On a weekly basis political pundits get close to, but seldom really address what is the biggest problem facing the political right. Here’s the situation: A defense of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence principles cannot be accomplished until our side gets serious about reaching the uninformed and misinformed.
As we all know, there are a lot of uninformed and misinformed people in this country. It’s not only going to take a lot of work to reach them, it’ going to require a sustained effort.
Though I’ve been writing about this for many years, I’m going to try again to communicate this simple yet crucially important message in a few more short articles.
Republicans and conservatives need to stop thinking that all the people we can win over are already hearing what we have to say. They’re not. They’re really not.
I realize Rush Limbaugh and his fellow radio talkers are doing wonderful work. I realize that conservative state and federal think tanks and policy organizations are doing wonderful work. I realize that there are a lot of wonderful people who consider themselves politically active on the right. That’s all, well, wonderful. Here’s the problem though: not enough people grasp the fact of what’s not getting done and the enormity of the task ahead.
The political left controls the dominant media, most of the K-college education systems, and almost all of pop culture.
Guess where people get their information. Go ahead, take a guess. If you guessed “not from conservative sources” then we’re on the same page.
Have you every wondered why we have so many low information voters despite decades of conservative dominance of talk radio and the think tank industry, and despite the “tea party” being on the field for five full years?
Have you every wondered why we read headlines like this recent one from Rasmussen Reports — “New Low: Only 25% Think Their Member of Congress Deserves Reelection” — yet ninety percent or more get reelected anyway?
Have you ever wondered why we read so many headlines about tea party types being frustrated with the Republican incumbents, yet so many of those incumbents get reelected anyway?
The why is simple to understand once you recognize that we are not making contact with enough of our fellow citizens. Their eyes don’t read our words. Their ears don’t hear our voices.
What’s needed is a political mobilization along the lines of what we saw during World War II. It is an information war, after all, and all hands will be required on deck.
What’s needed is for a complete revolution on the political right when it comes to our thinking about communication. This overhaul can be compared to the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of all those products you find for sale at your typical Super Walmart.
Those shelves don’t get filled by accident. A lot of planning and labor is required.
Americans don’t get misled by accident either. The political left is very serious about getting its message out to the public on every single issue through all means possible. They’ve put in the time and effort to take over the schools, pop culture, and the old media.
What has our side done? Well, we do a lot of complaining. A lot of complaining. We’re very good at complaining. We’re also good at creating organizations that don’t effectively reach beyond the people that already agree with them.
Getting the conservative message out is going to cost money. Every war costs money. Unfortunately, too many right of center big donors are either scared to death of bad publicity, fooled into writing checks to the Karl Rove types, or choose instead to fund buildings on college campuses that will bear their name. Their country is going to hell but some college campus has a building with their name on it.
More on all of this next time.
