Ken Cuccinelli lost the Virginia gubernatorial race last week because he did two things poorly: 1) He allowed a Democrat plant and phony Libertarian to go unchallenged and to steal 6.6% of his vote, and 2) he remained mute to the machine gun bursts of dishonest charges coming from the McAuliffe camp and women’s groups accusing him of trying to undo women’s reproductive rights and contraception; i.e., making war on women.
Both were built on lies.
The war on women has been a lie for a long time, and it’s time it is defused. But from analysis, it seems clear this can be spearheaded ONLY by political candidates in the political arena, for only they can draw the sort of public attention to the issue in the proper honest and “negative” light. In doing so they can redirect a political and cultural counter-offensive toward the same groups the Left are trying to reach, which are not feminists, lesbians, and unmarried women who want the taxpayer to pick up the tab for their choices at Happy Hour, but another group altogether.
As a social problem worsening every year, political candidates are better able to spearhead a public cultural response to not only the dishonesty of these ads, but the social damage that arises from them.
But the my bottom line here is to describe how this can help distinguish the conservative candidate from the herd, and get him/her elected.
You see, there have been several left-wing narratives or memes established in the popular culture over the past 40 years, all enabled and enhanced by the main stream media. Each needs to be countered head-on and defused, especially as they affect target voter blocs. Over the coming months we’ll discuss as many of these as we feel are necessary to drive a wedge between the Left and their client base.
To begin with, today, “moderates” have replaced “independents” as the Left’s primary target “swing voter” bloc.
For years “Independents” were the targets of these campaigns, but today it seems the Democrats have lost the Independent vote for the foreseeable future, at least as long as the Obama brand of thuggish, corrupt and incompetent management continues to mark Democrat Party governance. In short, right now Obamacare and Obama-lies trump the “war on women.” That can change, of course, but not soon, and what I am saying here is with a view toward 2014.
Independents have now been replaced by “Moderates” – which as a voting bloc, was rarely even considered until the Virginia election.
To illustrate, we know that unmarried women (and men) voted 67-25 against Cuccinelli (vs 50-43 married men and women’s approval of him.) (The polls do not mention how many of the unmarrieds were gay, had children, were employed, or where, e.g., in 7-11-type service work or white collar work.)
I can’t know the Cuccinelli team’s mind about repelling either the false-Libertarian or the war on women assault, but both were outcome-determinative in his defeat. Did they not see them, dismiss them, or just not know how to counter them? Historically, Republican campaign consultants tend to discount them.
(Yes, I also know the GOP didn’t give Cuccinelli any money, and generally worked quietly to “allow” him to lose. But stow this notion. If you are to be a conservative candidate, accept this as a new reality. If we’re going to help 435+ conservative candidates in 2014, we have to show them things they can do to help themselves, while accepting that the GOP Establishment cannot be relied on for help…unless candidates are willing to bend over and bite the royal pillow in exchange.)
What we do know from this 67-25 split is that feminist groups, gays (with a lot of admixture here) and the young unmarrieds, as a voting bloc are relatively small. Their numbers did not swing the election in Virginia. But their narrative probably did.
And that “war on women” narrative is not unlike several others at their disposal, all poised and targeted to reach certain groups other than the supposed victims, all of which have become household names and national nightmares by now; global warming, “the children”, “gay rights”, etc. There are dozens.
So what effect their message (primarily of victimhood) has on the larger voting groups is a better measure of that power.
In this the Left uses a simple “third party” approach namely by appearing to screech about their “tormenters,” i.e., Republicans, to like-minded members of the groups (in this case, unmarrieds, feminists and gays) about the evil things the GOP is doing to them. But in fact, they are really speaking to third parties, today, the “moderates” in the Republican Party, whose vote is larger than their own group.
The technique, like the math, is simple, for it targets a bloc who, as is often said of actors, desire the “approval of strangers”, and also picks at the scab of what has become documented and well known about Republicans for a generation at least, an unwillingness to engage in toe-to-toe political combat. (There are several reasons for this, some admirable, some not.)
But I’ve found in the four years I’ve been writing that conservatives often miss this simple strategy completely for they are unable to envision the modern political world as one of eternal strife and struggle, a world of never-ending pent-up rage and victimhood. I suspect they really don’t want to see it. (You’ve often heard me use the term “think the unthinkable.”)
Let’s just say that conservatives tend to be linear in their thinking while leftists are geometric, and hold back because of a more positive view of humanity and civilization, plus a higher regard for good manners.
In offering this, we try to thread that needle with this in mind, as you will see from the talking point included, below.
But among Republicans and conservatives alike, (and for slightly different reason) face-to-face confrontations are to be avoided, as are discouraging words. They feel more comfortable speaking to the choir, which in the blogosphere, turns into a droning form of commiseration. The Left, on the other hand, is just peeing in its pants it’s so antsy to let the world know of the latest bitter pill their political enemies have made them swallow…all of which, of course, are contrary to their constitutional right to not to have anyone within a thousand miles disapprove of their behavior or morality. And to have taxpayers pay for any mistake that might arise along the way.
