Christopher S. Brownwell, American Thinker:
Setbacks in recent elections have left some self-proclaimed conservatives announcing the era of Reagan is over. David Frum thinks conservatives need to be less aggressive and move to the center to win. David Brooks suggests that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s conservatism is stale. Possibly, the Kathleen Parkers, Peggy Noonans, Christopher Buckleys of “conservatism” are just embarrassed by the NASCAR watching, Wal-Mart shopping, Jesus-loving conservative base.
In a survival of the fittest, these political pundits have tried to spontaneously generate an evolving definition of conservatism. They then try to put conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Bobby Jindal, and Sarah Palin in a closet of political extinction. However, these and many other conservative Neanderthals refuse to go quietly into the political closet despite the ridicule.
[…]
Why would I choose to be a conservative? Why would I choose the persecution? I am constantly ridiculed for my beliefs. I have been compared to Nazis. Liberals call me a sexist, racist, bigoted homophobe. My intentions are mischaracterized, and then I am judged by those mischaracterized intentions. For example, because I favor policies to help get everyone off of welfare to succeed on their own, my intentions are characterized as trying to keep blacks and minorities poor. These liberals then brand me a racist because they perceive my intentions are to keep blacks poor.
You would think I would choose to be a liberal. Liberals worldwide are hailed as compassionate for merely “raising awareness” of the plight of the poor. Forget that the poor don’t see a dime from the “awareness” raised. Despite poverty winning the war we waged on it, liberals get judged by their intentions rather than the results of their policies.
[…]
Conservatives believe that right principles drive right policy choices. Policy choices must yield to the proper principles. As a conservative I will not change my conservative principles to mirror popular or progressive policies.
[My emphases.]
Word must be getting around.
OUTLAW!
****
update: via CJ Burch, more from American Thinker:
The premise that now guides the mainstream media is something we haven’t seen before in this country – thus the never-ending consternation of conservatives at the blatant bias of the media and the nonchalance of its practitioners when caught in the act. We have seen press behavior like this before, though – not here, but in China and the Soviet Union during their classical Leninist eras.
When studying Chinese and Soviet politics back in the 1960s and 70s, I lived on a constant diet of the People’s Daily, Pravda, and their companion publications. It was clear from the first day that the press in Communist China and the Soviet Union was fundamentally different from ours. It had a different purpose, a different relationship not only to the political power structure, but to the truth itself. Railing at Chinese or Soviet media bias the way that today’s conservatives whine about ABC or the New York Times would have been foolish. Instead, it was necessary to understand the assumptions and objectives that underlay media that was under Leninist control. How did they see their role in society? What did they see as proper and improper practice?
There are rules about how a Leninist press works – its operational code. When reading People’s Daily and Pravda with these rules in mind, the controlled press made perfect sense. What’s the point here? Troublingly, these same rules fit today’s American mainstream media – and the media’s relationship to the Democratic Party – nearly to a T.
Read the rest. Then tell me: Overstatement?
Discuss.
And because someone asked, here’s the link to my earlier Breitbart TV appearance discussing language, principle, and strategy.
Being liberal means never having to say you’re sorry that your policies didn’t work. Or that they won’t work.
A.T. overstatement? Not in the least. It describes accurately and concisely exactly what we have with the MSM. and I want them to fail!
Lots of great posts, Jeff. Please keep them coming! Glad you are back to stay? ?
From second link:
Nor is direct government ownership of media outlets out of the question. We already have the Public Broadcasting System, and this model could be applied more broadly. In this era of government bailouts, how hard is it to imagine a national icon such as the New York Times, crippled by shrinking advertising revenues, seeking government support “in the public interest”?
How ’bout this proposal in Michigan:
Jeezus that Burch piece is …more insightful than usual. As if I’m not deeply morose enough.
So basically you’re saying that you hate black people.
Limbaugh’s “four words” were a pebble, kicked down a slope. A slope that had been prepared by those like Jeff G. fighting the corruption of language and meaning. Picking up speed and mass now.
Just a reminder that I’m still on vacation.
Carry on.
Read the bullet points from the Birch piece,
The press is part of the Party establishment, not an independent or adversarial entity Well duh. Watch a Bush press conference and an Obama one. They’re like night and ice cream.
The Party decides what is news, what is not, what will be reported Heh, the deciders.
Articles must carry the interpretation of events that the Party wishes to convey Yup. Bush lied didn’t become “truth” on accident.
From time to time, the Party uses the press to agitate the populace in a motivational campaign, aimed either at accomplishing a major goal You know, like AIG for instance.
