Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Why Tea Party Anger Must Be Sustained



Conservatives -- contrary to the claims and behavior of the left -- are generally happy, easygoing sorts, slow to anger. They simply don't have time for it; they are going about the business of living and assume others are doing the same. People of the left, on the other hand, seem perpetually angry, and their business is minding that of others. Minding and, insofar as possible, controlling. With so a heavy burden of responsibility, it is little wonder they are unhappy.
h/t: Dr. Sanity

Given enough provocation, though, conservatives will eventually rise to anger. They will deal with the provocation and then forget about it. The left sees this as a political weakness and systematically exploits it.


In a rather long article that analyzes the way that progressivism caused California to become a failed state, there are a couple of gems. One points to the anger strategy of the left. When citizens become angry at the excesses of government, the strategy is simply to wait until the anger subsides. Then it's back to business-as-usual. The other asserts that anger is not enough; that it must translate into action by a government that knows it has been called -- and will be held -- to account.



In California, the political strategies of both conservatives and liberals concentrate on how to deal with that angry public. The conservative strategy is to get the public angry, and see that it stays angry... The liberal strategy is, as noted, to avoid rousing that public to anger, but also, when the voters do put on their war paint, to wait for their ire to ebb due to the passage of time and the inevitable reappearance of life's many nonpolitical preoccupations. When the anger has passed, government-as-usual can resume without meddling by citizen-amateurs.
And it works.

The evidence is incontestable: the liberal strategy of waiting for the public's anger to subside is far sounder than the conservative strategy of hoping it will gather strength. The liberal calculation rests on a shrewd assessment, not only of human psychology but also of modern mobility ...which means that one of the ways Californians who are mad as hell can decide not to take it any more is by moving away.
Not only must teaparty anger be sustained for the long-haul, but it must be used to re-shape the Republican Party.

Conservatives have gotten most of the mileage they ever will out of efforts to translate Californians' anger into a polling place backlash against the permanent government. For conservatism to revive its fortunes, and California's, far-sighted resolve will have to do the work that populist outrage cannot. Two connections must be forged for that project to succeed. First, the state's Republican Party will have to break free from the gravitational pull of the Progressive legacy to establish itself as the vital political intermediary between the public's desire for fair and frugal public services, and a newly chastened government that delivers them conscientiously.
So there it is. Stay angry until government not only gets, but acts on the message. Then go back to business. But, this time... stay vigilant.

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