I'm a lawyer, so I'm usually analytical as hell when it comes to this stuff, but I think there's a pretty good argument for fighting dirty versus not fighting at all....
What ever happened to just fighting cleanly? I really get ticked off at the presentation of false dichotomies as justification for pulling the same sort of crap the Liberals have, because after 4 years of "our side" doing that, there won't be a 'good fight', just a back and forth at the gutter level until the Republic finally implodes. Damnit, Bill, as an attorney, you shouldn't resort to those tactics--not in an honest discussion.
The single biggest problem the conservative movement has is that the primary schools, the colleges, the media, and the entertainment elites are all lined up against us. Because of that, it is extremely difficult to get our message out without having it overwhelmed by the above-mentioned opinion-shapers. That's particularly true when it comes to the young. So we gradually see our vision of the country eroded. The messaging from the left is inexorable, and we tend to lose the public on issue after issue because they get them young, and keep most of them.
No argument on the methods of the left, but when the heralds of this spoke out back in the '60s, the REST of the GOP pooh-poohed the idea..and poohed it when it became more apparent, and backpedaled through the Nixon years in the face of a lying and aggressive press and lost a war because of that, and continued to "compromise" ever losing ground, and never gaining. Blame the Party, blame the incumbents, blame the voters, blame whoever, but the reality is that strident name calling and using the methods of the left will lose. That's their game, they're good at it, but the kids who are getting out in the world are realizing that they've been sold a bill of goods by charlatans. Sound like the charlatans at our mutual peril. The problem is that a clear difference between the GOP and the Liberals STILL does not exist if the tactics are just more of the same.
If you want a personality contest for POTUS, we'll just get to full-blown Idiocracy that much sooner.
What the conservative movement -- and the country as a whole -- needs is a return of the skeptical, mistrustful voter/consumer of information. We need more people -- especially young people - to quit relying on what they are told by those elites. We're not going to have a shot at persuading anyone if that dynamic does not change.
no argument there, but I honestly think this isn't the path to a thinking electorate, unless you want them to shrug it off and think they'll have another beer because they think all politicians are cut from different colors of the same cloth.
Trump is an embarrassing doofus in many respects. But I don't think there is any doubt that he has been successful at raising mistrust of the media to historic highs. The almost embarrassingly simplistic-sounding "fake news" label has actually caught on, to the point where I think a lot more people are being much more skeptical when they hear/see things in the media. Even if they ultimately don't agree with Trump, that burst of independent-thinking is absolutely invaluable. I don't think we as conservatives can survive without it.
Are we really getting distrust of the media, or distrust of the message. The Leftists believe sources telling them what they want to hear, and the Right is getting the same way. In the meantime, the information people get is as varied as the sources, and no one knows what to believe because it is all hype.
If we burn down the house of trusting the press, the soil that remains will be fertile for conservatives because we are right. But our message is never going to get a fair airing is someone doesn't kneecap those opinion-shaping leftist elites. And Trump -- for all his many flaws -- is the first party leader we've had who has actually done that to this extent.
Kneecap 'em with facts. Call them out on their egregious lies, but do so in such a way that remains credible and doesn't fade into the background clutter of apocalyptic visions the average American is pelted with.
New York hasn't flooded out. California hasn't fallen into the sea. The planet hasn't turned into a scorched desert, the sun hasn't blown up and Yellowstone hasn't erupted. Let's have a call for calm and common sense (the real thing)--and leadership. Not just a mob hot on the heels of their champion striking back at everyone they've been pissed off at.
If it's revenge Americans seek for all the mess the Liberals have made, serve it up on ice.
