Saturday, August 09, 2003

Arnold is IN; Conservatives Should Welcome Him

Arnold is IN; Conservatives Should Welcome Him

Arnold may nearly rhyme with Ronald. He is not Ronald. That is wonderful for conservatives!

W. has said that he wants a big tent. Since the decline of the Rockefeller wing of the GOP, the communist wing of the Democratic Party (compare the Communist manifesto to the Democratic Party platform) has easily complained about the radical right.

Arnold can devestate the Communist non-sense. His victory with the support of the White House will help more moderate persons that feel more comfortable with GOP economics can feel more comfortable disagreeing with their new-found party over social issues. That is good.

Recent trends of philosophical communication and debate are showing that the GOP conservative wing is persuading more and more of the population to be conservative. Rush, Hannity, Michael Reagan, and one of my favorites Laura Ingraham are devastatingly insightful. Compared to what the left offers, this is good news for future growth.

The biggest problem in accelerating that growth is psychological reluctance. We are already committed to our ideas. Admitting that one is wrong requires internal struggle. In getting people to admit their error, a classic psychological comfort building technique is to show that the person is not unique. One nationally known sales guru David Sanders used to get up on stage and say, "Last night I was speaking and 20 people did not know how to solve this problem. How many here have the same difficulty?" Sanders could get half the room to raise their hands when most speakers would be lucky to get one.

Sanders demonstrated that you need to make it easy for some one to surrender.

Arnold is what the GOP needs to get more people to surrender their 1960's communist theology in favor what their rationale intellect says is correct.

Arnold is not ideologically pure. But is comfortable, familiar, and inviting. He is the man that you want at the door to your tent party. With him you will need a bigger tent. You will have more people listening to your persuasive policy wonks. You will have greater conservative influence.

Another apparent weakness that is helpful is the building of the legislative center. For Arnold to win what he wants legilslatively, he will have to win over Democrats. That will look bad to conservatives because social programs will grow. I don't like that. However, the current legislative momentum nationally is still strongly New Deal. To control the creek in your backyard, you are best not to put a Toyota in front of it. You are most likely to succeed in using the Toyota to move dirt into place to build a levee to push the water off its course. Nudge it from the side. Slowly you will move the creek as far as you want. You will make a lot of effort that does not seem productive at first.

A moderate Republican with great appeal is helpful to conservative because it is part of the process of moving dirt. Each person persuaded is a necessary step to turn the movement of the political waters.