I realize that I'm not the first person to ever express grudging respect for adversaries, political or otherwise. I also realize that I'm not breaking new rhetorical ground when I express grudging respect and simultaneously launch attacks on adversaries, political or otherwise. I just feel compelled to offer a metaphorical tip of the hat to America's conservatives based on the collective events of the past 2-plus years before I find myself doing ideological battle with those same Fox News viewers during the presidential campaign season of 2012. American conservatives are exceptionally successful and resilient large-scale public policy arsonists, and they deserve credit for their fanatical dedication to ideological goals. No matter what the short-term electoral outcomes are, no matter how disastrous conservative governance has proven throughout American history, red state voters control the national political and policy discourse in this country and they are far and away more successful at advancing their policy goals than liberals. This has been no trivial accomplishment, but rather a grueling, long-term magnum opus based on uncelebrated efforts of conservative activists for the past 30-40 years. Conservatives have made long-term investments that are now producing dividends. Conservatives have done and are doing what I believe is the most important work of any political/ideological movement. They are selling a successful narrative.
I make this admission as one of the more disheartened firefighters, and as such, I believe that makes the backhanded compliment all the more worthy of celebration for Republican Party voters, though I am more than willing to acknowledge that this blog will probably not attract any right-of-center readers. I can't compete with O'Reilly and Hannity, what with Fox News having a near monopoly on unvarnished lunacy.
As I was saying, America's red state voters should feel immense pride regarding their accomplishments since January 20th, 2009. Following the election of a Democratic president and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, conservatives have managed to control the national political and economic discourse, render health care reform, financial reform, and fiscal stimulus measures practically ineffective as matters of political weaponry (this despite the fact that such public policy achievements should have been used as Democratic campaign rhetorical weapons and occasions for significant liberal celebrations), bring the functions of government to a standstill whenever and wherever they choose, and win enormous majorities in state legislatures and governors' mansions in the 2010 midterms (crucial victories that will favorably influence redistricting, which will ensure structural Republican congressional/state legislature majorities across the country for decades to come). These accomplishments, combined with the conservative monopoly on the daily news cycle (Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are unmatched in their ability to disseminate high-quality, fear-based, shrill propaganda with megaphones that cannot be ignored.) and substantial conservative majorities within the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court built over the course of the past 30-40 years have made American conservatism stronger than Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan could have ever envisioned. The answer is no by the way, I won't stop there, no matter how uncomfortable I am with praising the disciples of Nixon and Reagan.
What's more impressive is the fact that conservatives have dominated the national political scene for the past 30-40 years despite the repeated and catastrophic failure of conservative public policies. Whenever conservatives govern, they govern badly, implementing public policies that create widespread human suffering, (astronomical deficits, unwinnable/unaffordable/unpopular wars, cartoonish law-breaking and corruption, economic and banking meltdowns that routinely demolish the American economy) and they do so without apology for their self-inflicted disasters.
Seriously...as a meaningful side note, when was the last time you heard a Fox News commentator or Republican elected official use the words "I'm sorry" in reference to their personal shortcomings? You'd have a better chance of locating a unicorn-leprechaun hybrid. Conversely, congressional Democrats and Barack Obama apologize like fat kids lose at dodgeball (often and badly).
At first glance, this sort of disregard for public opinion and fact-based reality should guarantee electoral defeat and public marginalization for the political offenders (Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, congressional Republicans). Quite the contrary. No matter how many times conservatives get caught by the voting public with buckets of gasoline and Zippo lighters, they consistently avoid harsh consequences (losing elections and control of the national political discourse) for their unrepentant sociopathic behavior. Knowing this, the current political landscape may appear bizarre and deeply counterintuitive, but make no mistake about how we got here. American conservatives owe their current success to effective narrative salesmanship.
