The April 4th update to my April 3rd post captured a theme that will no doubt make a strong contribution to
LAS likes how Limbaugh is explaining Barry's erratic, hyperbolic, and cynical statements of late. It is an open electoral appeal to the truly ignorant and dumb. So, that's it then ... 2012 will demonstrate just how dumb my republic has finally become. Dumb enough to re-elect a failed demagogue? We shall see.
The answer to the question is not at all clear. The Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama has a truly sorry record … but is also protected by the praetorian guard of sycophantic propagandists known as the mainstream media. As we established at the outset of this blog project, the American electorate naturally identifies with conservative governing policies (hint: generally the opposite of BHO’s), but doesn’t actually realize this mostly because they are largely apolitical (or, more to the point, not informed about political ideologies). The majority of Americans walking into that voting booth on 11/06/12 will be making a choice between two alternatives they have barely spent any time examining, and about which they are mostly misinformed. And the fate of the republic hangs in the balance this time around. Oh joy.
On the plus side, conservative new media has arisen to do the corrupt and biased old media’s job for it, and is arguably at least an even match now in the information wars. The sure evidence is Rush Limbaugh’s increased ratings in the face of Team Leftie’s coordinated ‘Krieg auf Frauen Blitzkrieg” against his advertisers.
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So, we have a non-ideological voting base, not inclined to do the homework to become informed ideologically, making a choice between an incumbent determined to hide his true hard Left ideology, and a GOP challenger who is inarticulate when talking about the alternative ideology. Furthermore, the incumbent is slavishly propped up by fellow travelers in the old media, and the challenger is promoted by a conservative new media not out of any love for the candidate but out of concern for the future of the republic.
A few top level observations regarding the odds making on this one …
1 - Conservative new media will have to work harder than the sclerotic dinosaurs in the corrupt and biased old media newsrooms. I have no doubt this will happen in an absolute sense … conservative new media is generally younger, smarter, and driven by a patriotic fervor. The opposition is represented by hacks like Chris ‘Tingles’ Matthews. But it remains an open question whether or not conservative new media will outwork the old media hacks by enough to reach enough of those so-called ‘independent’ voters who will remain on the couch with cheeto-stained fingertips until a week or so before the election. We shall see.
2 – Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney cannot make the mistake the GOP Establishment’s 2008 nominee made … the mistake of treating Team Leftie’s quota candidate with kid gloves. Early signs are actually OK on this one, but Romney will need constant prodding from grass roots conservatives to stay on track. At his core, the GOP Establishment nominee is a country club Republican, tailor made to be demonized by the class warfare campaign tactics of BHO’s Billion Dollar Slime Machine. Can Mittens run a campaign slightly outside his comfort zone in order to win it? We shall see.
3 – Can the American electorate direct righteous anger where it belongs? The Alinksy playbook being executed by Team Obama calls for riling up mob passions with the politics of envy, and putting your mob into action on behalf of your agenda - laws and public safety be damned. Occupy Wall Street is a perfect example, though that one doesn’t seem to working out so well for BHO and His Corrupt Gang of Progressives. The TEA Party movement is an example of the opposite – the *Taxed Enough Already* patriots mean what they say, say what they mean, work within the legal bounds of the existing system, and are the very model of law and order at every assembly. But, due to shamelessly biased portrayals by old media, I’ll bet you will get the wrong answer more often than not asking the average citizen which one is responsible for thousands of arrests, dozens of rapes, injury to countless police officers, and an unknown (but huge) cost in property damage. I have no doubt future historians will identify the corruptly biased coverage of these two movements as the real beginning of the end for old media. However, I’m afraid the misrepresentations will live on until the election, which is what matters now. Up against this calculated old media misrepresentation is the reality the electorate is living as a result of BHO’s sorry record. Will the average American voter place more credence in the policy wreckage unfolding before his very eyes, or the Alinskyite narrative spun by BHO with the help of old media? We shall see.
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However I look at this question, I always come back to realizing the fate of the republic depends on conservative new media communicating Obama’s true record and true policy intentions.
Obama’s foreign policy is a disaster, but I don’t think it will come home to roost before the next election. Of course, I could be wrong … and if it does, it will be ‘game over’ a la Jimmy Carter.
I won’t shy away from covering Barry’s foreign policy wreckage in future posts. Nor will any other opinionator in conservative new media, no doubt. But the point here is the focus for winning this election has to be on opening the citizenry’s eyes to the misery BHO’s policies have directly visited upon them in their lives and neighborhoods.
When Barry runs around falsely claiming the economy is turning around because the officially measured unemployment rate has ‘ticked down’ from 8.2% to 8.1%, we need to relentlessly barrage the republic with the counter-points:
* These are the same geniuses who told us in 2009 their program was necessary to keep unemployment from ever getting above 8%.
* These hacks already hold the record for the longest stretch of official unemployment above 8% since the Great Depression
* The officially measured number goes *down* when a sufficient number of people become so discouraged they leave the work force altogether and are no longer counted as “looking for work,” and that explains the present measurement.
* 115,000 or so jobs created in a given month isn’t a gain against zero, it’s lost ground on needed growth. You need 200,000 per month just to keep up with new labor market entrants (aka graduates), and 400,000 per month (Reagan strength) to get back down to 4-5%.
* At 63.6%, we are at the lowest percentage of working age Americans actually working since 1981. (That would be Carter’s ‘malaise’ economy).
* Household income is down, way down, under Obama.
Oh, just watch this Bloomberg video for a taste of the numbers behind Barry’s economic fail …
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And a little mockery doesn’t hurt the cause either. The mention of BHO’s latest call for more gub’ment ‘stimulus’ spending in the Bloomberg video brought back to mind this cartoon on the Townhall site, and my comment to it.
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The bottom line is this: the only answer Team Obama has to the question ‘Are you better off than four years ago?’ is ‘No, but …’ The ‘but’ boils down to whining about their ‘inheritance’ from George Bush. That is something I’m sure will play poorly with the typical American. Americans do not like or respect whiners. Conservative new media must facilitate opportunities for Team Obama to answer this question as often as possible. Lord knows the fawning sycophants at CBS, NBC, and ABC certainly won’t.
And in the process we will discover how stupid my republic actually is.
Footnote
I just realized the finished product looks very little like the notes I was keeping (see footnote to yesterday’s post). That happens sometimes.
Update
Clumsy lead sentence cleanup with strike-through notation. I asked me for a budget to hire copy editors, but me remembered project revenue is stuck at zero.
