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It’s Time to Fight Back!
I hate to admit it, but it’s time to meet the other side, head-on. A new narrative must be created to convince people that the conservatives, represented by Republicans, are willing to fight for our values and proposals, and do it with every resource we have, and we don’t care whether the Dems like it or not.
Martel, in his recent post persuaded me that we must be creative, determined, and unapologetic about what we have to offer this country. The process will be painful, difficult, and discouraging at the beginning, because people won’t believe us. They won’t. And the Democrats will use everything in their arsenal to fight us. But an adamant truth-telling must begin.
At this point I have to take a deep breath. I’m not even fully convinced of the argument I’m going to make. But if we don’t take these steps, we will completely lose the country to Progressivism. Here are my suggestions:
- Conduct extensive research on the Democratic leadership: their investments, misuse of funds, betrayal of their constituencies, poor decisions, corrupt cronies, and lies. Most of this research has probably been done already; we just need to be willing to tell the world.
- Publish their dossiers, with full disclosure and source information.
- Identify social media that will promote the same agenda and information. Provide them with data sheets to strengthen their arguments.
- Stick with data that can be verified, whenever possible; qualify any information as unverified when it hasn’t been.
- Tell the Republicans that the train has left the station, and you hope they’re on it.
The blowback will be powerful, from the Left and Right. The Left will try to ignore us, but eventually they will try to fight back, and try to discredit us. The Right had better be prepared to have their backgrounds exposed. I’m sure that many of the long-term Senators and Congressmen have stories and situations to hide; that’s unfortunate, but they’ve probably been riding on the public wagon for too long. It’s time to either clean up their acts or find a new way to make a living. Finally, our politicians need to impose term limits; the political elite will not be spared.
This strategy will also tell the up-and-coming politicians that they’d better keep their noses clean. Don’t bother to run for office if you have something to hide. Put in some time in working in the real world, so that you understand life outside of politics. And if elected, plan to stay clean while you are serving in the US Congress.
This strategy may need to become the new normal for politicians. Although it may initially be harder than ever to find people to run for office, eventually people will realize that if they are principled conservatives, we will back them up and attack those who try to take them down.
Maybe, just maybe, the day will come when the ugly attacks lessen (they will never go away) and we can actually talk about policy once again.
More than ever, political office won’t be a place for sissies.
Published in Politics
I like your idea, but it must be accompanied by Trump reconnecting with the public and pushing, hard, for his agenda. In other words, hit them high and low at the same time.
Absolutely! Keep in mind this is a long-term strategy, since things will get uglier for quite a while before they get better. Meanwhile–push, Trump, push!
For this kind of effort to sustain and succeed, it generally needs a personality to rally around…a charismatic to take point on the moral and intellectual argument and a leader who demonstrates through example how to charge and seize the field. 2 questions…
1. Who do feel can effectively serve that role today?
2. Why aren’t they already doing so?
Lance, you are absolutely correct. I’m open to suggestions. I think any person would be reluctant because it will be a brutal role to play–they will be the scapegoat for sure. Two people who have shown fearlessness are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. In spite of all the criticism, I’d add Paul Ryan, but I think he’s too “nice.” Help me out, folks!
I’d also pick newer officials to lead the fight; they might be less tainted and they’ll want to make their mark. Looking at the Senate: Ben Sasse, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst and Cory Gardner. Of the senior people, John Barasso and Mike Lee.
We do have a few superstars. Sen. Tom Cotton, Trey Gowdy, Joni Ernst, and of course from my state, Sen. John McCain–ha ha ha ha. Just kidding! He is the poster child for term limits. I totally agree about needing to fight back. The Left are fascist bullies and if we don’t fight, we will loose it all.
Maybe not. Maybe it just requires broad support of the Trump administration’s efforts from the age-old Silent Majority. Rejuvenation of our country will come from a majority of our citizens demanding and supporting it. This would be evidenced in myriad ways, but would likely include the defenestration of the GOP leadership that is obviously bound to the elite class and that is also a coterie of NeverTrumpers hiding in plain sight. I predict the 2018 election will be a bloodbath for these scoundrels.
