Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Memo To Democrats: Talk Is Cheap

There’s something rather pathetic about the Democratic Party these days. They’ve proven themselves to be utterly incompetent as a party, and their views to be entirely unpalatable to the public. Yet they don’t seem to be able to recognize this. Instead, they would rather believe that they just haven’t found the magic words yet to win the public over. Nothing highlights this delusion more than the recent discovery that Democrats are piling into a school designed to teach them how to talk tough.

For decades now, polls have shown that the public views the Democrats as weak on national defense. Polls this week confirmed this, showing that 50% of the public prefers the Republicans on the issue of nation security and only 33% prefer the Democrats. The numbers for Democratic women are even worse, lower by an average of 11%.

So how do the Democrats respond to this obvious weakness? They decide to start taking classes on how not to sound weak. Do you see the flaw? Because they don't. They aren’t going to school to learn about national defense. No. They aren't going to lay out their case to convince us that they know what they are doing. No. They’re just going to learn how to use the lingo.

Think about this. If you know someone has no knowledge of computers, would you trust them to run your IT department just because they suddenly learned to use some computer-related words? Does saying “shiver me timbers” a lot makes one a pirate?

This is very reminiscent of the 1980s, when they discovered to their horror that every time they promised to raise taxes, increase regulation, or weaken our national defense in the face of Soviet aggression, they lost votes. So did they adjust their theories to suit the public? No. Did they set out to teach the public why their beliefs supposedly weren’t so disastrous? No. They kept right on doing what they were doing, only they learned to lie about their plans. Soon Democrats everywhere were learning to mouth words like “I will cut your taxes,” even as they planned to raise them. Soon they were talking about stopping Soviet aggression, just as they planned to gut the military. Soon leftist sympathizers and cowards like Patsy Schroeder of the House Armed Services Committee were making claims like: "I was responsible for all of our military hardware working because I opposed all of it, and that made them more careful."

The American public doesn’t trust the Democrats on national defense because their track record since Vietnam is horrible. It’s an unending orgy of defeatism, surrender and “America-last”ism. They opposed every weapon system Reagan proposed because he was the “aggressor” who wanted to start a war. They wanted disarmament to demonstrate our good intentions to the Soviets. They abandoned our friends and gave aid and comfort to our enemies. They snuggled up to dictators and mass murders. They opposed missile defense because they claimed it would make the US irresponsible. They fought American policy in all corners of the world. They whined about the rights of terrorists and ignored the rights of their victims. They put their pet peeves and desires for social engineering above military readiness. And they showed a level of disrespect for the military and the intelligence community that was borderline criminal.

You don’t overcome a reputation built by that kind of behavior by trying to change the words you use. You need to change the things you do.

But the Democrats can’t grasp that lesson. You see this in everything they do.

You see it in their desperate attempts to tell you how successful their spending splurge has been, when it's been nothing of the sort, as they keep throwing good money after bad.

You see it in their blaming FOX News for their sagging poll numbers, and in their claims that somehow the utterly compliant media hasn't been fair to them. Give me a break. There have been a whole slew of articles recently about the need for the Democrats "to start fighting back" in the media wars. As if controlling every news source outside of Fox News, the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal wasn't enough. . . as if liberals who can't stop themselves from injecting their views into everything they do from movies to television to even articles about sports and who shout down anyone who disagrees with them, have just been passively letting evil right-wingers blabber on unopposed.

Similarly, the feminist element of their party is out in full force again. They're concerned that we cavemen Americans might think that women can't be leaders. Why? Because they made such a big deal about women finally showing that they could be leaders when Hillary was sure to become the next President and when Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House. Look out boys, women have finally arrived. Well, Hillary lost and Pelosi stinks. But rather than accept that they just backed the wrong horses and instead realizing, like the rest of us, that women like Margaret Thatcher proved a long time ago that they could be incredible leaders, they've instead gone on a shrill campaign to convince us that Pelosi is "inarguably one of the strongest speakers in modern history" (direct quote). Ignore the fact that with overwhelming majorities in both houses, she has yet to get a single piece of Obama's policy to his desk. Ignore the fact that she's been exposed as corrupt and stupid, hated and hateful, and entirely ineffective. Ignore the fact that she is the Republicans' single greatest asset. . . yes, ignore it all because we can prove she's a success if we just say it enough.

