Everyone is talking about Tucker Carlson’s distillation of the January 6, 2021 security camera footage recently released to him. And well they should. As expected, he completely debunked the narrative that has gone on far too long by The Party and their stooges in the media. But let’s not blur the most important thing Tucker said (at the 6:45 mark): “[Chuck Schumer. Mitch McConnell. Mitt Romney. Tom Tillis.] They’re all on the same side. So it’s actually not about left and right. It’s not about Republican and Democrat. Here you have people with shared interests.” “The open borders people….
It may be time to stick together
Matt Walsh – one of my favorite conservative commentators – recently wrote: “Imagine how much more effective conservatives would be if we had even the slightest sense of camaraderie or just a little bit of loyalty to each other as compatriots in the culture war.” In response to an objection, he then wrote: Meanwhile, after Nikki Haley recently spoke at CPAC, MAGA War Room observed that the speaker’s hall was very empty for Nikki Haley’s speech – implying that no one wanted to hear her. I responded by pointing out it was empty for everyone… Doesn’t seem very controversial…
Conservativebrief.com: Make them stop
I’d love to know how much conservativebrief.com and deenquirer.com are paying headliner conservatives to promote them? If you follow conservatives like Ava Armstrong, Sebastian Gorka, or Dinesh D’Souza on Twitter, you’ve surely noticed the pattern of conservativebrief.com promotion: This is huge! She’s in trouble! It’s over! Court ruling a game-changer! Then, if you make the mistake of clicking on the linked article, you get a bunch of paragraphs that regurgitate everything everyone already knows about the related subject, without any news or developments of any kind. When it happens, it looks a bit like this: Here are the first…
“Celebrate similarity”
Nearly five years ago, one of the first Bubbler posts I wrote was called “Celebrate similarity.” Back then, it was simply affirming Prince questioning what we hoped to gain by celebrating what divides us instead of celebrating what unites us. Because we don’t really teach US history anymore, fewer and fewer people understand this. But the United States was founded on a set of principles that attracted a diverse set of people from all around the globe – all of whom were united by one core idea: Freedom. They came to build a better life. Hard to say whether…
A choice between crazy or normal
For the first time in my lifetime, and GOP may have accidentally veered into messaging. Last night, Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. In it, she did something you rarely hear from any Republicans. She had a concise message that resonated: Democrats and Republicans give you a choice between “crazy or normal.” She didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked, and only mentioned it two more times, but she cited as her examples CRT (which she should have defined), racism, indoctrination, use of LatinX, COVID mandates, and…
The conservative marketing problem: example #1,538… gas stoves
It pains me to say it, but Joe Scarborough was right about something. On his show this morning, he was talking about Republicans talking about gas stoves, and he said, “It’s so stupid. They’re talking about gas stoves instead of Vladimir Putin threatening nuclear war… instead of China invading Taiwan.” He’s right. That is stupid. But not necessarily for the reasons he thinks. It’s stupid because, once again, the Republican Party’s disaster of a marketing department (that’s me stupidly believing they have one) is reacting to the latest ridiculous idea from Democrats instead of going on offense and talking…
Liberals don’t hate America
God knows, conservatives have more than their share of marketing issues. They don’t know how to use any of the channels. They don’t understand timing. They’re constantly reactive – never proactive. They underestimate the left constantly. The list goes on… But probably their worst problem is their inability to craft and articulate a message that resonates. Chief among them is the lazy assertion made by conservative media, talk radio, and some politicians alike: Liberals (the left) hates America. While there are undoubtedly some on the left who do – and that case is easiest to make about those running…
Republicans can’t ignore LinkedIn
LinkedIn feeds, seen by millions, have gotten increasingly political in the past few years – especially in the tech sector, and the Republican Party representation is, as always, nowhere to be found. Political activism has always been a component of LinkedIn, whether better pay for women in the tech sector, salary transparency, their company’s climate activism, or diversity in the workforce. But when COVID hit, people started airing out their mental illness. Probably not surprising this coincided with transgender activism. And then when the Dobbs Supreme Court decision was decided, everyone took great pride on coming out to talk…
GOP has no one to blame but themselves
The GOP’s inability to effectively respond to the raid on Trump’s home in Mar-a-lago is nothing more than a complete marketing failure. There is no purpose or unity in Republican marketing because there is no marketing department with a strategy and a message. Republicans are all out there saying whatever they think (and, being Republicans, there’s a lot of independent thought out there to corral), with no unity or strategy, or not saying anything at all. This story requires a coordinated offensive – especially because they don’t have any media or cultural support to amplify their message. Democrats have…
Biden is not the target
Today at CPAC, I watched Ron DeSantis give an amazing speech. I’d never seen him speak in person, and I was pretty excited to see him live up to expectations and cement the idea that he’s who we need in 2024. However, I’m going to nitpick something I heard him say that I’ve heard too many other conservatives say at this same convention and for the last year: Joe Biden is not target, socialism is the target. Joe Biden is not running things. What’s happening right now are not Joe Biden’s ideas. He didn’t enter the election with any…