John Hawkins to Republicans: Let’s Play Dirty
Conservative blogger and columnist offers his fellow Republicans some advise: play dirty, just like liberals have done for years.
When I was in college, I studied Southern Long Fist Kung Fu for more than a year and my teacher told me something that I 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 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.
How to do this? How can conservaitves ‘give the left a taste of their own medicine?’ Hawkins:
Why don’t conservatives do opposition research on the journalists endlessly 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?
I am afraid that he is right – at least to a degree. Fighting off those who are trying to destroy Republican conservatives and politicians requires action. And not just defensive action – which is what conservatives have done for years now. Like liberals, they will have to go on the offensive.
That does not mean they have to stoop as low as liberals have done. Conservatives should not go so far – for it would be morally wrong. Success can never be achieved if you believe that what you are doing is morally deplorable. You have to stand behind what you are doing – not mostly, but completely. Since conservatives tend to have a better developed and less Machiavellian understanding of right and wrong, they can go less far than their liberal enemies.
“Since conservatives tend to have a better developed and less Machiavellian understanding of right and wrong, they can go less far than their liberal enemies.”
Defenders of “enhanced interrogation” based on pragmatism, even while saying that what happened cannot be called even that, because “our nation” did it. Applauded when intelligence those responsible knew was faulty was squeezed out of human beings to justify the invasion and destabilization of the wrong country. Looked away when rebuilding of infrastructure for suffering civilians was handed out to incompetent good-ole boys and dad’s friends. Not machiavellan at all.
I am just as unwilling to decide that “liberals” can do no wrong as I am to decide that they are worse than “conservatives”. I am fully willing to give you the point of “liberals” being bad in some respects to a higher degree than “conservatives”, but when you then try to tell people that “liberals” are worse than “conservatives” and that “conservatives” are x and “liberals” are y, I reserve my right to simply shrug and roll my eyes. You can’t expect anything else from anyone.
The right has a couple of choices.
Play dirty.
Be honest.
I suggest being honest and revealing to the American public what has always been their strong suit. Personal responsibility. Fiscal integrity. Honesty. Moral terpitude.
Combine that with honest reporting. Fair blogging and a search for the truth and they can reveal their counterparts for what they are.
An Angry mob.
Time and the smut the left is throwing at us will heal all wounds. But if the GOP enters the Crap slinging fray then they are going just continue to empower the left who have yet to tell an honest truth and their smear tactics will come to light and be revealed for what they are.
It will take time but I vote for the high ground.
there’s plenty above board to help the right. Especially since this President came into office.
Declining employment rates
He proved bailouts are worthless
Skyrocketing spending
deficit that strapped onto a rocket and blasted off.
The left can use
a hundred million cut.
Keith Olbermann actually has ex-girlfriends e-mailing Rush L. with salacious stories of what a total witless a** that creep is, and Rush looked into it, found it was from two exes, and STILL doesn’t use the dirt because Limbaugh has standards. KOdorboy stinks up the tube, but his personal s**t shouldn’t be dragged out in public. Don’t give that kind of libtard the publicity. Let him date Jane the Buffalo.
It appears that ‘enhanced interrogation’ did save an attack on LA and any Arabist will tell you Iraq was worth invading, despite what the so-called “opinion” of the international left-wing media [meaning 90% of Europe's MSM] might be. Funny how Egypt, Jordan, the Saudis actually support our efforts in Iraq, as does India, though that never gets to the pressies in the USA. Too busy outing Joe the Plumber by illegal use of his personal files and prying into Sarah Palin’s family matters. Funny how Drug Czar Joe Biden’s daughter is caught tooting lines & one story that it was a “double” makes the press walk away. And John Edwards’ infidelity while making maudlin use of his wife’s illness doesn’t constitute outrageous career-ending activities while Allen in VA gets caught using a weird term & poof! that’s all she wrote.
My daughter is taking a Poli Sci public opinion course in college and all her literature admits that the US press, poli sci textbooks, and the academy, Hollywood, plus special interest groups are pretty much solid blue liberal [meaning red socialist in Europe].
“It appears that ‘enhanced interrogation’ did save an attack on LA”
Reagan said that it doesn’t matter if the entire US was at stake. Talk to him.
“any Arabist will tell you Iraq was worth invading, despite what the so-called “opinion” of the international left-wing media [meaning 90% of Europe's MSM] might be.”
What a shame that it doesn’t matter – unless a country has a rationale for self-defense it is immoral and barbaric to invade a foreign nation. Even if you have a rationale, you still have to have a plan to ensure the safety of embassies, a nation’s cultural heritage, civilians’ infrastructure, national legislation etc. The US failed miserably to uphold its obligations towards the Iraqi people here as well. I can give all of it a thumbs down and seeing as US presidents have avowed the US to the conventions I just mentioned, no argumentation is possible. Previous US presidents have said that the invasion of Iraq was un-American.
