Lessons for Conservatives

Ever since 1992, whenever I’m asked, I’ve always replied, “Yes, I really do believe that in America anybody can become President.” I’m right.

And because America is a nation governed by laws, not men, the fact that anybody can become president doesn’t worry me - in the long run.

But, as a note to fellow conservatives in the world, you will undoubtedly hear a lot of malarkey in the following days about how Obama ran a great campaign. In only one sense did Obama run a “great” campaign. He won. That’s it. He did not run an honorable campaign. Obama is a radical anti-American leftist. He actively hid his radicalism with the help of a grossly perverse media, and an intellectually incurious public made weary by all-pervasive, never-ending leftist propaganda. The American public will see this in the next 4 years. They will be repulsed.

Don't believe me about the pervasive influence of leftist porpaganda in every facet of American life? Here’s a quick game for you:
Name one prominent conservative in the old media (not Fox News);
Name one overtly conservative professor you had at college, or postgrad;
Name one conservative university or college: e.g., a counterpart to Cal Berkeley.

If you scored 1 out of 3, welcome to America’s smallest fraternity. Nobody scored higher, because it’s a trick question. You can’t score higher than 1/3. You *might* have had one professor who wasn’t a leftist. But answers to the first or third question don’t exist.

The lesson for conservatives from this campaign and tonight’s result:

1. If you lose the fundraising game, you lose. Public financing is for losers. Public financing was only trumpeted by Democrats as a way to hamstring Republicans when their fundraising couldn’t keep up with Republicans. Democrats couldn’t compete with the rules as they existed, so they changed the rules to their advantage. But the very minute Democrats started raising enough money to compete with Republicans, they dropped public financing.

2. The old Media is the Democrat Party. Period. Democrats know very well that Fox News isn’t going to ask Democrats softball questions designed to make Democrats look good. Guess what? Democrats boycott Fox News. They know their own media won’t hold them accountable for their hypocrisy. Lesson: Beat Democrats at the fundraising game and take the Democrats’ advantage away from them by going straight to the American people with your message. Trust the American people to hear you speak directly to them, not through a filter designed to make you look bad. It works every time it’s tried. Reagan did it. He won. Bush 41 didn’t. He lost. Dole didn’t. He lost. Bush 43 did it. He won. McCain didn’t. He lost.

3. If you don’t give the American people a chance to elect a conservative, they won’t. McCain spent the last 20 years cultivating a relationship with the old media, trying to get them to like him. He’s a self-styled “maverick,” not a conservative. The only conservative in the race was Palin. Her rallies consistently outdrew McCain, sometimes 10 to 1. She is McCain’s post convention bounce. She’s the only reason this election wasn’t a Reagan-style blowout. Lesson: Nominate a conservative, not a milquetoast accommodationist the Democrat media has falsely built up to better demoralize you.

4. If you don't work day and night defending, defining, and controlling meaning of the words used to frame the language of the debate, the Democrat media will, and it won't be to your advantage. Language does not have fixed meaning for Democrats. This should not be a surprise to anyone who has been awake for the last 20 years. In Democrat circles, "is" doesn't mean "is." Lesson: Every single winning conservative since Reagan has had to fight for the right to have words mean what normal people know they mean. Reagan’s, “There you go again…” debate comment is the classic example. If you let the Democrat media define the terms of the debate, the public assumes you agree with them. At that moment, as a conservative, you’ve lost. As an example, answer the following question, “Do you favor tax cuts for the rich?” What about, “Do you agree that the government knows how to spend your money better than you do?” It’s the same question. The first formulation is how the Democrat media wants you to think about it. The second formulation is how the American people think about it, when they are reminded about the proper role of government in our Constitutional Republic. The only problem with #4 is that you have to actually BE a conservative to avoid falling in to this trap.

5. You can tell how electable you are by how the Democrat media treats you. If they like you, if they treat you respectfully, if they occasionally throw you a bone, they know you can't win. If they treat you the way they treated Hillary Clinton during the Democrat primary against Obama, they know you can beat their candidate. If they treat you the way they treated Sarah Palin, or the way they treated Reagan, and Bush 43, then you know you're a winner. Lesson: Screw the old media. Conservatives need to wear the media's hatred of them like a badge of honor. Smile at them the way Reagan did. Don't let them beat you down the way Bush 43 did.

6. As a corollary to #5: Playing nice with Democrats is a recipe for a sell-out. Remember Bush's "New tone in Washington?" Fat lot of good that did Bush 43.