Posted on 08/18/2009 3:16:44 AM PDT by Timeout
What is the opponent's next move on health care? What does the public need to know to prepare for it? __________________________________________________
THAT is what the GOP does so badly. They never anticipate, predict, AND BROADCAST the opponent's next move.
On health care, anyone could predict the left's progression of tactics: extremists, racist nazis, violent extremists, dis-informed.
Now we've entered another stage: re-write history (like portraying Florida as flooded with thuggish protesters stealing an election). The left's next step will be to write "town hall" history on both sides. Never mind what you saw with your own eyes and never mind the polls:
1) Rewrite: Whatever position Obama pivots to will have been his position all along (he never demanded a public plan).
2) Rebrand: Soon, visuals of the protests will only be the nazi posters and hitler mustaches. The media will airbrush it like they did after 9/11.
3) Distract: The left will use IMMIGRATION to change the subject. Obama will propose amnesty/citizenship, leading protesters to take their eye off the health care ball.
4) Move fast: They will try to rush a vote immediately after a bill comes out of the conference committee. It will be indecipherable.
We should start working these predictable tactics into all our talking points NOW. (Where are the GOP professional strategists...do they do ANYTHING but raise money?!!!)
The left is NOT going to lie down on this. They're plotting the next 10 moves right now. If they can fool folks into thinking they've "moderated", it will be hard to get the folks back out without a specific target like a town hall.
Finally (and most importantly) it's time NOW to plant in the public's mind the DEMAND that ANY final health care legislation be made public for at least 4 WEEKS before a vote.
Why the hurry? After making such a hash of the first go-round, let's take our time. Town halls have shown the public is engaged and Americans deserve an opportunity to study the amended and final proposal. If we can slow it down, we can beat it. Time is on our side.
As I said above, our number one strategy right now should be demanding a 4-week interval to review any final bill.
Why do doubt the GOP is up to the task?
Outmaneuvering the OP isn’t saying much. They’ve done that to themselves for many years by expanding their voter base to appease those who are not Conservatives.
Rather than just rely on honing their defenses, I think the Conservatives should begin to ATTACK.
Like start talking about recall petitions. Even if a recall is unlikely, it will come as a cause for concern to Democrats who come from mostly Conservative districts.
Find strong Conservative candidates and begin to put them out - on local news shows, talk shows, parades, civic events...
Criticize the left harshly - I am so sick of the Conservatives who always say something like “I agree with my good colleague ...” BS! You DON’T AGREE WITH THEM IN ANY WAY! They are evil. And the ones who aren’t evil are misguided.
Attack, attack, attack. it’s the only way.
Lawyers are responsible for the entire mess of America (retreat from the War on Terror,
retreat from space, retreat from Democracy, retreat from the greatest health system ever known,
retreat from safety of America, retreat from logic, retreat from the US Constitution.
Lawyers designed the "health" program (the'pyramid of food') that led to American obesity.
Lawyers have instituted neoslavery for ... non lawyers.
Lawyers have instituted breaking contracts nunc pro tunc ... non lawyers.
Lawyers make sure no one will never see the Pres_ _ent's BC.
Lawyers make certain white voters will henceforth be physically beaten in all further US elections.
Lawyers work to make Americans sick, weak, defeated, and vulnerable.
Yes, lawyers are here to give Islam the complete destruction of America, its law, its freedom, and its people.
What I’m describing IS an attack: disarm the opponent’s tactics....BEFORE he can use them...by telling the public what is coming. (Merely predicting them makes their use less likely or effective).
As for recalls, I don’t see the point. There’s no way to complete a recall before next fall’s elections. Get good candidates.
Who is the blogger who’s pushing “universal lawsuit coverage”? LOL!
That’s another tactic the GOP does badly: ridicule.
We should have ads out predicting the Dems’ next demand will be a “right to sue”. Everyone gets their legal bills paid by the taxpayers! See ya in court!
We can link immigration to health care. The Center for Immigration Studies is doing that tomorrow at the National Press Club. The panel will include Robert Rector from the Heritage Foundation. In 2006 he authored a piece that demonstrated that amnesty would cost $2.6 trillion.
Why the GOP always gets outmaneuvered
1. Lack of a spine.
2. To easily falls for the hands across the aisle crap from the socialist.
3. To many GOP are not really GOP.
4. Unwilling to back the strongest conservatives they have at anytime.
5. Oh and did I say they lack a spine?
Dude I am with you 100%. I am so sick of “conservatives” always “taking the high road” and wimping away from a fight.
6. Why don’t you run for Congress and show everybody how it should be done?
I don’t think we need to link it to health care. The BIG mistake the Dems are making is granting “citizenship”.
