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Hyperbole, Decibels, and Persistency
[hat tip to @oldbathos for inspiring this post]
Everything I recommend here will be abhorrent to traditional Republicans. It stinks of nastiness, exaggerations, and mischief. But we already know that our usual methods for accomplishing anything are a waste of time and unappreciated. Going along to get along is off the table.
I’m seeing signs of people in Congress and outside of government who know what I’m talking about. They are on the brink of taking effective action, and I don’t know how bad things will need to get for them to step up and set an example. But I believe the time has arrived.
What am I recommending? We need to use hyperbole, decibels, and persistency to break through the media silence and the public’s ignorance.
First, we need to be selective about the issues we choose. We have to pick those that matter the most to the larger public, such as the border, inflation, maybe Afghanistan, and what will be the most devastating aspects of climate change legislation. We have to predict potential outcomes in the worst possible ways, whether we know for certain that they will play out.
Let me use the border as an example. We need to explain how further invasion will “devastate” our economy: crime will go up even further, maybe rise 50% across the country; drug deaths from fentanyl coming across the border could increase to 500,000 in the urban areas; COVID-19, now on the decline, will begin to rise substantially, where we will surpass the death numbers by another 250,000; urban decay will increase in 40% of our cities; riots will begin to surge again, this time between gang member immigrants and Antifa. And the list goes on.
Pretty crazy, huh? But we don’t know that those things will not happen if conditions deteriorate enough.
Second, we need to pick people who appear sane and rational. Senator Tom Cotton comes to mind. He will need to find that balance of urgency and calmness, rather than snarkiness and sarcasm. He needs to find the “volume” to speak out firmly and relentlessly and persistently. He needs to find other credible Republicans who will make it impossible for the MSM to ignore him. We can no longer be polite. This must be a Campaign for Truth; I’m not suggesting that anyone lie. But when you’re projecting into the future, who knows whether hyperbole won’t become reality?
Would you have believed that we’d find ourselves in today’s situations?
Published in Domestic Policy
I’m blown away by your creativity, @genferei! We need more people thinking outside the box! Thanks!
I might counter with Resilience, Resolution, and Results. As far as I can see, the man who’s arguably the most successful Republican politician in the country (Ron DeSantis) scores only one out of three on the OP’s title scale. If there’s a tipping point to come in the near future, I think it might be that people have reached peak exhaustion with living at political DEFCON 1 and being forced by the limited choices presented to them to vote “against,” rather than “for.” I think we saw some of that in Virginia last week. And I think it could preview future national political races.
I actually think–absent all the other hullabaloo about the 2020 election–that the Democrats have already recognized this, and that’s why they ran Sleepy Joe largely as a return to normality and peace and quiet. (Deceptively, and deceitfully, of course, but that’s who they are.) Still, I think they tapped into a huge vein of public sentiment. I really hope that–a year or so down the road–the Right can field a small slate of candidates to choose from who are of relatively sober character, very substantial brain, and remarkably stiff spine, who are not always running around with their hair on fire, looking for the nearest dumpster to jump into; or putting their feet in their mouths; or allowing the Left to set the terms of debate by perpetually reacting to its shenanigans while doing little of their own to offer useful alternatives. I think that if they nominate another hell-raising iconoclast, they’ll be doing the Left the greatest favor possible.
Yes. We had them for many decades. A lot of folks just go along with a majority and don’t want to make problems because they don’t understand much. We have to take over and propagandize truth. If the basic approach is rooted in truth, the way the world works, and tries to fixes things when they go haywire which happens when politics is local but not all encompassing. The same thing is going on now on the left. While policy changes are driven by folks who want to centralize the economy, most folks go along because it sounds ok and they don’t know enough about socialism or fascism to know what it will do.
I agree. I doubt most individuals even want to spend a lot of their time thinking about this if things are going ok in their daily lives. There is a wide range of variability allowed in that approach without turmoil. People rise up from being dormant when the turmoil occurs. We are there and in this election it showed and it showed among people who have previously voted with both parties. It shows again in the latest polls. The issue has their attention now.
This video taps into your thinking.
@she, I’ve been thinking about your comment the last couple of hours (while was grocery shopping!) and I think I see the story differently. Rather than the populace being exhausted, I think they are revving up their engines and just getting started. And I think they will expect their representatives (newly elected supervisors and other elected people) to join the ranks of the rowdy. I think that more than a year of righteous anger will need to pass before anyone will be ready to calm down. I don’t think Ron DeSantis will be absent from the vocal. He’s shown the ability to be passionate and pushing back. He doesn’t worry about being liked–he’s already drawn the ire of many. It will be interesting to see how he acts if he goes for the presidency. He almost doesn’t need to be hyperbolic–things are already terrible and they’re going to get worse.
