Posted on 10/07/2013 10:09:38 AM PDT by jazusamo
If the continued existence of mathematics depended on the ability of the Republicans to defend the proposition that two plus two equals four, that would probably mean the end of mathematics and of all the things that require mathematics.
Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, epitomized what has been wrong with the Republicans for decades when he emerged from a White House meeting last Wednesday, went over to the assembled microphones, briefly expressed his disgust with the Democrats' intransigence and walked on away.
We are in the midst of a national crisis, immediately affecting millions of Americans and potentially affecting the kind of country this will become if ObamaCare goes into effect — and yet, with multiple television network cameras focused on Speaker Boehner as he emerged from the White House, he couldn't be bothered to prepare a statement that would help clarify a confused situation, full of fallacies and lies.
Boehner was not unique in having a blind spot when it comes to recognizing the importance of articulation and the need to put some serious time and effort into presenting your case in a way that people outside the Beltway would understand. On the contrary, he has been all too typical of Republican leaders in recent decades.
When the government was shut down during the Clinton administration, Republican leaders who went on television to tell their side of the story talked about "OMB numbers" versus "CBO numbers" — as if most people beyond the Beltway knew what these abbreviations meant or why the statistics in question were relevant to the shutdown. Why talk to them in Beltway-speak?
When Speaker Boehner today goes around talking about the "CR," that is just more of the same thinking — or lack of thinking. Policy wonks inside the Beltway know...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
agreed, boehner should have used his mic time better. They need to get on the same page with a SIMPLE message that gets the points across.
I think they are on to this, all saying Obama shut down government becuase he will not negotiate - a simple message anyone can understand.
AND, keep it simple enough a fourth grader can understand.
This is pretty much exactly what I said after the press conference last week. Failed opportunity.
I'm fairly certain this was due to the advice of one Karl Rove.
Boehner’s “speech” upon becoming the Speaker should have given all of us a 5-ton clue.
Inside GOP, there are some wonks, to be sure. They know their stuff, they can debate with the best of Obama/Dems. But you don’t get people motivated talking wonkish.
After you lay out facts and numbers, people already moved on and lost interest after your first 10 sec.
Hate to admit it, the last time GOP had a short slogan was “Read My Lips”.
Yes. And, in all fairness, I think Rand Paul understands how to communicate, too. And I don't say that to start a war over which one would be a better candidate.
You know....I do kind of think it is funny that these politicians campaign, campaign, and campaign...
Yet they are the most inarticulate people at the microphone...
In general you are correct. But please exclude Ted Cruz from that generalization. He nailed it on Sunday with Candy WhatsHerName.
Yes. And, in all fairness, I think Rand Paul understands how to communicate, too. And I don’t say that to start a war over which one would be a better candidate.
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It is so refreshing to have two articulate, intelligent members of the Conservative/libertarian front. I don’t want this to degrade to whose better, just saying it is a pleasure to listen to ``them. Trey Gowdy also has presence. These young men could be the future. Otherwise I fear we have no future
frankly I think both Cruz and Rand need to be interviewed on a daily basis in the conservative press, both online and on cable. DAILY. We need the exposure and their ideas out there.
Please, please, please can we elect Sowell to be a Professor for elected Republicans? Send our guys back to school? Every point Sowell made is spot on... Our guys are a disaster - they're The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight ...
Thomas Sowell for speaker!
Great idea...It's something Dr. Sowell might even do on a part time basis and the Lord knows they need someone tutoring them like him.
I love Sowell and I definitely agree with him here. We have been lacking in the communication department for a very long time in the Republican party. But what I would have liked to have seen in the article, and maybe he will write part two and lay it out, is what he would say if he were in front of the cameras. How do you lay this out so that the average person that doesn’t follow this understands why it’s a bad deal. Lay it out for me, a person that tries to stay a little bit informed, so I can understand it better and I will know how to spread the word.
That’s a great idea. But I think so many of them up there don’t really care. If they go up there caring, they get sucked into the machine, and it gets squeezed out of them. I know Dennis Prager, who often has Sowell on his radio program BTW, has had talks/given speeches to groups of Republican law makers.
Sowell is so right. The Republicans are hardly bothering to even try to communicate their side to the people. The comments about the CR are very fitting, one of the things I hate most about a lot of the “news” articles I read is that initials are tossed about as if everyone is supposed to know what they stand for. I have spent fifteen minutes trying to figure out the meaning of something I could read in two minutes. Even some Freepers have a maddening habit of writing as if they are deathly afraid that someone might figure out what they are trying to convey.
The GOP is obsolete. Effete. Inept. Few labeled GOP rise above corrupt party politics.
“The reason low-information voters don’t understand the conservative philosophy is Republicans have not broken it down into simple terms.”
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There is probably a lot to what you say, I have the impression that a lot of people who are convinced that they do not agree with conservatism simply do not realize that they need to start from basic principles. Once you have forgotten that you came to drain the swamp you can get all wrapped up in ideas about how to save the alligators. Most people will agree with strict conservatism if you can get them to begin from the basics. That is why most hardcore liberals go nuts if you try to force them to deal with basic premises, they know that what they are supporting really makes no sense but they refuse to be pinned down on it. Liberals often like to use the term “basic human right” and will claim that something like medical care is a basic human right. I like to ask them if they would agree that a basic human right is a right they would still have if they were the only person left on the planet. If they agree with that they have just shot down their whole agenda because to them medical care does NOT mean bandaging your own sore toe as you would do if you were alone it means the right to have someone else bandage your sore toe for you.
Liberals are strange creatures, most would say that if they need something they do NOT have the right to try to force their own brother or sister to pay for it if they don’t wish to do so yet they will claim to have the right to have the government force a stranger to pay for it simply because the stranger has the money and he should “pay his fair share”. Of course they don’t ever allow themselves to realize that they have taken such an absurd position, that is why they will resort to any and every kind of disgustingly twisted “logic” to try to justify their absurdity.
It really is a mental disorder.
You mean like the Social Security "lock box"?
This discussion has now morphed into why do liberals think the way they do, one of my favorite subjects.
A mental disorder? A high percentage of homosexuals are mentally off. Atheists, Communists, drug dealers - - wow, this could be a long list.
Then there are the people who don't see anything hypocritical about doing the exact thing they tell other people not to, like carry a gun for self defense, or send their kids to upscale private schools.
Let's say they are like the math-challenged people who buy lottery tickets. Liberals are logic-challenged, and tend to go into fields where opinion and emotion hold sway, like sociology and humanities. There is certainly a lot of confused thinking out there masquerading as expertise.
Nope, current account cash in, cash out.
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