And why political theater has changed after the “Read More”.
What’s has changed? The psychology. When media figures like Lawrence O’Donnell and the Occupy protesters went on the attack in the past with the “why are you supporting the Man” or “why are you racist” their targets would go on the automatic defensive, or worse, sputter out some nonsensical expostulation of anger. That automatic deference has vanished for two reasons.
First, the polemicists on the left no longer have a talking points advantage. They formerly used their highly developed ideology to browbeat or mock all but the best prepared opposition. But conservative activism has since leveled the intellectual playing field. Speakers on the left find that every talking point they fire off is met by an equivalent.
That has led to the second change: confidence. People like Herman Cain (and Andrew Breitbart) are no longer afraid to go on the counterattack. They actively seek confrontation. Notice how Cain basically calls O’Donnell’s bluff and says, “sure you guys are brainwashers”. Faced with the bald accusation, O’Donnell backpedals and tries to stay in control because he knows that, given half a chance, Cain will take the offensive against him and rake his own show over the coals.
This willingness to go on the offensive; the refusal to accept the old rules of engagement is what most the media really mean when they say ‘incivility’. The ‘incivility’ does not really refer to bad manners, a propensity to physical confrontation or poor hygiene. That has been a feature of groups like ‘Occupy’ for a long time. The ‘incivility’ consists in not accepting the unwritten rules any more.
What has made the difference in the battle of theatrics is rehearsals. Conservative activists now go over their lines at on Internet sites and in face-to-face meetings before they sally out, and the difference shows. The principal weakness of Barack Obama’s “confrontation strategy” is that it assumes an agit-prop superiority that isn’t there any more. Or if some margin of superiority still remains it is no longer as decisive as it used to be.
That doesn’t mean that liberal activism is dead. It remains extremely powerful, articulate, skillful and well-funded. But the days when it could run roughshod over the opposition with “one touch of the armored gauntlet” are over.
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Yes, internet-based media have broken the MSM stranglehold and provided opportunities for conservative protagonists to hone their rhetorical skills. But more important is the increased public understanding that Marxism eventually leads to totalitarian government and democide, as well as to poverty. If you haven’t looked into the work of Rudolph Rummel, you should. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Rummel
Correctly so, the Left supported the 1960′s Civil Rights movement and thereby gained much credit with the muddled middle. However that tailwind has dissipated with the passage of time, with the corruption of racial politics and as knowledge of the horrors of full-blown Marxism has spread. If Obama is the best that American Marxism can put forward, then it is on its last legs, for he is surely a joke. When China must adopt a form of capitalism in order to advance beyond backyard steel making, arguments for Marxist (=Democrat) policies in the U.S. are hollow. For the average voter, it’s about the economy, and there the Marxists have no credibility.
SkyNet?
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wJZWV2JLAc
T3 — SkyNet virus takes over drones
‘That doesn’t mean that liberal activism is dead. It remains extremely powerful, articulate, skillful and well-funded. But the days when it could run roughshod over the opposition with “one touch of the armored gauntlet” are over.’ – Wretchard
I hope that is true. But, it still appears that combination of the controlling the Oval office, the Senate and the MSM is the power oligopoly which the liberals still have. If anybody has an idea of how to break said oligopoly please speak up.
There are two issues that get conflated in the O’Donnell interview. First we do need candidates vetted. In fact every job applicant should expect to face some level of investigation. It is shocking that most resume claims and public records regarding credit and arrests are never reviewed. The aberration was that Obama was not subjected to the same scrutiny that someone running for public office should get. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with asking Cain what he was doing between 1963 and 1973.
The second issue is that the Press are no longer privileged in their role of gatekeepers. The Lawrence O’Donnell’s and Dan Rather’s of the world can now expect that their credibility will be questioned and dirty laundry will be inspected. The idea that there are safe havens from which the defective can accuse others is essential to keeping these institutions functioning as bastions of the Left and sanctuaries for the abusive personalities that staff them. They expect that once they are ensconced in office, and to be a MSM journalist is to be in a quasi-official office, is to become immune from inspection. There is a pattern that corrupts every organization and eventually destroys its credibility unless countered. People with something to hide become journalists and people with an unhealthy attitude towards children become teachers or Child Welfare workers or socialists (Obama’s Grandma) and kleptomaniacs become bankers. The fury of those who would sit in judgment on others at the thought that they could be questioned will be primal.
