Conservatives Must Learn The Dark Arts Of Image Manipulation

- by J.R. Dunn - November 28th, 2012 - American Thinker

Okay, we've had the End of the Republic, the degenerate electorate thesis, and the ritual beating of Mitt Romney. I hope everybody has had their catharsis, because it's time to get serious.

It's typical in an election lost by the right [that] every last factor is poked at, examined, and raked over the coals except for the single most important element, always and forever overlooked: conservatism itself.

I contend that much of the problem with current right-of-center electoral efforts involves conservatism as currently practiced. This has nothing to do with conservative principles, or any public preference for moderation in politics. It has to do with how conservatism is expressed, and can be summed up as conservatism's failure to sell itself.

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I really need to read more by J.R. Dunn. No one writes an article this insightful without there being more to him that is worth knowing. For quite some time I have been furious with the conservative movement for its failure to defend any of our leaders who the left has attacked. We have acted for decades as if we are unwilling to fight. One leader after another has been left to defend themselves from vicious attacks with no help from fellow conservatives. Even worse, as noted in the article by Mr. Dunn, many of our fellow conservatives take great glee in joining the attack and helping to ridiclue those the left has targetted for destruction. Dunn mentions the evisceration of Goldwater, but the same can be said of Nixon, Reagan, Quayle, Dole, Bush 1 and 2, McCain after he got the nomination, Palin and Romney.

Any act, no matter how trivial, is turned into a mocking and vicious characterization that smears the candidate. As my favorite example, how many remember that Quayle questioned the spelling of the word that was given to him as being wrong during the event. He was still denounced as a dunce for not being positive it was wrong. But that was not the way it was portrayed. It was portrayed as if he did not have a clue. It was false and derogatory, but NOT A SINGLE CONSERVATIVE CAME TO HIS DEFENSE. No one came to the defense of Sarah Palin either. She was smeared with lies that were ignorant they were so false. Yet most conservatives stood aside and expected her to respond alone. Some joined in the smearing.

The article by Dunn is spot on. Conservatives are losing, perhaps have lost, because they are not willing to accept this is a serious war for the soul of a nation. Our enemies, and they are most assuredly ENEMIES, are willing to fight dirty and lie to caricature conservatives. If we are to ever have a chance at victory, we must start to fight by the rules that our enemy has chosen. Alinsky is an evil technique. However pretending that we cannot respond in kind because we are better is stupid. Especially stupid when we lose again and again.

If we don't believe that freedom is worth fighting for by whatever rules are necessary to win, then we shall most assuredly become slaves to a tyranny that is worse than most can imagine. That may be the problem. Good people have a hard time visualizing just how evil tyranny can become.