When I was a teenager, my Dad told me this story one night when he arrived home from work. That morning, his boss arrived at work in his downtown Dallas headquarters to find there was scaffolding along the front of the building. “Why is this scaffolding here?” he asked one of the workers. “Oh, no,” the worker thought, “The President wants the scaffolding gone.” That same day, the President walked out of the building at lunch to find the scaffolding had all been torn down. “Where did the scaffolding go?” he asked a worker. “Oh, no,” the worker thought, “he…
Give people the information they need
Twice in the last week, I found myself in a position where I had information that was not going to be received well by another. In each case, I had to make the decision to either tell them, which would almost certainly make them angry, or hold on to the information and spare them the anger and distraction. In each case, I ended up telling them. Before I told them, I had this very conversation with them. Would you rather I tell you something that is going to anger you, but give you information that will potentially allow you…
Conservatism: a movement without a leader
President Trump did more for marketing the conservative movement in four years than the Republican Party has done in the last 50 years. And he didn’t even know he was doing it. To my knowledge, President Trump has never considered himself a leader of the conservative movement. Based on listening to hundreds of hours of his speeches, I’m not really sure he even understands the philosophy. More specifically, I think his actions are rooted in conservatism, and I think the things he talks about are conservative points of view, but he does it with a lack of awareness that…
We’ll miss you, Rush
Today, during a busy work day, my brother told me via text that Rush Limbaugh had passed away. Obviously, we all knew this day was coming, but I didn’t realize it would hurt so much. I felt as close to Rush, a man I had never met, as I do to my family and friends. In fact, it’s quite possible I spent more hours listening to him speak in the last 30 years than any other one person. Some people credit Rush with their move toward conservatism, while others loved him for, as he described it, being the voice…
This silly notion of electability
Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Mitch McConnell spoke of how he will consider funding Republican Senate candidates during the 2022 mid-term elections. When asked about his willingness to back Trump-endorsed candidates, he indicated he may or may not back them, saying “the only thing I care about is electability.” There’s no such thing as “electability.” It’s a false premise. When one speaks of “electability,” they’re really just saying it’s their opinion that someone is or is not electable. In this case, McConnell is saying he’ll be the final arbiter of who’s electable. I don’t think this gives anyone much comfort,…
Unity. Diversity. Which is it?
Democrats from Joe Biden on down are all talking about unity. We need to unify the country. We need to come together. We need to heal after the terrible four years we experienced because they made it so unbearable with their four-year nonstop tantrum. But didn’t these same Democrats spend the prior 25 years telling us to “celebrate diversity?” Yard signs. LinkedIn posts. Campaign slogans. Bumper stickers. Billboards. In the workplace. In public schools. Everywhere we turned, we were told to celebrate diversity. Hell, living in Seattle, I was excited to celebrate diversity. Many of the companies here were…
Losers dictate when the war is over
I wish I could remember where I read this, but it was two years ago and it has resonated ever since: As long as the loser of the war wants to keep fighting, the war is not over. This is where we are in America right now. Conservatives are the clear losers. They lost the presidency. They lost Congress. Based on the Supreme Court’s decisions to avoid taking on any of the election fraud cases, we’ve lost them, too. However, unlike every other conservative loss I’ve ever witnessed, it appears conservatives are fired up and fighting this time around….
Assigning motives to actions
I’ve written plenty about the inability of conservatives to even consider any form of effective marketing. The Republican Party is home to the worst marketing department in the history of marketing. Meanwhile, the Democrats work 24/7 on their marketing efforts. However, they’re marketing efforts are all trained on conservatives. Democrats don’t spend much time talking about themselves. Instead, they work on defining conservatives, figuring that if they can define conservatives as evil and inhuman, people won’t think twice about rounding them up and canceling them from society. One of the Democrats’ most effective attacks is assigning motives to conservatives….
Targeted legislation: a conservative cause
President Trump opened the country’s collective eyes to many sights and ideas they had not seen prior. There are more people who understand how the political establishment fixes the game and how little they’re interested in truly helping or making a difference. They’re not trying to get results. They’re trying to keep the problems alive so they can continue on in office working to solve them. With the great conservative awakening, the worst marketing department in the history of marketing, otherwise known as the Republican Party, needs to define, understand, and aggressively articulate the tenets and goals of the…
White validation
The premise of the statement, “Black Lives Matter,” which especially applies specifically to those who insist you “say it,” is that black lives don’t matter until whites give them affirmation and validation. Somehow, society has to acknowledge or bless the idea before it becomes true. Whether they know it or not, the way the argument is currently set up, until whites bow down to the premise of the Black Lives Matter movement and give their blessing to the idea that “black lives matter,” black lives don’t matter. It just seems like you’ve devalued the exact people you’re trying to…