“Correctly so, the Left supported the 1960′s Civil Rights movement and thereby gained much credit with the muddled middle.”
Define Left. Certainly not a large part of the Democratic Party nor the unions.
The crumbling of the Left’s narrative may have more to do with their insane overuse than preparedness by the right to take the offensive. Just yesterday I was musing that the jig was up for Obama when the AP directly challenges his straw man tactics and challenges his press conference point by point with actual facts. How things have changed! That last presser was no different than every other Obama appearance for the last 4 years. He has always erected straw enemies, said ‘Look at me! My shiny armor! Watch while I slay this dragon!’ But even his staunchest minions in the press are beginning to turn their backs. Is it because the Right has the counter-argument, or because the endless trotting out of the race card, the hypocrisy over civility, the serial cluelessness and obliviousness has all been so overdone? I think the latter.
Obama is no Don Quihote – he is a lying, manipulative, dangerous demagogue and now he stands before all – stripped bare – their Holiest of Holies has now become the Hollowest of Hollows. For many of us, we saw this forever ago… but the bloom is off when his water carriers and footmen listen to Obama’s tired tripe, no longer hearing it as biblical revelation, but for what it is. Good.
Having said that, I’m not so sure that enough has yet been done to exorcize the demons of Leftist doublethink from our midst. Yes, the bloggosphere has done a lot, but the disease has burrowed deep into all of our minds – it will be long rooting it out. Even here at PJM many of it’s writers are high priests of the Left Wing Narrative. I don’t think this is done for balance – I think they, and PJM’s editors, remain unaware of their Leftist lacunae, as long as prominent conservative blogs and media outlets retail the same multicultural crap and PC poison we remain at risk of destruction. These high priests are so steeped in the mentality, and so convinced of their moral superiority, they are little different than Lawrence O’Donnell when they spout their drivel. So if the conservative bloggosphere is still rampant with the sickness, then there still remains a long way to go.
Does anybody else remember when the GOP was considering the “nuclear option” in the Senate? Change the rule on ending filibusters of judicial nominees so they could get a full up or down vote?
Remember “Meet The Press” and “Issues and Answers” and ABC’s Sunday talk shows all had special editions to cover this “destructive” act? Well, last week Harry Reid pulled the trigger. Without any discussion the dems with only a majority vote changed the rules of the Senate to disallow the addition of amendments meant to filibuster a bill.
The media is absolutely silent. Somehow it’s different when the left does it.
The democrat-media complex is not going to talk about this.
Cain is awesome. He will shred Obama in debates.
“Correctly so, the Left supported the 1960′s Civil Rights movement and thereby gained much credit with the muddled middle.”
The names always change, but one thing remains constant: It is always the Traditionalists vs. the Experimentalists.
In the 19th Century, the Traditionalists were the Democratic Party slaveholders and the Experimentalists were the Republican Party abolitionists.
In the 20th Century, the Traditionalists co-opted the Republicans and defended the robber barons, while the Experimentalists, in reaction, began to defend the working class. They sympathized with blacks, and this led the Democratic Party to be abandoned by the rednecks and peckerwoods by 1968.
In the 21st Century, the Democratic Party Nanny State that transfers wealth to victim classes in exchange for votes are the Traditionalists, and it is the Tea Party and 9-9-9 and reforming Social Security that seems to be the wild Experiments. Thus the Big Wheel spins round and round.
Cain did a radio talk show in Atlanta for around five years and before that subbed for Boortz. He was good at it. Its good training for dealing with lefty scum. Knowing who you are helps too.
Teresita, that sounds similar to Virginia Postrel’s construction in The Future and its Enemies–she speaks of stasis vs. dynamism.
W: “The polemicists on the left no longer have a talking points advantage. They formerly used their highly developed ideology to browbeat or mock all but the best prepared opposition. But conservative activism has since leveled the intellectual playing field. Speakers on the left find that every talking point they fire off is met by an equivalent…People like Herman Cain (and Andrew Breitbart) are no longer afraid to go on the counterattack. They actively seek confrontation… The principal weakness of Barack Obama’s “confrontation strategy” is that it assumes an agit-prop superiority that isn’t there any more.”