The Party’s leading individuals always receive deference, reverence, approval, even adulation Obamessiah for instance.
Individuals opposed to Party rule are selected as targets of disapproval, usually to the point of demonization This is nothing at all like what they did to Rush (did I say that with a straight face? I’ve been practicing so Frum would like me)
Fabrication of events, quotations – even people – is permitted in furtherance of Party objectivesPlastic Turkey being a particularly funny example of that.
National security topics are viewed exclusively through the prism of Party interest You mean like the difference between the NY Times revealing every secret CIA op they can find is okay but “outing” Valerie Plame is treason most foul?
Independent media outlets are either forbidden, or permitted only if they address topics of no political impact. Faux news and gay porno cock of lies anyone?
So reading that only strengthens my conviction that we should try to kiss the ass of the left and maybe they’ll be nice to us.
I do not think that being on the government dole makes you either free or solvent. Let them fail along with Obama. The 1st amendment is not an insurance policy for any given company. New papers will rise if the market is there.
Not too far at all. I have said on here before that I took some journalism classes back in college in 05 and 6 and saw first hand how they all were lockstep in their talking points, opinions, and Dem bumper stickers. Most of them volunteered, including the teacher who admitted to running for office once, for Dems and commited to helping them win elections. Fox news was the only one agreed to be biased, not even Al Jazeera recieved that scorn. Talking points such as, “Well southerners are racists” where thrown out randomly with noone seeming to object besides myself. These people are the Democrat party, if they can’t work actively for it they become journalist in the same fashion that those who can’t do, teach.
Is a state song still a state song if the government retroactively changes the author’s lyrics to make it more inclusive?
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGFhMWU3NTFkNDI0MTc3Y2M1MTlhNmMzMmMzNjEwOWM=
I would suggest that Patterico call his office, but I’m sure that line is swamped with newly placated Maryland moderates.
Yes, I’m paying attention now, Jeff. Ashton Kutcher’s twittering had me distracted for a second. Sorry.
“I hate Communism most for its cold-blooded murder of the truth! Pravda doesn’t mean truth. Pravda means whatever serves the world Communist
revolution.”
-Robert A. Heinlein
Geoffb – The “free press” of the Constitution appears to have become primarily the Internet during the Age of Technology …so the Founders were right (again) …and Brian Calley can rest easy (and vote against that transparent attempt by the Democrats to insure the continued viability of their public propaganda arm).
…and does anyone else get the impression that we’re living (not only through Atlas Shrugged, but ) within a particularly bad production of Life of Brian?
This has to be gratifying for Jeff. A lot of his ideas are being vindicated and echoed in prominent places.
within a particularly bad production of Life of Brian?
davis,br, I was just thinking that last night, well, except I was thinking of the Holy Grail.
This is the Funniest End of Civilization Ever, after all.
We are told that our argument doesn’t matter, that our complaints are petty and unworthy of coverage or debate. We are told that “we lost,” and so we must sit down and shut up, and be thankful for whatever scraps our masters deign to throw to us.
We are told this every day. Over and over again, we are told to be cheerful or else be silent. After a while, this concerted effort to silence and demoralize us starts to work.
Then a few people stand up and say NO! And it’s like a splash of cold water to the face. “Our betters” are not better! They don’t have good ideas, nor do they have good intentions — all they have are microphones and loudspeakers. These tools give them power, but it has limits. We don’t have to shut up, and we don’t have to play along.
When Jeff despaired, I shared that despair. This week, he’s back, and he’s fighting mad, and now there are other voices joining his, and people, however slowly or quietly, are beginning to take notice.
We are not sheep. We are free men, and we will be heard. Our opponents will try to silence us, and when we do not remain silent, they will twist our words and misconstrue our arguments. This does not matter, for we will remain free and we will continue to speak out. Arguments in defence of liberty were once held in high esteem; they shall be again.
My thanks to this community for keeping the embers burning.
And as a result, our ideas spread below the radar, where the gatekeepers of the Establishment Media have no power.
History repeats, first as tragedy — but sometimes the second time around is not farce, but epic.
Is a state still a state if the government retroactively changes its name to make it more inclusive?
No, Harold. That an illiterate, pig-ignorant nutjob like you is a State Senator is a grave injustice and an insult to the people of Rhode Island.
OT I got stuck in your neck of the woods, Jeff. Nice blizzard out there. Who ordered up all this global warming?
That American thinker essay is terrific.
Odds that Harold M. Metts (D-Ignoramusville) even knows who Roger Williams was? Or where slavery was first outlawed in North America?
