1
...they need Hispanic, African-American, and Asian-American conservatives to organize in their communities, support new candidates...

No, No, No. That's pandering. All we need to is stick to Conservative principles and they will come to our side. Our message is universal; no need to target races or "communities."

You can explain why global warming is an anti-capitalist hoax to a black man same as you can to a white man, for example. And you don't need to "adjust" your message when addressing a black man while explaining why traditional family values are at the core of a great society.

2 The generation of Ronald Reagan, of which Weyrich was a prominent member, also carried with it a spirit and attitude which is largely absent on the Right today. They were feisty, fun, optimistic, and, yes, cool.

The right was *never* (and still isn't) "cool", even during the dizzying heights of the Reagan years--it may be a small thing, but I hate it when the left regularly re-writes history and she should be above this sort of chicanery/nonsense.

3 Bart:

The problem is that Commentary tends to see things through an identity politics lense (which is sheer nuttery coming from a right-leaning magazine/blog) and thinks that anyone that isn't willing to 'pander' (not their words, but that's what they want, especially if you follow them on the illegal alien issue) is, essentially, a bigot.

4 Conservatives just want to have fun!  With guns! 

5 No, No, No. That's pandering. All we need to is stick to Conservative principles and they will come to our side.

Sorry, I disagree. If nothing else, minority organizers will serve as roll models. ("See? Here's a black guy who's a Republican. He's a good guy. It's okay to be a Republican.") The left is out there every day propaganizing in those communities. We have to have a presence. To sit back and just wait for people to come to us is suicide.

6

One of the NRO contributors told an anecdote about Weyrich that definitely showed he was cool under trying circumstances.  He was in the hospital after having had both legs amputated and he had received some sad faced visitors. After a few seconds of silence Weyrich remarked - ' I was trying to think of something to say but I'm stumped '

Heritage Founder and coiner of the term Moral Majority.  He was a big part of why Reagan was elected.  Godspeed.

7 "And you don't need to "adjust" your message when addressing a black man while explaining why traditional family values are at the core of a great society. "

True.

But simply highlighting how 'stock conservatism' affects your community -directly- isn't changing the message, it's just highlighting the crucial bits for your audience.

"Here's why traditional family values help blacks, here's why charter schools help blacks, here's how abortion hurts blacks..."

Replace 'blacks' with asian or hispanic in different forums.

There are some policies that we continually have problems explaining. Particularly those that have a clear downside to a specific community. Minimum wage, for instance. "Hey, you're lowering my freaking pay!" -> Probably, but the number of street toughs will go the freak down. Or framing the argument as 'a training wage.' These policies need firm information applicable to the community you're speaking to to fly. The argument "But elimination of the minimum wage helps everyone!" (while true) isn't the way to defend or promote the elimination. You focus on how it can help your listeners -directly-.

8 The alternative to all the liberal initiatives, groups, and categories she mentions are called common sense and the American taxpayers. She wants a corps of bright, cheery children to accept the liberal view of the world and pretend to present a conservative alternative. How? By being bright and cheery. That's all.

If you accept global warming, if you need acceptance from grievance groups, if you want to be invited to dinner parties, if you don't ever want to hurt someone's feelings by having to make a decision between right and wrong, then don't bother with this 'conservative alternative' charade.

It's a silly article.

9 Dividing and defining various special interest groups and "minorities" is what commie-lib Dems trade on and USE tear down individual liberty and build up the "protector" state. Conservatives need to shun the defining of special interest and victim groups and give everyone equal justice and access under the law WITH NO REGARD TO SEX, RACE, OR COLOR!  We need an end to pandering RINOs who are really just statists.

10

The most important thing Paul Weyrich said in the time I’ve followed politics is:

"I believe that we probably have lost the culture war:"

I believe that we probably have lost the culture war. That doesn't mean the war is not going to continue, and that it isn't going to be fought on other fronts. But in terms of society in general, we have lost. This is why, even when we win in politics, our victories fail to translate into the kind of policies we believe are important.

And his solution was to concede defeat and separate ourselves. I don’t agree with that. I don’t think Ace-minded conservatives concede defeat – but I do think a lot of readers here couldn’t care less about American culture, and focus only on political elections. Liberals go for it all – they want to win the culture war, which they are, and win elections, and write the history books, and make the movies, and dominate academia and pop culture….everything.