“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.” Thomas Jefferson
An important thing too is that everyone is beginning to see the actual consequences that flow from long term implementation of Leftist policies. No longer can their ideas be sold as a set of glittering stepping stones that lead to utopia, “social justice,” or whatever they are calling it at the moment. We have traveled upon them and it seems that they lead to a fetid swamp, and the gold paint on the stones is peeling off.
We as a civilization have invested far too much in what amounts to the leftist perpetual motion machine. We have always believed them in the past and sent them a new check because it was nearly perfected. They kept on assuring us that it was, and many believed them.
Now we are beginning to realize that the entire concept was flawed and that we need to cut our losses and refuse any more pleas for new funds. The faith has been broken.
It probably is true that conservatives are better prepared these days but I think the real reason Cain looks so good is that he is good, very good, and not afraid to talk back to the man. I like his ideas, too.
Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of the Internet is that it gives Conservative leaders a way to take the real temperature of the voters.
I was testifying before an House investiagating committee on Election Day 1998, the day that Newt Gringrich announced he was resigning. He had assumed that Clinton’s scandal would naturally translate into further gains for the Republicans in the Congress. That was the inside-the-beltway attitude, and Clinton advisor Dick Morris worked to further that belief. In reality, outside the beltway not that many people really gave a rat’s rump. So Newt and the Republican leadership drifted along, fat, dumb, and happy, sure of victory, and were shocked when the Republicans, while they retained control of the Congress, actually lost some seats to the Dems.
The blogosphere tends to prevent that kind of fog of battle from obscuring anything but the near objects. I first learned about the Belmont Club from a posting by Jonah Goldberg. As we all know, the bad guys keep track of what is said on certain websites, but so do the good guys.
And yet, others take a different view: http://voxday.blogspot.com/2011/10/herman-cain-bankers-whore-or-bankster.html
Arggghhh. Lawrence O’Donnell is an asshat.
Let me sum up the 12 minute and 45 second ‘interview’; “You are not black enough for us white people, what do you think of anal sex?”
and what is with the stupid moron protesters? If first impressions are important, the “we have a message team working on ‘why we are here’ message” is the most hollow of messages. We have assembled our army now we are trying to figure out what side we are on because ya know, we got principles, we just temporarily misplaced them. How Orwellian is that? Geesh. An apt message would be this; “We are all here because we are not all there”.
Teresita@9: Thus the Big Wheel spins round and round.
Good post. The other 21st Century Traditionalist constructs under attack by the Experimentalists are TBTF and the MIC. The 21st Century is going to be complicated – a conflict of ideas being squeezed into old ideologies that fit like Rosanne in latex.
………..
I listened to Alan Greenspan and Peter Orszag on CNBC (Squawk Box) discuss how the disappearance of the political middle in Washington has corrupted the political climate and destabilized decision-making (video available on CNBC website.) Disparage the independents as much as you want, they are now Traditionalists under attack by Experimentalists from both sides.
Re: 16 Certaily others take a different view. The liberals will not stand for a black man who refuses to stay on their plantation. A man who can think for himself and choose something different. Uppity! Who does he think he is?
3. lege: “…it still appears that combination of the controlling the Oval office, the Senate and the MSM is the power oligopoly which the liberals still have. If anybody has an idea of how to break said oligopoly please speak up.”
Education! Education! Education!
One at a time, educate your friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers. Each educational moment is like throwing a pebble into the pond – the ripples will spread (are spreading!).
Hmm. I must say, I’d never seen Laurence O’Donnell before. What an infuriating, sanctimonius, odious man. Watching him attack and attack and attack Cain was amazing: I hear conservatives complain about these guys, but I didn’t realize they were such blatant pinko Rottweilers.
He did catch Cain on the back foot a couple of times: and the attempt to paint the man as an Uncle Tom was particularly disgusting. I wonder how many times O’Donnell has put HIS life and career on the line? Never, of course.
The best answer was when Cain called him on his BS and said, This is a waste of time; you are trying to distract people from the Real problem, which is getting the economy back on its feet. Next question, please!
Of course O’Donnell came back with another BS question, which Cain parried.