So you got rid of Saddam (who used to be America’s BFF) while you were at it. Great job. The problem is that if that is your only sound rationale for invading Iraq (it looks like it by now) the US then also has the obligation to get rid of all the other torturing dictator scumbags in the world. Including the “leader” of Uzbekistan, who boils dissenters alive while being an ally of the US.
“e. Funny how Egypt, Jordan, the Saudis actually support our efforts in Iraq”
“Efforts”? Yeah, the US soldiers have mostly done an admirable job. Their commanders and the US population (who is supposed to demand a legal, workable, thought-out and well-prepared strategy from the CiC and the brass in advance of any actual engagements) did not really make an “effort”, hence the sad and perfectly avoidable human suffering all over Iraq. The not-always-so-democratically-elected *governments* of some Arab nations decided to endorse the invasion in clear contrast with the wishes of their voters/democracy-denied citizens.
“Too busy outing Joe the Plumber by illegal use of his personal files and prying into Sarah Palin’s family matters.”
They looked into Obama’s family history too. Palin lied constantly and used nepotism in Alaska while pretending to be John Q’s best friend. So she looked worse and worse, especially when whipping up fervent paranoia and red-blue divisiveness at her rallies. Kerry was the sufferer of the fickleness of the media as well. Deal w/ it.
“Funny how Drug Czar Joe Biden’s daughter is caught tooting lines & one story that it was a “double” makes the press walk away.”
Funny how she’s an adult.
“And John Edwards’ infidelity while making maudlin use of his wife’s illness doesn’t constitute outrageous career-ending activities”
Probably because he was no longer a relevant figure. Had he been the democrat’s nominee we’d have had pure chaos.
“My daughter is taking a Poli Sci public opinion course in college and all her literature admits that the US press, poli sci textbooks, and the academy, Hollywood, plus special interest groups are pretty much solid blue liberal [meaning red socialist in Europe].”
The market of ideas works like the free market – as long as you have the best game-plan and momentum your competitors have no ground for complaints. Apparently American citizens are supposed to suck it up and work harder if they aren’t making traction in the job market, but when republicans in general fail to dominate the market of ideas/opinion that exist among journalists, the academy, Hollywood etc. everything is just deeply unfair.
I’m not saying the left have earned their dominance due to the superiority of their eloquence or their ideas, I am just saying that the right don’t have a reason to claim injustice because of it.
“US hardline conservatives are no more honest and moral, by and large, than the Dutch extremists who tried to smear Michael a little while back, and Michael has to have worked that out by now.”
That’s because they aren’t hardline conservatives but simply very emotional and insulated republican partisans. They haven’t gotten to that point by being actual conservatives, but they like to wear the label.
MvdG, where’s your usual sense of fair play?
There’s a simpler problem here. Hawkins’ charge assumes facts not in evidence – i.e. he is asserting that that is what liberals do without any kind of reasonable data to back it up, and ditto for his prescription.
Now how you make the case that liberals play dirty, and in particular, significantly dirtier than conservatives do is probably worth at least a master’s degree in some social science, but hey if one wants to claim to be a conservative, one’s position should be based on tried and true experience, careful study, etc, etc.
And by the way, who is the woman in the picture, Lady Gaga?
I hope I wasn’t giving anyone the wrong impression – I was talking about the people he referred to as “hardline conservatives”, somewhat comparable to Dutch extremists. and not anyone else. Those were the only people I think could be described as “emotional and insulated republican partisans” who like to think they represent true conservatism.
Cernig,
Given you and your co-bloggers’ inability to maintain even any pretense of consistent principles across a party switch in the White House, I don’t think any of you have any grounds to comment on other people’s integrity.
Also, since your blog is one of the most consistently partisan and predictable rant-fests in the entire blogosphere (after all, who can forget Libby’s over-the-top prediction that Bush would cancel the 2008 elections and rule as a dictator — a prediction which you even now have not had the intellectual honesty to acknowledge as over-the-top and inaccurate EVEN IN SPITE of your blog’s sudden strong disdain for over-the-top partisan paranoia since January 20th), I don’t think you have any legitimate ground to complain about other people supposedly pandering to a partisan base.
Furthermore, given your lack of honesty on a variety of topics upon which you and your co-bloggers have reversed course since a party switch in the White House, I don’t think you have a shred of credibility in assessing what “true conservatives” believe.
