Everyone loves to win. We in the Tea Party movement are no different. We all love a victory and hate to lose. Media sources are starting to talk about a Tea Party victory. What did we win and do we really want to have the credit for winning?
Over the last few hours, since the disastrous vote in the House of Representatives, many have been calling the debt ceiling agreement, “a Tea Party victory.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. First, the bill does not cut spending. It does not stop the growth of our national debt and it opens the door for massive tax increases.
All those are problems but that is not what we should be concerned about. The media meme is starting that this is a Tea Party victory. We are especially hearing that from people who are not our friends. Why is the left so insistent on giving us credit for this bill?
It is simple. This bill is a disaster. They know it. We know it.
The game here is when this hot mess explodes at the end of the year; the left wants to be able to send a message to the American public. The message is simple: This was the Tea Party’s fault. The Tea Party won this bill and now it is their fault.
The timing of this bill is no accident.
Obama and the hard left want this mess to explode at the first of the year. If the Tea Party is blamed for the massive tax hikes and the massive cuts in defense spending and other “popular” programs, the left will be able to marginalize the Tea Party and Tea Party candidates.
Make no mistake about what will happen later this year. When this committee of twelve that is going to be assembled meets, they will either deadlock and thus trigger automatic and bloody cuts in defense and entitlements or one of the Republicans will buckle and send through a bill that slashes defense spending and raises taxes.
The left will want to blame the Tea Party for this to sway the moderates to vote for Obama and the Democrats. The GOP will want to blame the Tea Party as well so that the establishment can once again claim total control of the GOP and send the insurgent Tea Party members packing.
We cannot allow this to happen.
At TPN, I talk a lot about messaging. Messaging is not an exciting subject. In fact, messaging as a topic rates right up there with discussions of mezzanine financing. Unless you are really into that subject, it generally becomes a MEGO moment. MEGO stands for, “my eyes glaze over.”
Messaging may not be a sexy subject but it is crucially important. We cannot allow the left to establish the message that this was a Tea Party win. In politics there is an old truism. Either you define yourself or you opponent does. The corollary is never let your opponent define you.
We must get the word out and this must be repeated. This was not a Tea Party victory. This was a victory for the far left. With no cuts in spending and the debt ceiling be raised by record levels, plus the very real possibility of massive tax hikes, this is the opposite of everything the Tea Party stands for.
We must also hammer down the fact that the Democrats held the White House and both houses of Congress for two years and never had a budget. Instead, they spent the nation’s money recklessly and with abandon. This is their economic legacy, not ours.
Take a minute to get on social media to repeat this. Use Twitter, Facebook and even some old fashioned social media such as letters to the editor to get our message out.
The left is very good at messaging. This insurgent movement has been very good at counter-messaging.
We cannot stop now. |
Permalink Reply by M.D. Wood on Actually the Left-wing media is stroking the narrative.
They are trying to manage the definition of "victory" in this case in order to apply it to those contests that are looming on the horizon.
Declaring the "winners" also allows them to declare the "losers" and then spin that to mean victims, and that leads easily to the class warfare/social justice narrative they need to foster.
We should be strategizing and applying our own message, and we should have started weeks ago.
Permalink Reply by M.D. Wood on Yep, the Left employs it with natural ease to great effect and we suck at it.
Permalink Reply by Richard Orlick on Permalink Reply by M.D. Wood on Thanks Richard. Fascinating isn't it?
Now we need to find creative ways to distribute that or at least the awareness of it to the widest possible audience (other than those of us in the choir).
Alinsky said a good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
The point being to engage everyone in activities that achieve some immediate tangible result, is relatively easy to participate in and is above all satisfying.
Here's one, everyone email MSNBC with the simple message "Lean Forward = Bend Over".
Just a thought.
Permalink Reply by Richard Orlick on There is no creativeness needed, it is simple boots on the ground handing our information as I do….
Permalink Reply by M.D. Wood on "no creativeness needed"?
Maybe/maybe not, but thank you for what you do.
We should find ways to make room for the talents and ingenuity in all of us.
Permalink Reply by C W D on Permalink Reply by M.D. Wood on You're right about the mistaken connection to the markets Harold, and we need to drive those facts incessantly into the cultural consciousness until they become the reflexive conclusion every time this debt ceiling/spending contest is remembered.
I don't take for granted that the American people have woken up, I prefer rather to keep nudging them so they don't return to their slumber.
Permalink Reply by Richard Orlick on © 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