I would love to coach our guys in debating. Always attack in response to an attack. Never bother with defending yourself, at least not on TV. Save that for position papers, and Attack, Attack, Attack! It’s so frustrating: we could hang them on the Brooklyn Bridge with all the outrageous wrongs they’ve committed.
Morton Doodslag, amen and amen! Luv ya, man!
When the Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination first lined up I groaned and thought ‘what a bunch of losers and fakers’ From a distance, Romney looks so plastic he must carry a ‘made in China ‘ label somewhere on his body. Perry just looks like a glad-handing blowhard, Bachmann is eccentric. Gingrich is yesterday. Paul is strange. Huntsman is a mannequin somehow diverted from the J.C. Penney clothes department and so on.
Which one of these people is going to take on the main problem? – that Americans have been spending far beyond their means for years and believe that repayment of their debts can be deferred indefinitely. (Canadians are similar but a minnow doesn’t make the same bow wave as a whale.) None of the afore-mentioned politicians seem up to the task of confronting the America people over their spend thrift ways. Some of them don’t even seem to grasp what the problem is.
To repeat – the main job of the next President is to confront Americans over their spendthrift ways and to puncture the naive illusion that basic constitutional rights still define life in America. Bully government rules the U.S. like never before. Things like due process seem to have gone by the board to be replaced by plea bargaining for example. Lost in all the fuss over ‘foxy knoxy’ was the near certainty that, guilty or innocent, she would still be in prison if her story had happened in the U.S.
Now old Herman is in the spotlight and I’m wondering if he is up to the task? Cain dealt very well with O’Donnell’s nastiness. At the very least Cain would look good against Obama – a real person versus a fake. Now this is getting interesting! Cain has no governing experience and that might be his achilles heel. It’s Cain’s time to be the Democrat’s punching bag. Time will tell how well he takes it. After all, the LSM destroyed Sarah Palin.
On the other point – responding vigourously to lefty talking points. Places like the Belmont Club are perfect for practising. Like many other people I’m sure, I have given several progressives indigestion courtesy of arguments read and/or practised at this site. Lame progressive mantras like “I’m protesting for the people” don’t get a free pass any more.
For those of us who believe in what America used to be and want America to wake up and become itself again – more tea party please.
I would like to see a black man who’s out there fighting the good fight, overcoming what ever institutional racism remains, raising his boys to me men not thugs, loving and living with their mom….haul off and bitchslap that pasty faced jive ass little sissy O’Donnell into next Tuesday. What a disgusting outrageous interview! Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.
Change.
I think we saw the beginnings of the change in Tiananmen Square where the strangle-hold of the government propaganda outlets began to be loosened by people with PCs and printers, and copy machines.
This may be an unexpected consequence of the Left’s domination of universities and the media. Leftists never read or talk to anyone who doesn’t share their views. Conservatives do, and learn how to counter their opponents’ arguments.
Teresita @ 9
Traditionalists = rent-seekers. Experimentalists = rent-resisters (if we may coin this term to refer to those who try to avoid having their economic blood sucked out). Almost all human struggle is either about economics (energy input) or sex; we’re animals after all.
3. lege
Vote!
OT: From the previous thread, a Downfall parody for Operation Fast and Furious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YtBxoQEkZ0
29. Idaho Spudboy:
Way to go! I couldn’t do that so it must be art. Next up a downfall parody for Solyndra?
WesternCanadian @ 23: “the main job of the next President is to confront Americans over their spendthrift ways”
No. The main job of future politicians (and current ones too, if they were up to it) is to confront themselves over their own spendthrift ways.
The current problems of the US do not stem from individual Americans spending too much (though many Americans have indeed unwisely spent excessively, and many — especially sanctimonious leftists — have made things worse by excessive spending on imported automobiles, imported appliances, imported wine, etc). However, economic problems created by individuals are self-correcting.
The current US problems stem from the Political Class (and their Bureaucratic Running Dogs) spending money they don’t have to erect barriers which prevent other people from creating jobs & tax revenue.
But history suggests that defective Political Classes do not heal themselves. While it would be nice if they would reform themselves, it is much more likely that they will bring the temple down in their inevitable fall.
stoi@28:
3. lege
Vote!
And keep on voting until they get it right.
