Disrupting the Narrative of the New Left, its allies in Academia, Hollywood and the Establishment Media, and examining with honesty the goals of cultural Marxism and the dangers of reactionary and abusive political correctness.
THE NARRATIVE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.”-George Orwell
Here is the problem: low-information voters [LIV] are a big chunk of the electorate, especially in the Democratic Party, but the Republican Party isn't free of them either. These are the voters who could not tell you if the national debt is $16 million or $16 trillion. They don’t know anything about the criticisms of how our government handled Benghazi. Ben Ghazi? Isn't he an actor? Fast & Furious is a movie, not a scandal. They know that gay marriage is a good thing because all their favorite actors and musicians think it is so cool! And "assault weapons" are those guns they see in movies, firing hundreds of rounds a minute.
I hope by now that you are beginning to get the picture of what defines an LIV: he or she does not read PJ Media or, for that matter, the Huffington Post or any political publication, left or right. The better-informed LIVs read Us or People. Most of an LIV’s knowledge of economics, politics, and history comes from watching movies, television shows, The Daily Show, and stuff that one of his leftist friends posts on Facebook. You know why President Obama won the election? He was doing local radio shows and The View. He was being promoted by rap musicians and actors.
I get very frustrated with the number of Republican congressmen unwilling to put up a serious fight against the Democrats. Yes, some of them really stand for nothing, and some of them have been corrupted by the knowledge that if they don't support amnesty for illegals, they won't get agribusiness support at the next election. But a lot of congressmen are facing this harsh reality: LIVs are a big part of the electorate, even in fairly safe Republican districts.
If you start saying things that are contrary to conventional wisdom (you know, like the fact that murder rates are less than half of what they were in 1980, and assault weapons are used in a tiny fraction of 1% of U.S. murders), you will quickly become a kook to the LIVs.
It is not at all surprising that when Republican congressmen have to choose between the 30% of voters who are grossly misinformed or the 5% of voters who can actually tell you what the Kelo decision found or how much deficits increased after Democrats took over Congress in 2006, many members of Congress have no choice but to go with the ignorant ones. They have us outnumbered.
Take, for example, the young comedian Steven Crowder. While serving as emcee on the Potomac Ballroom stage Saturday at CPAC, Crowder made a joke about actress (and, it is rumored, future Kentucky Senate candidate) Ashley Judd: "This just in, Ashley Judd just tweeted that purchasing Apple products is akin to rape — from her iPhone." Which is pretty doggone funny if you know that, as Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller reported, Judd has claimed that the purchasers of the iPhone and other Apple products are "financing mass rape" by using minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Judd has a penchant for throwing around "rape" in her far-left political rants. She has compared coal-mining in Kentucky to rape and, also, to genocide in Rwanda. Judd's long history of such outrageous comments has Republicans laughing mirthfully at the prospect of the actress challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky next year. But according to liberal journalists — whose cheerleading for Democrats is now so unapologetically blatant that it is taken for granted — the real outrage is that any Republican would criticize Judd’s lunatic utterances.
This is apparently why the Huffington Post decided to lie about Crowder's joke. "Steven Crowder, a Fox News contributor who hosted part of Saturday’s activities at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, made a questionable remark about actress and possible Kentucky Senate candidate Ashley Judd," a post at the site described it, omitting both the factual context and the first part of the joke, quoting only Crowder's follow-on comment: "What is this obsession with Ashley Judd and rape? It's pretty unnerving."
By tagging Crowder as a "Fox News contributor," the writer of the HuffPo item signaled to liberal readers that the young comic is a hate-object. Evidently, the unnamed writer – the cowardly HuffPo liar didn't put a byline on this cheap smear-job – didn't trust his readers to have enough sense to decide whether or not Crowder's joke was "questionable." And, of course, there was the clever ju-jitsu reversal: The story is not about whether Ashley Judd's rhetoric was too over-the-top for a Senate candidate — Judd's own remarks aren't even quoted — but rather whether a comedian's joke about Judd is "questionable."