FWIW, I think that Martel explained well the need to FIGHT. We better start soon. Welcome aboard the MAGA train, @susanquinn.
Ben Sasse was my write-in candidate for 2016, so I am partial. But legislators by definition are compromisers and sausage manufacturers, at least they are if they want to be effective in that capacity.
What you need is someone with the intelligence of Mike Lee, the backbone of Ben Sasse, the charasmatic agitation of Andrew Breitbart, the frociousness of Lee Atwater, the demonstrable record of Scott Walker, and the electoral luck of the initial Scott Walker candidacy…with none of their demographic burdens and with just the right combination of proximity to and distance from Trump.
UN ambassador and former SC governor Nikki Haley perhaps?
Good news! It’s already happening on a Reddit group called The Donald: http://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald
Thank you for the mention.
One thing that I think could improve our strategery’s effectiveness would be to initiate it with specific Democrat targets, namely those who say inflammatory stuff.
We don’t just blanket the airwaves with every piece of dirt. Instead, the next time a Dem says something over the top, we reign down our fury on that Dem specially. Not only do we bring out all the dirt, we insist that every other Dem either defend him or cut him off (just like we have to every time Trump tweets). There’s more detail to this, but I’ll have to elaborate later.
The upshot is that we need to establish a fair but firm line for public decorum and enforce it ruthlessly, thus making the next guy aware that if he accuses us of wanting to starve poor people to help our rich buddies he’s going to have to confront everything in his closet that might be a skeleton. He might survive politically, but so long as it’s a serious pain for him, it will discourage the rest from following in his tracks.
I think your ideas and mine are complementary. There’s a sort of paradox: we are telling them to behave with decorum, but to hold them accountable, we’re not. I think we would need to emphasize that our actions are not so much about punishing them, but holding them accountable for their despicable behavior. I’ll look forward to your elaborating more on your ideas, Martel.
The page is a bit overwhelming! I’ll take your word for it, that they are mirroring what I’m calling for.
Can I ask a question and plea that you not take it the wrong way?
You are a contributor. Why not make this post automatically a first page post? I think a contributor, given this site’s (how shall we say) penchant for pearl clutching whenever certain members encourage a confrontational tone with the Left, would go a long way toward influencing folks by making this a front page piece automatically. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air for those who seem to see nothing but “Trump sucks and he must go” on the front page.
Okay, now, all that said, good piece. I like it.
Here I am going to disagree (consider this part of the overall discussion about who leads this fight). The best approach is to not let anyone who is already in a political position in DC anywhere near this. This is going to have to involve, in part, the major media outlets that we have some influence over: FoxNews (I’m thinking Special Report), WSJ, and even down to the NR level (it will never happen there). The best place to accomplish this, if you are looking for some political figure to carry this torch, is going to have to be someone who does not have the stench of Establishment DC. You might be on to something with Cruz, but even he might be tainted. It is going to have to happen outside of the political ranks. I know that doesn’t do much to answer the question, but I think it would be a very bad idea to turn to politicians.
This is a strategy that could work. Blanket their state or district with all the dirt. Get it out through national channels of course, but especially hit their constituencies.
Excellent point, Robert. Suggestions?
For about two weeks last March that Senator Don Rickles Rubio looked like the guy.
Well, like I said, I don’t know who that person would be outside of some choice media outlets. All I know is, in the era of Trump, if you come at people with Ben Sasse or anyone like that, you are going to immediately shut them off.
If you’re asking for more sting operations against politicians and political operatives, I’m all for it. But public reactions to past stings haven’t been what we would have expected from the public.
In 1980, the FBI ran a sting where’ Representative Murtha was respective to the idea of taking a bribe. A decade later, the Mayor of D.C. was caught in his own sting operation. Despite the outrageous nature of their criminal behavior, both were reelected many times.
And then, more recently, we’ve had Planned Parenthood subject to multiple undercover stings demonstrating evil behavior. Just by reciting the magic words “selective editing,” little came of it.
