Posted on 02/06/2010 5:20:07 AM PST by Kaslin
If you read any of the extensive coverage of the Tea Party Convention going on this weekend in Nashville, TN, be prepared for dramatic stories of rampant grassroots infighting, questionable convention finances, and radical convention-goers flocking after polarizing demagogues.
The real story? Much different.
Attendees are wildly enthusiastic, not just about speakers, but about ideas. Those ideas are focused almost exclusively on basic conservative principles like limited government and fiscal responsibility (not the Obama birther conspiracy). And attendees are barely aware of the criticism that has been launched at the Tea Party Convention by mainstream media outlets.
"It's a good idea," said one attendee, pithily, when asked when he drove in from Ohio to be participate.
Attendees are mainly being informed about the manufactured scandals through convention speakers, who have taken every opportunity to punch back — like Mark Skoda, head of the Memphis tea party group.
"We've come so far in the world of socialist values that we're now criticizing a for-profit event," he said, during a morning briefing on Friday. "We've put six thousand of our dollars into the Gaylord Hotel (where the event is being hosted). We didn't ask for a tax benefit, a subsidy, or a stimulus."
That point was echoed by several convention-goers, who questioned the media's skepticism about their gathering.
"So what if the convention price is what it is?" one asked. "It just shows that tea partiers exist at all different income levels."
In fact, it seems that the only people who are disappointed in the event are the media. A woman in Southern Baptist Pastor Rick Scarborough's break-out session explained why critics were wrong.
"For those who don't know why we're here, I'll tell them. You know what we're here for? A little bit of R&R: revival and revolt," she said.
Revival and revolt was a good way to sum up the opening night speech by Rep. Tom Tancredo, who got people so riled up that they jumped out of their chairs. Tancredo didn't mince words, saying that not just Democrats, but everyone, is wrong about politics. He launched sharp barbs at Barack Obama just as quickly as he launched them at George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and John McCain—even thanking God that McCain didn't win the 2008 election. Tancredo brought up his literacy test—a throwback to his failed 2008 presidential campaign—and insisted that the attendees were part of a counterrevolution.
Steve Milloy, science commentator for Fox News, gave a poignant talk on global warming. He took down everything from junk science to school indoctrination, and the faces in the after-breakfast crowd revealed that his words were a welcome morning jolt. Rick Scarborough gave a religiously-focused speech about why it was important to get pastors to preach politics in addition to bible verse. Not speaking about politics from the pulpit is not just "denying history, but the reality of God's world."
"I firmly believe that the Ten Commandments were not just God's ten suggestions. There comes a time in a nation's existence where if they forsake God long enough, God will start to forsake them," he said.
Those are the sorts of statements that the leagues of journalists—who number at least one for every three conferencegoers — seize upon, and will continue to seize upon, as Fox News analyst Angela McGlowan and World Net Daily's Joseph Farah take the stage tonight, followed by tomorrow night's much-anticipated keynote by Governor Sarah Palin.
All this “teabagger” and other name calling is not an advantage for the MSM and the Democrats.
I'm not intimidated, I just want to make us aware of what's going on with the under 40 crowd. I'm 36 now, I've been a member of FR since I was 26. They've got Hollywood, they've got the MSM, they've got the Bono's and Springsteens, and they've got the classrooms. This is a culture war ultimately and my older brethren need to be aware of how far behind we've fallen to be able catch back up. If we agree this is a culture war and a street fight, I'm just saying be aware of the landmines out there.
Even the place you choose is a part of the message you want to send.
You're right. The MSM, entertainment industry and others continually ridicule people with true moral and patriotic values. We should all be aware of this. But they will ridicule us no matter what we do. We can only stand up, be strong, stick to our values and do what we feel is right. We should never try to modify what we do based on what these people will say.
Congratulations on having good values. Keep fighting the good fight.
Thanks you sir and I will. I'm just one of the guys in the gutter trying to keep the sand out of my eyes while reaching for my own broken beer bottle to use. And I need some help every now and then. No such thing as a fair fight. :)
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That is my point. They tried to cow us by calling us a nasty name, and we have not only refused to knuckle under, we have turned it back on them.