We just want to win an election.

I think the liberals have the right approach: It’s all connected. They think fathers don’t matter. And they said so. And they support policies that fund social programs to help prop up broken families. And they make it a religious-like cause, tying it all together. “There are not bad individual decisions…if you are poor, it’s because society failed you.

Us? We just want to win an election. Change the government. The side that doesn’t trust government and argues that it is not the central point in our lives, only wants to change government. Not the culture.

That’s why Weyrich said the right lost the culture war….because beyond the Religious Right and some hyperventilating over gays, we never fought it. The left did. And still does.

Here’s the rest of Weyrich, on the topic:

Therefore, what seems to me a legitimate strategy for us to follow is to look at ways to separate ourselves from the institutions that have been captured by the ideology of Political Correctness, or by other enemies of our traditional culture. I would point out to you that the word "holy" means "set apart", and that it is not against our tradition to be, in fact, "set apart". You can look in the Old Testament, you can look at Christian history. You will see that there were times when those who had our beliefs were definitely in the minority and it was a band of hardy monks who preserved the culture while the surrounding society disintegrated.

What I mean by separation is, for example, what the homeschoolers have done. Faced with public school systems that no longer educate but instead "condition" students with the attitudes demanded by Political Correctness, they have seceded. They have separated themselves from public schools and have created new institutions, new schools, in their homes.

Is that what conservatives want? To try to make some half-assed separate society? Or do we want to stay and fight, engage liberals on all fronts, concede nothing?

When Ace takes on liberal news media, and liberal movies, and bloggers...I'm pretty sure he's not just focused on winning elections to run the government.

I don't think the Right has lost the culture war. I think we haven't begun to fight.

 

 

 

11 Actually, I think Jennifer is too right, and spot on. Feisty, fun, and optimistic is what we need to be. Let's not forget who really wants freedom of choice (beyond abortion). We have to be able to show strong, confident, fun, and positive visions of what the conservative ideal is, nothing less than the limitless possibility of the human spirit in America. And I agree that we can't be scolds, lord knows the left does this enough. What this means for social cons I don't know, I'm not debating that point. I just think this blurb has more substance than anything Kathleen Parker has written in the last 2 years.

12 The problem with pandering -- or if you will "reaching out" -- to minorities is that their minds are completely closed to the idea of being fiscally conservative. Sure, they are socially more conservative than even most white, non-Hispanic Republicans these days, but they're willing to ignore the decadence and corruption of the Progressive lifestyle as long as they get free stuff from the government. After all, most of these people have either been on welfare for more than one generation, or they come from countries where government corruption and bribery was the norm but the culture was not just conservative but what we would consider backwards. Blacks and Hispanics will vote to make marriage het only and then turn around and vote in every Democrat who promises them free stuff, even if the Dem is a transsexual who campaigns in a leather corset and full stage makeup.

Where most minority groups come from individual effort and respect for private property were little in evidence, and thanks to our surrender to the multicultural diversity brigade we no longer make immigrants to this country focus on learning our strange American ways. As for the "African-Americans," we long ago gave in to guilt-by-proxy over the slavery thing, and traded the idea of judging them by their character for the quick bandaid fix of affirmative action.

I'm not sure what the solution is. But personally I'm not going to play the "reach out and touch someone with my conservative compassion" game. For one thing, I'm not very compassionate, especially towards people who are always trying to game the system.

13 I agree that conservatives should not "pander" to minorities, but, conservatives should make attempts to highlight black, hispanic and asian conservatives. Not by having them speak to their own groups, but by having them front and center on everyday issues that affect all groups.

FTA:The Right reacted to Sarah Palin for many reasons, but in large part, I suspect it is that she was bright, cheery, and looked like she was having some fun out there. The generation of conservatives who are going to do the organizing, find the leaders, and translate think tank research into a viable political platform better be happy warriors or they will find it hard to find adherents.

This is true. The democrats usually come off as angry or upset. Conservatives generally have an optimistic outlook on the world, democrats only see what they perceive is wrong with the world. This is a message that needs to be made clear.

