I'm not entirely certain why I got a recent piece of mail "From the Desk of Steve Forbes;" most desks of my acquaintance are apolitical. The Desk of Steve Forbes apparently wants me to sign up with the Heritage Foundation. I'm taking the liberty of quoting liberally from it, because as a screaming socialist Big Government type, I'm all for redistribution, right?
In any case, this desk has a lot to say, and there's stuff to be learned about messaging from it. More below the Orange Omnilepticon.
As you may or may not know, Conservatives have captured both houses of Congress, a majority of governorships and state legislatures, and the Supreme Court. Yet despite all this President Obama refuses to abdicate and leftists are still refusing to surrender. I guess that's why the Desk of Steve Forbes is going the extra mile - there's still work to be done. So...
Dear Mr. Xaxnar,
Is the liberal dream collapsing? Is the leftist model of Big Government headed for what Ronald Reagan would call, "the ash heap of history?"
I think it may well be. I certainly hope so!
I have been looking at survey after survey of Americans showing record levels of distrust in government. It's not just the spectacular implosion of Obamacare, or the numerous scandals and failures of this Administration, - it's the utter failure after six years of the Obama leftist agenda successfully revitalize our economy, to create jobs, to create the opportunity that Americans once took for granted.
Time for conservatives to gloat? To say, "I told you so?"
No!
It's time for us to roll up our sleeves and work harder than we ever have to convince Americans our conservative ideas work.
Convince them that we must turn to innovative, market solutions, that government does not - cannot - create wealth. It can only redistribute wealth. That endless entitlements and unsustainable spending cannot heal our society. They can only erode the great American social fabric that has sustained our country for more than two centuries.
I am taking the positive conservative message of growth and opportunity to America. Every day. In my speeches, in my columns, in my television and radio appearances.
That's what I'm doing. What can you do?
What's the best way to help usher in a new conservative revolution? What positive step can you take right now to end the Left's stranglehold on government and change American history?
It's quite simple. Join me in enthusiastically supporting The Heritage Foundation!
Mr. Xaxnar, you are urgently needed to help determine America's future. We won't succeed in the great challenge of returning this nation to prosperity if patriots like you stay on the sidelines.
Heritage today is the fulcrum of our whole conservative movement. Under the leadership of my friend, former Senator Jim DeMint, they are bigger, better, and more aggressive than ever.
Like me, the folks at Heritage think we are on the verge of a political revolution. What historians call "an inflection point" that will literally change the course of history. Sweep out the failed leftist model - end the hundred year experiment with "Progressivism" - and usher in a whole new era of government.
If we take the right steps now, it can be a new era of conservative policy reform and market solutions. Of respect for individual liberty and the idea that the best solutions come up from the people. An era in which we respect and support job creators - not malign and suppress them, insisting that, "You didn't build that."
This goes on for eight pages in total (on single-sided pages). The
DOSF (Desk of Steve Forbes) continues with more attacks on the leftist agenda, praises Ronald Reagan lavishly, finds time to take a shot at Jimmy Carter and ends with a list of options for membership, starting at $100 for the Patriots Club, and going all the way up to $10,000 for an Associate membership. The recommended level is $1,000 for the President's Club.
DOSF does leave off the attacking and praising long enough to list a few of Heritage's "dozens of specific, actionable policy proposals to defeat the Left in the war of ideas and fuel the new conservative revolution." Here's the list:
• Reform the Tax Code. Don't increase taxes. Reform them. Make them fairer, simpler. Reduce the corporate income tax.
• Cut spending, fix the debt, and reform entitlements. Balance the budget!
• Rein in uncontrolled bureaucracy. Regulations have exploded under this President. Business is suffering and we're losing jobs because of his overzealous regulators.
• Empower America with affordable energy. Stop this administration's reckless war on oil, gas, and coal. Build the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline. Help America exploit our energy boom - don't try to shut it down in the name of a radical environmental agenda.
• Give every American in every state the right to work without being forced to join a union.
• Clean up our over regulated financial system. Laws like Dodd-Frank are hopelessly complicated, make U.S. companies less competitive and deter needed investments.
Is this an agenda you can support? I know I can. And it's just a taste of the detailed, extensive, detailed plans Heritage has to get our bloated government under control.
The intellectual firepower Heritage brings to the debate on public policy is vital to conservative success. To replace the liberal government model we must do more than just criticize, we must offer positive, workable policies proposals that actually solve problems.
Now far be it from me to tell the
DOSF to STFU; it's always good to have the cards laid on the table. It can also be instructive. There are things to learn here. For example:
• There not one suggestion of anything in the Leftist agenda DOSF'd be willing to compromise on: total rejection, total disrespect.
• The "detailed ideas" listed above are code phrases with a lot of emotional spin and hidden context. "Reforming entitlements" for example means crippling or eliminating Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (and Obamacare now), and so on. "Right to work" in practice means the right to be fired for anything at any time by your employer, with no recourse.
• DOSF plays fast and loose with the 'facts' in multiple ways: denial, fabrication, omission... If anything Obamacare is working better than expected, and there's no admission it's a market-based solution designed after one from the Heritage Foundation.
This is a big chunk of the conservative agenda laid out for all to see, and a display of the mind-set behind it. (If DOSF actually has a mind, that is. It could use a copy editor...) It's framed in terms designed to go right past the forebrain and generate a gut reaction.
Centrism, bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle - anyone who thinks that is possible or that any accommodation can be reached is living somewhere besides the U.S. of A. in the 21st century. This is what we're up against. It's the "monster from the Id" It's not amenable to logic or reason. It wants what it wants and that is all it knows. DOSF is not going to concede an inch on anything.
And neither should we.