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Movies made by Left Wingers like George Lucas actually can teach us something worth remembering

What Star Wars Teaches Conservatives



The 1977 classic movie, Star Wars, portrayed an epic struggle between a righteous outnumbered few (Rebel alliance) against a much stronger dominant government (Empire). The now well known story tells how a small group of activists can effect change by adhering to their principals as a source of power and focusing their efforts on the identifiable vulnerability of their adversary. A useful analogy may be drawn to the current situation of contemporary conservative activism.

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The mainstream media is controlling the topics of contemporary discussion favoring those that cast the Democrats in a favorable fashion and castigating the Republicans while literally ignoring any stories that put in question the decisions of President Obama and the Democratic leaders in Congress. Following the internet and texting advantage developed by Obama during the 2008 Presidential campaign conservative interests closed the gap by dramatically increasing their internet presence and communications to create their “power” but are they focusing their power fittingly? A good example of the conservative momentum on the internet is the use of twitter. Twitter is a social network and microblogging website that started in 2006. Users may place messages of up to 140 characters which can sent to “followers” or added to a search index. According to Nielson.com Twitter is growing five times faster than the next closest social media site Facebook and currently has in excess of 55 million users per month. Twitter messages may be given labels as to their categories called hashmarks. Over the past several weeks I have been monitoring the frequency of use of a certain hashmark which has become the “call sign” of conservatives on Twitter. On November 28, 2008, Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) was founded by Michael Pealy and M. Neppell. They have since turned it over to a third party to maintain objectivity. Conservative bloggers or writers on the internet submit their name and website to organization to be listed as a TCOT. (Self interest note: the author is listed as contempomagazin) Once approved the writer will then put a hashmark designation following his entry on twitter. Currently the website hashmarks.org follows the daily frequency of hashtag use on twitter which I have been monitoring . My observations are that the use of the hashtag #tcot is always in the top five hashtags for the which confirms that twitter is becoming a conservative stronghold. As an example, the hundredth ranked TCOT twitter writer has over 9000 followers. The recent success of the tea party movement was accomplished not by the single organizational efforts of the Republican party or some imagined Fox News conspiracy as contrived by the left but rather by a grass roots movement facilitated by the internet which allowed numerous neighborhood and local movements to communicate with each other. This mechanism is now being used to allow almost instantaneous response to issues like gun control, abortion, and interrogation methods by conservatives. In Star Wars the Jedi were warned against using hate as a destructive force but instead to trust their principals. Similarly, Conservatives must avoid spending too much time being reactive (the antagonist) or negative and instead spend more time being protagonist for Conservative principals. This way they can begin to control the message. So it does appear that Conservatives have closed the technology and networking gap rather quickly but what about the message. I fear that that conservative media is spending too much time reacting to liberal storyline rather than pursuing its primary agenda. For example, for the past couple of weeks the headlines have been about the Bush administration and accusations of illegal interrogation. MSNBC, The New York Times, and CNN have been pushing this story nonstop as well as that of the tiny epidemic of swine flu instead of talking about two real stories, the continued failure of economy and the lack of coherent plan for Afghanistan/Pakistan policy. Conservatives have been so busy with discussing torture and the border threat of swine flu that there have been almost no stories on the implications of the recent 2010 federal budget. In addition conservative comment on Obama’s policies in Afghanistan/Pakistan are almost mute. Yet public opinion polls show that while President Obama is popular as a leader, his policies in these two areas are the most vulnerable for criticism. Eighty percent of Americans said the problem which most concerns them is the economy as of March 2009 according a Gallup Poll. Many polls have shown that a majority of Americans ranging up to 67% have concerns that Congress made a mistake passing the stimulus bill and/or is spending too much. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 67% of Americans lack confidence in policy maker’s decisions regarding the economy. When it comes to the war on terror Rasmussen reports that 75% are afraid of the consequences of releasing the Guantanamo detainees and more than 80% are fearful that terrorists will eventually get the nuclear weapons of Pakistan? Despite these grave concerns, many Conservatives have remained silent on Obama’s war strategies which as I and others have reported need to be examined. If the Republican party wants to survive it must continue to repent its sins against the conservative principals which should always define it. A recent Gallup poll showed that Democrats only have a 7% advantage, 35% to 28%. among adults in party affiliation. America is center-right not center-left. The election was lost because independents and a significant number of Republicans were repelled by the loss of direction of the Republicans. The decline in popularity of the Republican party was due to the abandonment of conservative principles not that their ideas were out of date. The recent departure of Arlene Specter can be likened to the lancing of an abscess to remove the nidus of infection which is necessary for a body to be healed. Similarly, the Republican party must purge out the Republicans In Name Only (RINO) if they do not immediately repent. The “force” of the Republican party is their conservative principals, just like the Jedi Luke Skywalker, they must resist temptations away from this force. Conservatives firmly believe that the policies of the President and his liberal Democratic party leadership will hasten the decline of the American economy rather than its recovery. The courageous action of the Republican members of the House of Representatives in refusing to vote for the Democratic stimulus and the Democratic budget has rendered these plans to be wholly owned by their authors. All the politicians opinions were memorialized irrefutably in the votes that were cast. Today in the New York Times, even the progressive minded and Obama advocate, Paul Krugman admitted that the continued fall in wages may be warning that there is an increasing risk that stagnation and deflation will continue for “years to come”. Moody, the economic consultant firm, sees the worst job market to hit the United States since 1974 with no let up in sight. The highly respected UCLA School of Management economic forecast for the United States sees no chance for anything but falls in the gross domestic product through 2010. The recent fall of nearly 7% in the last quarter surprised the Obama administration whose predictions of avoiding a perennial deficit depend upon unsupported, inflated and narcissistic theories of economic plentifulness in an anti-business government environment. The Democratic Congress and the President passed the largest budget in history which they admit will in one year create a deficit greater than all 8 years of the Bush administration. There are still the middle class tax cuts present that were initiated under the Bush administration but these are going to expire in 2010. In fact there is no tax cut for anyone that will not expire by the end of 2010. Additionally there is absolutely no funding for the Obama healthcare plan which specifically must be paid for by new taxes or spending cuts yet to be announced. I am reminded of the classic battle in the movie “Star Wars” where the small force of the Rebel Alliance is attacking the much larger and stronger fleet of the Empire. They know that to win there is only one strategy, they must focus their attack on a specific area of vulnerability on the otherwise impenetrable Death Star. In the end, victory was achieved by “staying on target.” My advice to the Republican party is simple, believe in the “force” (your conservative principles). Identify the “target” (the economy and the war). Win by “staying on target.”


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Dr. Tony Magana -- Bio and Archives

Dr. Tony Magana was raised in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M;University, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. He has served in the United States Army Reserve. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.


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