In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the good people of Texas are coming together to help one another. Lamar Smith, however, apparently didn’t get the memo. Instead of extending a helping hand, his op-ed on Fox only pokes people in the eye.
I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised, seeing that you can’t teach an old elephant new tricks. To show you the low-bar set by Lamar, and since he refuses to hold a town hall, I’ve reprinted sections with my comments below.
“Republicans have not convinced many everyday Americans of the rightness of our cause. So we need to do something different to get our message directly to the American people and explain how the policies we advocate will benefit them.”
“Rightness of [your] cause”? Remind me what’s “right” about accepting $600,000 from Big Oil -- the same Big Oil that’s warming the planet and the oceans, creating more fuel for hurricanes to grow stronger? Also, you say you should talk directly to the people -- remind me, when was the last time you held an in-person town hall?
To succeed, it’s time for Republicans to take the initiative and go on the offensive. We need to seize opportunities, streamline the legislative process, become less risk-adverse and not rely on the media to fairly deliver our message.
“Take the initiative and go on the offensive” -- because that worked so well in Afghanistan and Iraq. I really wish you were more risk-averse then. Also, Lamar, I think you meant “risk-averse.”
Republicans also need to define issues, employ better arguments and make the Democrats pay a price for their unpopular positions. And we need to be as disciplined in governing as Democrats are in opposing.
Democrats attack. Republicans explain. Instead, Republicans should show the positive impact of our plans on the lives of individuals. And we should use charts, graphics, photos, social media and all the other tools of modern communication.
First off: you can’t fully define the issues in a 140-character statement that often contradicts another 140-character statement. Secondly, we Democrats don’t “attack,” we DEFEND people’s freedom from those who want to pollute our water, pay us poverty wages, and dictate what bathrooms people can use. Third: if by “unpopular positions” you mean: Worker’s Rights, Women’s rights, Social Security, Civil Rights, Medicaid, higher minimum wage, Obamacare, and the like -- then I do suppose those things would be unpopular to your overlords, the Koch brothers.
Republicans are too defensive. Democrats are like predators that instinctively pursue their prey as soon as they see their backsides. Republicans should confront our opponents, not head for the tall grass.
The reason you’re “too defensive” is because you have an unhinged man as a president. That’s on you -- especially since you were the first Congressman to donate to Trump’s campaign. Also, I think the party that legislates itself into bathrooms, women’s health, and people’s love lives are the predators here.
Republicans shy away from sensitive issues, such as immigration, even when our solutions are popular. For example, few issues garner 70 to 80 percent of the public’s support. But a program called E-verify does. It protects jobs for American workers rather than letting illegal immigrants take them.
Other issues involving education, law enforcement, family and individual freedom are winners as well. Republicans should be as hungry for victories now as we were when Democrats controlled Congress.
If Low-bar Lamar had his way with immigration, education, and law enforcement, then we would be a culturally bland country without a working economy, science would be replaced with Alternative Facts in schools, and our police would become so militarized that even the ghost of the Soviet Union would think you’re being crazy.
Some congressional gridlock could be reduced by Republicans ourselves.
The House spends months on spending bills that will seldom become law and are not particularly liked by conservatives.
The Senate allows Democrats to block consideration of hundreds of bills with a filibuster rule that dates back only to 1975, and which could be repealed easily.
There Low-bar Lamar goes again: instead of fighting his own party’s demons he just blames it on the Democrats. Who was it that broke protocol by blocking Obama from filling Antonin Scalia's seat? Who are the ones who gerrymandered our Democracy to near death?
Republicans also could benefit by thinking of ourselves as bakers. We should realize that a half-loaf, or even a slice, is better than no bread at all. The legislator who refuses to change a word of a bill will never enact a meaningful law. There is rarely a touchdown pass in Congress; usually it’s just grinding out first-downs.
If Low-bar Lamar is a baker, then he’s half-baked.
There is a tendency, too, for Republicans to vote no: members of our party want time to look before they leap.
But it’s wrong to compare what we are voting on with perfection, rather than with the Democrats’ liberal alternative. By only voting for perfect bills, we will pass very little legislation. And Republicans will then be considered part of the problem, not part of the answer to problems facing our nation and our people. That spells electoral disaster.
I have a perfect bill idea! Congressional term limits. Here’s another: end Citizens United. Out of the charity of my heart, I’ll even give you one final perfect bill idea: end partisan gerrymandering.
Often Republicans let Democrats determine the terms of debate. Some of the nicer words Democrats use to describe Republicans are “vile,” “heartless” and “killers.”
Lamar needs to look at his own party’s message boards on the Internet.
Republicans reciprocate by adopting the Democrats’ own language. For instance, they agree to call the media “mainstream” and Democrats “progressive” rather than the more pejorative term, “liberal.”
