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Political Hay
Twittering Dinosaurs?
Young GOP techies taken in by a liberal fairy tale in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.
(Page 2 of 5)
Let’s go through this in detail.
Beginning with the Draper theme that the GOP is teetering on the verge of obsolescence.
Why is this a joke on the apparently clueless Mr. Draper and all these young GOP techies (more of whom in a bit)?
Because what Mr. Draper has written here is just the latest version of an old fairy tale. An urban legend of politics. In fact, it’s ancient. Very. So ancient that it is more than fair to say that Mr. Draper’s mind, not to mention his story, looks as fresh and modern as the old typewriter and rotary phone pictured in his piece. Older, in fact. Over a half century older, to be precise.
So let’s begin by taking some of Draper’s story and listing here verbatim, the bold print my own for emphasis. Draper writes:
• But the problem for the G.O.P. extends well beyond its flawed candidate (Romney) and his flawed operation. The unnerving truth, which the Red Edge team and other younger conservatives worry that their leaders have yet to appreciate, is that the Republican Party’s technological deficiencies barely begin to explain why the G.O.P. has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. The party brand — which is to say, its message and its messengers — has become practically abhorrent to emerging demographic groups like Latinos and African-Americans, not to mention an entire generation of young voters. As one of the party’s most highly respected strategists told me: “It ought to concern people that the most Republican part of the electorate under Ronald Reagan were 18-to-29-year-olds. And today, people I know who are under 40 are embarrassed to say they’re Republicans. They’re embarrassed! They get harassed for it, the same way we used to give liberals a hard time.”
• (28-year old GOP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson), for her part, is now a pollster and vice president of the Winston Group. Like the Red Edge partners and virtually every other young Republican with whom I spoke, she regards herself as a socially tolerant, limited-government fiscal conservative. (Today Republicans of all age groups strenuously avoid describing themselves as “moderate,” a term that the far right has made radioactive.) Camera-ready and compulsively perky — she has twice appeared on Bill Maher’s ”Real Time” panel as a token conservative — she nonetheless lapses into despondency when talking about her party’s current state of denial. During one of the postelection panels, Anderson heard a journalist talk about his interviews with Romney staff members who had hoped to build a winning coalition of white voters. “That just stunned me,” she told me one afternoon over coffee. “I thought: Did you not see the census? Because there was one! And it had some pretty big news — like that America’s biggest growing population is the Latino community!”
It gets better.
Draper sits in on two Anderson focus groups. The first all-female, the second all young men. Asked to free associate with the word “Republican” the women come up with words like “corporate greed,” “narrow minded,” “rigid,” “polarizing,” “stuck in their ways.” For the men: “racist,” “out of touch,” “hateful,” and, this one being particularly rich, “and put ‘1950’s’ on there too!”
When asked what the GOP could “say or do” to make them feel more positive about the GOP, one 22-year old respondent replies — no kidding — “embrace technology and change.”
Then Draper writes:
Later that evening at a hotel bar, Anderson pored over her notes. She seemed morbidly entranced, like a homicide detective gazing into a pool of freshly spilled blood. In the previous few days, the pollster interviewed Latino voters in San Diego and young entrepreneurs in Orlando. The findings were virtually unanimous. No one could understand the G.O.P.’s hot-blooded opposition to gay marriage or its perceived affinity for invading foreign countries. Every group believed that the first place to cut spending was the defense budget. During the whiteboard drill, every focus group described Democrats as “open-minded” and Republicans as “rigid.”
“There is a brand,” the 28-year-old pollster concluded of her party with clinical finality. “And it’s that we’re not in the 21st century.”
Now.
I’m sure Anderson is smart. This is certainly not meant to be personal. But she is, at least as depicted here, truly clueless. As is Draper.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (34) | Leave a comment
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aware| 2.19.13 @ 6:28AM
Keep conjuring up the ghost of Reagan and telling yourself all will be well. It's all you know.
