We all know what happened last night, or at least we think we do. The pundits are dissecting the race, and the candidate.
The circular firing squad is preparing for the ritual execution of conservatism and Mitt Romney. The fingers are pointed. Wrong candidate, wrong message, wrong this and wrong that.
Wrong is right.
It’s simple. We moved from basic principles.
We stopped teaching. We stopped educating.
We told the huddled masses that Obamacare was bad. But instead of explaining, calmly, as if to a child, why it would result in less free stuff not more — we screamed. We berated.
We attacked.
Rather than teach basic economics, we belittled.
Rather than instruct the Constitution we condescended.
We acted as if all the truths we were espousing were self-evident. And so they were.
To us.
But to the more than half this country who have come to believe that the all-giving teat of government can be milked for all good things forever it was not self-evident.
For 40 years public education has indoctrinated and inculcated the barbarians and the dependent. For 40 years they have been sheltered in the all knowing bosom of government, insulated from the consequences of their actions and knowing that if they won’t be allowed to succeed, at least they won’t be allowed to fail.
Comes the conservative movement, and we talk to them like they are recalcitrant 4th graders. We talk about personal responsibility, about the rights which go with responsibility. These are wonderful things ,we say, without explaining why – or understanding that these things are terrifying to people who, whatever their age, are children who have always been taken care of.
Rather than reassure, we threatened, and they reacted like frightened children and voted for the person who yelled “bangarang!” and promised them that — like Pan — they would never have to grow up.
We must return to first principles. We must educate. We must inform. Liberals can be converted, but it must be done one at a time. Individually. Slowly. Like taming a feral cat, you must move slowly and quietly, freeing their minds and teaching them to think.
It will be a laborious process. But it can be done.
It must be done.
It will be done.
You have it backwards.
The problem isn’t that conservatives weren’t talking, it’s that conservatives weren’t listening.
Google the phrase “epistemic closure” … you only listen to each other, you only believe each other.
Every time it was pointed out that you were wrong, were exaggerating, had lost your perspective, you simply doubled down and screamed louder. You turned yourselves into bald faced liars. And if you were surprised that the polls were right, it’s because you even believed your own lies.
Funny, I’ve seen words to this very effect directed to the other side of the political fence.
To your specific points:
When every major media outlet bar the much-maligned Fox News almost never criticizes a Democrat but leaps on any perceived failing of a Republican, how can I not be listening. I assure you I do not have my fingers in my ears and I am certainly not shouting “la la la, I can’t hear you.”
When I have seen repeated lies propagated by said major media outlets (such as the nonsensical idea that people who happen to follow one particular major religion are incapable of controlling their anger over perceived insults to said religion and therefore it’s acceptable, even desirable that the USA throw away the concept of freedom of speech with respect to that religion), who am I supposed to believe? Those same media outlets? I don’t think so. I’ll go with whoever and whatever has the closest match to what I see in my own life.
Perhaps you’d care to explain how Democrat officials ejecting court-appointed polling observers from Philadelphia polling places is a conservative lie?
Or perhaps you’d like to explain how printing money without end is going to save the country? (Hint: it isn’t. Ask Germany, Zimbabwe, and various other places who have discovered hyper inflation)
Perhaps you might also like to consider the way that official inflation figures exclude so much they’re useless. Is knowing this and seeing the difference between ever-increasing grocery bills and official inflation rates a lie? Or is it just pure observation?
Or perhaps you simply fail to understand the one thing reality never fails to deliver: everything has a cost. Nothing is free. If the cost is not paid in advance, it will be exacted later. Conservatives recognize this. The Democrat platform is built on denying it and hoping it lasts long enough to see them through their political careers (to be fair, so is a fair chunk of the Republican establishment platform).
Joshua soi-disant Scholar, don’t talk down to us. We’ve been hearing the phrase “epistemic closure” for years from liberals. It’s tired. Get a new one. I know you think you’re using big words, but it’s a bore. Kate is very kind to take the time to try and educate you.
“We acted as if all the truths we were espousing were self-evident. And so they were.
To us.”
