The Right Needs To Play As Dirty As The Left

[MonsterMark]

I completely agree with the guy.

The Right Needs To Play As Dirty As The Left

When John Hawkins was in college, he studied Southern Long Fist Kung Fu for more than a year and his teacher told him something that he never forgot. He said that when you're being attacked, the aggressor sets the rules and if you want to survive, you have to play by those rules. In other words, if your opponent is trying to cut your head off with a sword while you're trying not to hurt him, chances are that you're going to end up dead. This is a lesson that conservatives can and should apply to politics.

Too often today, liberals are using despicable tactics against conservatives and paying no price whatsoever for it -- while those of us on the Right pat ourselves on the back for being above it all. This is like a boxer priding himself on never taking off his gloves while his opponent nearly beats him to death with his bare firsts. But, there's not much to be said for lovable losers and by now, conservatives should realize that simply appealing to the American public's sense of fair play isn't going to pay any dividends. -- Amen!

While the Right doesn't have to dip down into the sewer as far as the Left has, we do need to start giving them a taste of their own medicine, if only to make them think twice about the way they're treating our fellow conservatives.

For example, look at the despicable media jihad that was launched against Sarah Palin's family. There was a not-so-subtle message being sent there: if you're a Republican woman, you better stay in the shadows or we're going to destroy your family to get you. The Left gave the same kind of intrusive, public anal exam to Joe-the-Plumber, a private citizen who merely asked an inconvenient question to Barack Obama. While conservatives defended both Sarah and Joe as we complained incessantly about the way they were treated, the reality is that the left paid no price whatsoever for its out-of-bounds attacks.

Instead of continuing to complain, here's a better idea: why shouldn't conservatives do opposition research on the reporters running stories about Bristol Palin and Joe-the-Plumber? Have they ever been arrested? Whom do they own property with? Have they ever been paid to do a speech for someone and then run a favorable news story about him? Certainly Keith Olbermann's personal life is just as newsworthy as Joe the Plumber's and the details of Maureen Dowd's life are just as noteworthy as those of Bristol Palin -- are they not?

Here's another example: on college campuses, it has gotten so bad that conservative speakers often need bodyguards to give a speech. Conservatives are shouted down, they're attacked -- and nothing serious ever seems to happen to the little liberal fascists who engage in these thuggish tactics. So, if it's done to a conservative speaker, why shouldn't conservative groups do the exact same thing to every liberal speaker who comes to the college? Go on stage, lock arms, and shout him down -- then sue the university if they're given so much as an hour's detention more than the liberal students.

Along those same lines, how is it that we have public universities using taxpayer dollars to discriminate against conservatives, indoctrinate kids into liberalism, and hire terrorists like Bill Ayers as instructors? Why are Republican state legislators allowing our tax dollars to be abused in that fashion? How about standing up and saying, "If you want to continue to receive taxpayer money, you're going to act like a university should, not like a left-wing indoctrination center?"

Additionally, are you tired of being called a racist by race-hustling poverty pimps like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the NAACP? Then use their own tactics against them: boycott organizations that work with them or donate money to them.

Are you sick of feeling like you need to familiarize yourself with porn terms just to understand what they're saying about the Tea Parties on MSNBC or CNN? Then start filing obscenity complaints with the FCC. The Left has never hesitated to use the government and the court system against its political opponents; so why should we?

Look, we don't have to become liars like the Left -- in fact, even setting aside the ethics of it, it's better for our credibility if we don't. But, conservatives do need to stop playing by Marquess of Queensberry rules and futilely hoping that the public will finally start to notice that we're actually nice guys, even as the Left publicly smears us as Nazis, homophobes, and racists every day.

Ask yourself: how much credit did John McCain get for refusing to talk about Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama's lack of patriotism? How many times was George Bush -- a moderate on domestic issues who bent over backwards to create a "new tone" -- accused of being Hitler? How many times has Fox News, which is more balanced than any of the other networks and all the biggest newspapers in America, accused of being as biased as Rush Limbaugh?

Complaining bitterly about the Democrats "politics of personal destruction" or bellyaching that the media doesn't treat us fairly ultimately accomplishes nothing. The Left doesn't care and the public doesn't care. On the other hand, using the exact same tactics against the Left that it uses against us may be effective and even if it isn't, it may at least convince them that such tactics ought to be off limits on both sides. We can say, "Gee, what if Bush had done this," or, "That's a cheap shot," all day long, but until the Left feels the brunt of the same savage incivility that it dishes out on a regular basis, nothing is going to change.

 

[fossten]

So can we bring out our guns now?

 

[hrmwrm]

ahhh, but the left was only learning from the right after nixon let it be found just how dirty the right plays.

 

[shagdrum]

ahhh, but the left was only learning from the right after nixon let it be found just how dirty the right plays.

No real sense of history, I see.

