Here’s how Republicans in DC could have anticipated voter rage

| March 17, 2016

The principal poobahs of the Republican Party and the pundits to whom they turn for the pulse of their party are perplexed that people they have so long believed to be passive are coming out of their primary voting places and informing exit pollsters that they are seeking payback. “What’s that?” the poobahs say. “The voters are angry? What on Earth could be going on?”

Yep, that’s precisely how out of touch with their voter base Republican Party leadership and far too many Republican members of Congress have become. It’s as if elevation to the lofty environs of Rome on the Potomac somehow pressurizes their ear canals in such a way as to render them incapable of hearing the distant pleadings of the plebeians who sent one there. A less kind and more cynical explanation for our elected representatives’ inability to hear our voices possibly could be attributed to the simple but ugly fact that once they have achieved their goal, election, they don’t give a plebeian’s patootie about our goals.

But let’s be generous and assume that those who convocate under that great marble dome simply are out of touch because they are just too busy doing the work of the people. Of course, that raises the question: what people? But I’ll not be snarky and instead offer our currently shocked Republican leaders a means by which they perhaps could keep a sharper ear to the wind or an ear on the rail or an ear wherever.

While the more doddering of these imperial pachyderms may be unfamiliar with the workings of the internet except perhaps for their smartphones, Al Gore’s ingenious invention could well be the way to prevent future surprises such as the one occurring now. This is not simply watching the many political websites and deducing from their daily parades of reporting and opinion what is going on in the hearts and minds of the people. Survey all that on a daily basis, and all you’re likely to glean is the thinking of the political class of pundits and players, movers and shakers, those who operate on the periphery of political power.

My response: read the commenters if you want to have your finger on the pulse of the voters. As a fairly frequent writer of blog posts, I make a point of always reading the comments on every piece of mine that gets published. Moreover, I frequently read the comments on others’ articles, sometimes finding them more interesting and informative than the original tract. Not infrequently, I find nuggets I can incorporate into my own writings. Yes, you sometimes must sort through personal bilge and back-and-forth, even occasional rabid intolerance, but there is something valuable there that can be mined and refined by those in power truly interested in knowing the mood of the people.

Any political organization with a program designed to monitor and distill comments on conservative political news websites would have long ago been able to provide Republican leaders with ongoing status reports on how anger was building to a critical level in those people who care enough about the political situation to read and comment on those sites. Even with no supportive data, common sense tells you there’s a strong corollary between those who read and comment on the current political environment and those who vote. Also, an aspect of comments that makes them a more accurate barometer of building political weather fronts than the phone polls currently used is that the anonymity of the internet permits commenters to have their say without any possible attribution if they choose to hide behind a username. It’s a given that any pollster who calls us nowadays likely knows all our basic identification data, perhaps down to what we eat for breakfast, while we don’t know beans about who he may be. Thus, our answers to such pollsters may be significantly more guarded than if hammered out forcefully on a keyboard.

And yes, I’m aware of the Big Brother implications here. I’ll be reading your comments.

Crossposted at American Thinker

Category: Politics

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GI JANE

Hell, if they had brains they could have gauged the anger when the Tea Party formed in 2010.

Skippy

They tried to snuff that out with the Dem’s and the IRS
BAD MOVE 🙂

desert

You suggest that the knotheads in washington keep an ear to the wind? They can’t they have their heads too far up their respective asses!!

DaveP.

It goes back earlier than that: in 2006, the GOPe pushed an amnesty bill that was so unpopular that the voters- both Democrat and Republican- actually wrecked the Congressional phone switchboard calling in complaints. The outcry was so loud that the Establishment (both halves) were forced to back off of something their donors wanted very badly. That should have been a big tipoff, and if the GOPe had picked up on how big a vote loser Amnesty was from that slap in the face, there would be no Trump campaign today.
Instead, they put John “Amnesty” McCain up for President- and watched him lose (when, by their calculations, the vast illegal immigrant vote should’ve put him in the Oval Office); pushed the Gang of Eight bill; and then when that failed simply closed their eyes and allowed the Obama Administration’s de facto amnesty by neglect to continue.
All they had to do was listen to their constituents, publicly push for the laws to be enforced, and act like they cared even one bit for the actual American citizen over the illegal border-jumpers… and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The fact that these things were considered impossible tells you all you need to know about why the GOPe is in so much trouble.

