The Echo Chamber of the Right Blogosphere

Let's go over what has happened vis a vis SCHIP over the last month plus. For over a month the Democrats have used SCHIP as a bludgeon to create the perception that Republicans are mean and heartless war mongers who care more about a needless and endless war than they do about poor little kids. They have been able to do this because while the Republicans have relied on facts and reason to argue their case on SCHIP the Democrats have appealed to raw emotion. Reason and logic maybe the better arguement for those that are sophisticated but for the masses raw emotion works best. So, while the Republicans were meticulously breaking down the numbers on SCHIP, the Democrats were busy employing a poor twelve year old to get their message out. Guess which one is most effective. Here is the latest polling on SCHIP.

Now, we in the right blogosphere can continue to pretend that the Democrats are hapless however polls are scientific. Still, every single day the right blogosphere continues to snicker at the Dems. They pick apart each and every political stunt as though that is what is important.

Let me let everyone in on a little secret. The longer this goes the better it is politically for the Dems. I don't know if they realize it or not, however they are much better off politically losing each and every veto and constantly bringing this up for debate over and over again. The longer this stays in the public consciousness the better it is for the Dems.

Right now, the narrative is that the Reps are heartless warmongers who can find money for an endless war but cannot find money for poor little kids. The reason this is so is because the Republican leadership allowed itself to be painted as such. The reason they allowed themselves to be painted as such is because instead of countering the Dems proposal with an aggressive media blitz of their own proposal they allowed the MSM to carry on the narrative that they are against SCHIP. They aren't against SCHIP. The Reps have their own alternative however no one knows it because the Reps apparently want to keep it secret.

Meanwhile, the right blogosphere continues to act as an enabler to the Republican leadership by constantly snickering at each and every Democratic stunt and cheerleading the Republicans for standing firm. I am all for standing firm against this bill because it is an abomination that is a small step toward socialized medicine, however you cannot merely sit there and be against this bill and hope to win politically. If the Reps have any hope of winning politically, there base must stop cheerleading their actions, and start to insist that they fight back and present their counter proposal to the public aggressively.

Which brings me to the latest hit on the blogosphere. It seems that much of the right blogosphere has grown fascinated with the word amygdala. It is a part of the brain that affects emotions and apparently a Democratic operative used it in reference to strategy in presenting SCHIP.

First, the operative is right. In order to win the political battle, each party must appeal to the most primitive emotions. Second, and most importantly, who cares? The Republicans are getting crushed, crushed politically. They are losing two to one. In the meantime, the Democrats continue to milk the issue. They bring in a new cute little kid to act as victim of the week every single week, and it works. I know it works because the polls leave no doubt who the public sides with on the issue.

What is the right blogosphere fascinated with? That's right some scientific term for a part of the brain that sounds funny. Talk about being irrelevant. What is funny is not only how popular this part of the story is but how the leadership in the right blogosphere is driving this part of the story as though it is important. Both Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey have each done major work ups on this. With all due respect to much more successful bloggers from my end of the spectrum, you couldn't have possibly found anything more trivial to make an issue of. If any of you actually thinks it matters at all to anyone but the echo chamber which you clearly have found yourself in that some operative referenced a funny sounding word, you really need to get out of this echo chamber.

The Dems are crushing the Reps on SCHIP. They have now milked it for two vetos and they will probably milk it for many, many more, and each veto will be looked at as sympathetic to the Dems. Come November of 2008, the Dems will paint each and every Republican who voted against SCHIP as a heartless war monger who cared more about an endless war than they did about poor kids, and at the same time, the right blogosphere is utterly ignoring that part of the story. At the same time, there is an orgy of coverage over a funny sounding word used by some unknown Democratic operative when talking about a strategy that the operative is right about.

Wake up folks unless you hit on the right part of the story, you will continue to follow the Republican leadership into the deep dark wilderness of politics where most of the rest of the country finds your position abominable. Unless you insist that your leadership stand up for themselves and finally present their side properly, they won't do it. You can keep cheerleading and pretending that you are on the right side, but you aren't doing yourself or your party any favors.