Republicans: Are You A Loser Because You’re Respectable?–UPDATED « Blog Entry

Republicans: Are You A Loser Because You’re Respectable?–UPDATED

January 22, 2009 / 3:33 pm • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Are Republicans too nice? Is that why we’ve been big, fat losers these last two election cycles? That’s what Doc Weasel [WARNING: Not safe for work] thinks:

F*ckwit Andy Levy (sounds like a joke name) at the new Brietbart Big Hollywood site counsels conservatives to eschew the strategy the left used to demonize Bush and drive his numbers into the ground, laying the way for huge Dem majorities in Congress and the retaking of the presidency.

He patronizingly advises us to stick to the issues, be civil and fair, stick to the “issues” and lose like gentlemen. We should unilaterally disarm, we guess, and get used to the abuse and learn to live with it and just be “better people”. And permanently out of power people. He’s wrong, dead wrong. People don’t give a flying f*ck about the “issues”. They don’t give a rat’s ass about “policy”. They only understand when you drum into their little heads that Katrina was all Bush’s fault, that the war was a total failure and worthless undertaking, that Bush it to blame for the financial crisis. We don’t need Breitbart’s stupid f*cking lame-a$$ b*llshit. We need in your face fighters. We need grassroots organization. We need fire, we need commitment, we need a strong message.

And we need to destroy the Democrats’ brand.

Sometimes I’m so ironic that my irony is evidently lost on my readers. So in my post “Don’t Be Like THEM”, I reference the same Hollywood guy, Andy Levy, in yesterday’s post:

Ooops! I did it again. Don’t Do It says Andy Levy:

DON’T apologize to foreigners and say things to them like, “I didn’t vote for Obama,” or “He’s not MY president.”

DON’T say or do everything in your power to drive this country apart and then claim you want unity when it’s your guy in power. This is like the convicted felon who conveniently finds God when he’s up for parole.

But I don’t wanna be a grown-up. I want to whine like a baby like Andy Sullivan. Ooops, I did it again.

In the post, I demonstrated childishness by doing exactly opposite of what Levy counsels–by name calling and making the Brittney Spears cultural reference.

Should Republicans be nicer? I don’t know. Barack Obama succeeded in part, because of what Doc Weasel mentions–every single lefty blogger, the press, everyone worked from day one of Bush’s presidency to undermine him at every single turn. Not only were Republican ideas undermined and diminished but the very man of George W. Bush was trashed beyond recognition.

Barack Obama also succeeded by appearing above it all while simultaneously feeding nasty bilge to the people who he knew would get it out there quickly and efficiently. Andrew Sullivan, whom I mentioned specifically, was a stooge for Obama, a foil. He claimed middle of the roadness–and veered off course with Gay Marriage and just kept on a-going into full fledged psycho Leftist territory.

Scoff if you will, but it’s worked. Republicans and their very logical positions and sensibleness and even their high-falutin’ sensibilities might be making a couple mistakes:

1. People respect when someone wants something so bad they’ll do almost anything to get it. Equanimity and civility at a loss can easily be interpreted as the loser just not caring enough to win. And you know what? I didn’t really care. I didn’t like John McCain. I figured he’d be a white, old version of Barack Obama–squishy and mealy-mouthed and big government. If I thought that, what did middle of the road voters think? So no, I didn’t want John McCain to win the presidency that bad. I wasn’t sure he’d be that much better for the country than Barack Obama. And more than that, I figured if the nation was going to get screwed over, something I was fairly certain was going to happen, better it be coming from a Democrat. And the Mr. Niceguy bull-crap of John McCain stuck in my craw. He tacitly confirmed the media’s caricature of conservatives. It’s NOT TRUE. But McCain seems to believe it. So, no I wasn’t willing to do anything for John McCain because he was not willing to do anything to stick for conservative principles.

2. Younger people don’t respond well to reason, and really, neither do adults. People make emotional decisions for emotional reasons. Republicans are too left-brained. Talking sense only works when people are sensible. Most people don’t take a day to go through the history of the Bank implosion to get down to the bottom of the facts like I did. Most people hear the news and wonder what it means for them. Okay, so banks are failing. How does that affect me? How should I feel about it? Republicans need to get better talking about their feelings.

3. Image matters. Language matters. Speech matters. Looking decent on TV matters. Republicans need to stop acting like it doesn’t matter. You might be able to be a Senator looking like Henry Waxman, but it won’t cut it as President. You need to be decent looking enough, articulate enough, hip enough to the modern culture, funny enough and smart enough to be President. NEED to be. These are not superficial niceties. The swing voters Do Not Vote Issues. Hello, Republicans? Are you listening? They vote for the person. Do they trust and like this person?

So, while I think the Republican party and the conservative movement doesn’t need to don the pointy hats and conspiracy theories of the Leftards, it would be a good idea to recognize that politics is a friggin’ blood sport and you don’t win by playing nice. You win by playing a better game, having more talent, more desire, more innovation, and executing a better plan.

And while being high-brow might make us feel better about ourselves, there need to be rabble-rowsers in the Republican party who are willing to go there and say that. Let the few leaders running for high office take the high road while using the low road. The low road is what helps get leaders elected. It’s politics. It’s not like it’s a noble profession.

