Bless you, Jim!!!
Posted on 08/29/2010 9:24:21 PM PDT by Lorianne
You're not going to want to hear this.
Nonetheless, you have to.
If you want to win - indeed, if you want to make any sort of serious inroad into the American Political Process, you need to read this, you need to listen, and you need to adopt this path.
If you do not, you will be marginalized into irrelevance, no matter what else you do.
Here it is:
You must discard - intentionally - all "wedge issues" as points of debate, discussion, or campaigning. You know what these issues are - they fall broadly into the category of religion in one form or another.
These are issues such as abortion and gay rights (in all it's forms, including marriage debates), but is by no means limited to these two. In short, if there's a religious basis for your position, you must not campaign on it, and indeed you must pointedly refuse to discuss it.
The Tea Party began as a protest over bailouts and handouts - that is, theft and corruption within our markets, government and economy. This is a winning position with 90% of the American Body Politic.
Any candidate who runs on these issues - and these issues alone, promising to stop it and lock up the scammers - all of them - wins.
As soon as you bring the other issues that everyone wants to talk about into this, you will lose.
Here's why.
These are called "wedge issues" for a reason.
What you personally believe is irrelevant to the political process. These issues are used by the two main political parties to get the electorate to divide on a 50/50 basis - thus leaving them having to persuade exactly one person of their position on some other issue to win.
You cannot win such a contest. At best you can force one of the other parties - the one that most agrees with you - to lose. The reason is simple - you will split that half of the electorate, which means the other party - the one that disagrees with your position on those issues - wins the election.
Drill this into your head folks:
If you allow these issues to become part of your campaign, you will not only lose you will cause the party that most-agrees with you to lose.
I know this is going to be unpopular, but it needs to be said. I've seen this happening in some of the local Tea Party groups, and it saddens me. The local Niceville branch here featured people talking about "natural law" as an important qualifying factor for political candidacy, as just one of many examples. There were times I felt like I had walked into a Baptist sermon.
The Tea Party and other political expressions like it are, of course, free to run on whatever platform they'd like, and to back candidates based on whatever they'd like. But if you're going to do this, then you'd be wise to try to take over the Republican Party instead of being "independent" or any other sort of "outside" influence, because it is the only way you can win with this approach.
The Tea Party infiltrating The Republican establishment is a long shot. Witness John McCain, who made a campaign spectacle out of bailing out the banks. How's JD Hayworth doing in challenging him? He lost, right? How'd that happen? The same way it always happens: Hayworth let the campaign's terms include those wedge issues, and then got tattoed by the guy with the bigger warchest and the ability to threaten people politically.
You either change the terms of the debate and the issues upon which the election is decided or you lose.
It's that simple.
(excerpted)
I agree with this completely. However, too many believe that the govt. is controlled by the social beliefs of politicians. At this point in our country’s history we really need to focus on fiscal policy, the Constitution and freedom.
Let the cowards who are afraid of abortion and homosexual marriage come our way and hold their noses to vote for our candidates. They always want us to compromise our morals so they can say they are Conservatives, but not like those intolerant Conservatives. Basically cowards afraid to take a stand. Those are the ones who need to be thrown out cause they compromise everything else too.
Pray for America
Our founding fathers even admitted this.
This article is just another piece of leftist claptrap designed to get conservatives to shut up before they do create a tidal wave and return our Country to it greatness.
“Ducking issues by just ignoring them because you’re afraid it will mess up your ‘unity’ - well, then there wasn’t much ‘unity’ there in the first place.
The Tea Party would be better off then if it just focused on one or two related issues as an advocacy group, like for people just focused on cutting all non-essential government spending and waste.”
I don’t advocate ‘ducking’ issues. I see this as almost life or death for this country and we must take it a step at a time.
First we must get that progressive liberal congress quashed. I am sure you have noticed that in spite of public uproar indicated by the polls, the MAJORITY of the ‘people’ (conservatives, independents, et al) are against the health care bill, bail outs, illegal immigration, trying terrorist in civilian courts, the ground zero mosque,..... ad infinitum.
Public opinion has no effect on the progressive liberal...they know what is good for us and they know where they want to take us. And we are going to go there whether we like it or not.
THAT trend at this time is the most important factor. We have to stop this train.
Everyone has a right to practice their choice of religion and people have a choice not to practice or not to believe.
Too many so called Christians preach just another form of hate. Too many are of the mind set that they know what is best and what is good for you. Too many rant and rave about hell and damnation. That type of Christianity does not engender a true spiritual belief in Christ. That is not the way of Christ.
To engender a deep spiritual change in the liberal progressive (the narcissistic, self loving persona) the above approach will NEVER work.
We must work against big government. We must work to effect a more ethical, moral society by example, not by ranting. We must use the constitution as our strength and imprimatur...not any specific religion.
We can individually live our lives according to the tenets of our individual faith, using the wonder of that faith and love to influence the lost....not mandates or ravings.
Otherwise we will lose this nation.
And if you win with a bunch of lilly-livered RINOs and Losertarians, who don't have the backbone to take up social change, what have you gained? Nothing.
Better to show the nation you have guts. To paraphrase one of the best lines in Braveheart, "people don't follow nobility, they follow courage."
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Exactly right. Too many people on this thread are obsessed with attacking symptoms. The cancer is the unrestrained growth of government power - until it is stopped cold, these other symptoms cant even be treated. Denninger is exactly right - running against corruption means running not only against Obama, but the McCains and Murkowskis and all of their ruling class ilk which have almost completely taken over the Republican Party. The Tea Party has a chance to become a genuine second party (we're not even talking about a third party, yet) but only if they stay focused on the only issues that matter - limiting government power and ending corruption.
Why bother to vote, then, if our candidate is the same as theirs?
Can you point me to a source please?
I agree regarding the TEA movement.
The GOP would do well not to drop social issues, but as far as getting elected this year and 2012: “It’s the Economy Stupid!”
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Excellent post.
Bump.
Review his comments to the TickerForum from 2007 - 2008 is all I can suggest.
Agreed! We have got to be smart, not emotional.
BINGO.
This becomes much less of an issue if you close the primaries. Allowing independents or crossover voters to chose your candidate is about as smart as shipping a million U.S. ballots to China and asking them to fill them out. Dilute the conservative votes, get diluted candidates.
Would you rather be right or successful?
Ah. In other words, then: no more worth being taken seriously by rational, intelligent adults than (say) Markos Moulitsas, or Arianna Huffington. Gotcha. ;)
You just saved me however much time and effort it would have taken to slog through the standard issue leftard yipping and frothing myself, then. Thank you. ;)
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" - Jesus Christ"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God." -- George Washington
Bless you, Jim!!!
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