Beating the right at their own game

[Harry Monroe]

It's The Conservatism, Stupid
Paul Waldman
July 12, 2006



Paul Waldman is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America and the author of the new book, Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn From Conservative Success, just released by John Wiley & Sons. The views expressed here are his own.

Ask a conservative what the biggest problem in America is today, and you’ll get answers like overtaxation, a sexualized culture, lack of respect for authority, insufficient church-going or big government running amok. But if you then asked the conservative what the real source of the problem was—the beating heart pumping blood to each and all of these socio-politico-cultural wounds—you’d get the same answer: liberalism.

On the other hand, you could ask a liberal a hundred questions about the problems facing our country before you’d get to an answer that placed conservatism at the heart of the nation’s ills.

And conservatives learn these messages when still young. What does a “campus liberal” do? Well, it depends what his or her issue is: fighting sweatshop labor, or environmental degradation, or the Iraq war, or any of a dozen other problems about which liberals are concerned. What, on the other hand, does a “campus conservative” do? Fight liberals and liberalism.

You can hear it in the media as well. As any fan of Limbaugh, Hannity or O’Reilly hears every day, whatever the issue is, the problem is liberals. Conservatives write books saying liberals are The Party of Death , who are Trashing Democracy, Waging War Against Christianity , ,Screwing Up America, Corrupting Our Future—and on top of it all, our whole ideology is A Mental Disorder. Liberals, on the other hand, write books about why George W. Bush is a terrible president. (I plead guilty.)

What we haven’t yet seen from the left is a sustained critique, not just of a particular politician or a particular policy, but of the entire ideology and worldview of conservatism.

More at link:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/12/its_the_conservatism_stupid.php

[Minnesota Libra]

1. This is good and everyone should read it and take it to heart. We........

....could do much to turn this country around if we just adopted a few of these ideas. I'm going to go over this article again and again and incorporate some of the points into my discussions with conservatives/neocons/fundies.

[thoughtanarchist]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Bookmarked as well.

The frames, the target, dead on.

:thumbsup:

[40ozDonkey]

3. Dead on

There have been tons of great books out on how to take back America for the benefit of our future generations. Conservatives don't have an ideology, their "ideology" depends on liberals existing to sustain it.

Anyone who is heartened by this should read George Lakoff's "Don't think of an elephant" on how to use words to frame a debate the way conservatives do. While conservatives use Orwellian lies in their language (Clear Skies Initiative) to frame debates, there is no problem with using truth to frame ours. Pro-Choice could become Pro-Privacy or Pro-Freedom, for example, without cheapening the cause. Taxes aren't an excuse for government to rob its citizens of hard earned money, they're necessary investments in America's future. Government's tax-funded responsibilities shouldn't be outsourced to private individuals with unclear loyalties, that's simply common sense. Lakoff's book also speaks on how conservatives mobilized their "movement" with proper funding and marketing (Heritage Foundation, Cato, etc. doling out huge $$$ grants and book deals to any "cultural warrior" with half-ass credentials), and Dean's book speaks on it as well. We need to find a way to fund a liberal mobilization the way conservatives have, except without selling out America to the first bidder.

I would also recommend John Dean's latest book Conservatives Without Conscience, so you can see where this "movement" failed its own supporters and learn from their mistakes. According to John Dean, Barry Goldwater hizzownself hated the current crop of conservatives, and planned to pen this book with John before he died in '98. We have failed even now to curb many of our own Democratic politicians from selling out America to military enterprise and corporate welfare, so we need to correct that and make sure the people we vote for from now on speak for the good of Americans & the liberal cause.

We got lethargic over the past 40 years. The good news it won't take us two generations like it did conservatives to take firm leadership roles in America. The bad news is it won't happen cheap or overnight. I'm not even sure where to start, but that's for better minds with contacts & funding to decide. :D

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

4. Hi NotGonnaTakeIt,

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs.

Welcome to DU!

Best,
wakemeupwhenitsover
DU Moderator

[edlacy]

5. Framing: The ReSMUGlicans, RePRIVATE-CLUBlicans, RepublicKillers ...

Hey all,
The GOP has come up with a term they want to unleash in the media. They’ve been trial running it and now they are about to lay it on thick. The term is “Defeat-ocrats.” . . . cute, huh? They need a dose of their own medicine. I propose circulating the following terms. Which one(s) do you all think might be most effective, and why?
Please don’t bother telling me if you don’t approve of name-calling. It is TIME for name calling; it is time for accurate labeling. The ruling elites are playing for keeps, and there is nothing seedy or unprincipled about responding in kind. I realize this might disturb some people’s peace, but I prefer to think of it as disturbing the war.
No more mister nice progressive.

So here it is:



The ReSMUGlicans, RePRIVATE-CLUBlicans, RepublicKillers .... . . the Money-grub-licans, the Banana-Republicans, the Busheviks, . . . are greedy, selfish traitors.



Other notable terms: Rick Sanitorium, Joe Loser-man.

Rant: The problems America faces are caused by greedy, selfish, unpatriotic, shortsighted, private club-going, diversity-destroying, Hummer-driving, nature-hating, media-manipulating, gated community-living, class war-starting, offshore bank account-having, spiteful, operative-outing, job-outsourcing, hypocritical, Communist China-loving, Kim Jong Il-cringing, sadistic, sexually perverse, Abu Graib-torturing, illegally phone-tapping, election-rigging, gas-gouging, science-stifling, Halliburton-hugging, no-bid contract-giving, friend shooting, Kissinger-appointing, My Pet Goat-gazing, disaster-ignoring, ignorant, nuclear-mispronouncing, Binladen-losing, veteran-bashing, veteran-cheating, draft-dodging conservatives.


PROBLEM: any
•CAUSE: conservatives

pollution
•conservatives are greedy and shortsighted

poverty
•conservatives are greedy and unconcerned

unemployment
•conservatives are greedy and shortsighted

health care deficiencies
•conservatives are greedy and unconcerned

war profiteering
•conservatives are greedy and treasonous

energy shortages/costs
•conservatives are greedy and shortsighted

job outsourcing
•conservatives are greedy and unpatriotic

racism
•conservatives are narrowminded, evil, and ignorant

terrorism
•conservatives are shortsighted, stubborn, and stupid

infrastructure
•conservatives are shortsighted, selfish, and greedy

education
•conservatives are greedy, shortsighted, and selfish

partisanship/gridlock
•conservatives are rude and undemocratic
conservatives are stubborn and selfish

budget/taxes
•conservatives are greedy, unpatriotic

privatization
•conservatives are greedy, selfish, undemocratic, and backward-thinking

. . . and so on.


REPEAT UNTIL JANUARY, 2009, or whenever the one-party state falls.

Ed