I’ll give Doc Weasel the last word:

We need to be loud, we need to be outrageous, we need to be unfair, uncivil and profane. We need to be aggressive and loud. That’s how you get the public’s attention. That’s how Bush was so effectively demonized. We here at docweaselbog talked to people on the street before the election: most weren’t voting for Obama, they were voting against George W. Bush by proxy, by voting against the GOP. The brand is damaged, and we don’t buy it’s because we didn’t follow conservative principles. The public is obviously fine with getting goodies from the government. We are damaged because the other side is constantly telling the world how evil and un-American Republicans are. Well we’re sick of it, even if you are ok with being taking it up the a$$ from Democrat thugs.

Smug little c*cks*ckers like Levy are always lecturing us to take the highroad and be happy to be gracious losers. We want to punch him in the face. He’s what’s wrong with this party. That was McCain’s idea on how to win the election. We see how that worked out.

So, are Republicans losers because we’re respectable?

UPDATE: I guess I’m not the only one considering this. From the DC examiner, Republican “Doormats” helped Obama to victory. Indeed.

Posted in Political Animals
Tags: Conservatives • Republicans

http://docweasel.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/useful-idiot-andy-levy-urges-conservatives-to-lay-down-for-obama/ docweasel

ok, that’s better. your irony was a little too irony-y. we are more direct. American elections have come down to who can convince the stupid, vacillating, ignorant 10% who deserted John McCain after the financial crisis and gave the poll numbers back to Obama.

The left will vote left and right will vote right. You need simple shapes and colors and shiny objects to convince the middle 10%, low information cretins just long enough to get into office. This is our goal, helping that along.

We’ll amend our well-reasoned critique of your last post.
http://shesright.org Charity

Honestly, I do not think we can beat them at their own game. They control the means that they used to destroy the Republican brand and any immature reactions on our part will only be misconstrued by the media and make us look worse.

We need a good message – a simple message – and we need to sell it in a positive way. If we try to run The One and his band of merry followers into the ground, it will only backfire.

The average person on the street (that pesky 10% of swing voters) was not convinced to hate Bush by the raving, frothing leftists you read at Kos or elsewhere on the internet. They were gradually convinced over time by a careful and methodical media campaign. The media distorted the facts of every event in the past 8 years to make it Bush’s fault. They called the economy a disaster when it was growing, for Pete’s sake!

Even my mother-in-law, who has always been a conservative Republican, bought into the media narrative and voted for “anyone but a Republican” – including {shudder} Obama.

The screaming, poo flinging crowd did not win this – the media did. If we resort to screaming and flinging poo, the media will be more than happy to convey that image of us to the public.

If swing voters got their information from blogs, they would not be swing voters. They are getting their information from “unbiased” news sources that use more veiled methods of influencing people’s opinions.

We can not beat them at their own game. We need to being our own game.

That’s my take on it, anyway.
Trish

We don’t have to beat them at their own game, but we do have to acknowledge the way they play the game. We also have to stop backing down in the name of politeness.
We already HAVE a clear message. We can’t get it across because the left keeps shouting it down. We have to start being honest about the kind of people we’re dealing with.
http://hl98.blogspot.com/ TheBigHenry

I think it’s possible to be tough without resorting to being ugly, by which I do not mean you can’t call a spade a spade (and that is not a racist remark; it’s an American idiom). I’ll call some public figure a f*cking idiot if she is one (Nancy Pelosi comes to mind), but I will not routinely resort to hyperbole, as the libturds do. An occasional exaggeration to make point is OK; but incessant hyperbole and mudslinging won’t sway anyone who isn’t part of the choir. I also agree with Melissa that a candidate who can think on his/her feet and is not a stranger to public speaking and knows how to clean up and comb his/her hair is a must. And, for god’s sake, enough with the “maverick” bullshit. Most people don’t even know what that means.
http://www.theswordandtheolivebranch.com Afghan Whig

Two examples:

Ronald Reagan. No stranger to equanimity and civility, he marched the Republican Party rightward, away from the “me-too” party of Nixon and Ford. Even after his death, he’s possibly the most popular conservative figure of our lifetime. Americans liked Ronnie.

Ann Coulter. Provocation before discourse. A polemicist through and through, Ann Coulter can’t finish an interview about the Grateful Dead without taking pot shots at liberals. Yet she’s arguably today’s most recognizable conservative author.

What do they have in common? It’s not taking the “high road;” Coulter’s been blatantly attacking the left for years. Yet it’s not being “too nice” either. Ronald Reagan was mostly civil towards the left. This doesn’t mean he never took shots at them, but neither was he rhetorical flame-thrower. So the discussion about whether conservatives should be nice or more aggressive is a distraction.

What these immensely successful conservatives have in common is that they’re not afraid of being conservative. That in itself offends some liberals, so there’s really no option of being “too nice” for loyal right-wingers. Whether we approach liberals with dignity or with a club doesn’t make much a difference. Ronal Reagan’s genial, but assertive conservatism was a boon to the movement, while other civil conservatives (such as John McCain), are pretty much useless. Likewise, Ann Coulter does a lot more for the conservative brand than Michael Savage. What makes the most difference to attracting Americans at large is a willingness to advocate unpopular conservative ideals, and the ability to do it intelligently.