68W58

In 1994 I was hopeful, the Republicans elected that year made a lot of noise about reducing the size and scope of government and even Clinton sighed and made noises about “the era of big government (being over)”. But I made allowances for the fact that a Democrat President would try to obstruct progress regarding that. Then, in 2000, we finally got a (slim) majority and I was optimistic until jumping Jim Jeffords abandoned ship. In 2002 I made allowances for the war, but Medicare part D had nothing to do with the war effort. More recently, as I have become more familiar with the term “failure theater” I see how they manipulate us and I no longer respect the party. For all of that, I support Cruz, but I understand what motivates the supporters of the Donald.

2/17 Air Cav

The first job of all politicians is to get re-elected. For that they need money, usually big money. It doesn’t matter whether there is a D or an R beside their name. They need bucks and bucks buy access and influence. Try calling your critter today, tomorrow, or the next day. You will most certainly speak with a low-level staffer, at best. Or write a letter to your critter. Maybe the critter is given one of every 500 letters to read; otherwise, another low-level critter gets it and hits the stock reply button telling you how critter shares your concerns…blah, blah, blah. Now, suppose you are, oh, someone who donated some serious dough to the critter. Do you think that the responses will be the same? If you do, I can’t help. What I just described upsets Americans of every political persuasion. And it’s not that anyone expects that the calls or letters will be handled personally by the critter. It’s which ones are that’s the problem. Donald Trump donated money to the most vile of liberal Democrats. Why? Access. He knew his calls would be put through. He knows well how the game is played. How did B. Streisand come to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom? It wasn’t because Motel 6 was booked. Of course there is a club of elites who hit the links together and throw some down at the 19th hole. Hell, even the Old Commie is now reported to be taking the big dough. Does anyone think there will be no strings attached? If so, I have this bridge… Yes, Americans are pissed and we are pissed for many good reasons. Our governing elite is deaf to our concerns. They are detached from the rest of us, doing the People’s Business or giving us the business. So, what’s to be done? Not much, really. Replacing one rascal with another isn’t very effective. What I want is for Congress to exercise its powers for the good of the nation, for the chief executive to know the limitations of the Office of President and to respect them,… Read more »

68W58

“What I want is for Congress to exercise its powers for the good of the nation, for the chief executive to know the limitations of the Office of President and to respect them, and the Supreme Court to restrict itself to matters of law, not social policy. That’s all.”

If they did that, they would have to (largely) get out of the graft business. Can’t have that-got to protect all those phony balkney jobs. What good is it to have power if you can’t use it to enrich yourself and your cronies and tell other people what to do?

2/17 Air Cav

It’s the “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” take on things, I guess. Reality sucks.

H1

“The peasants are revolting”

M.Christian

They’ve always been revolting, H1, but now… they’re REBELLING!

Propsguy

You said it, they stink on ice.

2/17 Air Cav

M.Christian

Hahaha Glorious.

desert

H1…”the peasants are revolting” Yep Reid even said they smell!!

valerie

There is a YUUUGE disconnect between what Donald Trump has been doing at his rallies, and what’s being reported. Ted Cruz, the Democrats, the media, and prominent Republicans are all making fools of themselves over it. It’s easy for knowledgeable people to detect this, and it is probably enough to completely destroy the credibility of his critics (even when they’re right).

Donald Trump is not encouraging violence at his rallies, and the people who attend this, know it. They also share links to his speeches.

If you haven’t seen it, take a look at videos of two of his recent speeches. The pertinent part starts about 3 minutes in, and goes to about 15 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-mNeY1_GsQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owSn8IYQUks

He incorporates the hecklers into his speeches. Somebody starts up, he tells security to remove them, they get removed, and he gets his message out.

