by Scott Pinsker, PJ Media:
Two of the top conservative thinkers in America are Ben Shapiro, the head honcho of The Daily Wire, and Morton Blackwell, the lead dog of the Leadership Institute. Shapiro is more famous, but Blackwell is probably more influential: The Leadership Institute has been around since the late 1970s, training tens of thousands of conservative activists. Included amongst its alumni are GOP senators, congressmen, governors, cabinet members… and at least one PJ Media writer (Hi!).
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
As for Shapiro, he’s matured into a leading voice for conservatism. His proficiency with social media is widely admired (and often copied), but seldom equaled. Of all the voices in media, he’s the closest thing we have today to a Rush Limbaugh: A bold, unapologetic voice who powerfully communicates complex conservative principles. He lacks the humor, gleeful irreverence, and “panache” of Limbaugh, but he’s tailormade for today’s information age, and The Daily Wire is now the media outlet of choice for millions of young Americans.
That’s a hell of an accomplishment.
Blackwell and Shapiro have gotten a lot right, but there’s a key area where they’re absolutely wrong — and it ties into the existential challenges facing the Democratic Party.
Shapiro’s famous catchphrase is, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” And I know what he means: There’s an objective reality that exists independent of your personal desires. That’s true. Feelings and facts aren’t identical.
But for marketing purposes, Shapiro has it completely backwards: Feelings don’t care about your facts!
Like it or not, humans are emotional decision-makers. We “lust” emotionally and then justify intellectually. It’s why the most successful marketing campaigns are all built around emotional triggers instead of intellectual arguments: Emotions ring registers! Intellectual arguments do not.
As for Blackwell, he developed “The 45 Laws of the Public Policy Process.” It’s a very cool list with lots of great, highly relevant info: Check it out.
But Law #23 is just plain wrong. It says, “In volunteer politics, a builder can build faster than a destroyer can destroy.”
It’d be nice if it were true, but sadly, it’s not: Building is hard! Destroying is easy. In just one afternoon, a destroyer can destroy EVERYTHING you spent years building.
Got it?
That’s the preamble: It’s far easier to destroy than to build, and feelings don’t care about your facts. With this in mind, here’s how to destroy the Democratic Party in four easy steps.
First, divide the Democratic Party from its base. STATUS: IN PROGRESS.
According to Rep. Sean Casten (D-Il.), after a town hall meeting, a Democratic colleague called him in tears, crying, “They hate us. They hate us.”
Right now, you have the independent senator from Vermont, socialist Bernie Sanders, touring with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). They’re drawing huge crowds. And in the process, they’re mainstreaming a new vision of liberalism — one that will thrive in liberal Vermont and in AOC’s far-left New York district, but wouldn’t be competitive in red or purples regions.
The Democrats are long overdue for an ideological overhaul. Eventually, they’ll coalesce once again, but a divided liberal base would allow MAGA to run the country with a mere 45% approval rating. Hopefully, they’ll stay divided for the rest of Trump’s term.
Second, capture left-leaning libertarians. STATUS: NOT YET.
The excesses and overreaches of liberalism have already pushed most right-leaning libertarians into the MAGA camp, and that trend won’t change. Indeed, much of the male-focused blogosphere is more right-leaning libertarian than actual conservative, yet they’ve all found a home in the Republican Party.