14 Conservatives have either been sad, mad, or glad:

Mad -- Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Mark Levin
Sad -- Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham
Glad -- Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh

^{I know lots of people would like to classify Rush as 'Mad', but I think he is more Glad than Mad, ultimately.}

15 also Sad -- Robert Novak

16 Compare the depth of our President, evident in this transcript of his talk today at the AEI, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081218-2.html , to that of Telepromptee Oh-uhba-uh-ba-bama and tell me we need to change anything but the newspaper coverage.

And as for pandering, where does defining groups of 'they' get us? "We hold these truths to be self-evident...", "...that all men...", etc. You either believe this stuff or you don't. 'They' are either Americans in your eyes and you treat them as such, or they are less than Americans and need your special white-man magic.

17

No, No, No. That's pandering

 

It’s pandering when you adopt a “cross the aisle squishy” philosophy in an effort to win over voters to the Republican cause instead of maintaining conservative principles for a conservative cause.

 

What we should be doing, and what has been shown to win, is running on conservatism AND governing on conservatism. We should run that way and let the chips fall where they may as far as all these other special interest groups go. It has been shown that when we run a liberal candidate trying to win over liberals we lose because you can not out-liberal a communist.

 

In fact, it may be a good idea to disavow special interest politics and say we are all conservatives without any GD hyphenated labels.

18

Optimism is clearly important.  It is one thing to yell 'Stop!', it is another thing to say which way we should go, and why, and to say 'We haven't seen our best yet.'

"Hope and Change" is all about returning to the past, nostalgia.  We're Americans, we do more than that.  We cut the way to the future.

19

On the need for minority outreach the greatest need is to reject the labels and images foisted upon conservatism by the left. One should be just as likely to take a beating calling a good man a racist as calling a black man the n-word. Debate should end with the first insinuation of racism and become about the accusation and the accuser. There should no longer be any attempt to prove oneself  to not be racist, this is always futile, instead the accused should respond with derision and scorn.

For guidance see the famous Buckley vs Gore Vidal "Nazi" incedent.

20 It would not be too hard to extend the reach of the Republicans, but they need to make sure their message gets out.

Here are some ideas that I think would work:

1. Cutting Taxes: Why not consider cutting payroll taxes? These affect poor people more than most (highly regressive.) Have a 3-in-1 Tax Plan that cuts Payroll, Capital Gains, and Corporate Taxes.

2. Immigration Issue: Instead of just working the illegal angle and being played for nativists, make sure that at least 50% of the effort would be reforming the legal immigration system which is a complete mess up. If you crack down on illegals while making it easier for legitimate immigrants, you will get support from those who have to deal with the insane bureaucracy. Oh, and make sure you get your Tito the Builders, and some first generation immigrant veterans to help sell.

3. Ante up some spending cuts. My pet idea would be to work for a flat tax while specifically mentioning that X thousand IRS agents will be out of a job. Need to start with these kinds of steps.

4. Move Tax Day to the day before the election. This should have been done a long time ago. This reminds folks what they are paying before they vote. No taxation without representation.

5. Stop withholding taxes....make people pay all of their taxes at one time...again, a reminder.

6. Require all "Tax Credits" to be re-defined as "Public Subsidy" so Obama can't claim he's "cutting taxes" when handing out goodies.

You will note that 2, 4, 5, and 6 would not really affect our tax revenues or increase spending, so essentially would be "free" reforms. 4 & 5 would be worth about 3-5% in the polls I imagine.

21

Rubin came to fame as a shill for Rudy Giuliani. I don't need her lectures on conservatism, a topic she is entirely ignorant of.

 

 

22

Compare the depth of our President, evident in this transcript of his talk today at the AEI

After reading that, and observing his actions these last few years, it's impossible to describe Bush as anything but a liberal. He's got it bad, the whole "we are the world" universalist utopian fantasy. In his mind there is no real diference between a Sunni Arab and a New England WASP. We're all just people!

 

23 flenser,

Well, technically, we are all just people. And technically, those Puritans in MA back in the day weren't too far from the stricter Sunni Arabs of today.

24 Cause of death:  choked to death on his own bile.

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