The crowd loves it. Far more important, the crowd knows the routine. They know to point the hecklers out, they know security will handle it, and they know he’s going to tell them to physically leave the hecklers alone.

Afterward, they will see the news where Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz or some other fool will say he’s a fascist encouraging violence.

It’s enough to alienate voters in large numbers.

My guess is that the Republican Party is risking loss of the Senate over this. People who are for Donald Trump are not likely to pull the lever for the party, if they think the Repubs are no more honest than the Dems. They might not ever get to the point of thinking about policy.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

My favorite part about all of this is how the media, the dems and even some republicans have tried to paint the folks supporting Trump as subhuman dumbasses… One thing I’ve learned over the years is that painting other people as fools seldom converts them to your line of thinking. I may still lack the wisdom to act on that knowledge much of the time, but whether anyone likes Trump or not it’s foolish to think he’s only getting the dummy vote. Especially when the evidence suggests there’s a lot of dummies voting for the other side of the aisle with alarming regularity. Oops, see I did it again… Trump strikes that nerve in people that are absolutely exhausted with the PC commentary in DC. There are some simple but ugly truths that most folks actually do understand, illegal aliens cost our nation money in a variety of ways. Some of them are also killers, rapists, and drug smugglers (if I were being PC I would state they were importers of substances currently controlled by the US government so they are attempting to provide the drugs that Americans want but can’t access due to their government’s draconian policies)…. Some just pick vegetables…how can that be you ask? You can’t hire an illegal at your business nor can I, but we don’t jail those farmers or the meatpacking plant board of directors….Donald makes folks think we might start doing that…that’s appealing. Another ugly truth, blacks commit crimes in far disproportionate numbers than their presence in the population would suggest they would. BLM might matter, but certainly not to black people as they kill each other nightly all across the US over those imported controlled substances. A lot of people are tired of the whiners who protest everything but offer nothing of substance to provide a counterpoint to what they protest. We used to be a society where a loudmouth got his ass kicked from time to time and either learned a lesson or got a lot of asskickings…people understand Trump’s not telling anyone to beat the shit out of people they… Read more »

2/17 Air Cav

For the record, VOV, I enjoyed that.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Thank you my friend…I do what I can, it’s not much but these days it’s pretty much all I got…

Ex-PH2

Gee, Poetrooper, with all those ‘p’s in that column I’d think you were pissed off or something. Or are you telling politicians to piss off?

I don’t know what’s worse – the turmoil going on this campaign season or the possibility that the ballot boxes might get stuffed – AGAIN.

I will say the you may not like the choices you’re offered, but unless you want those two democrappy commies in the White House again, you may just have to hold your nose, wince, and vote for someone you dislike for whatever reasons. Trump has done something that no one else has been able to do for a very long time: scare the more moderate Democrats into voting, as well as somehow appealing to people who are far more conservative than I am. And despite his combative presence in debates and campaigning, you should understand that you are looking at the surface. You have no idea what is really there underneath, and neither do I.

I think that if you have a choice between shrillary and Trump, he is the far less harmful choice to make.

If you don’t go exercise your right to vote and the people you detest more than Trump win this contest, please do not complain to me. I will not feel sorry for you, nor will I listen to you. I might even throw a glass of cold water in your face for whining.

David

The old debate over America, land of the best politicians money can buy.

I am waiting for someone to talk me out of my (by now boring) contention that the major difference between France in 1789 and the US now is that they had an aristocracy and we have a plutocracy – and I can’t see much of a difference. Been waiting for decades now…

68W58

Related-https://ricochet.com/the-power-of-the-purse/

I will not defend Donald Trump. I will not assert that those who have backed him in the primaries are conducting themselves in a rational manner. But I will say this: they would not be backing the man if they did not feel betrayed, and they feel betrayed because they have been betrayed.

Yep.