Interestingly, as I set out to write this, Newsbusters posted a poll asking who is to blame for the collapse of the Republican Party. There were several possible responses listed here:
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George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism"
- Expanding Medicare with prescription drugs for seniors
- Overspending while in control of Congress and White House
- Failure to reform Social Security
- Not capturing bin Laden
- Length of the war in Iraq
- Failure to stop illegal immigration
- The resignation of Tom DeLay
- Horrible leadership by Hastert and Frist
- Bush Derangement Syndrome in the media
- Other (please comment)
A case could be made for every one of these. Certainly they have all contributed to the collapse. As a conservative, I usually try to take the position of self-responsibility and I won't dispute the fact that we placed a loaded gun to our own head. The first nine reasons listed are proof that we weren't all that interested in breathing in the first place. Let's be honest. When Republicans start acting like Democrats: engaging in debauchery, spending taxes like there is no tomorrow and engaging in various forms of corruption, what choice are we offering people?
As much as we need to take responsibility for our own classless act, we have help. This is an assisted suicide and our own Doctor Kevorkian is the mainstream media.
Day after day in the papers and minute by minute on the networks, the press pounds out the message that the Republicans are racist, homophobic, corrupt, warmongering, child and elderly hating, sexist, environment raping oil company lovers. When ninety percent of the press are left of center and usually vote for Democrats, we have very little voice. When all that the public hears is vitriol against one side, the propaganda will eventually work. People want to be nice and when you keep telling people how hateful Republicans are, they start getting the message. Truth loses.
Sure, there's conservative talk radio, but frankly, there are relatively few voices and most people don't listen to it. Limbaugh and Hannity have their audience, but in the scheme of things, it just isn't as effective as we think. It's like blogging. There are millions of bloggers, and a lot of conservative bloggers are out there. By and large, I got the feeling that most of us were pushing Fred Thompson, but he didn't last very long at all. Our least favorite candidate (with the exception of MoRon Paul) is the presumptive nominee. As much as we like to think otherwise, talk radio and blogging are no match for the mainstream media.
We also talk of the demise of the MSM like it's a done deal and frankly, it ain't! The NYT and the WaPo may be losing subscribers, but their influence is still out there. Look at the out and out lie promulgated by the WaPo this last week concerning McCain and Hamas. Every major MSM outlet ran with it and after it was corrected by bloggers and the WaPo was notified, no retraction or attempt to rectify the wrong has been made. It lends credence to the old Mark Twain truism: A lie gets half way around the world before the truth gets its pants on.
Ann Coulter is some how the devil in long legs, but Keith Olbermann is a moderate reincarnation of Edward Murrow. Rush Limbaugh is a hate-filled bigot, but Randi Rhodes is a compassionate talker. Fox News is run by the RNC, but CNN, MSNBC ABC and CBS are somehow nonpartisan - except when they ask Obama tough questions.
Movies are constantly portraying conservatives, military people, and businessmen as evil and contemptible figures bent on subjugating or destroying innocents. Add to this the left's stranglehold on public education and higher education, is it any wonder we are dying?
We are dying because we seem to not have the will to fight it. We've allowed everyone to define us and we take it lying down. The DNC and the Democrats can run some of the nastiest ads against us, yet when President Bush tells the truth about appeasement, the press and the Democrats cast us as liars and then lie to prove their point.
We aren't dead yet and death is not inevitable if we don't want it to be. We need to stop trying to play nice. I don't advocate breaking laws and I certainly don't want my party to do that, but when it comes to politics, we need to fight back just as hard and just as viciously. Being nice is not going to win us any friends in the press. They perceive that as weakness on our part and consider it to be a victory for them. Take off the gloves for heaven's sake! Hit them where they are vulnerable.
Take this most recent incident concerning appeasement. The Democrats really didn't deny it, they accused us of playing dirty. They accused us of being mean. They even had to make stuff up to show that McCain was for appeasement.
When they level a spurious charge, fight back. Go for the underbelly. The concept of compassionate conservatism was a lousy idea. We need to be as compassionate to the Democrats as they are to us, which is to say - not compassionate at all.
We have a disadvantage. The press is against us and it is difficult to get our message out, but we need to find new ways to do it. We need to network better and we need to quit being ashamed of our conservatism. We need to stop being intimidated by the shrieking left-wing extremists. We need to start labeling these people as extremists because they are extreme.
We need to stop thinking that if we use a little harsher rhetoric, they won't love us. Forget about it because they won't love you anyway. Who cares? We need to go after the undecided and we need to show them in the most graphic way how socialism will negatively impact their life. We need get down and dirty and play the game our way.
In the past few days, there's been some discussion amongst ourselves concerning this topic and as much as I'd like to think my two cents here will make a penny's worth of difference, I'd be under my own delusion. That said, I hope someone will see this and start thinking on their own. I hope someone will talk to someone who will talk to someone who might be in a position to actually do something.
Call it a dream, not a delusion.
VW