Actually, You Do Have a Messaging Problem, When Your Message Is Sheer Arrogance
The latest attempt at rationalization from our friends on the left is that their devastating electoral rebuke is the result of “bad messaging.” In other words, BHO, the man who evoked hosannas as the most eloquent and effective communicator since FDR, if not Lincoln (if not Jesus Christ and/or Julius Caesar), was a victim of his own unfortunate tongue-tiedness. If only he could have gotten out his message of hope and change, his dwindling admirers lament, we could have kept marching toward the New Jerusalem of social justice and universal entitlement.
The subtext of such remarks, of course, is that we, the lumpen bozos, are too dense to appreciate the brilliance and moral superiority of the vanguard elite who bring us, out of the goodness of their hearts, “progressive” policies. Leaving that problematic idea aside for a moment, it should be noted that the Democrats have actually begun to get a glimmer of a hint of a clue when they say they have a messaging problem. That’s because you really do have a problem when the main thing you communicate is arrogance.
The latest proof of this is soon-to-be-ex-Speaker Pelosi’s act of noblesse oblige: She’s determined to keep leading (and pushing) the congressional Democrats off a cliff, thus helping preserve (to the Republicans’ glee) a constant reminder of the three amigos of the Dempocalypse: Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. How to explain such a comically bone-headed move? Simple: It’s the very essence of arrogance.
It’s the same arrogance that withheld what we wanted (a growth-friendly government) while giving us what we didn’t want — a “stimulus” that mainly transferred money to unionized public workers (and thus back to the Democrats themselves via the dues siphon), a “cap-and-tax” bill, and a government takeover of Detroit, student loans, and health care. And that congratulated itself at every turn. And the same arrogance that sees us as small-minded wretches who can’t understand all this beneficence. Such overweening arrogance is a byproduct of delusion.
Well,they don’t call the boy Barokeydoke Hubris Obozo for nothing
Best article I’ve read on the subject.
So, was this last election a Pelosic victory for the Dims?
“Pelosic victory.” I like it. With your permission, I’d like to borrow it from time to time.
“I AM THE VICTOR” she cries, as she circles the drain at the bottom of the porcelain amphitheater.
Pelosi is not a very bright person, as can be said about most politicians, Dem or Rep. Their most effective quality is an ability to get up in front of people and mouth inanities, pietistic blather and outright lies completely without shame. They are fools, but know not that they are fools.
So who puts the words in their mouths? Those are the dangerous ones. They may be hardline ideologues, like the ones who drive Ms. Nancy, or the empty-headed stooges who tell Lindsay Graham what to say, hoping he will say as little as possible.
Politicians come and go, but the staffers, the real policy makers, stay forever. They will always have the words for the fools who will say anything, do anything, to be “someone”.
Yup,which was one major reason why I didn’t weep too hard for the poor souls who lost their jobs on November 2. Even so, the rats scurry to the next dumb slob who will hire them. It’s a revolving door in Washington.
You have hit the nail on the head,congratulations. I look at Lindsay Graham and I see a little child who only wants to please his mummy by saying something that sounds clever.
Very good point. My cousin was a young staffer for John Conyers during the past Republican congress and was an early swooner for Obama. He is a very smart, educated, affable, dangerous, ideologue. It’s unexplainable. Where do such people go off the rails?
If you mean “where did Obama get off the rails”, it’s by being rewarded for jumping off them as a child.
Us neanderthal rubes just don’t get it! What a message, but it is exactly how these elitists see us. Wow. And they accuse Palin of being the dumb Hillbilly from Wasilly. Who are really the stupid ones?
Folks, if this attitude irks you, but you still think Palin is dumb, you need to re-think your opinion of her in this context.
“And Pelosi actually does see herself as an avatar of progressive enlightenment. For our own good, mind you, she’s determined to drag us, kicking and screaming, toward cradle-to-grave bliss. As she no doubt firmly believes, the work of improving benighted humanity must continue, and she’s just the one to do it. Could there be a better example of deluded arrogance?”
