In search of political magic fairy dust (Part 2)

A headline in last Sunday’s Washington Times read: “Jeb Bush, GOP: Time to leave Reagan behind.”

Uh, Jeb, what do you think your father and brother did while they occupied the Oval Office?

I have regard for Jeb Bush’s accomplishments as governor of Florida, but the country would be a lot better off if the Bush family retired from politics until they studied and learned why Ronald Reagan succeeded as president while the two Bushes didn’t.

Jeb misses the point about Reagan, ridiculing people who have “nostalgia” for the heyday of the Reagan era. Jeb said,

You can’t beat something with nothing, and the other side has something.

Actually, Jeb, we do have something—it’s called the GOP platform that outlines the principles by which nearly every single major policy problem facing the nation can be solved.

What we don’t have are people in office who know how to articulate a vision based on it—and then as important—bring that message to every American.

It’s the “Information Age,” but conservatives haven’t yet learned how to cope with a few of its basic realities. The political left has been tenacious and aggressive. Conservatives haven’t been. The left has been all about electoral politics and public opinion. The right hasn’t.

The negative consequences are compounded when you factor in the reality that the media, the entertainment industry, K-12 and higher ed are all dominated by liberals.

To make things even worse, competing for our attention are—hundreds of TV channels, satellite radio, the World Wide Web, Facebook, Twitter—the list goes on and on. These distractions are not an excuse, since the left isn’t deterred from its mission and shows the willingness to keep at it until its message gets through.

Conservative talk radio is wonderful, but it’s not enough. Cable news is great—but it can’t get a job this big accomplished either.

The Internet is a miracle—but it’s still mostly a combination of unused raw potential and the Wild West. My guess is that a lot of people don’t know which websites to visit or who to trust—and for good reason. Some “blogs,” for instance, are so full of inaccurate information it’s a wonder anyone ever visits them.

Yesterday I began to address what I see as the single largest gap in the understanding of political conservative thinkers and doers. It’s a simple issue of mathematics. Not enough Americans are reached with the right’s message.

Last year there was a phenomenal amount of accurate information about who Barack Obama really is and what he would do if he became president. Anyone who wanted to find it could, rather easily. But Obama won anyway. John McCain and Republicans didn’t get the job done.

Yes, the September financial meltdown happened, and but that’s not a good excuse either. The meltdown should have been laid at the feet of the Democratic Party’s mortgage policies (Fannie and Freddie).

Barack Obama won the White House because being cool was enough. Too few people had a solid grasp of the facts regarding the two directions that are always being offered to the country.

So, what are we going to do about it? A lot of us see Obama running up massive debt, putting health care in the hands of government, weakening our security, rationalizing away high unemployment levels—and getting reelected anyway.

Unless a real Republican Party starts to get constructed.

Up next: The Conclusion.