An analogous counterpart for the contemporary American conservative movement is that of Toby Keith, by coincidence a devout conservative (professional buffoon) himself. Both are loud, shrill, socially worthless, profoundly bigoted, destructive when taken seriously, and extremely popular among significant portions of the American population. Both have found ways to marginalize more talented opposition (the Dixie Chicks really do write and produce better songs and liberal governance really does produce better economic results) through shameless, unrestrained self-promotion that consists of repeating easily disprovable nonsense and outright lies ad nauseam ("legendary talent of country music" and "fiscally conservative Real Americans" come to mind). Toby Keith and the conservative movement are shining examples of advertising triumphing over facts because both have worked harder at selling their narratives than their opposition
In all seriousness, Toby Keith is just awful, but that doesn't change the fact that conservatives control the direction of the national political narrative, regardless of electoral outcomes. Even when liberals win elections, they can't capitalize on short-term victories (2006, 2008), which means that they and their ideas remain outside of the national spotlight. Political victories and defeats in any representative democracy are fleeting, and those victories and defeats are and will forever be the products of successful or unsuccessful narratives that are sold to voters. Any public policy is the product of successful or unsuccessful narratives. Politicians and activists are eternally locked in ideological battles, selling their narratives and attempting to discredit the opposing narratives. The success or failure of various narratives, not the isolated and alternating outcomes of elections, determines the long-term trajectory of public policy in a given society. Those public policies in turn create and define broad socioeconomic realities. Elections, politicians, and personalities have a relatively short life-cylce in any given society, but the life-span of successful narratives can (and I would argue should) be exponentially longer and have greater social impact than any one person's time on this planet. I genuinely believe that a bumper sticker is needed at this point. "Candidates come and go. Narratives are forever." I would ask that the good people of De Beers and Ian Fleming's estate not attempt to file a lawsuit against me. There's nothing to take and the publicity would only encourage me.
Liberals have been slow to acknowledge these realities for the majority of the post-Reagan Era. That's why we, the firefighters, have been losing so many public policy battles to the arsonists, for so long. That's what makes this sort of analysis so painful and embarrassing. While we've been busy taking baby steps (MoveOn.org, parts of HuffingtonPost, DailyKos, Firedoglake) and reading the NY Times, Fox News enthusiasts have swamped Congress and dozens of state legislatures with merciless attacks against Medicaid, unemployment insurance, collective bargaining rights, public education, infrastructure, and progressive taxation. Along with their overwhelming majority advantages in state legislatures, conservatives have created national propaganda behemoths in talk radio, the Wall Street Journal, and the official communications outlet of the Republican Party, Fox News. That's how the arsonists made George W. Bush fire captain. What do we have to show on the opposite side of the aisle? If you answered "MSNBC," hand in your uniform and don't come back on Monday. You failed. Badly. What we need is a competing vision, our own, more compelling narrative if we're going to win and eventually control the national political discourse. I say that because I've grown weary of talking about how large the tax cuts for millionaires should be, how large the next Department of Defense supplemental spending bill should be, and how much money should be cut from Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
Once again, I know that I'm not breaking any new ground with those last two sentences, but liberals have an overwhelming responsibility to take that message seriously and deliver that message with intensity if we're ever going to have a meaningful social safety net in America, a balanced budget, or a decade without multiple military invasions/occupations. There's a fundamental difference between Jonathan Cohn telling us to find a liberal analogue to Paul Ryan for the sake of a proper debate (http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/86527/ryan-medicare-deficit-schakowsky-liberal-alternative) and actually providing the necessary material for that debate. Glenn Greenwald couldn't be more right. Liberals have to inspire fear in their elected officials in the same way that conservative elected officials fear their base (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/04/05/democrats) if we're ever going to see future policy victories AND defend those victories against inevitable, sustained conservative attacks. As I hinted at earlier, Huffington Post isn't doing enough on a regular basis to satisfy my fix for sound public policy, but RJ Eskow is part of the solution in this instance (http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011041409/why-progressives-keep-losing-and-right-keeps-winning). Our alternative and far more popular, more effective, more compelling narrative has to become conventional wisdom if America is ever going to see prosperity in the 21st century. This is a problem for the obvious reason that conservatives seem hell-bent on keeping us mired in the 19th century.
Before you run out the door to campaign for (insert generic Democrat's name here) over the course of the next 18 months, remember that the message you spread should consist of something more than just candidate name-dropping and meaningless platitudes about Social Security and local government aid. Your narrative should be our narrative. That narrative matters a great deal more than any single individual candidate or any single, short-term election. That narrative should advance your goals (our goals) long after 2012 and Barack Obama's time in the White House. In the spirit of meaningless platitudes, victory often goes to the side that works the hardest. Think about that the next time you see Harry Reid and Barack Obama apologizing for some unexplained reason at a press conference while simultaneously agreeing to tax cuts for millionaires. Then think about what a successful press conference should look like before you turn the channel to Fox News to see the answer. Yeah, I know, right...kind of makes me want to write an angry letter to (insert generic Democrat's name here) and campaign as well.
There are not two equally compelling narratives. Liberals have a dream. Conservatives have a nightmare. Go forth and make the sale.
Related video: Bill Maher has my back on the importance of forming and standing by ideological narratives. "Republicans stand by their convictions...stupid, ignorant, world-destroying convictions based on disproven economic fantasies and ancient books full of primitive morality and magic people, but convictions nonetheless."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/video/item/bill-mahers-new-rule
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