He probably thinks he was that guy who sang “King of the Road” or something.
Roger Williams was America’s first outlaw.
where is the mcgruder?
They say (Patrick, Charles) that we are weak. There is no fighting common misperception and a corrupt media ideas of Republican “meaness”. When will we be stronger? It’s the time to use strategic impropriety, to tell the flat truth about O and why he has to fail or America does.
He’s over in the corner cursing our luck to have been stuck with Bush for the last eight years.
And as a result, our ideas spread below the radar, where the gatekeepers of the Establishment Media have no power.
As in the case of this viral vid of a British MEP giving Gordon Brown what for.
As the MEP says in that link, “How did [the video go viral], in the absence of any media coverage? The answer is that political reporters no longer get to decide what’s news. The days when a minister gave briefings to a dozen lobby correspondents, and thereby dictated the next day’s headlines, are over. Now, a thousand bloggers decide for themselves what is interesting. If enough of them are tickled then, bingo, you’re news.”
There seems to be a natural, organic affinity between a political party with dictatorial ambitions and the press, and this makes formal indoctrination or routine enforcement unnecessary.
No no no that’s shampoo, this is corruption is what it is. It’s not some law of nature it’s weak corrupt pieces of socialist shit what have names like the mincing Steve Inskeep and that fatass Andrea Seabrook and ferret woman Terry Gross and that Pinch Sulzberger Jr. fag what run his daddy’s business into the ground and Katie give it to me up the ass Couric and Ladies Home Journal coverboy Matt Lauer and Gloria Vanderbilt’s faggy son what has the ungodly number of shoes. Anderson Cooper. God they suck and they should be scorned and shunned as the shitty venal cocksuckers that they are.
Also someone should key the shit out of Jon Stewart’s car.
How can we be just like the Democrats if all you little people make us tell the truth? Leave us alone!
Someone needs to airlift Jon Stewart’s car to a Parisian suburb and just let nature take its course once they find out it is a jews car.
Run Anderson, run! No? Ok. Skip Anderson, skip brightly now.
Katie’s a back door gal, huh? Seem so obvious now that you said it, hf.
34
Most of them are if you feed them enough shots of tequila. :)
squid at 17 is heartening. I feel better.
I’ve a garden and I’m growing devil words.
Jah Rule, dicentra, Jah Rule.
$2.50 for an eyeball and a buck and a half for an ear. Happy hour is here, eh Gordie?
Comment by dicentra on 3/26 @ 1:54 pm #
But … but … THE DECIDERS!!!
We have to be NICE, because teh media is an unstoppable force of nature destroying all in its path! Except Dan Rather. He’s a punk who got taken out for being stupid. BUT THE REST OF THEM!
I’ll take that under advisement, Mr. Pink.
Hey, Lenin, yeah.
Y’know, whenever I start to get a little excited about seeing something I think is true show up in someone else’s screed, like there being a “natural” (-seeming) “affinity between a political party with dictatorial ambitions and the press,” it always winds up being a rhetorical question, or a weakly formulated, noted-and-passed-over unthinkable thing.
That’s annoying.
Think it, dammit.
its true i’ve seen her picture
From The Corner:
Paranoid Style with a Ph.D. [John J. Miller]
From UC-Berkeley, the school that told us about the “psychological factors” underpinning conservatism (i.e., “fear and aggression,” “dogmatism,” etc.), comes a brand-new effort to expand the horizons of human knowledge:
Now, with backing from an anonymous donor, the University of California, Berkeley … is creating a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. According to experts in the field it is the first of its kind in higher education.
@rachel: Do you suppose that they’ll find out what’s behind the Woodstock generation’s support for the Obama Youth Brigades’ mandatory volunteerism? Tune in. Turn on. Drop out.
Why indeed? Better to be an OUTLAW!
“Most of them are if you feed them enough shots of tequila.”
Threadwinner.
Yup. Journalists are shriveled fascist tools of the state in our little country. That whole thing about shooting the lawyers first is an anachronism I think.
where is the mcgruder?
Shoehorning “Also, we launched two wars that are/were, to varying degrees, disasters” into his 427th consecutive comment.
W:
W:
W:
W:
W:hy?
H:arrrumph.
Thursday evening links…
I’m away tomorrow. Leaving these:
Socialism requires hatred. Am thinker
Update on college grade inflation
Good news. Cap and trade is sinking
Why pro athletes go broke
Floods=Global warming? I think floods go way back in time, don’t they?
Want …