Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thoughts on Moderates

This is a year old post, but I think the reasoning is sound.

One of the great ironies of life is the Uriah Heep Syndrome. In Charles Dickens's book David Copperfield, the character Uriah Heep spends the entire book reciting how humble he is. Every time he appears, he says, "I am so humble." By the end of the book, his inflated ego become abundantly clear. UHS is the syndrome where a person describes himself as being what he wishes to be, but is clearly the opposite.

I find most moderates as having severe cases of UHS. They believe that they are the smartest and best informed people in the room. As a result of this information, they are best able to assess which candidate is best by looking at each candidate issue by issue.

In practice, these moderates are not interested enough to do the research to find out issue by issue what each candidate believes. But even if there is an exception or two that does do an analysis issue by issue, moderates by definition have no political philosophy to inform their judgment. They have no knowledge base to draw on. I don't mean to say that a moderate physician has no knowledge of medicine to draw on. I mean that moderate physician has no political philosophical knowledge. Ask that physician to compare and contrast Marx and Burke. In my experience, that physician can't.

That physician has every reason to proclaim his depth of knowledge, experience, intelligence, and practicality. If not for those, the physician could not succeed professionally. Unfortunately that professional focus risks depriving the physician from being able to converse in great depth in political philosophy. He is an ideal candidate to seek comfort in declaring himself to be a moderate.

This declaration is really a failed attempt of turning ignorance of politics, economics, and law into an asset.

UHS is really likely to occur when a person does not like what that person observes in himself. To remove the undesirable characteristic, the person declares himself to be the opposite.

UHS is part of the normal tools of psychological defense mechanisms. We all do it. The chubby person that declares that he is on a diet when he eats the donut is playing a non-verbal form of UHS. The fat woman in the tight pants. The high school drop out that is worried about being disrespected. These people all have self-image that they are trying to ignore and play a different personality to the world.

The severe cases of UHS are not just minor deflections but are the person's identity. They embrace the UHS and will destroy themselves to live it out.

For Republicans to be successful, they need to stand firm on identified core philosophies and repeat the truth. When confronted with a moderate or a liberal, do not accept the false premises that the moderate or liberal use. If the moderate says, "I look at the candidate issue by issue." The Republican needs to look the moderate squarely in the eye and challenge them on the truth of this statement by playing along. The Republican could say, "Wow, how many hours of research do you do on each candidate to make a decision. I mean, take the last XXX race where Candidate A was a radical Democrat and Candidate B was a strict Conservative. Walk me through the issues."

I would submit that the moderate can't do that. They say the analysis is done, but they don't. They pick up catch phrases and recite those. But they don't understand the catch phrases actual impact.

Moderates need to be challenged. If they go Democrat, they go Democrat. Once they start moving though, the moderate is more likely to become a Republican. They're usually only moderates because the Democrats make them uncomfortable and they don't hear enough about what Republicans believe from non-Democrats.

Challenge the moderates. Win a Republican convert.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009