Thursday, June 19, 2014

The Left is Winning Because They Work Harder (at Politics)


Google "college liberal" and this is the first image that comes up. It's a popular one, so much so that it's become a "meme," like so...


(There are lots more, and they are pretty funny. And, yes, I know there's a typo in the meme above.)

Remember this person back in school? I'm sure you do. I'm not talking about the exact woman in the picture, of course, but people like her, wholly committed leftists, whose every waking moment is an expression of their political identity. From the food they eat, to the courses they take, to the protests they attend. Being a liberal, a.k.a. "progressive," is their first, second and third priority.

We conservatives are a different animal. College, at least for me, had healthy doses of studying, sports, beer, and girls. Politics, while important, was maybe fifth on the list. Libs, even if they were doing something on my list, like drinking beer or chasing girls, it was always in the context of their progessivism. Beer was consumed over animated discussions about Che or Paul Ehrlich. Girls were chased at consciousness-raising rallies about the issue de jour.

Above all, they were aggressive, loud, and in-your-face. If there was ever any push back, say from an administration that didn't think a shantytown in the middle of campus was a particularly good idea (unlikely, I know), the howl of outrage was so loud that there was rapid acquiescence.

We conservatives just couldn't compete with that, because, frankly, we just didn't have time with everything else on our plates. The result was that our views were never really heard, or worse, they symbolically and literally, shouted down like those of any conservative speaker who tries to be heard at a Northeastern campus.

None of this changes just because college ends. Progressives typically transition into teaching, media, and politics, all of which give them ideological leverage, platforms from which to propagate their views. Conservatives often go into business, which is great for the country, but leaves little scope for political activities or influence. Between families, jobs, perhaps charity work, who has time to spend on politics, let alone camp out in Zucotti Park, shouting slogans and handing out pamphlets.

And this is how our country is being lost to a tiny fraction of its most ideological. And I mean tiny. I would guess that we're talking about no more than two or three percent. But they work harder at it than we do, and they have positions of influence.

I wish I had an answer to this better than, "make time and get involved," but I don't. We will continue to lose as long as we are outworked and outshouted.

3 comments:

  1. Actually, Dems don't do much work at all and don't even bother to vote. If they did, they would dominate every election because they vastly outnumber the GOP. And being loud is what the GOP is known for. The only thing that will save the GOP is to fix the propaganda machine which doesn't work anymore.

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  2. @Wells Note that I wasn't addressing the Democrat Party in toto, I was referring to the small band of hyper-activists at its core. And actually, Dems don't vastly outnumber Republicans. The current edge, per Gallup, is 28-24. More interestingly, 40% of the country labels itself as "conservative" while only 20% "liberal," suggesting a lot of conservatives are now registered independents, while virtually all liberals are registered Democrats.

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  3. Those hyper activists have no power. In fact, those types actually hate Obama and are more Green oriented. You didn't see any Obama signs at OWS. This is a terrified country. They will grasp on to any hope and change that anyone has to offer. Instead, the Rs delivered Darth Vader. The Rs have been dragging kicking and screaming into 1985 but they are still 30 years behind. It's a demographics problem. The minorities are voting for Ds at astonishing levels. When Rs say they want their country back, they know who they want it back from. The racial strategy was a great one for decades but it's time for a new strategy and the Rs don't have one. And offering a traumatized nation liquidation is not going to work. Got to go back to telling people what they want to hear instead of telling them what they "need to hear." People will vote for their own destruction but they don't feel the trickle anymore. You offer the hope and then drop the hammer once they've voted you in.

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