Higher Ground

 

"Republicans have lost touch with the messaging, tone and cultural reach needed to capture the majority of the electorate"

The Blaze

A question which has plagued me as late it this - how in the world did the Conservative lose the high ground in messaging? I am baffled, I am dumbfounded. The Conservative message is absolute, it is pure. It is the right thing, right now, for what ails this country. However the Progressives have stolen our words and torted the message. Unfortunately, many in the public who are "low information" voters, are blind to this and will continue to buy oil from the snake salesman. As in a battle, we have lost the high ground and have been flummoxed in how to get it back. This is turning out to be a huge problem not only for the Conservative movement, but the country as well.

A few years ago, some had a bumper sticker which said "Mean People Suck". One day I saw a young man getting into his car at Target. I asked him what the bumper sticker meant. Who were the mean people it was addressing? He replied, "You know, Republicans. They are stingy to poor people." In his mind, Republicans are all rich, pay very little income tax, hoard their money, and by doing so put the poor in peril. In reality, the message should be this - the top 5% of income earners in this country pay almost 60% of all federal taxes.  With the group think in the current Administration, in the next four years, the 60% will probably be much higher.

A valuable usage word which has recently been hijacked is "sustainable". If there was ever a word the Conservatives should be using over and over and over again, it is sustainable. It should be our mantra. Currently, any Federal or State program which is not sustainable, will be doomed to failure. Most people don't understand that once a program is promulgated, it becomes organic. It develops legs, a life of its own. There is seldom any metrics to see how well a program is doing, what the total cost of ownership is, or if a program has outlived its purpose (if there was one in the first place). Many programs become similar to a "dead man walking". Often times it is harder to end a program than to start one, even when it serves no purpose. Conservatives should be railing against the multitudes of programs that exist in government which are NOT sustainable. Instead we have let the Left use that word to justify the unjust. 

Another word which  should return to our lexicon is value. Everything we do, whether in Washington or the state capitol, should be looked at from a value proposition. All spending should be evaluated not only as a value proposition, but also sustainability, life cycle, and total cost of ownership. This is not rocket science. This is what most successful companies look at before any major expenditure. Then again, most companies have people employed who are responsible for profit and loss. Simply put, value defined is this - will the final product of this expenditure be worth the resources employed. The answer to this question is never subjective. There are always proven metrics used to quantify results.

I think the Republicans have lost touch with the message to a degree. However, I think much of the time the message has been hijacked and the Republicans don't have the skills and/or the guts to get it back. I believe the conservative message to be sound. If I did not, I would not be a Conservative.

Years ago, Marshall McLuhan wrote a book called "The Medium is the Message". The book discussed how the form of a medium is embedded in the message. In his words, this would create a "symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is received and then perceived." The Left has become very good at this, especially using the new media. Maybe this book should be dusted off and be required reading for the Grand Old Party before the next election. Without a solid message capable of being received and understood by many, the wilderness will be our home for many years to come.