Jack in Wi| 2.19.13 @ 6:59AM
Modern Republicanism is braindead. All it pushes is endless wars and endless bailouts. Every Republican candidate since 1988 has been an intellectual and moral failure. None of them were conservative or could articulate a conservative thought The reason Romney lost an election he should of won in a landslide is because he refused to reach out to the young and vigorus liberterian supporters of Ron Paul and the pro life Palin branch of the party. Let the Democrats be the party of death and taxes. The New York Times should not worry about the Republicans being a failed operation. It's a toss up who goes down first the Republicans, the Democrats or the Times.
JP| 2.19.13 @ 7:58AM
Jack,
If one considers that we're going on the 5th year of the Obama War in Afghanistan (with no end in sight, as he wants to keep 6000 troops in country indefinitely) your branding of the GOP is rather dated. The US has suffered more casualties in Afghanistan circa 2009-12 than it did from 2002-20008, and the President won re-election.
As for of all of thos young Ron Paul enthusiaists, their enthusiasm goes only as far as their bongs. Otherwise, they're no more than ill-informed Democrats. Otherwise, your estimation of the Mitt's failings were correct.
Jack in Wi| 2.19.13 @ 10:44AM
I said reach out to them. He expelled from the convention and refused to address any of their issues, like auditing the Fed or giving us any hope of peace. He only lost by 3 points. He was an arogant, ignorant elitist who dug his own hole and jumped in.
Jack in Wi| 2.19.13 @ 10:47AM
He could have promised to bring home the troops from Afganistan immediatly and also promised not to go to war without a declaration of war by congress. He would have won in a landslide. He didn't reach out to anyone. His pollsters told him it was unecessary and he believed them.
markenoff| 2.19.13 @ 12:02PM
The Democrats would have still manufactured enough votes to win.
Moe Blotz| 2.19.13 @ 8:31AM
Mitt Romney and the other Republicans Jack regularly chastises at least know how to use "should have" where Jack uses "should of". Get the cheddar out of your eyes, Jack.
Tina B| 2.19.13 @ 11:18AM
Once again, thanks Moe. I was ready to check jackinthebox myself but you took care of it again. Maybe he'll listen this time. It makes him sound even more ignorant.
C. Vernon Crisler | 2.19.13 @ 12:33PM
No Tina, Jackboot just copies and pastes the same McGovernite, anti-Israel tripe every chance he gets. He hasn't come up with anything original in a long time, so if the spelling mistakes are there in his original pastes way back when, they'll be there in his incessant repastes.
Jack in Wi| 2.19.13 @ 1:23PM
Chisler here is a flunky of the Neocon Rockefeller elite. He never met a war he didn't love as long as he or his didn't have to fight it. How long does he think this bankrupt country can cary the world on it's back? Bring the troops home. They have suffered enough for lies and nonsense.
Jack in Wi| 2.19.13 @ 1:25PM
Moe is a zionzazi as well as a spelling, typing, and grammer nazi. When you have no facts or truth on your side try something else.
markenoff| 2.19.13 @ 12:01PM
I think the economy will go down first.
Appleby| 2.19.13 @ 7:07AM
I save the Forbes Magazine issues at the beginning of every decade, in which they predict what the next decade will be like. I like to read them at the end of that decade and laugh out loud at how wrong they were.
The fact is that EVERY "young techie" or "Kewl Kid" or "With-It Sex and The City Babe" thinks that anything the adults are doing is backward, stupid, old-fashioned and boring, and that they, in their infinite wisdom gained by marinating in a soup of people trained to think just like themselves, not to mention plenty of beer and pot, are, simply because they are "young", far more intelligent and ready to lead than anybody over the age of 40 could ever be -- until they themselves reach that magical age.
In fact, now that TheKids have been trained to keep their heads immersed in their Binkies and to unhesitatingly soak in the directives of their handlers -- and to believe that nothing really happened until someone has posted it on a screen and the Kewl Kids have tweeted about it -- it's the Binkie Generation that is severely out of touch with the reality that is creating the world they are steadfastly ignoring around them. I read this stuff and think of the scene in Cloverfield where the monster is stomping New York and the Binkie Babies stand there taking photos with their Binkies until the thing steps on their heads.
