The Quiet Conservative March 10, 2011
Perceptions
Reality is, what it is. But what matters is how people perceive reality to be. That perception is shaped
by the popular culture and the news people get. I know, I know, you think, you’ve covered this
before, you say. Many times.
Yes, yes I have. I reply. Because it isn't sinking in! History becomes not what happened, but what is
recorded to have happened. Current events are the same. It doesn't matter so much what happens,
but what perception is given to people by the media, and recorded by the popular culture.
For example, Obamacare has been ruled unconstitutional. It is dead. Yet, it goes on being
implemented unimpeded because the perception given by the Obama Administration, and Liberals in
general, is that several judges have ruled it Constitutional, therefore it is majority rule and that is how
the score is kept. Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services stated that
yesterday. They are implementing the proposal in full.
Yet the reality is, this isn't a game and score isn't being kept. When the Florida judge ruled Obamacare
unconstitutional and therefore void, it was dead. It doesn't matter what other judges before him had
ruled, this was the latest decision and that took precedence. Legally there is no Affordable Care Act.
Yet, that didn't stop anyone. The press treated it, knowingly, as still alive. They formed the
impression for the public that the Judge Vinson was just one of many and therefore no big deal. The
government continued to implement the provisions as if there had been no court decision. The public’s
perception is that nothing had changed. Therefore, it hadn't.
Do you know that there is no Affordable Care Act? No Obamacare? No, you don’t. You think there
is, because that is what you were led to believe. The reality has taken a back seat to what the
perception of reality is, woven by the press. But what happens when the two collide? Judge Vinson in
the case watched as his decision was ignored by the administration for several weeks. Then, stringing
the court along, the administration filed a motion with the judge for a ‘clarification’. This was a
contemptuous act that asked if the judge really meant what he so clearly wrote. And, for those two
plus weeks the administration ignored the order and kept on implementing the law as if nothing
happened.
Some, who were following the case, wondered why the judge hadn't done anything when ignored. But
a judge only has authority over the case before him, in the court. There was nothing he could do until
someone brought something back before him. That contemptuous motion by the administration was
just the move the judge needed. Judge Vinson not only rebuked the disrespect the administration
showed on the rule of law, he took that motion to clarify, and further treated it as a “stay”, a motion
the administration had not filed. This short circuited the tactic the administration chose of running out
the clock and implementing the law enough, so it wouldn't be overturned. If the judge ‘clarified’ the
decision, the administration could then appeal, or repeat with another frivolous motion all the while
implementing an unconstitutional law. Instead, by treating the clarification request also as a request for
a stay, he gave the Obama Administration only seven days to appeal the ruling or lose the chance to
appeal. That would have meant the game really was over.
The Obama Administration gave the judge the finger, he cut it off. Now rather than ignoring the judge
and toying with legal maneuvers for months at a time while continuing to implement the now
unconstitutional law, they were forced to present the appeal quickly or lose. The rebuke by the judge
was sharp, and left no ambiguity about its import:
“So to “clarify” my order and judgment: The individual mandate was declared unconstitutional.
Because that “essential” provision was unseverable from the rest of the Act, the entire legislation
was void. This declaratory judgment was expected to be treated as the “practical” and “functional
equivalent of an injunction” with respect to the parties to the litigation. This expectation was based
on the “longstanding presumption” that the defendants themselves identified and agreed to be bound
by, which provides that a declaratory judgment against federal officials is a de facto injunction. To
the extent that the defendants were unable (or believed that they were unable) to comply, it was
expected that they would immediately seek a stay of the ruling, and at that point in time present their
arguments for why such a stay is necessary, which is the usual and standard procedure. It was not
expected that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half
weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to “clarify.”
But that isn't the perception people have. The press made sure of that. The LA Times presented a
story as the judge stayed his own ruling, and that the Administration had requested a stay from the
judge and it had been granted. The rebuke is now recast as a resounding victory for the administration
and Obamacare. The judge ‘stopped’ his own ruling so the Obama Administration could overturn his
decision on appeal. So the perception is that numerous judges found Obamacare Constitutional, and
one judge did not, but stayed his own ruling so it can be reversed on appeal. Obamacare goes on
unimpeded in its implementation, because perception is reality. Everyone makes sure that the second
federal judge from Virginia, who also found the individual mandate portion of the law unconstitutional,
is left out of the story.
