Woe to him that enables changing of the subject.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the entire health care debate has been the inability of the left to change the subject. Further, now more than ever, the left needs to change the subject. This debate, while including the requisite amount of hyperbole, has generally been about ideas. What is the proper role of government? What is the role of the free market? How should these apply to health care? These are some of the questions. But even more troubling for the left is that the debate has been very much focused on what is in the bill and its long term ramifications. This is amazing. This has been a fight in the arena of ideas and the left has been pummeled worse than Jerry Cooney.
But say what you want about the Democrats, they have a playbook that has been very effective for them in the past and they are not about to panic because they have had a bad quarter. Whenever the breaks have been beating the boys, the democrats pull out one play that is sure to work and that is changing the subject. Further, the best way to change the subject is to demonize someone. To trash them, to ruin them, to destroy them while at the same time making them the face of the opposition.
To be sure, the Democrats have already tried this during this debate but have so far been frustrated by their inability to select the right target. Oh they tried with the feeble “nazi” claims only to have it backfire on them. They tried to make the idiot who brought a gun to the townhall the poster child for the movement, but that has not gained traction either. The trouble for the democrats this time around is that people have been watching these protests. They have seen the people and in doing so have recognized themselves. The democrats are unable, this time, to demonize or marginalize the entire group simply because people see themselves when they look at the protesters.
So now I am very sure that they will give up on the idea of marginalizing all the protesters but change the subject they must. To do this, the Democrats will destroy a person. An individual. I am talking the worst type of politics of personal destruction. Apocalyptic Sarah “The Plumber” Bush type destruction. They are actively seeking their target and the very moment that someone even remotely prominent on the other side makes a mistake, their life as they knew it is over.
Watch for it. They are as desperate as I have ever seen them. I don’t know who it will be or what the topic will be, but it doesn’t matter. They must change the subject. Woe to him who says or does or says something really stupid over the next weeks. They will wish they had never been born.
August 18, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I have already tasted this to a very small extent in my own life.
This is how they create a climate where good men stay on the sidelines. "They will wish they had never been born." Few good men will risk their family's peace and sanity on an attack by the media jackals.
Thus ensuring "The surest way for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."
With Obama's socialist agenda, not only will we have a nation that does nothing, but the State will pay them (not) to do anything.
August 18, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Those who go in the service of people and of the Lord need to forget themselves and grow a thick hide. (Some teflon and kevlar would help too.) Didn't the Lord forewarn us of the sufferings that we have to endure when we put our lot with him.
August 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Yeah, but credit should be given where credit is due. Obama promised to unite us, right? Well this health care has done more to unite the conservative movement, from prolifers, to fiscal conservatives, to small government advocates, to health care advocates – Obama's united us together to fight this better than he could have dreamed:)
Did you hear the dropping the whitehouse tattletale website??? Great huh?
August 18, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I certainly think they'd like to. But who precisely is left to demonize. There really are no republicans of national consequence.
There's Palin, but she's out of the spotlight now. The dems every so often throw mud at Mitch McConnell or Eric Cantor, but ultimately the public doesn't care about them.
The dems are going to fail in this instance because they have done such a good job of demonizing people that they're fresh out of boogeymen.
August 19, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I think that those protesting Obamacare have caught on to the Left's use of the Delphi Technique. Go to this link to learn more:
http://www.learn-usa.com/transformation_process/acf001.htm
"No opportunity must be left untaken to expose this unethical, divisive process. Second, when this process is used, it can be disrupted. To do so, however, one must be able to recognize when the Delphi Technique is being used, and how to disrupt it."
The Delphi Technque – How to Disrupt it.
http://www.learn-usa.com/transformation_process/acf002.htm
"The Delphi Technique — How to Disrupt It
Ground rules for disrupting the consensus process (Delphi Technique) — when facilitators want to steer a group in a specific direction.
1) Always Be Charming. Smile, be pleasant, be courteous, moderate your voice so as not to come across as belligerent or aggressive.
2) Stay Focused. If at all possible, write your question down to help you stay focused. Facilitators, when asked questions they don't want to answer, often digress from the issue raised and try to work the conversation around to where they can make the individual asking the question look foolish, feel foolish, appear belligerent or aggressive. The goal is to put the one asking the question on the defensive. Do not fall for this tactic. Always be charming, thus deflecting any insinuation, innuendo, etc, that may be thrown at you in their attempt to put you on the defensive, but bring them back to the question you asked. If they rephrase your question into an accusatory statement (a favorite tactic) simply state, "that is not what I stated, what I asked was… (repeat your question)." Stay focused on your question.
3) Be Persistent. If putting you on the defensive doesn't work, facilitators often resort to long drawn out dissertations on some off-the-wall and usually unrelated, or vaguely related, subject that drags on for several minutes – during which time the crowd or group usually loses focus on the question asked (which is the intent). Let them finish with their dissertation/expose, then nicely, with focus and persistence, state, "but you didn't answer my question. My question was… (repeat your question)."
Remember…
always be charming,
stay focused, and
be persistent."
August 19, 2009 at 3:49 pm
They are still after Palin, as well as Michelle Bachmann (R, MN)… they seem to HATE strong pro-life conservative women. Some of the people asking questions (Katie Abrahms from Arlen Specter's town hall) have rec'd HATE emails and phone calls and threatening ones. Come on now, there is no need for that kind of behavior.