Taking Back Education–AFP Summit
Still blogging from the Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit.
Isaac Morehouse with the Foundation for Economic Education says that to make a difference, we need to either shrink the Overton Window by narrowing the possibilities, or shift the Window entirely. This means that we must change the window of what is acceptable to voters, either by making the window of potential options smaller, or by changing the window altogether. To do this we must educate. We need an informed electorate.
In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman points out that at the time of the American Founding, around 97% of Americans, male and female, were literate—which was even more astounding considering that in most nations at that time, reading was a privilege reserved for male aristocrats. Nearly everyone could read, and moreover, nearly everyone did. When Thomas Paine’s Common Sense came out, there was approximately one copy available for every three people on the American continent. Virtually everyone on the continent had read Common Sense. This is what it means to have an informed electorate.
This has to be our goal. This has to be our goal. We need to inform those around us, and not just for the short term. We need to plan ahead with this. The Left has been pretty effective with their long-term plans: see how they’ve almost completely conquered the field of academia. Even the conservative, Christian college I attended had a strong left-wing bent in certain fields, such as environmental science.
We need to take back education. And I don’t just mean in schools, although that’s important too, and we should all at least consider the possibility of someday becoming professors or professional schoolteachers. But more than that, we need to blog. We need to talk to our friends. Update our Facebooks with important information. We need to pass out flyers and invite our neighbors over for dinner to discuss the issues. This is the way we’re going to make a difference in the long-term: we’re going to have to change our culture. And that change will have to start with us.
Allie Winegar Duzett is the author of How to Save America: A Tactical Guide for Practical Patriots. Find her on Twitter for livetweeting of the event. Crossposting today at Rightosphere, TruePoliticsUSA, and Conservatives4Congress.
Intentions Are Not Enough–AFP Summit
Blogging from the Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit today, and listening to Isaac Morehouse with the Foundation for Economic Education talk about how to make a difference. He makes a good point:
Intentions are not enough.
I think this is a hard lesson the conservative movement is currently learning. Just wanting smaller government and less spending is not enough. We have to act. And more importantly—when we act, we need to be sure that the ideas we are acting on are not just significant to us, but correct.
By this I mean, believing sincerely in something does not make it right. Believing sincerely that a particular tactical move will make a difference politically does not automatically mean that it actually will.
This is why it’s so important that we as a movement and as individuals experiment with our political tactics. And when we’ve found techniques that work, we need to keep using them.
Allie Winegar Duzett is the author of How to Save America: A Tactical Guide for Practical Patriots. Find her on Twitter for livetweeting of the event. Crossposting today at TruePoliticsUSA, Rightosphere, and Conservatives4Congress.
Free Speech…. NO! I Didn’t Mean ‘Theirs’!
Someone should tell Glenn Beck that is is terribly insensitive for him to have a “restoring honor” rally on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech and at the same location. Haven’t we learned anything from the Ground Zero Mosque? Obviously, this is not how I feel; I believe that the Ground Zero mosque can be built wherever the legal property owners want to build it, and we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they are going to operate as a peaceful mosque like so many other mosques in America do. If the Northern Protestant Irishmen and women held the Catholic Church accountable for the sins of the IRA (and PIRA) as we do for Muslims, there wouldn’t be a single Catholic Church there.
But I digress: there is apparently something wrong with Glenn Beck’s rally, but not something wrong with the Ground Zero Mosque. This is the stance some of our friends on the left are taking lately. People are reacting worse to the Beck event than the Ground Zero Mosque as a matter of fact:
“We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux — I meant to say the Tea Party,” Fauntroy told a news conference today at the National Press Club. “You all forgive me, but I — you have to use them interchangeably.”
So there are going to be counter-”Restoring Honor” rallies held to protest the people who are going to celebrate MLK’s dream, celebrate the brave men and women overseas, and celebrate the country and patriotism. Apparently, these are topics that would offend the late Dr. King. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped Dr. King’s niece from supporting the “Restoring Honor” rally. As a matter of fact, she is speaking at it.
What I am interested in seeing, is places like Wonkette and the DailyKos and Outside The Beltway, and how they are going to treat the counter-protesters. Perhaps with the same venom and animosity as they have the Tea Party and counter-Ground Zero Mosquers? I won’t put money on that!
-rj
Interview With Joe Thomas: WCHV Radio, Charlottesville, VA
Dustin Siggins: What are your thoughts Arizona-style bill in Virginia?
Joe Thomas: The complaints are unfounded. Chairman Stewart of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors put this in inside the county two years ago, and not one case has been brought to court accusing of racial profiling. On top of the fact that the county was listed as 17th-most business friendly county in the nation the by BusinessWeek or World Report.
DS: How do you think the governor has done in regards to his campaign pledges on taxes and fees, and whatnot?
JT: He mostly left that to the General Assembly. Regarding monies taken from retirement funds, I agree with Delegate Ben Klein that surplus monies should be put toward the retirement fund, since deferments were included as part of balancing the budget.
DS: What do you think about Senator Jim Webb’s piece a few weeks ago about affirmative action?
JT: He made some good points, but forgets the market is the best arbiter of equality, not government.
DS: So do you oppose laws against refusing services?
JT: Well, refusing services is refusing revenue. Why would any business interested in surviving be against making money and sending it to the competition. A true free market will not deny a customer, especially in today’s world.
