PrintGOP Candidates Should Counter Guerilla Theater with Guerilla Opera
There are two parts to any political decision process: reason and emotion. In the immigration debate, Team-Patriot (our side) won the reason part long ago. Therefore Team-Anchor-Babe (their side) must fall back on two defensive strategies: Sophistry and Synthetic Sentimentality often delivered by Guerrilla Theater. Our side must adjust tactics accordingly.
Good example of sophistry can be seen in the well documented Trump-Ramos smack-down. Ramos (rhetorically) asks a simple question: “How are you going to deport 11 million (illegal alien) people…(?)” This simple question has a simple rational answer: If you (1) take away food stamps and welfare; (2) make them pay for their own medical and educational expenses and (3) strictly enforce e-verify, then most of his (11 million) people would deport themselves.
The second part clause of his question injects sophistry: “…will you use the army..?” He has posited that Trump has proposed doing something that is complex, expensive and highly unpleasant. No one on our side has ever proposed using the Army. Our side has proposed is that we stop something: We should stop subsidizing the slow colonization of our nation by a foreign people.
In addition, with his use of the word “Army,” Ramos has injected an element of Synthetic Sentimentality i.e. emotional bullying. He hopes to evoke a parallel between uniformed agents of the U.S. government (the Army) “rounding up” the poor Mexicans and the uniformed agents of the Nazis (the Waffen S.S) “rounding up” the family of poor Ann Frank.
Another example of this Synthetic Sentimentality illustrated by a recent Scott Walker’s confrontation in Wisconsin. Here, an illegal alien “mother,” anchor baby in-tow, complains to the candidate, “Why do you want to break my family apart?” There are two interesting features of this confrontation. First the “break-apart family” seems to be well groomed, well behaved, photogenic, and well-rehearsed. The “father” speaks English, not fluently, but well enough to be understood and pitied. This attempt of generating Synthetic Sentimentality for their “anchor baby” looks suspiciously like well-planned and skillfully executed Guerilla Theater
The second feature was the tactical asymmetry. Walker was calm, polite was talking rule of law (rational). On the other hand, the illegal alien was talking about his fears (emotional) while attempting evoke pity (emotional). This Guerilla Theater stunt will certainly be repeated in the future and we should be prepared.
On one hand our candidate must appear dignified, in control and presidential. Note that Trump did act this way with Ramos but Bernie Sanders did not act this way when confronted by Black Lives Matter activists. On the other hand, if the Guerilla actors are not dealt with, we risk every public event to becoming a freak-show.
My suggestion is that we be prepared to upstage any attempt at Guerilla Theater with Guerilla Opera. Consider again the Trump-Ramos incident: After line jumping, Ramos had a hissy-fit because Trump refused to answer his foolish question. In this incident, Trump’s body guard escorted the pest from the room.
Consider an alternate scenario: Suppose Trump, Cruz or another immigration patriot were asked a similar question in a town hall meeting. At first, our man would answer rationally and politely. However, I strongly suspect that the guerilla thespian, like Romos, would persist. After all, the purpose of their question is not a request for information but rather an attempt to embarrass and evoke sympathy on a carefully edited You Tube clip.
Once it becomes clear what the illegal is doing, our candidate should then ask one of his staff to answer the persistent inquisitor. Rather than speaking an answer this man, is quickly joined by three other men who start singing an answer: This Guerilla Opera would use a quartet, singing A Capella, in perfect well-rehearsed harmony, a parody of a well-known Naval Ballad:
Anc-hor-Babes go away[1]
Anchors Away
No Welfare, No Food Stamps, you’ll leave at break of day
E-verify you’ll find, where ‘er you roam
If you hate “rule-of-law” then YOU can leave for THIS is not your HOME!
Devastatingly simple, the Guerilla Quartet would actually answer Jorge-like question without getting sucked in his sophistry. In addition, if most of the crowd is passionate for our man, they will join in as well. Jerry Springer would be jealous.
Too many conservatives tend to be too intellectual and actually believe that Team-Anchor-Babe wishes to have a rational discussion. They are only interested in Sophistry, Synthetic Sentimentality and name calling, e.g. La Raza calling us “racists.”
Of course reason is on our side, but sometimes the truth needs the constant repetition[2] and the methodic passion of music. Remember “Battle Hymn of the Republic?” Our enemies are skillful in generating synthetic compassion as a weapon against the very survival of our civilization. American civilization is based on the “rule of law.” If these colonists -- who call themselves emigrants -- don’t respect our laws, they should find another nation to colonize.
Let’s sing it!
[1] Please note that although there are exactly zero references to ethnicity, the Jeb Bush crowd will probably label this song as “racist.” This is no surprise since his Soros-funded pals writing “Common Core” probably consider the old-fashioned multiplication tables to be “racist” as well.
[2] Goebbels is often misquoted for saying that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. This is only part of the story: Both lies and truth are affirmed by repetition. Consider the Declaration of Independence or the Nicene Creed. These truths, often repeated – often religiously - have become an integral part of American Culture- like our music.