Since Cuccinelli, (a conservative) like Romney (a moderate), carried that Independents handily, by 8 points the only likely “third person” target of the “war on women” messaging is the jellyfish bloc, i.e., the Moderates.
Most moderates in any election these days are Republican, many more than Democrats. This is the swim-with-the current wing of the party, and while these wobblies make up probably less than 20% of the Democrat Party, they make up as much as 80% of the non-conservative wing of the Republicans. But they also run deep into GOP national and state leadership, and its deep pocket donors….which explains why Cuccinelli couldn’t get any money.
The key is that this jellyfish attitude is more cultural and psychological than it is political; the fear of disapproval, the fear of appearing to be on the wrong side of an issue(s) they don’t really understand except in the context of their closest social circles, and the fear of picking a loser. So, moderates are defined by their capacity to be driven, herd-like, to any given position, by loud and aggressive people who just won’t shut up. For the donor class, the fact that so many have trophy wives who worry more about social position than societal breakdown (you’d have to understand the second-third wives of nobility in the 14th Century to understand this thinking) is another fact candidates will simply have to accept as a state of nature.
In short, Democrats and Leftists understand what makes these people tick, and what buttons they have that can be pushed much better then most conservatives.
We’re here to change that.
So, what if you’d awakened on Wednesday morning to read “CUCCINELLI WINS ANYWAY!” ?
What if Ken Cuccinelli had added two minutes to his stump speech, and woven this theme into media releases and ads?
There are some people whose vote I don’t want, whose vote or approval I am not seeking.
I’ve been blasted in ads not for my political positions but my religious convictions. I believe, as a Christian, in the sanctity of life, and abhor the taking of it, under any circumstance. Sen Teddy Kennedy went to his grave saying he believed in the very same things.
But I am also a lawyer, and know that the Supreme Court sanctioned the taking of a baby’s life while still in the womb, if the mother so chooses, irrespective of my beliefs. or the belief of any other.
So, as governor I know I will have no more power to prevent a woman’s power to choose, no more than the Congress or the president can. That has been the law of the land for over 40 years
I am saying this now because it seems a lot of smart people seem not to know this simple fact about the law and what a governor, or any other public official can and cannot do.
But setting aside religious beliefs, I will continue, as a responsible citizen to remind every Virginian of the high price our society pays for the break-up of the American family, the downslide of American culture and public morals, and the wanton disregard for life of the unborn. That used to be a plank in both party’s platforms not that long ago.
As a society we are crumbling, and I cannot sit idly by and watch this happen for fear of offending some misinformed people about the role they play in it.
And while the right to abort or prevent a baby is inviolable by current law, the power to demand other citizens to pay for it is not.
If you are among those who want to have sex whenever and wherever you want, and demand, that other Americans pay for it…
…then I don’t want your vote, and God help our country if I need your vote.
Vote for the other guy.
The “war on women” campaign is well-orchestrated and financed. It’s slick and glossy. And nothing we can say out here in the blogosphere, or in print, or on Twitter, can undo that. We simply don’t have the money to reach out to the other 80% of women – real women – to push back. But politicians, political candidates, are especially able to do just that, if they’ll only reach out and stake out a hillside that normal people will want to join.
My view is that, because of the genuine nature of moderates, many will join, for in reality, they follow a herd instinct.
Cultural moderates will follow a winning theme if it’s structured to reassure all their insecurities, simply by showing them that they would be much more secure in this group than the other.
The Democrats have always been better at speaking to “third-party” ears than Republicans. But with the right message, a conservative candidate can speak directly into the face of the squeaky wheels, and bare them naked, simply by calling them out, and forcing the eyes of third parties moderates to be redirected back to them disapprovingly rather than fearfully. You don’t have to call them what I might call them, all you have to do is tell the “third parties” where the real cultural strength and security of their world lies, and most will follow.
Trust me, the Left will not quit. But neither will they win. You will. And at some point they will simply drop the narrative and concoct a new one.
This is the face of unrelenting war, and the sooner conservatives man-up to this fact, the sooner the Left will turn to heel.
Again, it only takes about two minutes on the stump. That will be your foot in the door. Then, conservative media can join in on a level field..
This sort of thinking is apt to grow the 1) conservative base, 2) resonate with like-minded Democrats (ushering in a new generation of “Reagan Democrats” and 3) diffuse the suggestive power of the left-wing over moderates. It can carry elections.
There are many other memes the left and media have used to go after conservative candidates. They are anti-religious in nature for Marxism is, at its heart, atheist, and can tolerate no competition. We’ll analyze many of those in coming weeks.
Have Rolled Up Newspaper, Will Travel