Continuing to allow them to control our language is a prescription for surrender.
Why are you worried that young people will not want to be associated with conservative efforts and values because of a pejorative word?
You are talking about people who have grown up being exposed to all kinds of “sexual content” in their everyday lives from early childhood. They would be the age group that would feel the least effect from this name-calling.
I repeat, we must own our language, not repeatedly bow before the Alinskyites. They will just keep up the pressure.
One of my favorite memories was an early White House protest with the DC chapter. Kids from George Washington University came to counterprotest us. We started chanting at them: Mean-spirited Arrogant Condescending Liberal. The looks on the faces of these students at being called names instead of doing the namecalling was priceless. Then they went away!
That should have been Joseph Farah. (Not so early onset dementia)
Look at the demographics. Look at what we ourselves are trying to do which is get the OLD entrenched politicians out. For the under 40 crowd, perception really is reality. Look at the success of the young people during the 60's, where are those folks now? They are in charge of the media, the Gov't, the academia. I posit that the Tea-party movement is THE anti-establishment movement of today. Nobody over 40 even knew what a tea-bagger was, it had to be explained to them. They were out of touch.
I repeat, we must own our language, not repeatedly bow before the Alinskyites. They will just keep up the pressure.
Agreed, the way is to frame the debate. And that's exactly why the conservative movement has been on defense for decades. Because they let the debate get framed by our opponents. My point is to be aware of images and language and that has been something the conservative movement has been a bit braindead about.
Be aware of what your opponent is calling you and either flip it or come up with your own counter attacks. Don't give them an inch to use something against you. It's just tactics and I thought the name of the hotel easily played into the Teabagger motif. I refuse to let this idea of the tea party movement be delegated to a bathroom joke. Which is the tactic they are using to ridicule and discredit. This is not a big deal to the folks that are trying to get this together, but it IS a big deal to the 25 yr old conservative among their peers.
Fox News just showed a video clip of Joseph Farah of WND speaking at the convention, and the sign on the pulpit said Gaylord and below it, it said Opryland Hotel
My college senior nephew told me that the red and blue backgrounds on Fox News programs are a turn-off for people his age. Where do we draw the line in “accomodating” the potential sensibilities of the under thirty age group?
Disappearing is what our opponents would like us to do. Until then they will ALWAYS find something to be offended or “concerned” about.
People who are going to be turned off by political humor about the name of a hotel, are not going to be open to the conservative message anyway. They are followers, not future leaders.
That attitude will lead us to extinction. Where are kids getting their news from? The Daily Show, The Onion, etc. There's red and blue on Stewart's set, but mostly blue....hmmm I wonder why that is? We have to frame our messages to appeal to these younger groups. When we die off, who's going to be left to run the show? Right now we're thinking ahead only to the next protest, the next election. These people have been after our kids minds for generations. IMHO, the best way to frame our debates for the next generation is one of Freedom and Liberty. But do it in such a way so that it makes us the next James Deans, the next Rebels but with a Cause. Our opponents ARE framing the debate in such a way so the kids "get it" and snicker and whisper "teabagger" and "Gaylords". The left has made it fashionable to be on the left and to disdain and ridicule those of us on the right. There used to be not been one single stand-up comedian of any note that wasn't left wing. That's started to change a bit with the blue collar comedy guys. But MUCH more has to be done to promote and protect.
Freedom and liberty are pretty f-ing cool concepts if we can harness the right message. We must make it cool again for our children's sake. And if the gutter is where the fight is, well, it's time to get dirty.
Where did honor and chivalry get the French Knights at the Battle of Hastings? NO where but dying in the mud with an arrow through the throat.
You seem to be sending two separate messages.
1: We have to frame our messages to appeal to these younger groups.
Freedom and liberty are pretty f-ing cool concepts if we can harness the right message. We must make it cool again for our children’s sake.
2: And if the gutter is where the fight is, well, it’s time to get dirty.
Where did honor and chivalry get the French Knights at the Battle of Hastings? NO where but dying in the mud with an arrow through the throat.