Alan| 2.19.13 @ 7:45AM
Binkies? I love that, thumb twitlers is another good one. You could set their clothes on fire and they would be texting somebody about getting warm here. The brain dead generation.
Maxwell| 2.19.13 @ 8:34AM
Alan, you would have fun driving in Princeton. The kids (and sorry to say, many 'adults' too) just cross the street at the cross walks against the light, cross when it says 'Do Not Walk', in the middle of the block between cars, or when ever they feel like it with their heads buried in their I-phone. Look, what me worry comes to mind! Someone else will look out for me!
Alan| 2.19.13 @ 9:19AM
I think somebody once coined the term "electronic pacifiers" I know of what you speak Maxwell.
Alan| 2.19.13 @ 9:29AM
Maxwell, a generation designed, trained, and groomed for the electronic, idiological, and intellectual prison cells they will occupy in the future.
PolishKnight| 2.19.13 @ 12:03PM
I had an i-phone and i-pod in the 80's. It was a walkman and CB. And they were hugely popular.
And back then, the chatter on CB was as inane as the twitter generation.
Maxwell| 2.19.13 @ 1:05PM
PK, & I remember Lafayette Radio had a HUGE CB department. However that was back in the 60's. I'm getting old.
Alan| 2.19.13 @ 1:09PM
I remember that well, also.
Von Mises Jr| 2.19.13 @ 7:55AM
The truth is that the liberals in the Democrat Party are really the Coward Party. These people use MSM instead of their brains since it is politically incorrect to step outside the Party line.
They are also fools as they not only fail to think, but they are subject to media manipulation on what they can see. The fine conservatives at this site often cite technical writings of economist and philosophers while rejecting articles that do not make sense. But liberals never quote classic books and contrary ideas are not welcome in their media. They are generally not only cowardly, but the least inquisitive and most ignorant among us. And they think that they are brilliant even though they don't know their posterior from a hole in the ground.
I live among liberals and those that know me generally run when they see me since I break their political correctness rules and ask them questions that they cannot answer.
Al Adab| 2.19.13 @ 12:01PM
What we all seem to forget is that there are timeless truths in this world and in the realm of politics as well. We can fall back on 2500 years of western political history to teach us what those are. We ignore them at our peril for wishful thinking will never overcome human nature and the reality which is human politics.
Von Mises Jr| 2.19.13 @ 1:16PM
First you have to learn the truths before you can ignore them. You and I know many, but the low-information voter is called that for a reason. It is called ignorance.
fmm| 2.19.13 @ 9:31AM
Mr. Lord. Since the commentary seems to have remained the same over such a long time, wouldn't you say the GOP has a branding problem? And wouldn't you think the GOP would have been able to figure out how to counter this? Seems like if they can't, they truly could be called "out of touch with reality". So what are the solutions?
PolishKnight| 2.19.13 @ 10:08AM
Indeed. As the author points out, Obama's victory isn't due to twitter or his "hope and change" nonsense. Most on the left don't care about such things either on the low end or the useful dupes hoping someday to make the USA into Sweden (which is so amazingly laughable. When people pride themselves upon becoming well educated with masters degrees and PhD's and believe in pixie dust, what does that make them? At least Archie Bunker had an excuse.)
The bottom line is that the majority of the left's electorate are race and gender entitlements (and soon, gay entitlements). Whites and white men including Catholics are voting Republican, when they bother to show up, but the Republican elites and even grass roots conservatives are unwilling or unable to address the left's racist and anti-male agenda head on so they only get the scraps that fall from the left's table.
Imagine if conservatives addressed leftist racism and sexism as actively as, say, gay marriage and abortion!
The left has a point that the Republican party is the party of "no" and while the left offers lies and race and gender entitlements, at least that's something.
