Every single day of the year those in the army of activists and interest groups on the political left wake up and get about the business of getting their message out through all available means. Those who are “active” on the political right mostly spend their days informing the already-converted conservatives about how left-wing policies are wrecking the country. As if we all didn’t already know.
Almost everyone knows that the “old,” mostly left-wing media is dying — newspapers and network news are losing audience share. What most people on the right don’t realize is that much of that audience that seeks to stay “informed” move over to Yahoo News or Google News or one of the many liberal “new” media sources. Thus the liberal media still dominates the news arena where much of public opinion gets shaped.
Conservatives do understand that when a news item doesn’t fit the liberal narrative, it typically won’t get covered by the liberal press. Here are just two examples:
The Ferguson Effect hits a mall in Kentucky
Right after Christmas on the night of Saturday, December 27th, there was a riot at the mall in St. Matthews, Kentucky. Did you hear about it? Odds are that you did not if you were relying on the usual cable news outlets.Muslim mass sexual assaults in Germany on New Year’s Eve
The American mainstream media are ignoring a horrifying example of sexual violence on the part of Muslims in Germany. The little darlings Europe is importing couldn’t contain themselves on New Year’s Eve.
The portion of America that gets their news from the online conservative press, or from conservative talk radio, are exposed to a lot more facts than most of their fellow citizens.
Here’s Thomas Jefferson:
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Note — “the whole mass of the people.” We ended the last post by mentioning the need for Republicans and conservatives to be in “full outreach mode.” When I say “outreach” I mean reaching the uninformed. The folks on our side, well, are on our side. Let me say that again just to be clear. The people on the conservative side are already on our side.
Of course we need to keep Republicans and conservatives up to speed. Unfortunately that’s all our side ever really accomplishes. If there was ever a great example of the cliché “preach to the choir,” well, our side never seems to run out of sermons directed at the choir loft.
Any business that wants to expand its market share employs modern and effective marketing and advertising campaigns. When is the last time you saw anything like that from anyone on the political right? Aren’t we supposed to be expanding our “market share” in the realm of ideas?
Rarely do you see our well-funded, or even moderately funded, organizations launch any kind of large or modest scale advertising efforts. You know who does? Groups like the teacher unions. They seem to love radio ads and those ads are the most disgusting examples of lying propaganda outside of MSNBC.
Clearly if you’re an individual or a small organization with limited resources you won’t be funding large media campaigns — but that doesn’t leave you without options. Creative low-budget public events, participation in county fairs, local festivals, and any number of other public events offer opportunities to make our uninformed neighbors aware that the news they get from the liberal press isn’t the only place to get information.
Local political campaigns and all local Republican Party organizations should be going door to door more often than just before an election.
Do you think door to door is passé? It’s not.
Case in point: the organization Obama for America used it effectively during the 2012 election cycle and turned many a previously red precinct blue by informing, registering, and getting out a lot of voters. I’m not going to argue that it’s the cure-all, but in many cases the best way some people will be reached is through a knock on their front door.
There’s still more to be said on this topic. Let’s continue tomorrow.
