I have just finished reading and article written by C.Edmund Wright titled ”Psst: Hear the Roar and Pay Attention”. An excellent piece which basically points out the total disconnect of the Republican Establishment and the conservative base. Here was the clincher for me:
Yet the elites ignored the roar. After all, the roar came from the unwashed. It came from the fans of cockfights. It came from tea party folks and other such rabble. Inside the sterile cable studios and on their laptops, the pundits scored their debate and their election prospects without the roar. They have their little formulas about who has to raise doubts here and who has to score points there.
What they don’t understand is what the roar means.”
After reading the article and pumping my fist in the air screaming “Hell Yeah!” I had myself a think.
Why is it that what would seem to be so basic, so fundamental, so slap you upside the head obvious to the conservative base who for the most part are just every day working Jane and Joes with duties that keep our beloved country fed, watered, and running is completely lost to the Charles and Anns of conservative punditry? One would think that being armed with a diploma from an Ivy League college, having inside the Beltway access to pollsters, conservative politicians, and political strategists both retired and practicing they would also be toting an eye for the obvious in at least ankle holster or a garter belt.
Has the ability to see the obvious been bred out of them? Was it taught to be ignored in the halls of Ivy League academia? Is it because they are not only to close to the trees to see the forrest, they are the trees themselves? I have no answers but I do have a possible solution.
We, the conservative base need to create a new national holiday. I propose to call it Take a Conservative Pundit Home for a Week.
Now dont get excited thinking you will get a week off from work. That would defeat the purpose. The idea is that you will drag your conservative pundit around with you wherever you go for a week. Whether it is to work or to the grocery store, they will be with you. They will get to see what its like to live as a peon outside the beltway. Meet your best friend who has been through a few bad marriges and is laid off. Show them you know no one who has accounts in Bermuda and you basically live paycheck to paycheck. Let them experience what its like to see a fellow coworker lose their job and be walked out crying mumbling he or she has no idea how they are going to feed their family. Take them to that same persons house as you bring them what little you can afford to help out. Let them sit in the car beside you for an hourin the driveway while you wonder and worry that you might be next.
I am sure some of these pundits have experienced these things themselves in their own life but I doubt its been recently. Maybe they need to be reminded. Maybe we need to dumb themback down a little. Whatever it is we need to do it quick. They are losing touch with reality at an alarming rate and at the very worst possible moment.
I feel that if we can get some of these conservative pundits out of the beltway for a bit they may be able to see the frustration growing and surging. They may see why the conservative base wants a fighter, a scrapper. We want to win or at least go down swinging. We need these conservative pundits to look through our eyes looking up at them and what we see. Not them looking down at us telling us what we should be seeing.
I just dont think a week will be enough for some of them.
He is just a fat guy in Maine.
I’ve been around a long time, and the anger you see and feel, is everywhere, except of course, in Washington. Why what do we know, after all the, the Obummer isn’t trying to destroy our way of life, no on the contrary he’s just “misguided”. We out here in fly over country, have no idea what is happening. No we need the O’Riely’s and ( gosh I hate to say this, she used to be my hero) the Coulters, and the Krauthammers, and the Humes, to explain what we see with our own eyes, isn’t really happening. We see the MSM try to destroy a woman who loves this country in Sarah Palin, and to our disgust, watch those we thought were on our side, pile on. No the end game is no one in that Sodom they call Washington, is really on our side. Well the anger is there, and the drive to change the hell they have built is real. They will here from us LOUD and CLEAR. Newt has baggage, true but so did Churchille. Enough said.
Amen and preach it in reply to what jainphx . It is all I have to say.
Sad to say but this is beginnjing to look like 2008 redux. The republican establishment knows what is best , and how to go about it…sooooo much better then us poor joes and janes. This attitude is much the reason that we got stuck with “LOSER” McCain. They knew better and it was his turn…didn’t we know that ?
Got news…if your going to war you want the best bad-ass warrior you can get….not …no not mister nice guy. Then when you have found your warrior, you rally behind him/her and equip them with the best guns, explosives etc. and let them fight. Bare knuckle…brawler….no fancy smancy …… just go for the juglar from the beginning. Focus and never no never lose sight of the flag…..I am reminded of our local county republican group in Goochland VA….while they sat around the country club….we the brawlers, tea-party type people…got the right candidates, contributed the money and effort as we went door to door , held the townhalls etc….and we replaced 9 out of ten old guard on both the board of supervisors and the school board….they are already making major headway in reforming it.
The same thing must be done and can be done at the state and federal levels…much like 2010 vote the old out and bring in the new….and if they don’t do it we will replace them also….Hey republican establishment….join us and we will win or get out of the way and we will still win.
Mmm. Well, if there were one unified and angry base instead of a bunch of factions, all this would make a lot more sense.
Its still early in the process, I mean no one even has 100 delegates yet and 1144 are needed to garner the nomination.
I used to like Karl Rove, but since he affixed his lips to Romney’s ass it makes it much harder to see him as anything other than a partisan hack.
We are fighting our political battles like we allow our troops to fight. We have to have compassion for our enemies and wear kid gloves at all times.
The biggest problem is that these rehashed politicians and the national parties have forgotten that they are NOT leaders. They are supposed to be working for US not telling us what to say and do…it is why the BEST solution is VOTE all incumbents out every few years. NO MORE getting to stay in office for life. Elected positions are supposed to be volunteer positions so that the elected have to go back to regular life and follow the laws they made and therefore keep things more honest and out of everyones personal life.
Michael IMO, be it politicians or talking head gas bags, it all comes down to “keeping the power, be it in office or the spotlight for more of the gravey train, as in selling one more dumb book we don’t need, speakers’ fees/jobs, and all things related.