Nixon had been on the MSM's sh!t list for decades by then and there was a huge animosity between the two. If you wanna talk about playing dirty in regards to Nixon, it starts with the leftists in the MSM, Hollywood, academia and the political class. Just look up what Nixon had to do with one Alger Hiss and you have the seed for the animosity the left had toward Nixon that had been festering for quite a while by the time his presidency came around.

 

[shagdrum]

Attention Conservatives: Nice Guys Do Finish Last
by John Hawkins

“There is a time to submit to being slapped and there is a time to hit back twice so you will not be slapped again.” — Chin Ning-Chu

“There is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation: for a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good.” — Niccolo Machiavelli

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece for Pajamas Media called “The Right Needs to Play as Dirty as the Left.” The theme of that piece could be summed up in these two paragraphs:

Too often today, liberals are using below-the-belt tactics against conservatives and paying no price whatsoever. Meanwhile, those on the right like to pat themselves on the back for being above it all. This is like a boxer priding himself on never taking off his gloves while his opponent nearly beats him to death with his bare firsts. But in the end, there’s not much to be said for lovable losers. Conservatives should realize that fair play isn’t going to pay any dividends.

While we conservatives don’t have to stoop quite as low as the left has, we do need to start giving them a taste of their own medicine, if only to make them think twice about the way they’re treating our side.​

Adam Graham wrote a piece in response entitled “No, The Right Doesn’t Need to Play as Dirty as the Left.” Since Mr. Graham’s piece did a great job of summing up the opinions of the people who believe the GOP shouldn’t sully its hands in the fight against the Left, I thought it was a good idea to respond. After all, this is a debate that we should have had in our party long ago. However, first it’s worth clarifying a couple of points:

When I speak of playing as dirty as the Left, I’m not talking about mere rhetoric. Although we haven’t gone quite as far off the rails as liberals, who habitually refer to everyone who disagrees with them on any issue as Nazis, theocrats, homophobes, and bigots, we do hit them hard. Unfortunately, our Republican representatives in D.C. haven’t quite ramped up to the necessary level of intensity when dealing with a power-drunk narcissist who seems to be alternately borrowing from the playbooks of FDR, Noam Chomsky, Saul Alinsky, and even Hugo Chavez. Being politicians, though, you can expect them to escalate their attacks once President Obama’s approval rating falls a little further.

Additionally, I don’t believe in “anything goes.” Conservatives do tend to be fundamentally moral in a way that liberals who drink deeply from the cup of politics are not. For example, the Right shouldn’t engage in the sort of grotesque abuse that is often leveled by liberals at female conservative bloggers. Nor do I think we should back the sort of wholesale voter fraud that ACORN is attempting to perpetrate. There are some lines that should not be crossed. That much we can agree on. But let’s get into some areas where Mr. Graham and I part company. First off, Mr. Graham states:

Conservatives are not liberals: … Culturally, conservatives are unable to play the same game as liberals, because we do not possess the same mentality. I would argue that conservatives have a greater sense of respect for authority, rules of civility, and fundamental order within society. This is so ingrained that in Boise, when social conservatives felt the need to practice civil disobedience over the removal of a Ten Commandments monument, it was arranged in advance with the police that only a small number of people would be arrested and they would go quietly. There was a strong feeling among Ten Commandments supporters that they didn’t want to give the police officers a hard time, because the police were only doing their job and enforcing the actions of a boneheaded city council.​

It’s fascinating that Mr. Graham picks that example, not only because it was a failure, but also because of the obvious contrast that has so often been drawn between Christian and Muslim protests. Christians are mocked and laughed at with impunity in this country because most Christians don’t have the backbone to stand up for their faith. Maybe the truth hurts, but I suspect there are few Christians reading this who’d disagree. On the other hand, Muslims are treated with the utmost respect here in the U.S. and across the world. Part of that’s because there is a fear that if you insult Muslims, one of them might kill you. However, even if that weren’t the case, Muslims would be treated with much more respect because they take grave offense when someone insults their religion. If Christians felt the same way, 90% of black Americans would be voting for Republicans instead of Democrats, Barack Obama wouldn’t be invited to speak at Notre Dame, and that Ten Commandments monument would be sitting in that Boise park today.

I’d also add that sometimes, regrettably, the only way to preserve “respect for authority, rules of civility, and fundamental order within society” is to give the people who are ruining those things a taste of their own medicine.

Next, from Mr. Graham:

Conservatives don’t like it when conservative activists behave like liberals: … It’s one thing for conservatives to have (Ann) Coulter come as rousing entertainment at CPAC. Coulter’s acerbic honesty provides many conservatives with a vicarious thrill. But how well would a movement full of Ann Coulter wannabes do? It would be a disaster. Conservatives who are not political activists — particularly devoutly religious people — are going to be turned off from engaging in the process. If they begin to perceive a movement that is hateful and spiteful, they’ll back away from it, because it doesn’t represent how they see themselves. The media has done its level best to create the perception that conservatives are hateful. The last thing conservative activists need to do is provide assistance.​

First of all, thank God for Ann Coulter. I may not agree with every single thing she’s said, but I agree with 95% of it. If I may paraphrase what Lincoln said of Ulysses S. Grant, “The conservative movement cannot spare this woman; she fights!”

