While I agree with the authors premise I think that it is secondary to a more basic point - no party - not the Constitution party, the Libertarian party, or (especially) the Republican party - can compete with the Free Shyt party.
The Free Shyt party spends every day of every year actively working their game, preparing for the next contest and the next controversy - all on the taxpayer dime. Who can compete with that?
The Free Shyt party appeals to people’s baser emotions while those other parties attempt to reach out to folks based on reasoning and common sense. Who can compete with that?
The Free Shyt party hands out freebies, trinkets, and entitlements right out in the open and without fear of remonstration. And all they ask is a little piece of your soul. After all, most Amerikans don’t even believe they have one anymore. I ask you - who can compete with that?!
The Medium is the Message.
aka The Medium is the Massage.
it is a brief book which is a road guide to the modern media.
Reagan used this.
It does not matter what we say, the IMMAGE is obama as president. Visuals count.
Just like they manipulated GBush’s images. (ala juxtaposing him with marine one’s tail rotor warning of “keep away”)
I hope to God we do see “saner” times ahead.
Public relations, branding... Means conservatives need to understand, espouse, and STAND FIRM ON core non-negotiable principles. Looks like a job for the T.E.A. Party.
This should be printed and taped to the mirror of every Republican politician.
Seriously, EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Either FIGHT BACK or get out of the ring!
ping
Good points. If I had to sum up the major reason why romney lost in one word it would be “image”. In politics image is everything. The MSM twarted our efforts. We have to find ways through facebook, youtube, etc to go around them.
The very name “conservative” is a liability. “Conservative” connotes old, old-fashioned, stodgy, boring, unimaginative, bland, drab, no fun, out-of-date, etc.,etc. The very image is a big negative.
ObaMao has a very predictable speech pattern. When he's constructing a strawman, he starts with a phony base that is supposed to be taken as settled fact, then from that preposterous position, he builds on it with emotion charged rhetoric that is relatively logical if the original supposition is conceded.
Count the number of times ObaMo starts his delivery with "it is an undeniable fact", "every serious economist agrees that", "we all know", and so on. It's not something the person hearing it can prove or disprove, but it's spoken with such conviction that the person will file it away for later contemplation (which never occurs) and their mind is much more open to the following ideas after his subliminal, but authoritative and convincing rhetorical manipulation. He learned this technique as a community organizer to create anger, then action.
When responding to him, first chop away the base supposition (e.g. "that every serious economist believes") - and then that resets what this article says is the caricature that's painted, so the listener will refocus on the substance of the argument and not the fallacious base of the ObaMao strawman.
Great article, but it can be boiled down to two words:
FIGHT BACK!
And they always do. The thing is, a lot of these media figures who facilitate the Left's mockery of conservatives love mockery itself far more than Leftist politics. Give them something to work with, and Republicans will suddenly find themselves on Comedy Channel all the time, and able to use that direct pipeline to the opinions of young people to change the debate the way Democrats do now.
It isn't gentlemanly behavior in a WASPish sense, as the author points out, but that ship sailed a long time ago.
It’s similar to what I’ve been saying, which is that there’s nothing wrong with our message, but our messaging is horrible. As a group, we seem to think that people will respond to facts and logic. But they don’t, at least not enough of them. We need to appeal to them at an emotional, almost visceral, level, without having to pander or compromise on our core principles.
Of course, it’s relatively easy to say what needs to be done, but unfortunately, I am at a loss for the “how”.
So be it. Bork most likely would have voter the wrong way in D.C. v. Heller. He's OK with gun control.
The value of deterrence cannot be overlooked. Conservatives should select one or more representative leftist icons and Palinize them. Susan Rice, with her decades-long record of incompetence, mendacity, dishonesty, and sleaze (this woman tried to cover up the Rwanda massacres, long before the Benghazi attack), would make an excellent target.
When you're already attacked as racists and sexists, go for it. She deserves it.
Above all, we need to stop walking into sucker punches, playing the game the way the left wants us to play it. The world will never respect anyone who allows that to be done to him. The image of the simpering twit is the first one we need to shed.
If they can't fight, what are they doing there? I saw little evidence that Romney and his campaign really wanted to fight.