As for the three points listed above, I completely agree that if conservatives don’t show faith in their own principles, we shouldn’t expect anyone else to place faith in them either. I also agree that humans are emotional creatures, so that must be taken into account when appealing to them. But keep in mind that recruiting obnoxious liberals to the conservative fold will only make them obnoxious conservatives. I don’t want to be like the Nazis and communists in the early 20th century, fighting over the same pool of naïve idealists. I likewise believe that image matters; Sarah Palin could and should have appeared a lot more capable than she did this year. Yet image isn’t everything; substance matters just as much. Reagan and Coulter both have traits which draws people back to them, long after their novelty wears off.
Glynn W.

Too nice?

Did you see the Republican Presidential Convention? Did you hear Rommney? Gulliani? The other GOP stooges? No policies were offered, no analysis, just one mindless attack after another.

It was a hot mess that culminated in Sarah Palin’s frontal attack on everything good and decent.

Too nice?

The Dems were positively academic by comparison. Both Rush and Coulter are at the center of GOP messaging. Too nice?!

Remember, “Palin around with terrorists?” Do you recall “Socialist! Commie! Hussein! Muslim! Domestic terrorist!!”

With all due respect, I am not sure which universe I am reading this in.
Heather

With all due respect, I am not sure which universe I am reading this in.

Certainly not the one that exists in reality.
http://hypersanity.blogspot.com/ Franco

All your points are very valid but
until we have more media neutrality, frontal attack needs to be precise and targeted. First the media. Expose them at every opportunity. Republican pols need to call them out publicly.

Meanwhile we can play a little rope-a-dope. Obama and Democrats are in a real pickle. They now have to make decisions and take responsibility. This is coming as a complete SHOCK to them as we already are seeing. The hypocrisy is palpable and it has been only four days.

Now is a perfect “teaching moment” for the American drones – those you are mentioning here. No need to get hyperbolic the Dems are hanging themselves. BUT Republicans need to BE ON RECORD OPPOSING these policies, or nothing is gained.
Marcus Sr.

I’ve never thought of Republicans as being too respectable. Bernard Lewis’ quote about America always comes to mind when I think of Republicans: “America is harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.” Republicans are weak and John McCain’s failure is testimony to that. His delusional ideas about “reaching across the aisle” and bipartisanship insure party failure. Democrats have no doubts about themselves; winning is their only option. Winning and the propagation of conservative ideals should be the Republican goal. Otherwise, why shouldn’t we all just be Democrats?
Republicans are not losers because they are respectable, they are losers because they are weak-minded and unwilling to engage in the fight that is required.
boquernman

TheBigHenry puts it succinctly and well “I think it’s possible to be tough without resorting to being ugly.” Assuming readers here believe that conservative principles produce relatively better long term cultural, political, and economic results, then… well… think through what the Dems are offering and ridicule it. For example, right now, here’s the TV ad: a bored government clerk behind the glass window at the U.S. Dept of Wasteful Stimulus, or some such; above is the label “contributors” and below “taxpayers and future generations;” in the line are males, females, ethnic and racial mix, teenagers and babies, but all, except the latter, DRESSED FOR WORK. Then next to it is the line with the sign “recipients” and under it is “trial lawyers, union bosses, Wall St. contributors, the Big 3, special interests, etc. In the corner put a small hand lettered sign “if there is any confusion about which line you should be in, we’ll decide! Democrats.” Use the camera to make the point. Hey, this is just a suggestion; somebody with skill can do a better job. But remember, the best defense is a good ofense. And, all you football fans realize how effective the prevent defense is, right? We have to ask ourselves, what core principles is the Republican going to stand up for, if any?
LEARNED FOREVER

[i]“Not only were Republican ideas undermined and diminished…”[/i]

What ideas? With Republicans running congress, pork barrel spending and corruption were the message — these are popular ideas with democrats. Resume enhancements. They don’t seem to work for us.

[i]“…but the very man of George W. Bush was trashed beyond recognition.”[/i]

Bushes own fault. Reagan made several appearances on primetime tv to explain policy: why tax cuts were needed, why he sent fighter-bombers to Libya, Grenada, Marine deaths in Lebanon, etc. He went around the media. He framed events. He explained. The people listened.

Except for 911, Bush did nothing. He allowed the media to run the show. Iraq was portrayed as a disaster, as was just about everything else during the last 8yrs. Bush and the Republcans are currently at the bottom of the political food chain — they’ve earned it.
http://blahgwrite.blogspot.com/ Mat

For some reason, Republicans during the last 20 years or so (since Reagan, actually) have had problems getting their message across. The Bush family (father and son) were woefully inept at getting their messages across.

I would argue that Republicans definitely need to get off the “McCain high-horse” and start counterattacking before they lose everything. I have a feeling that if they keep doing what they’ve been doing, then the party will dissolve and another will take their place that’s much more conservative (and maybe that’s what should happen). This bipartisanship crap I keep hearing about is making me sick.