So many talking heads out there, blathering the same old same old; our friend David Milner is above the crowd not to mention original. Enjoy:

American Sputnik

Dave Milner, November 17, 2012

Just as American leftists launched The Apollo Allience to help consolidate their grass-roots efforts and forward their agenda Conservatives must begin their own efforts to influence education and culture in the United States of America. While the left could call their group, ‘Apollo’ we on the right have to recognize that we begin with far fewer assets in the culture than are enjoyed by our socialist counterparts. With far fewer in American pop culture and academia on our side we can’t launch an Apollo. For now we must build up from a simple Sputnik.

No American likes to wait. Most people who are 50 years old and younger have grown up in a society featuring instant everything. It’s galling to watch the left win and worse to hear these misguided people crow about their victories. If Conservatives ever hope to regain the ability to guide our nation back to a path of success and personal liberty we have to start where our adversaries did generations ago–at the beginning.

It starts with education on the K-12 level. Public schools follow the Michele Obama model, which seeks to in her words, “…change our traditions, our history…” Home school teachers along with concerned parents and volunteers on the right will need to base the next generation’s education on a different paradigm.

We should concentrate on basic skills and ethics for younger students. Older children can be taught the value of respectfully questioning authority, while recognizing that those employed in our public schools and higher educational institutions will often have a different view that could be hostile to the student and the principles of personal liberty.

Some time ago I recommended Conservatives gather educational materials to set aside for future generations’ use in case these documents became proscribed by an over-reaching government. I chose such things as The Articles of Confederation, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States as of 2008, The Federalist Papers, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, The Road to Serfdom, History schoolbooks older than those published in 1975 and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

While these ‘liberty boxes’ would address the original need as stated duplicates of these texts can and should be used as foundations for another purpose, teaching our young people about a system of government based on personal liberty and individual responsibility.

Education never ends, even when people don’t realize they’re being educated. In his article, ‘The Conservative Insurgency’ Kurt Schlichter ably demonstrates the need for the right to reach the American electorate through pop culture. People on the right know that their path leads to security and sustainability but for too long one element has been missing from our message–fun.

By their very nature most entertainers are liberal. I doubt this can be changed any time soon. This doesn’t mean talented Conservatives shouldn’t begin infiltrating the gaming, TV, movie and music industries, however. Once a large enough number of right-leaning talent has made inroads into the system it will begin to re-balance itself and popular culture will start to change.

In a time when too many people get their news from TV comedians we on the right have to learn to entertain as well as inform. This will require venues to work from. These can start with Internet TV feeds as well as cable channels. It can even move to live performances when audiences grow large enough.

Something else we should prepare for though, is the inevitable backlash of the left. Those who have power never give it up easily. While many of us find it hard to credit most people on the left have as much faith in their point of view as we have in ours. This means that while we try to launch our sputnik the socialists will try to blow it up on the pad.

It has to be remembered that with the re-election of President Obama and a leftist Senate the socialists have virtually unlimited government power at their disposal. With a Supreme Court that can be intimidated into ruling their way the left will do everything possible to silence the voice of the right while their fiends in the media give Conservatives the same ‘image makeover’ Jewish people received in nazi Germany.

Conservative news websites could be shut down and individual social media accounts closed for ‘inciteful speech.’ This same excuse could be used to discontinue cable TV channels, while the fairness doctrine could silence us on talk radio. It’s a dark scenario but we on the right have to recognize the reality of the world we find ourselves in.

Successful insurgencies find means to move the message. We can prepare for the assault on our free speech by doing the same thing the Muslim brotherhood did in Egypt when Hosni Mubarak denied them access to the Internet. The Egyptians used older technology, the BBS.

A BBS (Bulletin Board System) allows users to bypass the Internet completely. Computers that host the boards are connected to telephone landlines through modems and users can post to them by using their own telephone modem-connected computers to call in. These boards can host news and entertainment files while acting as social gathering sites for like-minded people. Compared to the Internet a BBS is slow–but it does work.

It may take a long time before Conservatives can significantly influence the American culture again. As Mr. Schlichter points out there will be many losses along the way. If each of us uses their talents, however the day will come when that city on a hill will shine again and Conservatives can launch their own Saturn V of liberty. To get there, though we have to begin with a sputnik.

*****

Pats note: According to Mr. Clint Eastwood’s address at the Republican Convention, there are already plenty of conservatives in entertainment. Perhaps the day will come when they can experience the tolerance that the left claims to own.