Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A New Cold War In America


We The Government indeed. Cartoonist Michael Ramirez is certainly one of the most perceptive individuals of our generation. The only thing he missed was the signature block, with Obama's name written in the size of John Hancock's.

Is there anyone on the right who does not realize we are in a zero sum ideological war in America today? It is not only against the progressive left in Congress, but equally against a MSM in the pocket of the progressive left. For instance, this today from MSNBC:

[I]n a week when Democrats are celebrating the passage of a historic piece of legislation, Republicans find themselves again being portrayed as the party of no, associated with being on the losing side of an often acrid debate and failing to offer a persuasive alternative agenda.

The party of "No?" You have got to be kidding me. Republicans were virtually shut out of the health care negotiations. They made attempt after attempt to influence health care legislation, only to be rebuffed.

If you want to see a "party of no," take a look at the left. When Bush attempted to fix a Social Security system clearly destined to fail, changing it from a ponzi scheme to essentially a personally owned, government administered 401k, the Democrats utterly refused to engage in any sort of dialogue or to offer any alternative plans. Everytime someone says the party of no, we should be replaying:





There is your party of "NO."

And this bit about "failing to offer a persuasive alternative agenda" is almost as offensive. Rep. Paul Ryan did precisely that in his "roadmap" for America, posted on line in November. So ignored was it by the MSM that three days before the "healthcare summit" in February, Obama and Gibbs were quoted as calling on Republicans to post something online. It was outrageous.

But it also makes my point - that Republicans are utterly failing at communications. The three biggest things Republicans can do to help their chances are, one, to develop a far more effective communications apparatus, recognizing that the MSM is, but for Fox and the Wall St. Journal, an ideological enemy that will do them no favors. The second thing they need to do is to challenge major misstatements or spin in the press, pointing out the bias and hypocrisy of the press itself. The press likes to pretend to objectivity, so they may not like it, but they will have to run the criticism. Three, stop worrying about decorum and start accurately expressing emotion. If the President is lying to the American people - then damn it, use the word "lie," use it with passion, and then explain why. The left operates to a large degree on pure emotion while the right is far more restrained in expressing it. That has to change if the right is ever going to get its message across and make it stick with the electorate on a visceral level. I am not arguing for adopting the pure emotion and intellectual dishonesty that are the hallmark of today's progressive left, but rather marrying intellectual honesty with emotion.

It is not enough to stop the progressives at this point - to have a static trench warfare, to use military terminology. This is a new Cold War. And as were their socialist progenitors, our modern progressives must be fully delegitimized, defeated and sent to the dustbin of history.

Update: Having looked at Doug Ross's blog, perhaps it would be better to call this a newly hot war - as a civil war graveyard tells us that Democrats have been at war with our country for a very long time.





Welcome: Smart Girl Politics readers.

3 comments:

Mo said...

Even Fox is no good. They had Geraldo on after the vote, and he couldn't contain his leftist glee. they also have on other jerks that are no good. While it's a smidge better than the other Communist channels, more people should TURN OFF THEIR TV'S AND get the news from reputable websites.

Also, we should make sure to boycott and get our relatives and like-minded friends to boycott not only the TV, but every worthless leftist rag newspaper and magazine out there. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

We have to start the fight NOW and in every way we can.

William Stout said...

While I certainly agree with your sentiment, I disagree with calling this a Cold War. In the Cold War we sought to contain the Soviet Union and communism. I believe that if we pursue that course with the current progressives we will lose. We must actively and vigorously oppose them at every opportunity. We must not allow them a chance to breathe or retreat. They must be destroyed utterly and completely. These people have proven themselves to be the enemy of freedom and a friend to tyranny. I say that we treat them as such using asymmetric strategies and tactics and to turn their own paradigms against them. Once this was an ideological conflict, now it is becoming a threat to our survival as a nation and as a people. Unless and until we understand this we are at a distinct disadvantage.

OBloodyHell said...

I disagree with Mo but agree with the general principle of Stout and GW -- -- Fox needs to maintain some semblance of balance or they ARE no better than the opposition excepting they largely support the notions I currently agree with.

Fox has a measure of balance by having individuals such as Geraldo on, and I have no problem with that. If we can't destroy them and their positions face to face we aren't right, and never will be.

I personally take a view of this ideological fight much like that of Andrew Carnegie's on protectionism:

"Take back your protection; We are now men, and we can beat the world at the manufacture of steel."
- Andrew Carnegie -

I say put them on Fox. Decimate their positions in direct confrontations.

Mongol General: Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Remember the confusion and dismay of the Dems when they kept losing support in 2000, 2002, and 2004, against all their "logic"? I want to see their heads explode, now, as they lose over and over again in places they've never, ever lost before, and for decades. I want them destroyed as an opposition party, and every wrongheaded they've ever supported or done in the last 50-odd years turned to the detritus of bad memories.

This does NOT mean I will only support the GOP. It may well be that the current GOP becomes what the Dems had been for a long time, the part of the sensible left-leaners, all the while another party builds from the conservative base that the Tea Party movement represents, in opposition and disgust with the GOP's endless support of RINOs.

This, to me, would be perfectly adequate too. This nation functions best with a steady, healthy contention between the better things that historical, classical liberalism represents (as opposed to the suicidal, ideological cancer that is PostModern liberalism), and the better things represented by conservativism. Neither is right for all situations, neither is ideal for all problems.

It is one of the natural dichotomies that these two objectives are in balanced contention.

"Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles."
- Pat Paulsen -

Right now, we lack both of those -- the Dems are becoming a pox on the body politic, and the GOP is failing to focus on one or the other, attempting to appeal to be all things to all people, which is equally doomed to failure. It needs to select one set of ideals and stick by them. I do not care which it is, as long as a balanced set of heads exists which represents the other.

The GOP cannot be all things to all people. There is no "one perfect ideology" in this universe.