In a rare, traditional filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul vowed to speak on the Senate floor “as long as it takes” to draw attention to his concerns about the Obama administration’s policy regarding the targeted killing of American terrorism suspects. But as Ben Shapiro at Breitbart points out, it wound up being so much more than that:
On Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) served notice to both the Republican establishment and to the Democrat-Media Complex: conservatism isn’t gone. It’s not even on vacation. The new wave of conservatives is here, and they know how to play the game.
At approximately 11:47 a.m. EST, Paul took to the floor of the Senate to filibuster the nomination of counterterrorism czar John Brennan for CIA Director. Paul stated his reason specifically and clearly: the Obama administration has refused to answer question as to whether they believe it is acceptable under the Constitution to kill American citizens on US soil using drones if those citizens are not engaged in an immediate terrorist threat. Paul was broader than that, actually – he simply asked the administration for a set of rules that could be used to limit their power to execute American citizens here at home. Over and over again, the administration refused to turn over the legal memos detailing its policies.
And so Paul talked. And boy, did he talk. For nearly 13 hours, he talked, taking breaks only when spelled by Senators including fellow Tea Partiers Mike Lee (R-UT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Even an honest Democrat – apparently the only one in the chamber – got into the act: Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Citing everyone from left to right, Paul pointed out the hypocrisy of an administration ripping into waterboarding of terrorists but happy to target them for death from the skies. He asked repeatedly why the administration could not answer his simple question about the boundaries of government power. And the American people listened.
Courageous effort by Rand Paul today. He made believers out of some people and shined a light into the darkness. #StandWithRand
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) March 7, 2013
One of the remarkable things about Paul's filibuster was that he's a Tea Party guy. He's so Tea Party that he gave the Tea Party response to the President's SOTU speech. And yet he was getting support from true Leftists such as Van Jones, Cenk Uygur, the ACLU, Code Pink!Amazing.
Now, do they support Rand Paul as a politician? Of course not. But that's the brilliance of what he did. He took a principled stand on an issue that many Democrats would have embraced if it wasn't Obama in the White House. He created a situation in which allies of Obama were forced to abandon him and take sides with a Tea Party senator from Kentucky in order to stay true to their own beliefs on the issue. What a spectacle it was!
And it had to be very uncomfortable for many liberals to have to stay silent because they couldn't bring themselves to support Rand Paul but in their heart of hearts they can't honestly support Obama. For 13 hours Rand Paul showed the GOP how to stand up and fight and in doing so created an opportunity for his peers to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him. And as somebody pointed out, it was 13 hours of policy discussion, not a reading of the telephone book or some other stunts.
And when Dick Durbin tried to muddy the waters by asking questions that had either already been answered or never asked in the first place, many of the senators who had already spoken came back to speak again in order to refute and defeat Durbin's cynical efforts.
John Sexton at Breitbart has the transcript of the first hour of the filibuster here. National Review live-blogged the filibuster and have several clips of various speakers here.
Thank you to my colleagues in the House & Senate, and to all the Americans who stood w/ me tonight in support of preserving civil liberties. — Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 7, 2013
Last week was a whirlwind for Dr. Benjamin Carson in which he catapulted himself into the national discussion about some of the important issues of the day. He may have also laid the foundations for a future career in politics.
It started on February 7th at the 61st Annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. With President Barack Obama sitting just feet away, Dr. Carson stood up for conservative principles, discussing the national debt, political correctness, education and, yes, health care. The video of the speech immediately went viral. All you have to do is watch it to understand why it has become such a hit.
While Obama, the grand master of class warfare, sat and listened, Dr. Carson delivered this statement which goes directly to the heart of the matter:
"What we need to do is come up with something simple. And when I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe, God, and he's given us a system. It's called a tithe.