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.” - FDR. Maybe we should send Low-bar back to kindergarten to be taught the difference between walking forwards and falling back.
Suppose Republicans took the initiative, defined issues, expedited the legislative process and became a united team. Would that guarantee success? It might help but, no, it wouldn’t turn the tide.
In other words, Low-bar Lamar wants everyone to unite under their team leader -- i.e., Trump. He did, after all, say, “get your news directly from the president.”
Until Republicans acknowledge the elephant in the room – the need to combat pervasive and relentless liberal media bias – our agenda will languish.
If it’s “liberal” to stand up to and call out those whose agenda is to clip the wings of the American eagle, then I for one am proud to be called “biased.” Pretty sure Hitler called the media biased too.
As a result, we will not be able to deliver our message because the media primarily give only one side of the story – the other side. Americans simply won’t hear what Republicans are saying. Or, if they do, our work will assuredly be presented in a negative way.
For Republicans, the media is like having another self-funded liberal Democratic opponent.
Low-bar should read a history book about the rise of Nazis. Actually, he shouldn’t -- I don’t want him getting any ideas. History may not repeat, but it’s rhyming more than it ever should.
George Mason University Professor Tim Groseclose quantified the media’s bias and found that it was worth 5 percent of the vote. His calculation has never been refuted.
How much you wanna bet his calculations used Alternative Data?
So without a biased media, we would have had a President McCain, a President Romney, a President Trump landslide, and many more Republicans in Congress today.
The media’s intent is to intimidate, silence and put Republicans on the defensive. It’s working. And Republicans are willing accomplices to the media’s manipulation.
The only thing Low-bar is a willing accomplice in is an attack on the freedom of the press. Actually, maybe I was too nice with that, because let’s be honest, he’s holding a smoking gun.
The threshold question is: Why do Republicans let the media tell us what to think? Why read liberal columnists? Why watch the liberal news? Ignore them!
Low-bar likes echo chambers. That is good -- he will never see us coming!
Republicans take the bait. We swallow it hook, line and sinker. When a reporter calls and asks Republicans to comment on the president, legislation, or the Republican Party, many eagerly comply.
The result is inevitably an unwarranted and critical story about the divided GOP, our weak leaders or our flawed bills.
Why Republicans respond at all – much less answer hypothetical and leading questions – is beyond understanding. It enables the media to influence GOP strategy and policy.
There Low-bar Lamar goes again: blaming others for his own policy failures. He’s the kind of person who, after selling you a defective policy, blames you for being mad at him for his own deceit. Also, the media can write all about the failures of your policies without Republicans’ quotes.
As for President Trump, the Republican Party’s fortunes largely rise or fall with him. If the economy grows, if jobs are created, if the borders are secured, if taxes are lowered, Republicans will benefit. But these achievements won’t occur if the president is besieged by his own party and the media.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: never put your fate in Trump’s hands. They’re too small to hold it.
The president has called the media “the opposition.” He has a point. He has received the highest percentage of negative coverage of any recent president.
Two-thirds of Americans now think the media are hurting the country! And the media’s credibility is at a record low. Much of what the media report is exaggerated, biased or slanted, if not malicious.
Apparently, he hasn’t seen Trump’s favorability polls. Either that or the Head of the Science Committee forgot how numbers worked -- it wouldn’t be the dumbest thing he’s ever done (i.e., “Don’t believe in the hysteria over climate change [because plants need CO2]”)
The Democratic Party’s enablers spend millions of a dollars on “war rooms” that provide members of the media with tainted information they readily disgorge to savage Republicans.
Literally, you have no room to talk. Listening to you go on about the ills of “enablers” and “war rooms” is like taking a morality lesson from a Klansman.
What are Republicans going to do in response? For starters, we should cite examples of media bias in speeches, and in letters to editors and producers. We should form organizations that will educate the public about the facts and dangers of media bias.
Citing biased examples? Great idea! Fox News, InfoWars, Drudge Report, Trump’s buddies in Russia.
And we should flood social media with counterpoints to the liberal media and Democrats – the “mediacrats.”
Media bias is a threat to our democracy. If the American people don’t get the facts, they can’t make good decisions. And if they can’t make good decisions, our democracy is at risk.
For our country’s sake, let’s hope and pray that Republicans will succeed in being able to accurately present our ideas to the American people.
A moment of honesty: while I may have had my fun poking holes throughout the word-vomit above, it makes me more sad than angry. Why a person would willingly want to tear families apart by ending DACA, why a person would sell out the future of billions for a quick buck, why a person would throw out so much venom at a time when the state he supposedly represents is in so much pain from the recent hurricane -- well, it’s beyond me.
I am Chris Perri; I’m a progressive of the people, by the people, and for the people; and I’m here to restore decency in Texas 21. If you want Low-bar Lamar out, then please me send him into retirement.