Going Mobile
Conservatives and Republicans alike had an amazing week.
The Czar has been saying over and over that the Right is dominating the social media scene: Twitter, Blogger, Thiser, Thatter, and (increasingly) Facebook is now becoming a vast, right-wing playground from which Leftist bullies are leaving. As a recent tweep explained, quite accurately, Twitter is bad for liberals because their BS can be disproven faster than they can think of a new one.
Likewise, the Right learned a powerful lesson in 2008. Mobilizing voters works. What we (like to) forget is that millions of people knew Barack Obama was full of crap in 2008; what resulted was that the Left found just enough people who didn’t know or didn’t care or didn’t want to believe it—just enough to seal the election by a few percentage points.
While conservatives blamed the loss on the squishiness of John McCain, the moderates blamed the absolutism of Sarah Palin, and the Republicans blamed Michael Steele’s inability to cough up billions of dollars, the real culprit was simply laziness. The entire right-of-center voting bloc—who should account for 80% of the vote—simply couldn’t be bothered to vote.
Well, 2010 and 2012 (so far) proved the Right could learn. The Czar recalls reading recently that 84% of Wisconsin households talk politics at the dinner table—and think about what that means. People who, a few years ago, suspected there was now little difference between political parties (and with good reason) understand and are comfortable conversing about the failures of liberalism: here, in Europe, around the world. The Blue Model, as some are charitably calling it, is broken. And its believers have nothing new to sell us. The question in 2012 is whether liberalism will go bankrupt before we all do.
In Commentary, Jonathan Tobin raises an absolutely essential point for us all to understand. He says that Walker did not reclaim his governership simply because he raised more money (per Left Wing Media) or that the unions screwed the pooch (per Right Wing Media).
The unions, leftists, Democrats, and liberals were strongly motivated to defeat Scott Walker. They knocked on millions of doors, raised millions in cash, and got millions of votes. In fact, they had an incredibly successful voter drive and turnout.
What defeated them was that the Right was more successful.
That’s an astonishing point. By all accounts, and even four years ago, the numbers generated by the Wisconsin Left would have ensured victory. In most respects, there isn’t much more they could have done. Had it been baseball, they would have put 12 runs up on the board.
But the Right mobilized for the first time in a very long time. But the Czar thinks this portends something more powerful. Wisconsin is a blue state that went quite red simply because the voters have put up with too much. There is only so much a moderate American can tolerate: and if Wisconsin can do it, so can the other 49 states.
The numbers are there all right: conservatives wildly outnumber liberals in America. Illinois, for example, is viewed by the rest of the country as deep blue. But we have had a string of Republican governors in recent years—there are in all likelihood millions more red folks here than blue folks—it’s just that the blue folks come out to vote on election day. Massachusetts has done it before, and so has California: when right-of-center folks bother, they get very bothered indeed.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.