How the Party of Stupid Lost the 2012 Presidential Election to the Party of Sleaze and Emotional Manipulation
Although the emotion of the left helped to make up for lost ground and to motivate crony groups to the polls, in the end fraud and the use of the IRS to target the Tea Party and other Conservative groups was how Obama won re-election. With the recent revelation of the IRS scandal, it is time to connect the dots that the media is afraid to do. They are afraid simply because by doing so they see the real fear that Conservatives and the Average “folks” will no longer view their President as legitimate. In fact, he is not. The election was a sham, yet the media not only covers for Obama, but it actively trying to diminish the logical conclusion of what the IRS did to help insure Obama’s victory.
The Party of Stupid and the establishment Republicans played a significant hand in this scandal by their silence and they were not innocent bystanders. The GOP establishment knew that the Tea Party was being targeted and they refused to bring it up for the simple reason that they stupidly thought they could kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, they may have sealed the doom and the end of the GOP – especially if they pass an Amnesty bill. This will be their final act of monumental stupidity. Like Obamacare, the senate’s version of Amnesty has a provision that uses Community Organization (essentially Democrat front groups) to promote the execution of the bill. In the Amnesty bill, SEIU and NAACP will be doing the things that neutral govt agencies should be doing – and the end result will be millions of Democrat voters flooding the welfare rolls – Tammany Hall writ large.
The GOP made the massive mistake that the poor economy and the poll after poll telling them that pounding Obama on the Economy would sway the modern American electorate and this strategy would be the road to victory. Obviously this strategy did not work. The Masterminds running the Democrat Party re-election strategy knew that despite a dreadful economy with high unemployment, skyrocketing gas prices, impending tax hikes and the “fiscal cliff”, a vast majority of people can be manipulated by appealing to their emotional “hot buttons” and they executed that strategy brilliantly.
Certainly over the coming days, weeks, months and years, this race will be analyzed and many will correctly note the shortcomings of the Republican strategy. First, the Democrats correctly knew that the swing states would be the key to re-election. It has been reported that the Democrat Machine did not leave Ohio and in effect started the 2012 re-election the day after the 2008 election ended. Second, while the Democrats were focusing on their “slander campaign” against the Republican Presidential nominee – starting to run Negative ads against Romney in February of 2012 well before he won the nomination in June – the Republicans sat on their hands waiting for Sept and October – a mere two months before the election to attempt to answer the Democrat machine’s attack on Romney – his ties to Wall Street, being a “vulture capitalist”, shaping Romney as a “one percenter” who did not pay taxes, who has a war on a women, Hispanics, etc.
Literally the election was in serious jeopardy sometime early during the Republican Primary debates. It is true that Romney’s unexpected brilliant first debate performance and Obama’s equally unexpected dismal performance gave the waning campaign a pulse; the GOP campaign missteps were too many to counter the brilliant strategy of the Democrats. Although it is common to take Primary debate ammunition into the General Election, the ridiculous number of Republican debates gave the Democrats a treasure trove of attack ads. Gingrich’s attacks on Romney – especially about his ties to Wall Street – provided great ammunition for the Democrats. But the real reason for the loss is what I call the “Untouchables effect”, the famous quote from the movie: “if they bring a knife, you bring a gun.” The Republicans brought a knife – facts. The Democrats bought a gun – emotion. And this leads to the fundamental reason the GOP lost the 2012 election. It was not the messaging per se attacking Obama’s record that was lacking, although heaven knows there were some pretty weak ads. It was not the change in Demographics. Yes, the Hispanic growth as a percentage of the electorate is growing. They lost because ironically, using “facts” to try to persuade someone with “emotional” investment in a point of view is a losing strategy.
The emotional appeal was brilliantly targeted at the core constituencies that gave Obama his victory: Women, Hispanics, Blacks, Union members, and Youth. I suppose that list could include other sub groups, but what the Democrats did was was nothing short of Machiavellian in the way they targeted key constituency groups with emotional appeals. For example, Republicans thought they could focus on the economic impact on Women and that would trump the Democrat appeal to the fear regarding access to contraceptives and abortion. Democrats demagogued successfully that far right Republicans would move to overturn Roe v Wade and bring them back to the 50s and the days when abortions were not available. This on the face is absurd. Roe v Wade, misguided though many of us believe it is, is the law of the land and likely will never be overturned – especially with this Supreme Court. And if by some miracle the Supreme Court would actually read the Constitution as written – especially the 10th Amendment – and give that decision back to the states – there is equally no doubt that many states including probably all of the Blue States – California, New York, etc. that would make abortions legal. But the point is very simple: The Democrats artfully manipulated women – even very bright women – by using the fear of repeal of Roe v. Wade etc. The Republicans fell right into the trap by arguing to cease funding for Planned Parenthood. As noble and morally correct as this position may be if you believe that American citizens – especially the large numbers who do not support abortions – should not be forced to pay taxes for Planned Parenthood, women looked at Democrats as their saviors.
Taking this paradigm to other target groups, while the Republicans hammered the facts of the economy, the Democrats appealed to emotion. Emotion won. The key here also is the realization that this emotional appeal trumps facts – even among some of the brightest among us. There’s a classic Social Psychology experiment from the 60s by Stanley Milgrim. The net outcome was the experimental evidence that about 70% of the people (this includes very bright college students and other demographic groups) can be manipulated to obey a man in a white coat (a Doctor or Leader or authority figure) – up to the point where they would shock another human being to death! Based on the 2012 election, it appears that emotional appeals trump logic and is the fundamental flaw in Democracy. Perhaps that is why our Founders attempted to set up a Representative Republic and elect Presidents with an electoral college rather than a pure democratic vote. They were very bright fellows. Without the advantage of some of our modern technology or Social Psychology experiments, they understood that people can be manipulated by emotion and pure democracy was doomed to end badly without “checks and balances”. Sadly for the future of this country, it is unclear whether there are any substantive checks and balances left to counter the crafty Mastermind of today’s politics. Certainly, the well-educated electorate among women and other target Democrat groups do not think that they made their decision based on emotion, but the evidence tells us otherwise. Yes, the Democrats brought a gun to a knife fight and won.