasters.
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