The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Rhetorical Physics

Posted on | November 19, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

 

More fully: “If you discuss Democrat’s 80 year old ‘free stuff’ strategy, Democrats say you’re racist, and establishment Republicans say you’re mean and divisive. This is pure insanity.”

In the Newtonian realm, we talk about force being the product of mass and acceleration. That’s the 2th Law.asdf For those who’ve spent the last few years leading a parched herd of horses to water and wondering why they vote for thirst, I’d like to suggest a Newtonian analogy.

The rational, intellectual, economic, historical, patriotic, liberty-oriented arguments that have been offered by conservatives everywhere from blogs to policy have been, well, massive.

Yet those arguments haven’t overcome the acceleratingly negative, emotionally-oriented racial and class-warfare rhetoric of the statists. The Left has a substantially greater negative vector  than that of the Right. Remember: enough speed in the wrong direction can weaponize a piece of insulating foam. Similarly, when dealing with people, a nonsensical argument delivered properly can devastate even the truth.

Why?

The facts don’t sell themselves. The stupefying Gramscian trajectory of the last decades has meant that no mass short of the Sweet Meteor of Death is going to budge our benighted electorate.

Thus, without losing any of the enlightened mass that has built up on the Right, the challenge is to uncover our own means of accelerating that mass in the public discourse. For example, had I the budget, I should look to run really short (15 second) spots in swing states at a low frequency, say quarterly. All thse would do is feature a snippet of family dialog pointing out how jacked up the Obama Administration policies are.

Kid: “I want to go to college.”
Parent: “We had to raid the college savings for gas. If you take loans, you’re a slave to the bank. Plus, you’re white, so you get no assistance. Because fairness.”

Vary the theme that liberty is giving way to patronage. Say it sharply, quickly, a thousand different ways.

The physics of the situation are ugly, but turning the inertia around is going to take a long time. Sorry. The quick fix was served with the free lunch. At Ché Bernanke.

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Comments

12 Responses to “Rhetorical Physics”

  1. Beeblebrocs
    November 19th, 2012 @ 4:17 pm

    There are lots of ways to push back and Romney (may he rest in peace) had plenty of money to do it (as did Rove).

    How about this for a campaign: “The Democrats hate you and want to make you slaves.”

    There are lots of facts to prove this so we don’t have to lie like Obama did about Romney. But we have to go negative on their character. These people are loathsome and we need to tie anyone who would vote for such vile people to being vile themselves.

  2. htowt
    November 19th, 2012 @ 4:33 pm

    Smitty:

    It’s all about the second derivative. The technique must be to give a “jerk” in an orthogonal direction to any rhetoric that is a confirmation of progressive “truths.”
    The reaction must be immediate and sharp. You are on the right track.

  3. K-Bob
    November 19th, 2012 @ 5:01 pm

    I often wonder why guys like Adelson and the Koch Bros. prefer to spend hundreds of millions on campaign donations, when fifty million spent on a really great film that happens (by sheer coincidence) to promote conservative values would gain far more traction. And earn profits, besides.

    A lot of Mel Gibson’s stuff is an example, and he’s not a splendid example of humanity; nor is he as wealthy as those other guys.

  4. CalCon10
    November 19th, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

    Ah, but that would require an actual spine. There is none such to be found anywhere in the GOP senior ranks. You know, those Important People (who never seem capable of winning an election) who trash us stupid, backward conservatives (whose candidates win a lot more than the Establishment’s.)

    But, hey. It’s a whole lot easier for Republican poo-bahs to excoriate conservatives and get invites to cool D.C. parties and crumbs from the Dems’ corruption table. More fun and profitable, too. As for the price being their souls…well, who cares? We made the celebrity C-list!

  5. TR
    November 19th, 2012 @ 7:00 pm

    Smitty, Fabulous!
    The Phila word that is reserved for only the cheesiest and most delecious. Matter of fact, Newt called me today (his surrogates) and asked me to fund his version of the Smitty Smiting Sword …alliterative solution. Sadly, I said I am a bit low in the heels as I will be unemployed in Jan and they hung up!! Oh well.

    As Jim said, back in seminary school, you must Petition the Lord with prayer…

    And I said, I’m not dead yet.

  6. richard mcenroe
    November 19th, 2012 @ 8:39 pm

    The problem with the GOP nomenklatura’s rush to pander to the “urban demographics” is, even if they authorize the goodies, they’ll be handed out at the street level by DEMOCRAT bureaucrats. Wonder who’ll get thanked?

  7. K-Bob
    November 19th, 2012 @ 10:04 pm

    Unions!

  8. Bob Belvedere
    November 20th, 2012 @ 7:49 am

    I like to call those self-labeled ‘conservatives’ who are proud members of the GOP Establishment ‘The Conservative Beautiful People’.

  9. Bob Belvedere
    November 20th, 2012 @ 7:50 am

    Smitty is always on the Right track.

  10. Pandering Pablum Puke « The Camp Of The Saints
    November 20th, 2012 @ 8:17 am

    […] good Friend In The Ether, Richard McEnroe, makes a damn good point [will wonders never cease] in a comment left on this post by Smitty over at The Other […]

  11. Bob Belvedere
    November 20th, 2012 @ 8:18 am

    Quoted you here.

  12. Bob Belvedere
    November 21st, 2012 @ 8:29 am

    Stop with the obscene words!