"We don't necessarily have to do 10% but it's the principle. He didn't say if your crops fail, don't give me any tithe or if you have a bumper crop, give me triple tithe. So there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. You make $10 billion, you put in a billion. You make $10 you put in one. Of course you've got to get rid of the loopholes. Some people say, 'Well that's not fair because it doesn't hurt the guy who made $10 billion as much as the guy who made 10.' Where does it say you've got to hurt the guy? He just put a billion dollars in the pot. We don't need to hurt him. It's that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands. That money needs to be back here building our infrastructure and creating jobs."
My suggestion is to watch the video and focus on Dr. Carson. Then watch it again and focus on Obama as he's being forced to listen to this gentle but devastating critique of the Left's failed ideologies. The reason that MSNBC types went ballistic over this speech is not really because Dr. Carson brought politics into the prayer breakfast but because he did it with sophistication and absolute clarity.
The following evening Dr. Carson appeared on Hannity and provided additional insight.
Last Wednesday Politico ran an article written by Rich Lowry titled "Ben Carson vs. Obama."Lowry wrote:
…Carson has a very traditional American attitude toward success. He celebrates it unabashedly and believes in the gospel of self-reliance. Don’t become dependent on anyone else. Don’t consider yourself a victim. Don’t begrudge others their success. Get an education; work hard; and thank God every day you were born in the greatest country in the world.
Carson’s is a voice of hope and aspiration but also of rigor and of standards. He spent a long part of his speech decrying the decline of American education.
Carson, 61, is the director of
pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital (he obtained this lead
position at the age of 33). His career focus is on traumatic brain
injury and brain and spinal cord tumors, among dire health issues.
According to his biography,
he has written over 100 publications about neurosurgery and he has
penned numerous books. On top of that, the renowned doctor has received
more than 50 honorary doctorate degrees and President George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Honor (see other honors over at Bio.com). Read more about Carson’s professional background here.
He's a Pioneer in the Separation of Conjoined Twins
Among his many talents, Carson has
made bold attempts to separate conjoined twins. His first surgery in
1987 ended up being a success, as he was able to separate two
7-month-old twins from Germany. While Patrick and Benjamin Binder walked
away with some brain damage from the procedure, it was an encouraging
move in the right direction for an extremely-dangerous procedure.
Carson’s surgery paved the way for other attempts to help ease the pain
and horror craniopagus (joined at the head) twins experience.
Bio.com has more about other similar surgeries that the doctor conducted over the years:
In 1994, Carson and his
team went to South Africa to separate the Makwaeba twins. The operation
was unsuccessful, as both girls died from complications of the surgery.
Carson was devastated, but vowed to press on, as he knew such procedures
could be successful. In 1997, Carson and team went to Zambia in South
Central Africa to separate infant boys Luka and Joseph Banda. This
operation was especially difficult because the boys were joined at the
tops of their heads, making this the first time a surgery of this type
had been performed. After a 28-hour operation, both boys survived and
neither suffered brain damage.
It was these operations that brought a
plethora of media attention to Carson, paving the way for popularity
and a public profile that continues to expand in scope.
Carson's Early Life Wasn't Easy
Judging from his career, one would
never assume that the doctor’s early years were difficult. However, his
story truly is a rags to riches tale, as his mother was instrumental in
teaching him the values needed to succeed. He shared many of these
struggles during Thursday’s address. He was raised by a single mom
(named Sonya) who devoted herself to hard work in an effort to support
her two children. Despite only having a third-grade education, she
instilled educational values that forever resonated with her son.
There were occasions when
[Sonya's] boys wouldn’t see her for days at a time, because she would go
to work at 5:00 AM and come home around 11:00 PM, going from one job to
the next. She was frugal with the family’s finances, cleaning and
patching clothes from the Goodwill in order to dress the boys. The
family would also go to local farmers and offer to pick corn or other
vegetables in exchange for a portion of the yield. She would then can
the produce for the kids’ meals. Her actions, and the way she managed
the family, proved to be a tremendous influence on Ben and [his
brother]. [...]
