The Winged Beast
In order to understand the playing field between conservatives and liberals it is important to dissect the interworking of the liberal platform.
Here’s my casual observation.
There is a core platform in the liberal phenomena that may have started as far back as Woodrow Wilson. Over time the liberal structure developed two wings. One wing is the tactical group while the other is the marketing group.
The tactical group assumed the function of manipulating the territory to fit their best interests. This included creating and holding district lines that kept the conservative voice in check. Other strategies include employing legislative loopholes contrary to the Constitution and earmark funding to sway the votes in their favor.
Meanwhile the marketing arm of the liberal movement took positions in major media outlets, formed community organizations with persuasive leaders, and sought disenfranchised and poor Americans to cultivate.
The tactical arm and the marketing arm came together to ally with powerful unions. The liberal movement, utilizing the unions as one of its bountiful hosts, was able to leverage the money and power by the union organization itself, while cultivating sympathy with its members.
The tactic and marketing model of the liberal movement originally happened almost by accident. But when they came to realize they were gaining ground, they became organized and powerful. Capitalizing on the codependent nature of their relationship, they were able to keep the message of dependence and suffering alive. Not unlike the ant and the aphid that yields a honey-like substance on which the ants feed.
“Winning!”
Now is the time to recast the dichotomy of left and right. If it cannot be seen as a competitive setting, the conservative will continue to do its Rumpelstiltskin routine. The yelling and vitriol that makes us look powerless and repugnant will have to stop. It is time to take a mature, strategic position. We will have display our sophistication and calm. When confronted with severe opposition and baseless ideology, restraint and calm is the order of the day. Listen and show interest in your subject as he or she espouses their liberal wisdom. Show interest. Do not stand in front of them. Stand beside them to reduce the sense of confrontation. Be courteous and kind. Smile. Breathe.
After the liberal bloviating has finished, invite them to hear you out and ask their opinion along the way. Remain firm and respectful. Remain calm. Invite them to visit with other conservative folks. Preplan this meeting and make sure that the conservative members are on board. This may require a few anger management courses but the benefits could be robust.
Behind the Scenes
Start a sub-marketing campaign that showcases the falsehoods and spin of the left while keeping yourself insulated from the ‘anonymous’ publisher. Make sure you are relentless in showcasing the lies and spin of the left while never revealing the source (you).
When the liberal complains either face-to-face or by blog, respond with empathy as you ask your subject why the publisher took such a position. Allow them to go through their repeated and tired talking points. Don’t get mad and respond. Ask them if it would be ok to team up and investigate the accusation of falsehoods. Make the playing field feel level.
Work it!
My son told me over dinner the other night that if the liberal mind has pure dislike and contempt for the Tea Party, then change the name of the Tea Party and continue the work as he cited the name change from ‘liberal’ to ‘progressive’. (a 17 year old)
Create new organization names that portray something pleasant such as relating the term CRUSH to the wine country.
Create the pyramid
Do you want it or don’t you? Conservatives often take the starving musician’s mentality. “We are what we are and you are wrong”. How can one change another’s mind if they are not allowed to at least take a peek at the offering? It will be impossible to engage, convert, and indoctrinate if they are dragged kicking and screaming to conservatism.
Create the conservative pyramid that allows a place to get on. Your work to convert can start later. A conservative pyramid could look like this: Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh position 1, Sean Hanity, Glenn Beck position 2, Bill O’Reilly and Britt Hume position 3, George Stephanopoulos and John Stossel position 4, Geraldo Rivera and Joe Scarborough position 5. And so on. (perhaps a bad example but you get the idea)
The key is engagement. Without it the definition of insanity will prevail ~ Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has suspended tax transfers to the Palestinians, its finance minister said on Sunday, fearing the money will be used to fund Hamas after President Mahmoud Abbas struck a unity deal with the Islamists.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), led by U.S.-backed Abbas, asked foreign powers to stop Israel from blocking the transfers, which make up 70 percent of its revenues. A senior Palestinian official said Israel, by its action, had "started a war."
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said he had suspended a routine handover of 300 million shekels ($88 million) in customs and other levies that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians under interim peace deals.
In an interview on Army Radio, Steinitz said Israel feared the money would go to fund Hamas, an Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip and whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Israel had threatened sanctions last week in response to Abbas's surprise announcement of a unity deal with Hamas that envisages the formation of an interim government and elections later this year.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the PA was "in contact with all international influential forces and parties to stop Israel from taking these measures."
"Threats ... will not deter us from concluding our reconciliation process. It is our policy and we must work harder to end our divisions as soon as possible," added Fayyad.
The PA is also heavily dependent on aid from donors including the United States, which has said its future assistance will depend on the shape of a new Palestinian government, expected to be formed under the unity agreement.
Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian economy minister, told the Maan News Agency the PA would be unable to meet its commitments, including paying the salaries of its employees, if the transfers were blocked. The PA pays salaries to around 150,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza.
ISRAELI OPPOSITION
In public remarks to the Israeli cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his opposition to the unity pact and said the reconciliation should worry "all those throughout the world" who aspire to Middle East peace.
"Peace is possible only with those who want to live in peace with us, and not with those who seek to destroy us," said Netanyahu, who travels to Britain and France later this week for talks with their leaders.
Palestinian leaders have been invited by Egypt to Cairo for a three-day ceremony starting on Monday that will end with the signing of the unity agreement, Palestinian officials said.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said it could take up to six weeks to form a new government. He said it would be made up of independents with no connection to Abbas's Fatah movement or Hamas, and foreign states should have no reason to boycott it.
Hamas is shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept the interim peace accords.
U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian talks on a permanent peace agreement were revived in September but quickly fizzled after Netanyahu refused to extend a limited building moratorium in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, territory Palestinians want as part of a future state.
Abbas has said he would return to negotiations only if construction in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war, was halted. Netanyahu has said that is an unacceptable precondition for talks.
The tax transfers provide the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, with $1 billion to $1.4 billion annually. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, said that by withholding the money, "Israel has started a war even before the formation of the government."
Steinitz noted that Israel had held back tax revenues in the past, during a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.
(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta and Tom Perry in Ramallah, writing by Dan Williams and Ori Lewis; editing by Mark Trevelyan and Mark Heinrich)