A path to “legal status” would appeal to the middle. Citizenship won’t. All the GOP has to do is talk about the “privilege” of citizenship...it’s not a right.
I know there are many here who oppose the “legal status” path. And I know all your arguments.
But our key target has to be the granting of CITIZENSHIP. All else pales next to that.
” Once they return to Washington, I hope the GOP is putting together a battle plan that includes such tactics. “
The question of more immediate concern is “How do we keep our momentum in the here-and-now?”
We’ve gotten off to a good start - we’ve made a major splash and we’re making unexpectedly good progress at ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the apolitical middle...
But, we’re starting to fade - media coverage is falling off, and the Lefties have finally smartened up and quit calling attention to us with their outrageous overreactions...
And, in spite of our successes, NOT ONE Republican ‘Leader’ has come forward to grab the banner and carry OUR cause forward...
In a couple of weeks, Congress will be back in Washington, and, unless we find a way to lift the ‘Townhall/Angrymob’ movement to the next level, we’re going to be relegated to the dustbin of ‘Silly Season’ stories - and forgotten....
Where do we go from here???
The GOP still has too many single-issue Republicans in leadership positions, meaning they are more the anything goes kind of RINOs for the most part. Because of that, they can’t seem to get a clear, consolidated message together to oppose Obama with, let alone anticipate what the next move will be and nip it in the bud. They are not the party of 1994 when Newt Gingrich was essentialy leading them. They are pretty much just a herd of cats.
I think it’s been very smart for the GOP to stay on the sidelines...up til now. They didn’t need to jump in front of the parade. And they risked letting the media label the protests as simply partisan politics. No, they were apparently smart enough to see we didn’t need them and they could only hurt the movement.
One DOES hope, however, that they’ve spent this time strategizing what to do when the focus moves back to Washington. Hopefully, they’ll have a “Health Contract for America” ready...or something like that.
At a minimum, they should start NOW repeating in every interview: whatever Congress comes up with, they MUST give the people several weeks to digest it and weigh in on it...it’s too important and personal to rush it through.
As for momentum, that’s a tough one. Things are already simmering down as the media turns back to Washington strategy (this is deliberate). The best we can do right now is make sure people on our side are included in interviews on TV...telling the public to remain wary, watch the progress and be ready to tell Congress “no!”. All we can do right now is nurse the distrust the Dems have stirred up.
” One DOES hope, however, that they’ve spent this time strategizing what to do when the focus moves back to Washington. Hopefully, they’ll have a “Health Contract for America” ready...or something like that.
At a minimum, they should start NOW repeating in every interview: whatever Congress comes up with, they MUST give the people several weeks to digest it and weigh in on it...it’s too important and personal to rush it through. “
I’m afraid that’s a faint - and fading - hope...
My read is that, with darn few exceptions, the Republicans wish we would ‘just go away’, as much, if not more, as the Dims do.... There’s been no indication that I’ve seen that there’s any interest on the part of the Republicans in adopting your excellent tactical suggestions - quite the contrary, they’re (the ones that aren’t hiding) desperately clinging to ‘business as usual’.....
As much as we might wish it, we can’t count on any support from the Political Class - we’re going to have to do it ourselves, if it’s going to be done...
I stand by my original question - where do we go from here??
They don't fight the system as much as operate with in it and profit from it. The GOP elite have billion invested in this big government, big business, tax break economy, and they don't want a bunch of mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, gun owning Bible thumpers doing anything that effects their money, which would be any type of economic liberation that allows citizens not to have to buy, or have makes more competition.
What we think of as Republican(ism) and even more so conservatism is just verbal boob bait for them to use, and quite frankly, very successfully.
Look at the fake, scam RINO head of the American Conservative Union. A fake, oxygen sucking front group for Washington GOP/RNC hacks. He supported Specter and Romney! Why, because like the GOP, the ACU is fake, a boob bait 'let them pretend' organization.
Do I understand you to be saying we need to be narrowing our voter base, not expanding it? How do you expect to ever win an election is we don't expand it? Maybe I'm missing something here.
Agreed.If you look at the problems in this country the chances are 90% that the root cause is a/are lawyers.Hell,90% of the politicians are lawyers.
The problem with trying to expand the voter base by appeasing those who are not conservatives - is that by doing so, you end up ticking off the conservatives & then you LOSE votes in that base. That strategy has not worked to expand the votes. It's a losing strategy.
The winning strategy is to exhibit integrity and stick to the values and ideals that your base believes in. There are enough people in this country that identify themselves as conservative to win elections by doing this.
A LOT of the people that have left the Republican party & identify themselves as "Independent" left because they don't feel the GOP is CONSERVATIVE enough. A LOT of Independents are not mushy middle of the roaders - they are conservatives.
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