I resonated with your “three R’s,” though. I would love for things to quiet down. I think we’re all exhausted, but I think we will need to draw on our reserves, because as soon as we relent, they will rush the gates. In a way, I hope I’m wrong.
Nice post
https://ricochet.com/1085350/a-prayer-from-jordan-peterson/
I think propagandizing the truth is the way to go. I just think that it has to be done big and fast. And there are not a lot of venues to get it out. (As for the word, Propaganda, I believe it was the original term for Public Relations.)
I agree with your comment and observations, and I want to provide an example of how the left does it. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. tweeted an anime video, which included masses of illegal immigrants, and some anime character acting to save America, including a brief moment where the character appears ready to attack Brandon. The tweet has remained up with a stern warning from the twits that it promotes hate, or something. But the real fun occurs when you read the over the top dramatic, pearl clutching, the world will end comments from the Libs. here are a few: (I bolded the content)
Pelosi said House Minority Leader should “join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate.”
AOC stated: “So while I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This dude is a just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway. White supremacy is for extremely fragile people &sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.”
Ayanna Pressley wanted to share in the hyperbole: “Heinous attacks like these leveled at my sister, @AOC, perpetuate and normalize violence against women—a reality far too common for WOC,” Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., tweeted. “@SpeakerPelosi, this white supremacist must be expelled immediately.”
Republicans could never talk like this (with the well documented exception of Anti-Trumpers who worked very hard to out hyperbole libs in their fantastic worlds of describing every facet of Trump as Nazi, Hitler, Fascist, White Supremacist, whateverist,)
I don’t know for sure, but I guess we’ll see.
I’m all for people being passionate and getting their engines revved up. That’s not really what I’m talking about. Getting fired up for cause, and acting on behalf of a good one is a noble thing to do, and I hope I live to see people do more of it. But anger, even though it can be be righteous and merited, can also be a terrible waste of brain cycles and bandwidth Sometimes, as our anger mounts, our smarts desert us, all we can see is revenge, and everything before us is laid waste.
Glenn Youngkin didn’t get angry. (I think he very smartly side-stepped that part of the job description, and as far as I’m aware (?) he made very few unforced errors in his campaign.) Winsome Sears didn’t get angry. (Clearly, she’s a force of nature, and anger just isn’t her jam.) And although I’m sure lots of VA residents voted “JUST NO” to Terry McAuliffe, I think a fair number of those on both sides who are paying attention found a couple of candidates they could actually vote “FOR,” candidates they really believe will impose some sanity and control over a system which has run completely amok. I think, in the end, that’s a much healthier way to go, and a much better way to win. Best of luck to them.
Actually I think we’re on the same page. For example, passion isn’t the same as anger (and I think you know that). Although we may begin from a place of anger (which would be understandable), we shouldn’t act out of anger. Some people like to act out of anger, because it makes them feel temporarily powerful, but it only reflects weakness and a lack of clarity and self control.
If we are angry, disheartened and frustrated, we must put those aside; they will not help us in these times. Finding the balance between passion and anger, determination and revenge, and other kinds of emotions will be key. Otherwise we will lose.
Agree 100%.
I very much like the tone and substance of this article, which deals with the smart way Youngkin ran his campaign, and calls for a “coalition of the sane” to rigorously and relentlessly oppose the illiberality of the Left: https://www.city-journal.org/glenn-youngkin-coalition-of-the-sane.
Thanks so much for the article, She. I found it both sensible and frustrating. The helpful part was his description of the “coalition of the sane” as you note; he defines it as “uniting conservatives, centrists, and even disaffected Democrats by unflinchingly opposing the unpopular agenda of the illiberal Left but avoiding conspiracy theories and distancing itself from the far Right.” This probably contradicts part of my proposal for hyperbole; I think the rest works, since I’ve equated decibels with “passion” and persistency stands on its own.
My struggle, and it’s not the fault of the article writer, is that I’m not certain that the overall strategy will translate into the specifics of any given campaign. I look at the specific tactics that Youngkin used, but I’m not sure they form a roadmap for other politicians (and he didn’t intend for them to work that way). And I’m not confident that the average politician, especially if he has operated as a politician, will figure out how to meet the people where they are. Old habits are hard to break. Youngkin was brilliant in his approach and it worked! I just hope that other Republicans will figure out what they need to do to be successful, and not waste this opportunity to defeat the Democrats.