Note to conservatives: Curb your enthusiasm on the midterm elections.
Yesterday's Washington Times wowed conservatives with the front-page headline: "Obama concedes 'shellacking.'" Another prominent conservative sent out newsletters exulting that "[o]n Tuesday the American People made their position clear. Americans oppose the policies of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. … [T]hese leaders and their agenda were FIRED!" Rush Limbaugh is being hailed as a hero for saying on-air he hoped Barack Obama "would fail," as if that comment launched the ballyhooed "conservative victory." Forbes Magazine beamed that the "Republican victory may keep the bull market alive." Even my old stomping ground, the Voice of America, exulted: "Republican U.S. Election Victory Could Impact South Asia."
As election results came in, TV commentators on the left appeared apoplectic over the turn of events, variously opining that "the crazies have taken over"; "the ill-informed voter" is now king.
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But a blogger yesterday at Huffington Post may have had a better handle on the realities of the midterm elections: "Reid wins, Angle loses: The crazies have not taken over."
The fact is, all the Democrats' dour post-mortems and long faces – publicized, photographed and disseminated far and wide – are about as phony as Barack Obama's campaign promise to end income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 and that no family making less than $250,000 would see "any form of tax increase."
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Here's what conservatives actually got for their midterm trouble: A possibility of being able to stall funding for some of the Obama administration's more onerous pieces of legislation and an opportunity to filibuster new spending binges and perhaps keep them from coming to the floor or going to committee. That's it. Other than that, we got nada. The leftist bureaucracy is still solidly in place; the worst of the socialist-minded tax-and-spenders are still at their posts in the Senate, along with their entourages of staff, lobbyists, foundational-union-association support apparatuses, as well as their pals in the media (helped along by a certain billionaire, living the high life abroad, George Soros, with his $1 million dollar re-investment in Media Matters).
Patriotic conservatives do many things well. What we don't do well is strategy. When will we recognize that political leftists are masters at outmaneuvering the opposition and silencing critics? That they could win Academy Awards (and sometimes have) for "framing the debate" and "controlling the psychological environment"?
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That's what the techniques above are called in journalistic and legal-psychology classes. There is a good reason why a college major in psychology suddenly discovered a boom market in a post-1960s America, and it can be summed up in two words: political psychology. George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., for example, provides major course work in it.
Political psychology (or "psychopolitics") goes beyond typical the behavioral-oriented fare in marketing, public relations and advertising studies to "molding public opinion." That's what liberal Democrats do: mold public opinion. And they are very, very good at it.
If their agenda requires putting on a sad face and allowing pollsters to come to erroneous conclusions concerning their intentions and beliefs: no problem. If it means recruiting spokespersons who are highly intelligent but can appear to be stupid; individuals who may seem slightly naïve, but in reality are professional community organizers; supporters who appear to weary easily, but who turn out to be vigorous and energetic; cronies who can endure public humiliation in the service of their leftist mentors, but who later turn the tables to reveal themselves as highly articulate "smart-a--es," it's all A-OK with the leftist Democrats! If there's a need to extend an olive branch to Republicans on some high-profile issue, then behind the scenes conspire to "zap" conservative opponents on a different matter – the "app" for that is in the ultimate how-to book, Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," circa 476 B.C., improved upon only by the communists under Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev.
Two examples of the latter: In 1999, the Democrats used a phony budget agreement, allowing Republicans to save face with the public by claiming victory. But once they seized this route, they worked discreetly to garner support for partial-birth abortion, something most people back then didn't even know existed. In 2002, George W. Bush was permitted to claim victory for education "standards" when he signed the No Child Left Behind Act. Whose was the real victory? Then-Sen. Ted Kennedy, catering to liberal Democrats who were anxious to further dumb down America's classrooms and move schools toward "functionality" instead of excellence.
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Patriotic Americans have just one more shot rescuing this country from European-style leftism: 2012. This week's midterm elections constitute a start in that direction. But make no mistake: Every new class of voters is a product of an educational system progressively steeped in socialist ideals and an entitlement mentality.
Conservatives better get a reality check, quit kidding themselves and get down to serious work.
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Beverly K. Eakman is a former educator and retired federal employee who served as writer and editor for three government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Voice of America. Today, she is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer, the author of five books and a frequent speaker on the lecture circuit, teaching audiences how to shut down professional provocateurs using group-manipulation techniques. Her most recent book is "Walking Targets: How Our Psychologized Classrooms Are Producing a Nation of Sitting Ducks" (Midnight Whistler Publishers, 2007).