You have to realize even Fox News is sold out to the Saudi’s (partially owned). I’ve been saying for years that not only is Fox News not conservative (yes it has it’s moments), it only appears that way because everything else in the MSM is so much more to the left.
We live in the sad age when most everyone can be bought, and the economy in that sector is boomin’! Santorum is one of the excpetions, as would be Palin or Bachman; way too conservative to fit the “keep me in power playbook.”
Newt on the other hand, is such a wildcard that it all comes down to control. He might be “for sale” on some things, but for sure, he’s not controllable, and that is what the establishment loathes and fears. Newt is their worst fear, and all the O’Reilly and Ann Coulter books out there aren’t going to keep Newt marching to the much calculated beat of their drum.
In a nutshell, the establishment GOP has their own gig going on, with their faces too high up in the air to even think that we simpletons might have one of our own, at least one that matters, only to be perpetuated by nominating a guy worth 250 million dollars and thinking they can bamboozle us to believe he’s “one of us.”
Nice try, and no suprise both talk radio and the internet are under attack; the secret’s out!
@AZTazzz: ‘…all incumbents out every few years.’
I used to support term limits for this reason. But I changed my mind after looking at how DC works. The problem is that the people we elect are thrown into an environment where 50,000+ lifer lobbyists and other assorted insiders are all set to actually write the bills and make the important decisions. Rotating out the elected officials more frequently would just make them even *more* dependent on the existing (unelected, unaccountable) infrastructure. I don’t know what the answer is (other than a better informed electorate) but frequent changing of the guard isn’t going to do anything.
bbartlog,
I can see where just a simple “changing of the guard” would not necessarily make a large difference in how business is done in DC. I would suggest another change, to go along with the continual voting out of all incumbents every few years. That is, lower the pay and benefits, or at least hold the pay steady and reduce the benefits, make the elected in DC subject to the same rules and regulations as the rest of us, ie. Obamacare for them as well instead of the Cadillac plan they are keeping. And most of all, make it a federal offense, a felony even, to take any money, at any time other than for campaign contributions, from any PAC, Lobbyist group, Corporation, etc. This should include any and all trips, to anywhere, any meals, anywhere, and any special banking services outside of the national norm. Make the offense punishable by 1-2 years in Leavenworth, a disbarment for lawyers, a revocation of medical license for doctors, and prohibition from attaining any public office for the rest of their lives, even if it’s only the county dog catcher. Make it hurt if they break the law. Since power, and the keeping of what they have, or the attainment of more, is their goal as a politician, make the risk/reward so negative that only the truly degenerate would engage in such behaviour. Rational people would stop taking all the extra $$$$ available, and focus primarily on their private citizen constituency, instead of what benefits they can gain by rewarding some and punishing others.
I have just finished reading and article written by C.Edmund Wright titled ”Psst: Hear the Roar and Pay Attention”. An excellent piece which basically points out the total disconnect of the Republican Establishment and the conservative base.
Yeah, when ever I point out said disconnect here at FA I get pilloried. Bees rips into me about how stupid I am and how intelligent the party (establishment) candidates are and Mata/Aye become apoplectic over my excellent observations about how mentally unstable Party (establishment) leader John Boehner is.
I have to point out the obvious, but most of you people are a day-late and a dollar-short on this.
On the contrary Ivan,
The fact that the people you list actually interface with you and address what you write (even it you consider it to be dismissively) belies your use of the word “disconnect”. Not all agree here, but all have a say. I point this out after recently being kicked off another well known “conservative” website.
As for Boehner, my assessment is that everyone is mentally unstable to some degree, and anyone who seeks political office is likely too unstable to be trusted with it.
Nothing wrong with Boehner’s mind, he just has a rubber backbone…
The Krauthammers, Coulters, O’Reilly’s, Lowry’s,Christie’s etc and the totality of the DC establishment do get it, but they MUST protect their status quo. For a ‘un-selected’ to come in and run for president is NOT approved.
They have eliminated one conservative after another – Perry, Cain, Palin etc.., playing the same game as they did in 2008 when they gave us old crouch, and sell-out McCain. This time – their choice is plastic, empty, stiff, talking out of both sides of his mouth among many other things – Romney.
It is up to us this time to either once again go with the flow -which they calculated we would, like we did in 2008-or to say finally ‘no’. There is almost no difference in DC between the two parties; they even margenalized our tea party winners from 2010. They do not like us unwashed, rubes, nascar hicks, hill billies, dumb, stupid; but once again election time ishere; they want money and votes, and expect us to go along with their selection again, only to backstab and ignore us after they get their man Romney, which we all know is also to lose to Obama.
Are we going to allow them to do this again? The country as a whole is at the cliff, bankcrupt, questionable national security, economy destroyed etc, or are we finally are going to tell them – not this time, we ELECT our own choice? At one point we have to make a decision; it’s has gone on long enough.
It is in our hand, we should reject their manipulation, and take a stand!
@Ivan: Lol. Maybe you’d like to give us a link to a comment where you actually point out this disconnect. No, wait… all of your comments are *purely negative*! You never have a point except possibly how someone else is wrong or is stupid or sucks! How are you enjoying the downrating? Even people like Larry, who disagree with most everyone here politically, still get some thumbs up for at least posting thoughtful comments from time to time.
As for ‘hearing the roar’, yes, people are very very angry. But they have different focuses for their anger and as OWS has amply demonstrated, being pissed off is not by itself a platform or a plan for change.
Jainphx and Co. It must be hard to see your heros like Coulter and Rove turn on you.
Lousy choice of heros.
Bbart I wouldn’t give up on term limits.”Politician” should not be a career choice.