Here are the 10 things John has learned:
• For all their many faults, give the left this… they understand that this is war. We seem to still think this is a picnic. We tend to bring butter knives to gun fights. It is no wonder we tend to lose all sorts of battles where the facts are clearly on our side.
• We do a really lousy job of protecting our “warriors” and punishing our “traitors.” In fact, it seems we sometimes treat our traitors better than our warriors, as long as they are big enough celebrities.
• The only real difference between the political media world and Hollywood is level of attractiveness. Both arenas are almost completely dictated by a celebrity-driven caste system that forces the participants to be far more concerned with their position on the totem pole than what is good for the movement.
• A whole lot of our “stars,” are frauds who really don’t act like they care at all about the movement and who actually often have a profound self interest to betray the cause and frequently act on that impulse.
• Ratings considerations and personal agendas are far more important factors in determining what stories get covered, even in the conservative media, than the truth or what might be good for the cause.
• The “business” of creating political content is far more difficult than anyone seems willing to admit. Some of the most ”successful” people in the movement are struggling to make the model work financially and this is during a relatively boon time for conservatism.
• The truth doesn’t really matter much at all. Everything is perception. Whether the truth ever really mattered is an open question, but what seems clear is that if the truth’s power to influence the national debate and the events within it is both feeble and weakening.
• This conservative resurgence of the past year is likely vastly overrated. The movement still faces enormous fundamental challenges, including the increasing liberal dominance over the vast majority of media, which independent voters tend to consume. While the media’s credibility to carry President Obama to re-election has been currently diminished, if the economy improves significantly at all they will still have plenty enough juice to pull it off, possibly with ease.
