{"id":731,"date":"2012-08-23T07:42:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T11:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=731"},"modified":"2012-08-23T07:42:32","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T11:42:32","slug":"winning-the-words-battle-but-losing-the-idea-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=731","title":{"rendered":"winning the words battle, but losing the idea war"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Note: \u00a0Today is the final post of our annual Guest Blogger Series. \u00a0Please remember: \u00a0the Intramuralist may or may not agree with the opinion(s) expressed. \u00a0The goal is respectful articulation.]<\/em><\/p>\n

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In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engaged in a series of seven debates, each of which lasted three hours.\u00a0 Today candidates running for office state their case via 30-second commercials and 140-character tweets.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s because of technology or because we just live busier lives today, there is a perception that voters have shorter attention spans than they did 150 years ago.\u00a0 So just like marketing for other items, political advertising has become more concise and summarized.\u00a0 That approach may have positive short-term effects in terms of winning elections, but there can be negative long-term impacts.\u00a0 Over-simplified campaign slogans can foster misperceptions on broader policy issues.<\/p>\n

Even though I am an active member of the Republican Party, initially I was not a fan of George W. Bush.\u00a0 The reason was because as a candidate he referred to himself as a \u201ccompassionate conservative.\u201d\u00a0 I suspect that phrase was the brainchild of Karl Rove meant to maximize electoral success.\u00a0 From that perspective, the motto was effective.\u00a0 It appealed to independent voters who wanted fiscal responsibility but believed Democrat claims that Republicans were cold and heartless.<\/p>\n

To me, though, conservatism is<\/strong> compassionate.\u00a0 To put the two words together implied a paradox and reinforced the Democrat talking point.\u00a0 Two generations of the welfare state has institutionalized dependency for a large segment of our society, something I don\u2019t find to be very compassionate.\u00a0 It\u2019s too bad that important point got pushed aside in an alliterative pursuit for votes.<\/p>\n

This year, given the fact that many Americans are out of work or underemployed, the topic on many voters\u2019 minds is jobs.\u00a0 Rightfully so, most politicians are emphasizing their intent to improve the employment situation.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many candidates (Republicans and Democrats alike)<\/em> are saying that they are going to \u201ccreate jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters may react positively to such a pledge.\u00a0 Yet, there\u2019s one problem as I see it:\u00a0 government can\u2019t create jobs.\u00a0 It\u2019s a significant difference of opinion, and when Republicans say they will create jobs, they are ceding to the Democrat viewpoint about where jobs come from.<\/p>\n

A job will only exist when the time put in by an employee enables value to be added to a product or service.\u00a0 That\u2019s the true source of jobs (and wealth, by the way)<\/em>… individuals acting freely to develop things that other people want or need.\u00a0 All revenue that the government has comes from the private sector, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

Government does have the power to prevent jobs from being created, through excessive regulation and high taxes which discourage entrepreneurs from taking risks.\u00a0 Unfortunately, \u201cI will destroy fewer jobs\u201d doesn\u2019t go well on a bumper sticker.<\/p>\n

Political consultants should give voters more credit that they can absorb more information than a sound bite.\u00a0 They should provide candidates more opportunity to fully explain the ideas behind their positions.<\/p>\n

To get elected, candidates need to obtain a majority of votes, so there is a natural tendency to react to public opinion. \u00a0 However, sometimes what we need instead is changing public opinion.\u00a0 What we need is leadership.<\/p>\n

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Respectfully,<\/p>\n

Pete<\/p>\n

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[Intramuralist Note:\u00a0 My \u201clittle brother\u201d \u2014 although he towers approximately a foot overhead \u2014 now shares with us as the State Senator from Indiana\u2019s District 24.\u00a0 Way to go, wise bro… well done.]\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n


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\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Note: \u00a0Today is the final post of our annual Guest Blogger Series. \u00a0Please remember: \u00a0the Intramuralist may or may not agree with the opinion(s) expressed. \u00a0The goal is respectful articulation.]     In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engaged in a series of seven debates, each of which lasted three hours.\u00a0 Today candidates running … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “winning the words battle, but losing the idea war”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,100,99],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-compassionate-conservatism","tag-create-jobs","tag-over-simplified-campaign-slogans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}