Determined to turn her sons’ [bad
grades] around, Sonya limited their TV time to just a few select
programs and refused to let them go outside to play until they’d
finished their homework. She was criticized for this by her friends, who
said her boys would grow up to hate her. But she was determined that
her sons would have greater opportunities than she did. She required
them to read two library books a week and give her written reports, even
though with her poor education she could barely read them. She would
take the papers and review them, scanning over the words and turning
pages. Then she would place a checkmark at the top of the page showing
her approval.
Considering his background, his push
for hard work and responsibility was notable during yesterday’s prayer
breakfast speech. While many utter such sentiments without experience to
accompany them, Carson’s life shows that devotion to education really
can pave the way to prosperity.
There Was a Movie Made About His Life
Carson’s life and work are so coveted, in fact, that a feature film was made about the doctor. “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story” was a made-for-television film that came out in 2009. A synopsis provides more information about the movie, which has relatively high ratings on IMDB:
From Amazon.com: Oscar
winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Actor in a Supporting Role, Jerry Maguire,
1996) stars in this true story about a renowned brain surgeon who
overcame obstacles to change the course of medicine forever. Young Ben
Carson didn’t have much of a chance. Growing up in a broken home amongst
poverty and prejudice, his grades suffered and his temper flared. And
yet, his mother never lost her faith in him. Insisting he follow the
opportunities she never had, she helped to grow his imagination,
intelligence and, most importantly, his belief in himself. That faith
would be his gift – the thing that would drive him to follow his dream
of becoming one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons.
Here’s the trailer:
He Runs a Non-Profit Aimed at Helping Young Scholars
Education is clearly important to
Carson. And considering his own path to success, his focus upon the need
for a more knowledgeable and prepared populace is understandable. With
his wife, Candy, he founded the Carson Scholars Fund in 1994, an
organization devoted to helping solve America’s education crisis.
Recognizing that the public education
system is in crisis, the Carsons decided to help motivate young people
to take interest in learning at an early age. Here’s a description of what the Carson Scholars Fund does:
Carson Scholarships are
awarded to students in grades 4-11 who exemplify academic excellence and
humanitarian qualities. Winners receive a $1,000 scholarship to be
invested toward their college education, along with a recognition
package, and an invitation to attend an awards banquet. Carson Scholars
become role models and leaders at their schools.
Carson helps children who are battling
brain cancer, but he is also a prostate cancer survivor. In 2002, while
in the midst of his bustling medical career, the doctor found out that
he had an aggressive form of the disease. He found out this shocking
news while in the middle of performing a surgery on a child.
In an interview with “Good Morning
America,” Carson later described putting the news out of his mind so
that he could successfully finish the procedure. However, rather than
focusing exclusively on himself in that terrible moment, he selflessly
thought about the many patients he would be unable to help if the
disease took his life.
“I have the ability to put things out of my mind, so I just put it out of my mind and finished the operation,” he said.
“But certainly, you know, that evening it did weigh heavily upon me as I
began to realize that wow, I have cancer. The thing that bothered me
was the fact that I would be leaving so many people behind.”
Inevitably, he overcame the disease and is now healthy.
He's Also a Devout Christian
In case you didn’t know, Carson is a
Christian. Jesus Christ was a fixture in his National Prayer Breakfast
speech (as was the Bible). He’s a Seventh-Day Adventist who believes
that the United States has been uniquely blessed by God. In addition to
caring deeply about his patients’ physical health, he has expressed a
deep devotion to addressing the nation’s spiritual and political issues —
something he did head-on during yesterday’s speech.
The Christian Broadcasting Network once profiled Carson, noting that his views about America are rooted in its history and founding:
Dr. Carson believes as a
nation, America has been favored by God because we have acknowledged
Him. The forefathers of our nation were clearly guided by Sovereign
leadership when they knelt and prayed for wisdom at the Constitutional
Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Together they stood up and assembled
a seventeen page document known as the Constitution of the United
States of America. Our nation was founded on principles revealed to us
in the Bible by a righteous and just God. These teachings began in the
home and continued at school. In early public schools reading from the
Bible was not only common, it was expected.