17. Annoy Mouse
Where else would you expect to find the quinessential useful idiots, except at a Woodstock-like “happening.”
19. Alvin
“Re: 16 Certaily others take a different view. The liberals will not stand for a black man who refuses to stay on their plantation. A man who can think for himself and choose something different. Uppity! Who does he think he is?”
Obviously, there is nothing wrong with the question “What did you do in the war Daddy?” But following that question with, “Were you a hero in that conflict or someone who just stayed under your covers and let the real men and women do your heavy lifting for you?” is despicable.
The whole implication (as O’Donnell smugly waited for answers to his gotcha questions) was “you’re not authentically black”, you’re a race traitor, you’re a “Tom.” Some have opined for healthy questioning of the candidates, I’m in total agreement. But as Justice Thomas said about lynching by committee, the O’Donnell interview was an attempt at a lynching by the only group in America that can still “lynch” blacks – a white liberal.
“Speakers on the left find that every talking point they fire off is met by an equivalent.”
That is also a noticeable change in blog commentary. It seems like over just the last few months trolls have abandoned well thought out rejoinders for complete fabrications as their arguments get met head on. The problem for them is not just that the other side is prepared. The problem is that by then resorting to the big lie they are doing it at a time when the means to counteract it is getting easier because of technology. The big lie depends for its effectiveness on a delay between lie and response that is getting shorter all the time. So short that this tactic is quickly loosing any effectiveness.
I saw a claim by some guy in blog comments that he lived in an area where Obama had made an appearance and saw firsthand that everything was clear and running smoothly. Complaints that he was tying up traffic were completely bogus. Within less than 3 minutes someone posted the White House statement of total street closures that completely surrounded the area in question. Those kind of body slams get wearing after a while.
That guy never saw the mayor of San Francisco arrive at work.
ridgerunner -
How about some Civics from High School. Most modern students flunk this one:
Q1: Which political party almost to a man voted against the Civil Rights Act?
Q2: Which political party had a former Grand Kleagle of the KKK as a life long member?
Cain’s disdain of O’Donnell’s ignorance is almost palpable. Mocking disdain is all I have for all from the left and their disciples.
Retort.
walking by Foxnews and they’d put on screen a snippet from one of the memos sent to Holder in 2010. The memo said ” 1,500 weapons, bought by strawmen had been walked to MX and were in the hands of Cartel members.”
The interviewer (IIRC Brenner) asked “if it was possible that Holder hadn’t read the memos and was totally ignorant of what was happening?”
The interviewee (sorry they didn’t ID while I was watching) was extremely sharp, well-spoken and direct.
He replied by saying that if we took that point of view, it’s way worse…that would mean there’s a large group of rogue agents within the BATF, conspiring with FBI, Treasury and DOJ middle management. All acting in-league and in concert to arm vicious enemies of an allied-neighbor state with automatic weapons. And senior management was completley unaware, but funding it?
I’m practicing that for future use.
This while the coverup, promoting and repositioning of the key people involved runs at full throttle, on our dime. Let’s honor Mexico’s request for extradition of those responsible for the deaths of hundreds of their citizens.
I don’t think the US pays for the defense of extradited mass-murderers.
Deal time.
RagnarD @ 37
You’re misinformed if you believe that the majority of the Democratic Party voted against the Civil Rights Act. Of course, the Dixiecrats did, but they were a minority. Anyway, my assertion was regarding THE LEFT, which in the mid-1960′s did not include either the Dixiecrats nor the Scoop Jackson Democrats, who voted for civil rights.
38. geoffgo
“if we took that point of view [that Holder hadn’t read the memos and was totally ignorant of what was happening], it’s way worse…that would mean there’s a large group of rogue agents within the BATF, conspiring with FBI, Treasury and DOJ middle management. All acting in-league and in concert to arm vicious enemies of an allied-neighbor state with automatic weapons. And senior management was completely unaware, but funding it?”
This either-or has gone mostly overlooked but it needs to be shouted from the rooftops: either (1) senior agency management knew about Fast and Furious and ought to answer for it, or else (2) the agents who carried out Fast and Furious acted without approval or authority, and thus deserve felony criminal prosecution. There is no third possibility.
Yeah, there us a third possibility. We could elect a legitimate government then recycle the question.