Just who does this person think she is? Nobody ever asks progressives what right they have to tell us how to live our lives. What right do they have to tell us what we should eat, what medicines we can and cannot take, what health care we can have, what cars we can drive, what businesses will succeed or fail, what banks are “too big to fail,” what house we can live in, or how much we can heat or cool that same house? What right do they have to micromanage every single aspect of our lives? What right do they have to grow the Federal Government so much that now it’s more profitable to work for the Government rather than private undustry? And what right do they have to spend our money so irresponsibly that it bankrupts the nation and throws upon us a crushing debt we will never be able to pay? This isn’t just arrogance, these are the followers of socialism and they have no place in American government. Hopefully, what’s left of these vermin will be swept out of office in the next election.
Right on. And the question behind your questions is, “Why do they THINK they have the right to micromanage our lives and change the very foundations of our country? What makes them believe that they are superior beings who know what’s best for everyone? I believe that the liberal mindset is the result of deep personality defects and character disorders. There is something terribly wrong in the minds of all those people, and Pelosi and Obama demonstrate this better than any others.
I’m with you, except for the “high IQ” part. The problem with our elite is that they aren’t; they’re intellectual mediocrities. At best.
Silly Weasel! Didn’t you know? The way to tell that someone is smart is to check and see if they have the right opinions!
“Well, how about Barack “The Shining One” Obama? When he said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” wasn’t he really saying, “I’m the one you’ve been waiting for”?”
I suspected at that point he really wanted to say “We are the one you have been waiting for”, employing the royal first-person plural. It would be in keeping with his egotistical narcissism. Either somebody talked him out of it (unlikely- see above) or he fumbled the delivery (very likely; the sentence is clumsy at best).
As for arrogance, that has been on display from the entire crowd from the outset. Ray LaHood, former Chicago CongressEntity and Obama crony, as Secretary of Transportation stated that his job was to “coerce people out of their cars”, and onto public transportation where the peasants belong. In an earlier time, a Cabinet official using the word “coerce” in reference to the American people would have been on the sidewalk with the contents of his desk in a cardboard box an hour after he said it. (Well, except maybe for Harry Hopkins.) LaHood is now trying to force Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich to continue the “3C high-speed rail” boondoggle, never mind that one of the things Kasich campaigned on was cancelling it.
Steven Chu, who somehow was deemed qualified to be Secretary of Energy, is notable for his opposition to… actual energy development. This is rather like having a hardcore Vegan running a butcher shop; it is philosophically pure, but functionally ineffective.
And The One himself is showing every evidence that he is reverting to Jimmy Carter mode. The electorate sent him, personally, a very strong message on November 2. And as Carter was wont to do with intelligence estimates that told him what was really happening (in Iran, the USSR, etc.) rather than what he wanted to hear, he has sent the message back with “NOT ACCEPTABLE!” written across it, in large letters, in red Flair pen.
All of the above, and progressives in general, simply do not care what anyone outside their faculty lounge/cocktail party/focus group circuit thinks, or how much evidence they have to back it up. Like UFO contactees, they have the Revealed Truth, and are constantly being patted on the back by fellow “true believers” inside their echo chamber for their orthodoxy. Nothing and nobody else matters to them, because reality is whatever they conceive it to be.
I do not expect this lot to “learn from experience” or “change course”. Rather, I expect we will see a two-year-long temper tantrum from them, starting in the lame-duck session in Congress. And temper tantrums thrown by people with political power can be damaging to anyone they decide is at fault for spoiling their plans.
Meaning, the rest of us.
clear ether
eon
Even more dangerous than LaHood and Chu are Carole Browner and Cass Sunstein. We can’t get rid of this entire administration fast enough.
Interesting point, about Ohio, and their “high-speed” rail.
We, in Wisconsin, are facing a similar situation. Our current Democrat governor, current Democrat-run state congress, and the current Democrat mayors of Madison and Milwaukee signed onto a $810 million “high-speed” rail (which will average 54 mph).
Then, on November 2, we elected a (hopefully) true Conservative governor (Scott Walker) who campaigned on the repeal of that “high-speed” rail boondoggle. He has already written letters to the current governor, requesting him to cease and desist with further plans and ramp-ups to the rail project.
Also, we, the state voters, turned over both houses to Republican control. Let’s hope it does some good, and stops this petty, adolescent spending spree.
And, I would love to tell Ray LaHood where to shove his “high-speed” rail moneys. But, I won’t, because THOSE ARE MY TAX DOLLARS!!!
Blessings.