Additionally, affirmative action hurts minorities because it damages their standing- a high-achieving minority is viewed as having achieved through entitlements as opposed to effort.
Interview With Rob Port: 1100 AM WZFG (Fargo, ND) and SayAnythingBlog.com
DS: How do you see the Berg/Pomeroy playing out?
RP: Berg has been in the lead for seven consecutive months with Rasmussen (few other organizations poll in ND). This may be the race of his life.
DS: Health care and what else puts him in trouble?
RP: For a while he has portrayed himself as a fiscal conservative and a Blue Dog- but that perception has kind of disappeared. Example: Pomeroy voted against cap-and-trade but also voted against the Lame Duck Bill from Rep. Price (R-GA), and right away President Obama said he would push for cap-and-trade in a Lame Duck Session.
Additionally, Senator Conrad is saying it could be one of the most significant Lame Duck Sessions in history. This could mean significant tax increases, etc.- especially with the Deficit Commission recommendations coming December 1.
DS: Hoeven is killing his opponent?
RP: Let’s put it this way- Alvin Greene is polling better against Senator DeMint in South Carolina than Tracy Potter in North Dakota.
DS: How did you get involved in ND politics?
RP: I started blogging seven years ago, and before that I was apolitical. I was called a “war blogger,” because that was what we primarily wrote about because of media bias against the war.
Tips in Messaging Liberty: Break-Out Session
1. Think about how others interpret what you say.
- Substance is important- but spend time on your presentation
- Don’t brush aside challenges
- Ask yourself: “How could someone twist the meaning of my words around?
2. Be sociable.
- You have to spread the message, especially to those who don’t agree with you.
- Be the person others want to emulate, and respect.
3. Be positive more than negative- remember, liberty is a GOOD thing.
- Don’t:
- Focus on how bad everything is.
- Try to persuade people with fear and anger.
- Don’t let people portray you as angry.
- Hayek was positive, and talked about how things COULD be better.
4. Use demographics to your advantage.
- Logic is different for different people- be aware of motivating factors.
- Vary your argument based on your audience (War on Drugs is detrimental because minority groups have been disproportionately harmed, for example).
- Should we advocate liberty to specific groups? YES!
5. Don’t idealize the past- and look towards the future.
- We have never been completely free. Blacks and women may see the past as different than white men.
- Focus on the future, and the positive nature of liberty.
- Don’t say society was ever ideal (necessarily), because full liberty was not available.
6. Humanize the argument:
- Don’t talk in the abstract. Get down into the nitty-gritty.
- It’s easier to argue against a theoretical position against a real-world problem.
7. Use sound bites.
- Catchphrases and soundbites work.
- The shorter the better.
- Convey key points.
- They should be easy to remember.
- Stay on message, and REPEAT the soundbites.
Americans for Prosperity
Myself and Allie Winegar Duzett will be blogging at Americans for Prosperity’s National Summit today. Enjoy!
Free Press Under-Reported Lobbying Expenses
Really great article over at Daily Caller on the discovery that Free Press under-reported lobbying expenses for lobbying Congress, the FCC, and NTIA. This is primarily a big deal because Free Press blatantly attacks the right on a daily basis on the grounds of transparency but routinely fails to open up about who is funding them along with much of their activities.
If you aren’t familiar with Free Press, you best get up to speed. The organization is a socialist playground started by Robert McChesney, a hard core socialist, who famously stated in the socialist magazine Monthly Review,
“…gains will only be made through an enormous class struggle from below. If won, they will not, we underscore, eliminate the evils of capitalism, or the dangers it poses for the world and its people. In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles. This is something that the great majority of the population will undoubtedly learn in the course of their struggles for a more equal, more humane, more collective, and more sustainable world.”
So if you aren’t familiar with Free Press or their activities, I greatly encourage you to start watch dogging them, and the post on Daily Caller is a good start.
UPDATE: More on the issue from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.
-nick
Obama Tax Hike Exemption Card
The nice folks over at Americans for Tax Reform have produced for us the Obama Tax Hike Card. I thought all of us out in politico land would want to get one before they run out. (jk obviously they can’t run out.)
It is a pretty fun gag they have come up with and they hammer the point home with some key Obama quotes:
“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
–Candidate Barack Obama, Sept. 12, 2008
“If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”
–President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009
“The statement didn’t come with caveats.”
–Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, April 15, 2009, when asked if the pledge applies to healthcare
Didn’t Ya Know!? The Government SAVED Ford Motors!
Yes, from the lips of (hopefully) soon-to-be-retired Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s lips, to your ears. Senator Reid describes how Ford Motor Company, along with Chrysler (sold off) and General Motors, was saved by our wonderful Hegelian-God state (government is from whom you gain salvation, didn’t you know?). Unfortunately, we find it necessary to remind Senator Reid that such is not the case. As a matter of fact, we dedicated an entire article to it when Ford first pulled themselves up by the boot-straps!
…it seems to me that Ford isn’t the only thing “F’d On Race Day,” as it appears Senator Reid will have the same problem this November. (And before anyone gives me a hard time for citing the Rasmussen Poll instead of the newer PPP Poll, I say it’s because PPP hasn’t be considered the most accurate pollster like Rasmussen has…)
-rj