In order for America to continue
leading the world, Carson believes that it’s important to apply God’s
standards to individuals’ lives. Rather than embracing partisan
solutions, CBN notes that he wants the nation to “stop being political and start being logical” in addressing key issues.
Carson has achieved worldwide recognition as a bold pioneer in the
surgical separation of conjoined twins. His path-breaking work also led
to a Hollywood stint. In 2003, a mutual friend put Dr. Carson in touch
with the Farrelly Brothers, the comedy-directing duo behind There’s Something about Mary. The Farrellys wanted Carson to play himself in their new project Stuck on You,
starring Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon as conjoined twins. Carson agreed,
but on the condition that the Farrellys promised to host the premiere
in Baltimore and use it to raise funds for his educational foundations.
The directors agreed. Carson, along with his wife and two children, had
cameos in the movie, and the Baltimore premiere raised over $400,000.
He almost killed his friend over a radio-station selection.
As a child, Carson earned himself a reputation for having a violent
temper. How violent? As a seventh-grader, he swung at a much bigger boy
with a combination lock in his hand, after the boy had tormented Carson
for being “dumb.” The blow tore a three-inch gash in the boy’s head. A
year later, after another boy hit Carson with a glancing blow from a
small rock, Carson grabbed a much bigger rock and winged it at the boy’s
face, destroying his glasses and breaking his nose. In the ninth grade
came the worst incident of all. While arguing with his friend Bob over
which station to listen to on a transistor radio, the 15-year-old Carson
took a camping knife from his back pocket and lunged toward Bob,
miraculously snapping the blade in half on the boy’s belt buckle.
“In general I was a good kid,” Carson wrote in his autobiography. “It
usually took a lot to make me mad. But once I reached the boiling
point, I lost all rational control. Totally without thinking, when my
anger was aroused, I grabbed the nearest brick, rock, or stick to bash
someone. It was as if I had no conscious will in the matter.”
Carson was so terrified by the near-stabbing that he ran home and
locked himself in the bathroom and tearfully read his Bible and prayed
for God to take his temper from him. After a few hours, Carson says, a
feeling of “lightness” came over him and he found himself a changed
person. He never had a problem with his temper again.
He was a teenage shrink.
Carson knew he wanted to be a doctor from the age of eight. But it
was psychiatry, not brain surgery, that was his first love. His older
brother Curtis had scrimped and saved to buy young Bennie a subscription
to Psychology Today for his 13th birthday. Carson struggled with
the articles but was enthralled, and read every book on the field he
could get his hands on. All the headshrinkers on TV seemed so worldly
and smart, and, as Carson puts it, he “figured that with so many crazy
people living in the United States, psychiatrists must make a good
living.” The teenage Carson grew so confident in his budding knowledge
of psychology that he fancied himself Kid Analyst to schoolmates and
friends. He’d ask them “What’s troubling you today?” and “Do you want to
talk about it?” and many in his cohort confided their hopes and fears
to him.
He was a medal-winning marksman and a dining companion of General William Westmoreland.
Despite having joined high-school ROTC a semester late, Carson was a
superstar cadet, racking up medals in drill and riflery. He flew through
the ranks, moving from private to second lieutenant in a year and
change and then so thoroughly acing his field-grade exams (he set a new
record) that he leap-frogged straight to lieutenant colonel, and then
became one of three full-bird colonels in all of Detroit. In recognition
of his achievement, a 17-year-old Carson was given the opportunity to
dine with General William Westmoreland, the top U.S. commander in
Vietnam, and was offered a full scholarship to West Point.
Obama isn’t the first president he’s rubbed elbows with.
This was Carson’s second appearance at a National Prayer Breakfast. He first addressed
the gathering in 1997, when it was President Bill Clinton seated at his
right (he got in a few un-PC digs there as well, bashing touchy-feely
modern parenting and using the same U.S./Rome comparison). In 2008, he
was awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush, who called Carson
“a scholar, a healer, and a leader.” He is also a recipient of the
Horatio Alger Award, which is given to extraordinary self-made
Americans. Other recipients include Herman Cain, Bob Dole, and Phil
Gramm, along with Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, and
Ronald Reagan. Perhaps there is a trend here.