I’m from Milwaukee County, and I can assure you that there’s no “hopefully” about it. Scott Walker is a true conservative, and a man of his word. Example: There was an expensive art project, in which the artist was given a large advance, and the county board voted for the “blue shirt” to be exhibited on the side of the Milwaukee airport parking garage. Scott Walker thought it was an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars, and KILLED IT. He WILL do the same for this not-so high speed rail project.
Mom in Wisconsin
“Steven Chu, who somehow was deemed qualified to be Secretary of Energy, is notable for his opposition to… actual energy development.”
Eon, you’ve done it again. I never look to see who writes what. But by the time I was laughing out loud over this sentence, I had to look back – sure enough, it was Eon.
Eleanor Holmes Norton was on c-span today pledging not to work in any way, shape or form with the republican party since it was lead by Tea Party extremists.
No progressive democrat will compromise their insane values. They intend to hold on and let their complicit useful idiots in the media do the heavy lifting these next two years. Which explains why it’s so easy for a progressive to look America in the eye and lie. The media’s got their backside covered.
If we survive the lame duck congress, expect things in the beltway to get very, very ugly.
As I heard it said somewhere before (don’t remember who said it) but the Democrats are the ones who didn’t listen after the 2006 and 2008 elections. They misunderstood the message the electorate was sending. They took it as a barb against the Republicans, not as it truly was, a barb against big government and overspending us into debt. This was clear to anyone looking for the reason, not inventing their own as the Democrats have done again with this last election. Now, it’s us stupid, unwashed masses that didn’t get thier message they spelled out over the last 2 years. The Republicans seem to ge thtat message this time, but only time will tell if they do, or its back to business as usual. Then they will be out the door as we search for those who remember that the government works for us and not the other way around!
ARROGANCE? Obama has his picture under the definition in Websters.
In point of fact, politics is about both what’s possible and what’s desirable. The political Left — at least, those parts of it that are sincerely well-intentioned — concentrates on what would be desirable, but seldom makes any concession to what’s possible. Of course, many things are possible that aren’t desirable at all, such as runaway inflation, massive illegal immigration, the alienation of one’s staunchest allies, and the destruction of the free market, but those are subjects for a much longer and less pleasant screed.
I am applying for the role of leader of the comments section here at PJM.
I am the one you have been waiting for.
I am a great leader, I just can’t get you people to follow.
I am a great communicator, but I just can’t get you people to listen.
I am a great orator, but I hate to deliver anything that isn’t prepared ahead of time, so I can read from the prepared script.
I am going to press a reset button with all the trolls, and convince them to see things my way, simply by force of personality.
I have friends here, but choose to ignore them, turn off their linked in pages, facebook friends pages, and let them dine alone, while I cozy up to the trolls instead.
I am an organizer who is sometimes very disorganized. Some people say I’m in over my head, but they are simply not aware of how tough this job is.
The best way to obtain buy-in for my role as healer of PJM is to put the most divisive, strident and polarizing people as the front men and women for my agenda. I am taking suggestions for those positions, please model after Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and if we can find a communist truther, I will make him or her the “green comments czar”.
If you run against me, you are a bleacherist. If you disagree with me you are a bleacherist. If you ask me tough questions you are a bleacherist.
My ideas never fail, you fail to understand them. My foreign policy comments aren’t lame, you are too lame to see the wonderment of it. My idea for how to make money on this venture is this: Give me all your money and I’ll tell you later how I intend to use it.
I love golf.
Please vote early and often. Our local SEIU/ACORN “get out the vote” volunteers will be by to ensure that fairness, honesty and integrity have the appropriate place in the upcoming election of me.
Why is nobody else on the ballot you ask?
You got me.
That’s probably why it feels just like I’m falling for the first time.
cfbleachers – great comment. It says it all about Obama…except how about adding something about his tendency to lie, to tell one audience one set of ‘facts’ and a different audience the exact opposite, and expect both audiences to accept His Words as the truth.
And his tendency to threaten – declaring that if people don’t do as he wants, then, some acolyptic scenario will be inevitable. But if they follow him and trust him, then, paradise will emerge.
