Friday, November 23, 2012

A Message to the Republican Party

I normally don't write much for the benefit of the Republican party as such, or for conservatives as opposed to reactionaries for that matter.  In general, I view conservatives as potential, or perhaps latent reactionaries and want to help them achieve their reactionary destiny.
But today, I'll write something of direct partisan interest to Republicans.  Here's the fix you're in.  You have a bunch of networks around the 5th-15th percentile of Leftism relative to the American population.  You have one network right around the 50th percentile.  Even your 'extreme' talk radio types are at most 60th-65th percentile.  Ask yourself this;

Does this not appear to be a recipe for fairly rapid movement Leftward of the universe of acceptable discourse?  The Overton window if you like that term?

If you had any sense, you would, probably instead of dumping money on yet another NCAA college football team, establish a news network that is far to the right of you.  I suggest around 95th percentile---as far Not-Left as the most biased major networks are Left.  This will make you seem much less extreme.  It will make Fox seem 'balanced'.  It will also give you the ability to have neutral or friendly moderators in debates.  In addition, it will give top cover for your guys who make 'gaffes' (read, who say truths imperfectly that most people actually believe in).  It is even better if said network criticizes you from the not-Left extensively, as it will not be seen as your house organ.  There are tons of things in our culture that have 20%, 30%---and even near majority support that are considered unspeakable in the mainstream media.

As to how to get there, well, if you've got the money, I suggest a campaign of terror in the media spectrum auctions.  Even if you don't win initially, you can bleed them of money by ratcheting up the prices they have to pay for access to their spectrum.  If you do win, you can exploit their advantage of incumbency at their position on the frequency dial.

Aren't you tired yet of having your positions of 10 years ago denounced as retrograde and atavistic by YOUR OWN PARTY? 

3 comments:

Hail said...

"Aren't you tired yet of having your positions of 10 years ago denounced as retrograde and atavistic by YOUR OWN PARTY?"

I'm still surprised that mid-2010s America is well on the way to mandatory national Gay Marriage. If a movie in say 1996, set in the future, had predicted legalized Gay Marriage in the entire USA by 2016, and its opponents castigated as irredeemable villains, most would've thought it absurd. What's next?

Bill said...

It's an interesting methodolgical question in the social sciences: do you believe what they say or do you believe what they do? Rs and movement conservatives have spent the last fifty years acting as if their social role is to move the right edge of the Overton Window leftwards. On occasion, they even admit out loud that this is their role.

As Irving Kristol said in a brief moment of honesty:

Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.

They are most certainly NOT tired of it. This is what they want. This is their goal. This is what they work for.

Bill said...

It's an interesting methodolgical question in the social sciences: do you believe what they say or do you believe what they do? Rs and movement conservatives have spent the last fifty years acting as if their social role is to move the right edge of the Overton Window leftwards. On occasion, they even admit out loud that this is their role.

As Irving Kristol said in a brief moment of honesty:

Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.

They are most certainly NOT tired of it. This is what they want. This is their goal. This is what they work for.