Last Friday, Dr. Carson joined Twitter.
Today I've officially joined the twitterverse.
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) February 15, 2013
Finally, here is another video of Dr. Carson being interviewed in 2010. This one deals more with his medical career but on the issue of our health care system he mentions the same ideas that he brought up at the prayer breakfast. Like the others, it is well worth the time to listen to the entire interview.
Not long after the election I posted an article written by Rachel Campos-Duffy for National Review Online in which she discussed what the GOP needs to do in order to attract voters in the Hispanic community. As she points out, pandering will never work. There are no quick fixes and even if the GOP completely caved on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform that it wouldn't miraculously turn Hispanics into life-long Republican. Reaching out to Hispanics cannot be simply an election-year tactic. It must be an ongoing recruitment based on engagement in the community:
In the long term, education on American history, economic freedom,
and the principles behind conservatism must be a part of the playbook if
we want to make lasting inroads. The Libre Initiative, a new
organization dedicated to educating Hispanics on the benefits of
free-markets and limited constitutional government, has begun the work.
Likewise, Hillsdale’s highly successful (and free) online Constitution
courses are an excellent model of how we can do it in a cost-effective
manner. Soon, over a million people will have taken Hillsdale’s courses.
At the same time, in our zeal to promote the economic advantages of
our principles, we must not shy away from the social issues. When we
highlight our position on abortion and traditional marriage, we
spotlight the secular and radical social agenda of the Left, an agenda
that is foreign and antithetical to Hispanics’ values.
This is not easy work. Educating children and their parents on the
universal messages of free enterprise and self-determination takes
money. So does grooming political talent within the community and
training and hiring Latino surrogates to bring the message to Spanish-
and English-speaking media. Building community coalitions with pro-life
groups and pro-business groups takes time. It also takes time to earn
the trust of Hispanics and to see the fruits of our work in the dreams
of their children. But make no mistake — we can do this.
I agree completely with her assessment of the situation and what is required to turn the tide. So I was thrilled to see that she had expounded on the theme in anarticle published in the November issue of American Spectator magazine. In it, she goes into greater detail about her Mexican-American family and how her father gradually switched allegiance from the Democrats to the Republicans.
For a Reagan Democrat like my dad, voting Republican in 1980
created the space to begin questioning his family’s Democrat
heritage, the Catholic loyalty forged by the election of JFK, and
the union rhetoric he grew up hearing. Reagan had a way of
transcending ethnic, racial, and political lines and of making
everyone feel proud to be an American. It was an attractive message
for a first-generation Mexican American soldier raised on Elvis and
baseball. Plus, Reagan delivered results. In 1984, it was morning
again in America. My dad voted for Reagan a second time and
eventually registered Republican when he could no longer square the
Democrats’ position on abortion with his faith, principles, and
values. The decision would make my father the only Republican in
his large Mexican American family.
One of the things that surprised me (though I don't know why it should) is that her political inspiration was Jack Kemp:
Jack Kemp, it turned out, shared some of my roommates’ concerns.
Long before the Hispanic vote became a favorite topic for pundits
and talking heads, he profoundly understood that changing
demographics created consequences for the GOP if it failed to
aggressively and continually engage minorities in ideological
debate. Today, Harry Reid says he doesn’t understand how anyone Hispanic
could be a Republican. Actor John Leguizamo claims that Hispanics
voting for Republicans are like roaches voting for Raid.
But when Kemp was alive, he specifically and exuberantly made
the case that Hispanics belonged in the GOP. He passionately argued
that the work ethic and entrepreneurialism of Mexican Americans is
quintessentially American—and very Republican. He understood that
our parents and grandparents came north for economic freedom, not
more government. He recognized that Hispanics are inherently
pro-life and very traditional in their principles and values.