P.S. Are you guys EVER going to deign to respond to the many criticisms that have been leveled in your direction? Or is your toolbox limited to hit-and-run trolling against your ideological adversaries? it is increasingly difficult to overstate how completely lame the Newshoggers echo chamber is. I don’t know why Michael even keeps you on the blogroll, given your demonstrable lack of either intellectual honesty or personal respect towards those you disagree with.
Just to make the point clear — we here at PG have a record of criticizing both far-right and far-left extremism. We’ve criticized BDS with the same standards that we now criticize the anti-Obama “birthers”. On the other hand, Newshoggers has a record of criticizing far-right extremism but then reversing course and endorsing the exact same tactics when they come from the far left. Conversely, Newshoggers once endorsed during the Bush administration the same kind of paranoid and abusive extremism that you now condemn during the Obama administration. You guys were once the biggest purveyors of BDS extremism, with Libby’s post providing a great example. But after Obama took office, you guys all suddenly discovered that such paranoid extremism is toxic and unacceptable, but without even acknowledging your own participation in such tactics before. The transition was instant and shameless and even after having it repeatedly pointed out to you, you guys just do hit-and-run comments and refuse to discuss the problem. Therefore, I think the charge of dishonesty against you is sufficient to undermine the credibility of your criticisms, especially in light of your continuing refusals to respond when criticisms are leveled in your direction.
Shorter version: Buzz off, ya troll. You guys are prime examples of dirty hyper-partisan tactics, caricatures, falsehoods, misrepresentations, distortions, paranoia, and extremism. I don’t think you get to turn around and demand that your side be treated with kid gloves in response. Honestly, it is the persistent BS from people like you that burn out people who want serious debate in the blogosphere and allow the trivial and the ideologically pre-programmed to dominate.
You ARE the problem you claim to critique. And yet you refuse to even talk about it, preferring only to do drive-by snotty comments with delusions of mind-reading super-powers after which you run away and hide in your echo chamber again.
Shortest version: Newshoggers is the swine flu of the internet.
To everyone else: Sorry if this seems over-the-top. But I have very little tolerance for liars and cowards, especially ones that pose self-righteously as critics of other people’s honesty and integrity. I’m reached the limit of my tolerance with Cernig/Steve in particular, due to his continuing penchant for drive-by comments that slam other people’s honesty and integrity at the same time he has refused for months to even respond criticisms about his own blog’s blatant double standards and dishonesty in how they treat conservatives and their arguments.
Like many conservatives (I’m personally a centrist, not a conservative), I’m tired of being played for a sucker by leftists who claim high principle when it protects them but sacrifice it immediately when it is convenient to beat up non-leftists by doing so. From now on, as they sow, so also shall they reap. Those from right OR left who seek serious debate, I welcome. Those from extreme right or left who seek only to regurgitate partisan scripts and bile and dehumanizing stereotypes and caricatures, I give the back of my hand. Screw ‘em.
Steve: As far as I am concerned, everything I wrote is true. Not every conservative is moral, and not every liberal loves to play it dirty, but these rules do apply to ‘the majorities.’
As for fair play Russ: calling ‘em as I see ‘em is fair.
“Not every conservative is moral, and not every liberal loves to play it dirty, but these rules do apply to ‘the majorities.’”
This is where you show a study or, at least, something. Just because you’ve said the same thing over and over on this blog doesn’t really add up to anything. These rules were most certainly not written down when I was around.
“As for fair play Russ: calling ‘em as I see ‘em is fair.”
Well, you aren’t seeing millions of people at once, yet making claims about them. You’re overreaching, making people less probable to recognize the fact that you have a point to make if you just pull back a bit.
the republicans have been playing dirty like everyone else. just look at the republican political consultant nathan sproul. he is the kind of person that gives politicians a bad name.
republicans play dirty and they are good at it because they have you fooled that they play nice.
I am a conservative who leans centrist and in fact like a lot of the things liberals want to do.
No party or philosophy has a corner on good ideas.
My biggest complaint with bloggers was articulated very well by Jason above. The BDS directed at Bush and then the outrage when the same ODS is directed at their man.
Personally I think Obama is a likeable guy. Someone who could rule as a centrist and reach accross party lines. What needs to be done is for the GOP to reach out to Obama and to cut off the leaching hand of the far left puppetmasters that are dictating to him what he will and will not do.
Obama is a far left liberal. At times Im a far right conservative. But honestly I can very easily be friends with…….endorse ideas of and accept policies of my idealogical opposites.
If the GOP and Obama choose to work together then we are going to get a whole lot more done then if we chose to be the party of “No.”
Honestly I believe that the GOP has an opportunity here to use the vehemence of the left against them and make them pariahs.