He may be bright but he doesn’t make arguments. All of his speech is at the same level of generality and since the press adulates him they never ask the next question, like “How are you going to that?” Or “What do you mean?” When Obama and Pelosi say jobs jobs jobs does anyone ask them how are they going to do that? Have the government hire people? Or help people hire them? It’s all bland generalities that the press lets them get away with.
the solution to rid ourselves of these narcississts is to create a “pool” large enough for all of them to plunge into together and drown
lets us work on the pool and these mentally deranged fools will do the rest
Arrogant Pelosi certainly is, but I believe there’s a method to her hubris. She’s determined to remain minority leader because she believes the Republicans will screw up the next two years, get voted out, and she will be Speaker again, thus getting her private military jet back (just like the president!). It comes down to her love of power as much as her arrogance, and that’s what’s wrong with all of them.
RebeccaH,
You are so right. And why are the leftists in congress so confident about regaining their majority in 2012? Because of their unwavering confidence in the fickleness of American voters and in the MSM doing the dirty work to smear the republicans and “re-brand” the democrats. It’s worked before and it will work again. I still remember how ugly things got for the republicans after the 1994 elections. This is going to be SO MUCH WORSE.
Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi? This is the best the America-hating left has to offer? A pox upon your house, San Francisco.
You know, if you brow-beat the electorate for months before an election, repeatedly telling them how stupid they are, how lucky they are to have such a Great One as Obama leading them, how they’re so ungrateful for all the great legislation that’s been passed . . . well, it just might piss them off. Big time.
I cry when I see my country of birth (UK) keep stuffing up the same old ways.I see cops,trying to stop mad teens and drug abusers,only to see the courts let them go free. This is the window for America to see the future for liberalism. They want anarchy to rein.They want the young to do whatever they want.They want the people to have to rely on those in office for their meagre pittance.Please America,don’t let the liberals turn the country of hope that the world relies on.Obama and his army ,controlled by Soros and the left,must NOT win or the country will go downhill forever. With the UN staffed by evil,(and I really mean EVIL) nations trying to dictate to America that it is bad.Nations like Iran and Lebanon etc who treat the populations like dogs telling America that they abuse their people.This is too much.The world is dieing and there is not much hope left for the moral good to live.I’m sorry America,you know what is right but do you have the strength to carry it out……I HOPE SO
interesting comment, superb moniker,Cap’n.
“The Democrats have largely become the party of people fundamentally ashamed, in some sense, of being Americans.”
BINGO. That is the core problem. You have absolutely hit the nail on the head.
ABC News Exclusive: Obama Admin Slashed 60,000 Jobs From Recent Stimulus Report Office of Management & Budget Document: 12 Stimulus Recipients Reported ‘Unrealistic Job Data’
As ABCNews.com reported last week, Issa has sent a letter to Devaney challenging the stimulus jobs numbers.
Since the latest stimulus report, there have been numerous media reports that the jobs numbers were inflated.
The Associated Press said the report “significantly overstates the number of jobs spared with money from programs serving families and children, mostly the Head Start preschool program.”
The Denver Post also cited overstated federal figures with the Colorado Head Start program, noting that the government reported 269 jobs saved or created by the program, but only three were actually saved or created.
The Chicago Tribune noted that the administration said $4.7 million in stimulus money for schools in north Chicago had saved the jobs of 473 teachers, but the school district only employed 290 teachers. The statistics – claiming that stimulus money had helped save or create 14,330 school jobs in Illinois – were “riddled with anomalies that raise questions about their validity.”
The Boston Globe also reported that Massachusetts recipients of stimulus funds claimed that 12,000 jobs had been saved or created, “that number has been inflated by miscounts, erroneous figures, or claiming jobs for work not yet started.”
Barry Hussein, more laughs than Comedy Central
The left lies and the country yawns. Why is that?
I once worked for a lazy, do-nothing boss. Couldn’t or wouldn’t make a decision to save his soul. Yet he never got dinged for his incompetence. Not once. In fact, co-workers became so accustomed to his incompetence they used to just laugh it off because it’s what they came to expect from the dork.
So the left lies (again and again and again) and the country yawns. It’s because we EXPECT the left to lie. Just like the lazy boss who gets a free pass for being a moron.
Look people, the “Anointed One” makes his chess move’s and us babbling humans need to realize that the unbelieving conspiracy “heathen” understate the issues when they say that Obama is a radical. Alas, they know not the secrets we are all going to witness. The “Anointed One” is amazing, he takes the people at the highly efficient Post Office and sends them right over to the Student Loan Program. The “Anointed One” knows all. Twitter messages were machine-gunned to cell phones at mach speed. Facebook and MySpace groups spread across the Internet like digital fire. YouTube videos featuring celebrities ricocheted across the globe and into college students’ in-boxes with devastating regularity. All the while, the Obama mega-money-raising engine whirred on at high speed, until the result became inevitable: an unthinking mass of young voters marched forward to elect the “Anointed One.”