Besides video and audio, we’ve had countless releases of purloined documents and correspondence disseminated by outlets like WikiLeaks. Despite multiple documents demonstrating her criminality, the majority of the voting public selected for our highest office a woman who enriched herself by running a bogus charity.
I’m all for what you advocate. My only dispute is that you’re over-selling the outcome. A large cross-section of the public really does not care about their politicians being crooks, so long as they aren’t Williard Romney threatening their food stamps.
I might as well offer some advice that would yield the quickest results:
If one has the resources, find Democratic operatives taking flights to Thailand or other hotspots of the child sex trade. Any affinity group of sufficient size will have their perverts. A group with sufficient income will have perverts engaged in sex tourism.
A few private investigators following the perverts on these tours should manage to produce material that will soil the reputation of the Democratic Party as badly as the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts after their scandals.
As the GOP and allied conservative organizations can’t be clean, there’s a degree of mutually-assured destruction. This is probably why it hasn’t been done before.
I had the same question regarding the posting locale. Your second point is even more interesting in that my own perception since returning…when a member post gets promoted, it seems most likely to be in support of Trump.
Now perhaps the rate of promotion could increase, and the nature of main feed posts skewing toward podcast announcements certainly find the Trump-critique side well represented…but when it comes to the membership’s postings, they certainly seem to me to champion the president more than they criticize.
As a recognized, celebrated and podcasted voice in Trump’s favor, what’s your own take on the overall membership’s take?
Membership wide? That’s a tough one. I can name a few names of the anti-Trump variety and I can name names of the pro-Trump variety. I think it ebs and flows in terms of number of anti and pro posts get promoted. I mean getting promoted depends on likes, so its really up to A) the writer and B) the topic. I can see anti-Trumpers voting to promote if the piece is good. Crappy writing is going to be left on the member feed, pure and simple. The topic too can get one from the other side of the Trump divide to vote to promote something.
My question was, if you can post something on the front page, why not just do it? Particularly something about this topic. What do you think the breakdown among the Powers that Be on this site is regarding gloves off fighting the Left versus pearl clutching when someone goes after the Left for what they are?
My goodness, what’s to take the wrong way? It’s a fair question, although my answer may seem silly to you. I’ve been writing two to three times per week. I feel it’s an honor to be a contributor and therefore have ready access to the Main Feed. I usually have something I’ve worked on (usually requires research) by Sunday, and put it up to be published. I feel like I’ve used up my privilege. So whatever comes up next goes on the Member Feed; this OP idea didn’t gel until yesterday (Sunday), so I put it on the Member Feed (since I am a Member, too). I have another post planned for tomorrow for Group Writing and will put that on the Member Feed. I just feel funny having two OPs on the Main Feed, although you guys have Recommended it, so it’ll get promoted anyway. Is my reasoning silly, @robertmcreynolds? Anyone else want to weigh in? BTW, neither post spoke directly about Trump.
No, when you put it in that light, I completely understand. Your rationale makes sense and maybe I have just become too sensitive to these little battles we have on Ricochet.
I also usually put up something international (often on Israel), national or political on the Main Feed, and keep the more personal stuff (OP or potential comments) on the Member Feed. And I understand your sensitivity, especially since some of those “little battles” aren’t so little! I assume your not referring to battles with me. ;-)
Not to barge in here, but isn’t just giving it enough likes the way to fight back? I respect @susanquinn ‘s position on how many posts to publish via her contributor status so I was thinking that if people want more of this type of post, can’t we get everybody to like it and get on the main page that way, I will certainly like it :) . Just a thought.
I love this idea. We need to fight.
It’s time to fight back? It’s BEEN time to fight back! Democrats have been using brass-knuckles on us for 50 years while we tut-tut, tsk-tsk.
Political power must be wielded; it does not accrue interest.
Right now, at the top of The Donald: Scott Adams reveals treasonous activity by Don Lemon!
It’s very well done.
or just look for it on Periscope. I usually watch him live. But his most recent are available for a day or two.
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1djxXLBewoNxZ?q=scott+adams