They have become a party that can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy, that can’t recognize that intentions are not the same thing as actions, and that the reason people don’t trust them isn’t a lack of eloquence, it is a lack of confidence.

And indeed the lack of confidence on national defense will continue. For while they are learning to talk tough, nothing else has changed. While the country is at war, they’re again going on about getting gays into the military, women into submarines, cutting the military budget, slandering and jailing American troops, whining about the rights of poor terrorists and that our weapons are too effective or too unfair. The only thing they don't seem to want to talk about is protecting America.

That’s what wrong with the Democratic Party, they mistake words for deeds.

10 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

Andrew, it seems to have always been thus with the Democrats. I remember in 2004 when they were trying to come up with a line of balogna that could woo religious people. Yeah sure . . . I think they either are terminally self-centered or realize how full of crap they are and hope spin will cover up what they are really about. That may have worked back in the days when liberals controlled all media outlets, but no longer. There are too many outlets to show them for what they really are. That and the fact most people are smarter than politicians think they are.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I remember that. I think you're right, it seems that on issue after issue they think that all they need to do is use the right words and people will forget everything they've done and ignore everything they keep threatening to do, and somehow fall for the soothing tones of their voices.

It's like they really do think we're too stupid to notice.

And I think you're right that the internet and places like Fox News have made it that much harder for them to get away with saying one thing and then doing another.

Writer X said...

Tough Talk for Dummies 101? Lovely. I don't think it will work because this time anyone paying attention is onto the Democrats. I read an article today that Congress's approval rating has climbed to a whopping 8%! Raises and champagne for everyone! Actions always speak louder than words. You'd think they'd have figured that out already.

Great post, Andrew!

AndrewPrice said...

Thanks Writer X! I'm glad you liked it. Talking tough for dummies sounds about right. I think the public is on to them. They've been too weak on national defense for too long for people to believe it if they suddenly start using nastier language about the bad guys -- especially when they then turn around and start talking about the bad guy's rights.

It's too bad they won't wake up and realize that they need to change.

StanH said...

Good read Andrew. Democrats words mean nothing, oh hell!…that goes for most politicians in Washington what’s important is their agenda, and there in lies the danger.

As far as talking tough for a modern Democrat is laughable, in fact that what be a good retort…to point and laugh. You remember in 2000 Owlgore hired Naomi Wolf, to help him with his manliness, and be less wooden…fat chance right. John Kerry was going duck hunting somewhere, he went into a country store to get his temporary hunting license, and for the people in the store, and everyone watching, it was like he laid out a giant fart…pardon! Duck out of water doesn’t begin to describe the moment. The word “metrosexual” is a liberal phrase to mask their feminine tendencies, in an attempt to further castrate the American man. Any kind of credibility in defense for Democrats died in the jungles of Vietnam.

AndrewPrice said...

Stan, Thanks, glad you liked it. I'd forgotten about Algore. LOL! Yeah, the Democrats always seem to be trying to hide who they really are. And I don't think the public is in a believing mood anymore.

Back when there was only one media that spoke with one voice, people might have accepted it -- or at least not realized that they weren't alone. But not these days. There are just too many ways for too many people to share their views for any sort of new Democratic make-over to work.

Unknown said...

Andrew: Talk is indeed cheap. Unfortunately when the Democrats turn it into action, it becomes extremely expensive. Let's applaud their empty talk, and make damned sure they don't take any more action.

The Democrats did change entirely on national defense during Vietnam. Until then, they were as strong on national defense as the Republicans (and perhaps stronger). Kennedy got the Bay of Pigs wrong, but he learned. When the real crisis came, he was up to it. Can you imagine Obama during the missile crisis standing up to the Soviet Union risking a possible global nuclear war in order to avoid it becoming an inevitability after IRBM's were installed in Cuba?

AndrewPrice said...

Nope. I would see Obama promising to send Biden to Russia to hit the reset button and apologize for how poorly we'd behaved in the 1860s when we bought Alaska.

Unknown said...

Andrew: That sounds about right. After all, they already have us doing penance for Seward's Icebox by stopping all future oil drilling anywhere in Alaska.

AndrewPrice said...

Wouldn't want to offend the caribou. . . who apparently like the warm pipes. Oh well, we're looking in the wrong place if we're looking for anything that make sense in the mind of a modern Democrat.

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