Jack Kemp is the reason I became interested in Empower America,
and the reason I brought my roommates and the MTV cameras with me
on that beautiful afternoon. Later, I received a handwritten note
from “Old #15” that I still have framed in my home office. It
reads: “Rachel—I’m sure glad you made it to M.T.V. They need a
young (beautiful), sharp, conservative ‘bleeding heart’ Hispanic
woman from Arizona.”
What Jack didn’t say in that note, but knew to be true, was that
the GOP needed me too.
I was only nine years old in 1996 when Kemp joined Bob Dole on the GOP ticket as the vice-presidential nominee. So his career did not have any impact on me as it did for Campos-Duffy. But after reading her article I was inspired to start reading about Kemp, his career and his methods of reaching out to voter groups. I was very impressed. And was further bolstered by an articlewritten by John Nolte at Breitbart.com in which he acknowledged that he, like Campos-Duffy, had been inspired to be Conservative by Jack Kemp!
The important point is that we are in a competition with the Left for the hearts and minds of a constituency that will continue to play a major role in the outcome of elections while at the same time gradually assimilate into the unique and still-exceptional American culture. The competition is not about who can pander most effectively or make the most cynical promises but which side can do the better job articulating its case. Conservative principles and American values are superior to anything offered by the Left. But that doesn't count for much if the message gets lost or, even worse, isn't offered at all.
So why haven’t more hardworking and socially conservative
Hispanics joined the GOP ranks? The answer has more to do with
tactics and institutions than ideology.
For too long, the party’s strategy has been to hire a few
Beltway conservative Latinos six months before an election and call
it “outreach.” What’s needed is permanent outreach at the
grassroots levels between elections. Conservative Hispanic
activists on the ground know that the GOP needs to take a few cues
from successful groups like the far-left La Raza, which has made
its mark by bringing public policy to the neighborhood level.
Nor can we afford to cede Spanish-language media to the
Democrats. Obama and his team are effectively and aggressively
penetrating the Latino media with ads featuring celebrities like
Cristina Saralegui—the Spanish-language Oprah. At the same time,
Democrat-friendly news producers, reporters, and anchors create the
impression on Spanish-language television that Democrats are the
only ones who care about Hispanics. Publications like People en
Española and Latina Magazine might as well be arms of
the DNC.
Fox News Latino brings some balance, but conservatives still
need an aggressive strategy to capture Hispanics via their media,
by both advertising and deploying Hispanic surrogates who are
articulate, informed, and can offer classic American stories of
struggle and success.
Which brings us to another problem: The Republican Party has a
shockingly shallow pool of Hispanic surrogates. The left
successfully grooms Hispanic talent at the local level, with the
understanding that the fruits of the effort may not be visible in
the next election. Julian Castro, the young mayor of San Antonio
who gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention,
is an example of this.
Republicans have an extraordinary representative in Marco Rubio,
who can sell American exceptionalism with the clarity of Reagan and
the enthusiasm of Kemp. In New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, they have
a relatable Mexican American governor who grew up around a family
business.
But Martinez is being under-utilized, and Rubio cannot do it
alone. The Republican Party needs to work harder to find, train,
fund, and empower Hispanic conservatives who can go out,
particularly during the off years, to present our principles and
our values.
Of course she is exactly right in her assessment that while the GOP definitely has some rising stars in Marco Rubio, Susana Martinez (and Brian Sandoval and Ted Cruz) there needs to be a greater Hispanic presence among our most visible politicians and message-crafters. Rachel Campos-Duffy has now written two excellent articles on this subject at a time when the GOP and the Conservative movement in general are undergoing brutal self-examination and searching for solutions.
This gives me hope that she will continue to raise her visibility and increase her impact in the Conservative movement. She has a compelling personal story, which provides something of a blueprint for others like her. She is the wife of a very promising, up-and-coming GOP Congressman, Sean Duffy of Wisconsin. I anticipate she will become more active as time goes by and her children get older. We Republicans need more leaders like Rachel Campos-Duffy taking care of business in communities all across the country as we work towards making the 21st Century an American success story.