I am not surprised to hear these stinking lies about our “Anointed One,” it should be apparent to anyone that this was coming down the pike. I do have a couple questions about future process steps concerning these developments? When the “Annointed One” decides to start bar-coding everyone, will we get to decide if the mark is on our hand or forehead? Allot of people will prefer the hand, (especially women of course), unless your a porn actress or something along those lines. Also, my girlfriend was wondering if the Administration will be getting fashion advice from Hollyweird or the New York City crowd? We are both agree that the Administration “Maoies” as the “Anointed One ” so lovingly calls them,will be getting uniforms similar to the SS uniforms in Germany in WW2. With big letters abreviating “Barack’s Socialists.” So shall we start calling them the BS?
Ms. Pelosi and company, could care less what Americans think or want. She is going to force her agenda down our throats, whenever she has the power to do so.
This last election has pulled us back from the brink. We have come perilously close to losing the America the Founders envisioned. Hopefully America has finally awakened to the danger our own government presents to our freedoms, and that we will remain vigilant in protecting the Republic. Now, onward to 2012.
Lefties are not that hard to figure out because they have already done it for you. There is nothing in their world which cannot be understood or controlled. Choose any lofty end goal such as elimination of disease or poverty, controlling the weather or world economy, and it can be done.
The classic progressive liberal personality does not believe in what he cannot understand or control. He does not believe in science, economics, religion, or destiny. He does understand that other people are greedy and manipulative because that is what is at the core of his own personality and why liberals cloak themselves in lofty humanitarian ideals.
So the only reason people still suffer is because others (ie Republicans, corporations, Sarah Palin) are conspiring to keep it that way.
Because they are by nature self centered they would rather carry a sign at a protest rally dressed as a clown than anonymously drop $10 into a charity box for the same cause, even if the $10 will obviously do more good than the clown suit. For the same reasons voting for higher taxes which someone else will pay is a more rewarding experience than helping a stranded motorist.
Obama was picked over the more experienced Clinton because it felt better and more exciting to vote for him. There was something daring and sexy about it. Policies be damned.
The progressives have dropped Obama because concepts like faith or loyalty do not really exist for them. It is all about me and you dont make me feel better about myself anymore.
This is a dangerous mix. Obama is a pure narcissist at the end of his creative cycle and his bubble has been burst. Underneath every narcissist is a foundation of profound self doubt and guilt. He needs adulation like an alchoholic needs his bottle. My sense is that he is in his depressive phase, exhausted, and barely functioning, held up now by his stagehands and props (notice how close he keeps Michelle, she is an important reinforcer for him).
Obama never developed leadership skills. His belief system is that he and he alone is the catalyst which will make everything happen. Because he has not developed a team and is now bordering on collapse we are without a functional executive branch.
Not good.
“Compounding their arrogance is the fact that the Democrats have largely become the party of people fundamentally ashamed, in some sense, of being Americans. Affluent tri-coastal Obama-Pelosi liberals, with their high IQs, advanced degrees, and jobs that often seem, at least to them, to owe nothing to the grubby world of commerce, manufacturing, and marketing, are desperate to create an America that won’t embarrass the Harvard faculty”
The two best sentences in an overall terrific indictment of these savants.
They ARE self-hating Americans…glad somebody said it, and said it very well indeed. Brilliant column Mr. Durstewitz.
Best example: When Pelosi said they “welcomed Republican views” in the new Congress.
It is actually arrogance, hubris, and ignorance.
the “I hate my country” and “it’s my right to whine like a victim” party, this crowd of fools, will tell you straight faced that REPS only care about “the rich”. And see no irony whatsoever that Madam Defarge (I mean Pelosi) is super rich and not by her own work but by marriage- has anyone noticed Michelle O’Belle has adopted an identical pearl necklace tothe one Ms nacy wears? (one that costs over $100,000)- a gift [perhaps from the Madame)?
or selfish clueless minds think alike and so will now dress alike?
Your style is so unique compared to other people I’ve read stuff from. Many thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I
will just bookmark this blog.