That is why I keep banging my head against foundations and corporations who don't get it. That is why
I keep returning to the topic. By not having a voice in the culture machine, by not having a major
presence in the media, all of private industry, and all of traditional America, gets filtered through the
mental disorder of Liberalism/Socialism/Marxism. When I detailed the “Journolist” scandal I pointed
out that journalism professors were prominently involved. Didn't that immediately signal something?
It means that each day, each semester, each four years, they were producing little indoctrinated Leftists
into the news industry and that each little Leftist has a twenty plus year future in shaping propaganda,
not news.
The Left shape the perceptions. Therefore, they dictate the reality. They tell you global warming is
real. They tell you that green energy is the future. They tell you that the exploding debt is stimulus.
They tell you the economy is recovering and jobs are there, when in reality the monetary bubble is
inflating and the government simply cuts people from the rolls as discouraged workers no longer
looking for work. They tell you Republicans are at war with the middle class. They tell you the unions
are the middle class. They tell you that Democrats stand for freedom and not Socialism. There is no
reality; no adherence to facts. There is only the perception of what reality is. And, that false reality is
a bald faced lie unopposed by private industry and conservatives.
Take Wisconsin, another example. You know, this is where the evil governor is attacking the middle
class and the valiant Democratic senators are fighting for the proletariat…sorry, the middle class. It’s
crap. But it is the propaganda that everyone is consuming. The fourteen Democratic senators are
ignoring the rule of law just as the Obama Administration does. Elections give representatives. When
the people put more Republicans in office than Democrats, they voted for a change, at least they
hoped they did. But what they got was the Democratic Party saying ‘do it our way or we will make
sure you don’t get the vote’. These people chose to run across the state line so their government
couldn't operate. They have no integrity, no honor, and should be fired from their positions as traitors
to the trust they held. They don’t act as elected officials; they act as the corrupt tools of Marxist
unions.
If Wisconsin voters didn't like the laws these evil Republican legislators and governor passed, then in
2012 throw the governor out, along with the other Republicans, and vote in enough Democrats to
overturn the law and roll back the decisions about the unions. If Wisconsin wants Socialism, vote it in.
Don’t strong arm the legislative process by subverting the rule of law!
But the rule of law means nothing to them. Nor does it to their union bosses. Nor does it to the DNC
operatives working with them. They aren't playing by any rules. They make sure the legislature can’t
work. They leave the state. Operatives mob the statehouse to intimidate. Death threats are made to
officials. They are playing to win. And, the press is playing on their team.
How is the press portraying Wisconsin? How did it portray the blogger who faked the phone call with
the governor? Compare that with the treatment James O’Keefe gets for the same tactics in his exposing
the NPR executive. The protesters are portrayed sympathetically. The outright Marxists and
anarchists are hidden from the camera.
The Left plays for keeps and they are doing that everywhere. Meanwhile, the Dudley-Do-Rights of
conservatism ignore the need to deal with the people at large, and leave the entire field of mass
communications abandoned.
Try this. Julianne Moore has just been signed as an actress to play Governor Sarah Palin in a movie. I
wonder when that movie will be released, hmmmm? How about summer of 2012 or early fall of
2012? Just in time to have a hit piece during the election cycle. The former Alaskan Governor already
has incredibly high negative poll numbers because the media, the Leftists, and popular culture have
been assaulting her from the moment in 2008 when Senator McCain announced her name as VP
candidate.
How many conservatives believe she isn't ready to be president? How many people believe she isn't
capable? How many people had that view implanted in them by the culture and rankly biased news?
Remember her statement “I can see Russia from my house?” Ask those around you, and I would bet
that at least one will nod that they remember it, and she is such a dunce. Everybody knows that!
However, that was the perception given by Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.
Those are the comments from the talking heads. That is the storyline adopted by the corrupt press.
That is the absence of conservatives in the culture war. That is the abdication of any opposition.
It doesn't matter that almost everything published about Sarah Palin is either a lie, or slanted to
diminish her, what matters is there is no opposing voice. The reality that she is far more intelligent,
accomplished, and capable that Barack Obama is immaterial. It is immaterial because no one has the
impression she is.