I know this may seem like I'm being a backseat driver but I can't help but wish that our up-and-coming political stars would be as thorough in their preparation for the tricks and traps so carefully laid out by the Establishment Media as Obama was in pandering relentlessly to his base voters. Leave no stone unturned and be prepared for anything and everything! Even though the 2012 elections were only two weeks ago, hunting season for our hopelessly biased media has already started for 2016. First target: Marco Rubio.
GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?
Marco Rubio: I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what
recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think
that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do
with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States.
I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is
going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to
answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are
multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think
this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them
all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their
faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days,
or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's
one of the great mysteries.
My first thought when I heard about this question was to assume that the point of it was to make Rubio look stupid. Or, more specifically, to set him up to be portrayed as ignorant or gaffe-prone by other members of the hostile media.
Marco Rubio may be the future of the Republican Party, but his views on
science appear to be stuck somewhere in the seventeenth century. In a new interview with GQ, Rubio was asked how old he thinks the Earth is, and to anyone who
believes that science is more accurate than the Bible in matters of
geology, his answer is either amusing, depressing, or enraging — or
possibly all three simultaneously. But parse it closely, and it appears
that Rubio does endorse science, albeit subtly and perhaps accidentally...
They want to put Rubio on the spot by seeing if he’ll risk alienating
religious conservatives before the 2016 primaries by rejecting Young
Earth creationism. If he does, then he may have a problem in famously
evangelical Iowa. If he doesn’t, then the media can start hand-wringing
over the next big Republican star supposedly pandering to creationists.
The point is to discomfort him politically, not to explore the subject.
As Bryan Preston says, it’s a small early effort in the project to destroy Rubio before 2016.
It's interesting to strip away Rubio's answers and just look at the sequence of questions asked, as depicted in the article:
You're the first senator I've ever spoken to who had a transformative
life experience at a South Beach foam party—committing to the woman who
became your wife.
How do you balance ambition and humility?
Do you think you're moving too fast?
We've seen people tend toward inspiring transformational figures. You know you had Barack Obama in 2004...
Do you want to be one of those people?
People often talk about how there are politicians and there are leaders.
By that definition Obama would fall into that, right?
The Republican strategy after Obama came into office was to make sure
the president didn't have another term. The Republicans didn't have a
plan and were just going to say no to everything the president put
forth.
One of the poignant moments in your book is when you're hanging out with
your grandfather on the porch. If he were with you now, what are some
things you would ask him?
You were obviously very moved by your grandfather's dignity and your
father's dignity. What are the qualities that would qualify for a man to
have dignity?
How old do you think the Earth is?
You talk a lot to young Republicans. Recently I met a Republican who
said, my kids are in high school and there's a prom. There's straight
kids, gay kids. It's no big deal to them. And he says, my party, the
Republican party, has to stop putting these social issues out there and
talking more about stuff that effects people.
Who's your best friend?
Besides your wife.
Your autobiography also has to be the first time a politician has cited a
love of Afrika Bambaataa. Did you have a favorite Afrika Bambaataa
song?
Your three favorite rap songs?
Is there a song you play to psych you up before a vote in the Senate?
So, Pitbull's too cheesy?
I suspect that Rubio was not expecting a random question about the Earth's age popping up in the middle of a series of personal questions. What has the Earth got to do with getting to know Marco Rubio? Nothing, of course. It's a "gotcha" question. And when I talk about being thoroughly prepared for these kinds of silly questions I mean war-gaming all possible scenariosand deciding how to answer them.
Generally speaking, it should be a simple (if tedious) matter of the potential candidate creating an exhaustive list of issues and then solidifying in his or her mind what he or she believes and then crafting an answer that both accurately conveys that belief and minimizes the opportunity for ridicule from a hostile media. Obviously this is something that Marco Rubio is quite capable of handling with ease. He just has to understand that every media person asking him a question is a potential hostile and that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be taken for granted. There is still plenty time to do this. On the other hand, the time has already arrived. Let's be careful out there!