Aren’t we a bit arrogant to educate others of the self-evident truths? Are you sure they don’t know basic economic principles or the Constitution? They know better how to milk the system for their own benefits.
The self-evident truth is self-interest.
To the majority of the people, self-interest is to be given free stuffs, free condoms, free abortions, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, without going to the scary world to work for a living. It’s so much better to enjoy four years in college taking stupid classes, going to parties than to study your tails off to become an engineer and missing the chances to enjoy four years of care-free life.
It’s so much easier to blame somebody else for your short comings, so much better to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor than to labor for someone else’s enjoyment.
If they understood basic economics they’d realize they can’t vote themselves largesse from the public coffers forever. If they understood the Constitution they would realize that much of what congress does is unconstitutional.
So no, it’s not arrogant any more than it is arrogant for you to teach your children the difference between right and wrong.
Actually, I think it goes deeper than that. I think generations of bullshit artistry in all the key places (like teaching colleges and then schools) has managed to teach too many people that there really is such a thing as “free”.
They’ll learn otherwise. No-one has ever cheated reality, and reality extracts the cost one way or another. Whether the lesson will stick depends on whether the recipient can still think for him, her, or itself.
“they can’t vote themselves largesse from the public coffers forever”
Who cares about “forever”? It’s now they care. They know largesse does not last forever, but they will get it before the public coffers are empty. Pelosi said unemployment benefits create growth. Nobel winning economist NYT columist Enron consultant Paul Krugman faulted Obama for not spending enough to grow the economy.
They understand the pesky Constitution fine, they want to circumvent that piece of parchment, the dead white men’s legacy. You understand and love the Constitution, they understand and detest it. To you the “exceptional” United States is the beacon to the world, to them she is the Great Satan. Anyways, if the Constitution means the same thing to all Americans, how come there are so many 5-4 Supreme Court decisions? Imagine how far the Constituion is trashed after Obama has done with getting more his fellow travellers to the Court. Govt. paid abortion is a Constitutional right, a “good” job with “good” benefits is a Constitutional guarantee, so is the right to live in a “good” neighborhood. Of course, the politicians will decide what is “good”.
“teach your children the difference between right and wrong”
Haven’t you heard there is no right and wrong, only different perspectives? Who says it is right to work for your living and wrong to take handouts? After paying FICA, medicare and transportation costs, those who make less than $35,000 a year are worse off than those who collect a welfare check.
The self-evident truth is self-interest.
This isn’t about ideas, it’s about culture. When conservative/libertarian ideas are presented on their own as ballot initiatives, they win, even in CA. When you attach an ‘uncool’ face to them, they lose. Until somebody figures out how to climb that hill, it’s futile.
Romney may have scared a lot of people off simply by being a Mormon. It’s not about the ideas, it’s about the image.
Something that might be getting overlooked, unless it is unique to where I live.
In the polling location I was registered to vote at, when I got there, almost every adult of the age to have children aged from 5-10 had their children there with them.
And their children were badgering them nonstop about making sure they voted Obama. Some of them little more than chanting Barack the Sun King’s last name over and over again.
You want to win hearts and minds? You’re going to have to start by taking over the Teachers’ Unions.
Good point, snork. We were given the choice between having a Mormon president and a Christian nation or a hard left president and a BOHICA nation.
Many people chose poorly.
You can talk to them until you’re blue in the face, to no effect. Let ‘em live with the full consequence of their stupidity. They’ll either smarten up or starve. Suits me either way.
This.
In 2062, let them still blame Bush for their penury, like Hoover is still blamed for the Depression.
I would weep for the future but that the future will curse the past.
“Let ‘em live with the full consequence of their stupidity.”
Unfortunately, we have to live with their stupidity too.
You are assuming that as you teach in a reasonable intelligent way, someone is actually listening and learning. They’re not listening. Their watching Jersey Shore.
My grandson, 18 years old, is in the process of crashing and burning in an attempt to prove to everyone that he can have his cake and eat it too. Moved out from under his Dad’s authority and protection to ‘become his own man’. Within days he’s asking his Dad to pay his phone bill.
The only way this country is going to learn anything is to crash and burn. Going Galt.