Regarding young people: This last election was a true watershed in that young white males now voted for the Republican party as a majority. It's no longer about the foolish, naive young buying into the allure of Marxism. It's all about race now.
Anthony| 2.19.13 @ 10:03AM
What part of never reading any article by a leftist claiming to help benefit Republicans and conservatives, don't you get Jeff?
Anytime the NY Times and its ilk attempt to offer any "constructive advise" to us, it's like Dr. Kervorkian offering up a bromide to be quickly swollowed.
loulou| 2.19.13 @ 11:37AM
Exactly.
Bob K| 2.19.13 @ 10:12AM
Mr. Lord,
I didn't read this past issue of "The New York Times Magazine." I haven't read it in years.
So I don't think there is any good reason why I should read your comment here on an article in it.
Thanks anyway. Have a nice day. I'll check out your next article here to see if it is worthwhile. Nobody hits a home run every time at bat.
Who Knows?| 2.19.13 @ 12:00PM
A rose is a rose is a rose …..
Years ago, the WSJ coined the name, Demopublican, to indicate how indistinguishable the parties were.
While the name, “Democratic”, remains the same for that ever-changing collection of individual elites who are members of that party, any awake fool knows it’s not your father’s or grandfather’s party. We like to pay homage to that by remembering Scoop Jackson and Daniel Moynihan, and even Hubert Humphrey, while also realizing what a difference McGovern made.
My point?
Despite Lord’s always-expansive detailed look back, and well researched retrieval of relevant old material, what has, IN FACT, happened in the last fifty years, say, to the size and scope of the federal government?
Where is the “Fifth Dimension” when you need them?
“Up, up, and away, in my beautiful balloon…”!
Yes, the balloon fills up, regularly, with what Reagan used to call the Iron Triangle---remember that?
The lawmakers, the bureaucrats who administer the laws, and the recipients of the largesse laws take from producers and give to (usually) non-producers.
I’m afraid there’s no going back, let alone slowing this trend. Despite trying to make a purse of the sow’s ear of history.
jdondet| 2.19.13 @ 12:25PM
Mr. Lord:
Question was the GOP so ready to surrender to the Democrats as they seem so hell bent on doing today in 1964?
Petronius| 2.19.13 @ 1:49PM
Republicans have been portrayed as a cross between Simon Legree and Queen Victoria since the socialists took over the media and the schools. 40 years ago the St. Louis Globe Democrat ran a cartoon on their op-ed page called The Small Society. It was toddlers discussing public affairs in their playpen. The best was one lecturing about the political Fact that principles and philosophy count for Nothing, with this line. "Of course adults don't think silly. All they do is repeat what they hear." While this is all too True, the bottom line in politics is now Social Acceptance. Jeff: You don't need to be so verbose to explain that the Liberals win because they control the narrative, define the issues and candidates, pimp for what and who they like, and mercilessly gut anybody opposing Liberalism. People used to vote Democrat because of upbringing and the religious nature of populism. Today they do it so they will have friends. What's going down here is a media campaign in concert with the Obama regime to make Republicans the new niggers to be held in utter contempt like the Untouchables in India.
Listen to Their president today. The SEQUESTER is his doing, but he gets away with blaming the GOP for refusing to sanction open ended spending with the old tested and true threats of curtailing essential services with the false claim that the Republicans want it to happen and he knows they can't prove he's blatantly lying. The GOP is so cowed, they won't even try.
Mnestheus| 2.20.13 @ 12:50AM
I'm afraid this piece further evidences that Mr. Lord was un-Kewl even before the creature pursuing the Binkie Babies stepped on his head.
homme nike air max BW | 2.20.13 @ 1:25AM
and subtitle: “Can young, tech-savvy Republicans overthrow their party’s disconnected Old Guard?” Yet the article is filled to overflowing with baseline liberal assumptions not to mention a laughable liberal bias.
hrgfue | 2.20.13 @ 2:32AM
Kickoff to you with the online store 2013