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How is it cool to be in a gutter?
What exactly do you see as ineffective ‘knightly’ activity? I’m not sure what you mean.
I am a generation older than you, and remember when some junior high age boys called me “honky” in the days when the Black Panthers were just beginning to have a presence in black neighborhoods. I laughed at them. They were very surprised that I did not act “offended.”
Laughing at idiots is a good thing.
I am sending two messages.
1)Picking the Gaylord Opryland Hotel makes the movement look amatuerish. If your opponent likes to call you a Nazi, try not to have a party around anything that looks remotely like a swastika. If they call you a Teabagger, how good does it look to have Gaylord all over the hotel?
2) The gutter/knightly references refer to those who believe it doesn't matter and to the way conservatives have fought the media war for years. To those that think "who cares?", to not sink to their level? Well the kids watching South Park, The Daily Show, that read the Onion, listen to a stand up comedians, who listen to pop music, and surf the net care. This is how they are finding out about politics, through these media outlets. This is a (gutter)media world now, has been for a while now.
To have a lasting movement, we need at least some of the under 30 crowd for the future. Don't give your opponent more ammo to use. I'm saying it's a gutter fight and has been for years. For the older folks, it's one thing to see it, but a whole other thing to grow up in it.
Do you know how awkward it is to have to explain to your dad what a tea-bag really means nowadays? Now that I think of it though, it was pretty funny too. :)
The word “gay” was hijacked by a special interest group a few decades ago.
Now the word “teabag” has become unmentionable.
Why?
Let us not give certain people power over our use of language.
Let us mock anyone who wants to use the new meaning of a perfectly good English word.
All of the pop culture outlets that you mention have been totally consumed by leftists. That is a fact. We will not attract the twenty-somethings through pop media. That is a fact.
The majority of academia and the government school system has a serious leftist bent - which started before Bill Ayres really got going. It is wishful thinking that conservatism will make inroads in Hollywood or the general campus.
The under thirty crowd start to become aware of the conservative message when they start getting paychecks that have about a third of their gross pay withheld. What is said on South Park or the Daily Show is immaterial to life’s reality.
I would love to say that our message of “Liberty is Cool” is a message that sells, but we are up against a torrent of “America is an oppressor nation, who even hate polar bears” messages.
It is a struggle to get the truth out. I haven’t given up, and I hope you don’t.
But the Opryland Hotel was chosen for several reasons, I am sure, and one of them is that it is a really conservative venue. It is where medical conventions and other business meetings take place.
It is a real place, not a 'hip' place.
And the family running it has a surname Gaylord.
There is nothing wrong with that.
You are letting cretins like SNL people, and talentless bastards like Springsteen and Bono and other pop icons define your culture.
Time to cast aside such childish things. Adulthood is good.
This is about marketing, PR, and Political images. You think GW might've thought the whole "Mission Accomplished" thing should've been done different now? What about John Kerry's windsurfing pic? Michael Dukakis in a tank ring a bell?One bad image can ruin a campaign or a political movement...so yes...
I'd like to see some adults actually running the show.
You are letting cretins like SNL people, and talentless bastards like Springsteen and Bono and other pop icons define your culture.
And when you say YOUR culture, I'm curious as to what culture you think you're actually living in today? These "childish things" as you put it, childish they may be. But it is the world the rest of us are living in. And it's the battlefield where the war of ideas is being fought. To deny it is to deny reality.
No sir I have not, in fact it's the point of my argument from a PR and image perspective that this is a way in which I fight.
My argument is in trying to convince some of my fellow freepers of the importance of this and to try to suggest ways to get that fight back out there in the media/culture war. I didn't write the current rules of propaganda warfare. Goebbles, Alinsky, Stalin, and Castro did.
But we know how it's being fought. Though the left has the advantage of being entrenched, there are ways to fight entrenched enemies. It just must be tried, and tried again, and again. Rule #1 though, is don't give them anything to hit you with. Which is something we all agree on. It's a fledgling movement and they have to get up to pro real quick.
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