Everybody in the conservative movement does not have to be an Ann Coulter, which is fortunate, because few people have her biting wit, talent, or fearlessness. But we need people who aren’t afraid to go for the throats of our political enemies.

As to the perception that we’re hateful, a lot of Republicans need to get something through their heads: as long as you disagree with the Left on anything, they are going to call you hateful. They’re going to accuse you of hating black people, Hispanics, gays, women, and the poor. Then, to top it all off, they’ll say you want the sick and the old to die in the streets. Just look at John McCain. The man spent eight years savagely attacking his own side to get in the good graces of the liberals in the mainstream media and they loved him for it — until the moment he became the Republican nominee. Then he instantly “changed” and became an unprincipled, senile old bigot, just like every other Republican they’ve ever seen. So Republicans need to stop engaging in the fantasy that they’re ever going to win over the mainstream media. They may applaud for a moment, as long as you’re doing something helpful to their cause or hurting your own. But in the end, you’re just another damn, dirty Republican to them.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that Ann Coulter is the single most popular conservative columnist in America. Also, while there may be a few Christians turned off by the Right fighting hard for them, most Christians I know are sick and tired of bending over so far backwards that their backs are nearly touching the ground — and they are demeaned, defamed, and pushed around as a result.

Here’s more from Mr. Graham:

Conservatives look lame behaving like liberals: … Liberals receive training in obnoxious activism techniques and even receive scholarships and fellowships to hone their “craft.” When it comes to distasteful and disrespectful protest techniques, liberals are rock stars, while conservatives are amateurs performing on Karaoke machines. In Rules for Radicals, Alinsky said, “Never go outside the expertise of your people,” because it results in confusion and lack of confidence. And this is exactly why conservatives shouldn’t try to copy liberal incivility.​

Really? The 18-year-old college students blocking conservatives from speaking at campuses are trained Alinsky radicals? I’m not so sure that’s correct. Moreover, it doesn’t seem like such a good idea to “never go outside the expertise of your people.” Just to name one example, had we adopted that idea as a movement, there certainly wouldn’t have been any tea parties. Some people might disagree, but those events seem to have come off quite well and appear to hold a lot of promise. Furthermore, the best way to learn just about anything outside of brain surgery or rocket science is to do it. The more experience you get, the better you get at it. This applies to most things in life including political protest tactics.

Last but not least, here’s Mr. Graham’s closing point:

Conservatives face media bias: Another tactic Hawkins suggests is unleashing the opposition research machines on journalists. So let’s say we dig up some dirt on Maureen Dowd. Who exactly is going to report it? Certainly not the mainstream media — and probably not even Fox News. Best case scenario? The story ends up getting play on WorldNetDaily and conservative radio. …

This Hawkins tactic is likely to backfire. While disrupting speakers and digging up dirt on political non-combatants may work for left-wing groups, the media will call conservatives out on these tactics. They’ll point to interrupting speakers as an act of incivility, and they’ll say the assault on journalists threatens to undermine the freedom of the press.

In addition, on campuses, liberals usually have the administration behind them and the administration will, more often than not, ignore acts that are illegal, disruptive, or uncivil. Thus college campuses encourage liberal political thuggery. Seizing a stage while a conservative is speaking is ultimately an act of political intimidation against every conservative on campus. The same will not be allowed to happen with conservative thuggery. It will be dealt with harshly as criminal trespass and as an attempt to stifle free speech.​

The Left certainly has much more media firepower than us. However, that has been the case for as long as any of us have been alive. Yet somehow conservatives keep finding ways to win elections. Perhaps that’s because the American people are smarter than we give them credit for and many of them realize that MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, etc., might not be splitting it as perfectly down the middle as they claim.

Moreover, the Right is slowly but surely narrowing the media gap. For example, WorldNetDaily — which Mr. Graham disparagingly mentions — gets more traffic than the Associated Press and the top seven conservative talk radio hosts alone reach more than 60 million people a week combined.

As to the Left calling “conservatives out on these tactics,” that is the point. When they are hit with their own tactics they will holler “unfair” as long and loud as they can. Then they will be forced to either openly advocate two sets of standards — one for conservatives and one for liberals — or they will be forced to accept a set of standards both sides will adhere to in the future. Both outcomes serves our interests.

Last but not least, look back on the last few years. George Bush promised a “new tone” and he delivered it. He probably took more unjustified abuse, slander, and hatred without complaint than any other man in American history. Then we had John McCain, who ran such an unfailingly polite campaign that it made conservatives want to pull their hair out. The result? Bush left office with a 25% approval rating and John McCain was easily defeated by a political novice completely unqualified to be president. How well did “being nice” work out for them?

If “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” then aren’t we crazy to keep standing by while the Left targets conservative women, college students, and our spokesman, while we pat ourselves on the back for being “better than they are” because we let them do it?