It worked in 2008 as the Democratic strategy was to run against Bush and tar all things Republican as
Bush. They had been doing it for eight years, and although McCain was a reliable Democrat, sorry,
RINO, by attaching the negatives of Bush to McCain, they were able to drag down the Republican
ticket while promoting an unknown with no history to the White House. They had a movie then, too.
They produced a hit piece titled W. which premiered just before the election. The movie was released
October 17, 2008. That view of eight years of a Republican president was what was influencing
people on the culture front when they went to the polls just weeks later. This was the impression in
their minds of all things Republican at election time.
It worked then, it will work now. What wasn't played, and was buried for all time, was the movie The
Path to 9/11. You can guess that the movie showing the complete ineptitude and corruption of the
Democratic Party will never be seen around election time. It probably will never be seen again. It isn't
being released on DVD. It is being prevented from doing so. The ABC movie cost $40 million dollars
to make, and no one is putting it on the market to make money off it despite the demand. This should
tell you something of the culture war right away. When you think about it, it could be the reason why
9/11 itself is mostly buried in the public consciousness. We see more iconic images of December 7,
1941 than we do of 9/11/2001. That is because there is no one fighting the culture war from America's
point of view.
When there is a voice in the wilderness, it is never an establishment voice. Despite his personal
problems, Mel Gibson delivered a powerful film about Christ in The Passion. To do this he had to
fund it, film it, market it, and distribute it himself. All Hollywood was against him. The media was
against him. Yet, it was a blockbuster because despite the constant onslaught by Marxist/secular
Socialism, America is religious and America is conservative. If Hollywood was strictly about making
money in movies, there would have been an onslaught of Christian and family movies to follow that
lead. There wasn't and there won't be.
The upcoming movie Atlas Shrugged, is a similar venture. It isn't a mainstream Hollywood
production; it is produced by a Massachusetts sports equipment manufacturer. You can almost smell
the ozone of hatred emanating off Hollywood and the Left. This is a movie they never would have
made and would never want made. But from the trailer this is going to be a blockbuster too and the
first of three parts. Despite the establishment, not because of it.
Hey, take your pick of current events. Congressman Peter King (R) of New York is holding hearings
on Islamic terrorism…no wait, no he isn't. This racist bigot is imitating Joe McCarthy and holding
hearings to promote anti-Islamic bigotry- just ask all the Muslim victims so prominently displayed on all
the channels. Just listen to the CAIR spokesmen talking about the hostility being created. The fact that
all of modern terrorism is linked to, or directly by, Islamic fundamentalists, is immaterial. Just watch
the perception now being created for the public by the media. Look at how it is presented.
Or, take the fact the Chinese just tested an anti-satellite weapon system that Leftists here think we
shouldn't have ourselves, and shouldn't deploy anywhere. Or take the projected growth of India
and China to pass us in the next forty years leaving us in third place and fading. Oh wait, that
won’t be mentioned anymore because that last part is reality. The current perception is that jobs are
coming back (no, we just stopped counting more and more unemployed.). The current perception is
that America isn't broke (it is.). The current perception is that we can continue, and increase,
entitlement spending to redistribute the wealth (It isn't sustainable, and it isn't theirs to redistribute.).
What is the perception of Iraq and Afghanistan? Of Libya? Of Guantanamo staying open and trials
starting there? What happened to Code Pink, International A.N.S.W.E.R, and the war protesters?
They are gone. It seems America is only the hegemonic bad guy with a Republican in the White House.
Where is the coverage of the March for Life every January when hundreds of thousands march on
Washington and are completely ignored by all the broadcast media and most of cable? Where are the
pro American military and war movies? Where are the pro American books?
Just understand that I’ll keep coming back to this topic because the people I keep talking to are stuck
on stupid. They have no plans to counter the Left for the opinions of America. They have no plans
other than to keep failing to engage the way they have for the past thirty plus years. But time is
running out. Perceptions ignored are not without consequences. Current events shaped by a biased
and corrupt press will lead to catastrophic failure. Then, the only thing that will be left will be the need
to explain the disaster and assign blame. That will be handed to the corrupt and biased culture of the
Left to do. They will blame the Right, and the Right will be fully responsible.
They didn't fight back. They didn't even take the field.