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You Can't Win the Argument if You Can't State the Problem

A conversation on the deck of a Politically Correct S.S. Titanic.

"Sir, there's an iceberg headed for us!"

"Is it dangerous?"

"While icebergs are generally not dangerous if they're left alone, there are extreme parts of this iceberg which if collided with might potentially damage our ability to stay afloat. On the other hand the iceberg was here before us, and if we do collide with it we might merge together with it into a stronger Iceberg\Titanic combination that would bring diversity to our superstructure."

"Perhaps, we should change course."

"We could do that, but we wouldn't want the iceberg to think we were discriminating against it."


It's a joke, but there are no shortage of real life analogs for it. If you make plain language into a forbidden thing so that saying anything is a process that begins with careful self-censorship, and ideas are expressed in a doubtful apologetic way to avoid giving offense, you can be sure that people will not be able to state the nature of the problem.

And if you can't state the nature of the problem, there's no hope of a solution. And that is why conservative politicians continue losing the debate over foreign threats and domestic social issues. While grass roots level conservatives can state the nature of the problem, conservative politicians very rarely do.

In the 2008 American Presidential Election a candidate who boasted of straight talk, left the straight talk at home, and worded everything vaguely and focused on assuring everyone what a nice guy he was. He lost the election to a candidate who had worked even harder to assure everyone what a nice guy he was, and was even vaguer about his plans.

Conservatives win elections when they can clearly state the nature of the problem in plain talk. Because common sense is on the side of Conservatives, while vagueness is on the side of Liberalism. That ability to plainly state the problem was behind the success of such late 20th century leaders as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. It is what garnered Palin a following in the first place.

The War on Terror is in such a dismal state because of a President who could sort of state the nature of the problem and then lost the ability to state it at all. Israeli and European heads of state long ago lost the ability to state the nature of the problem. Not only did they lose the ability, it is now actively illegal.

And when Conservative politicians can't state the nature of the problem, but instead begin talking around it, apologize for their half-hearted views before they even state them, and leave the general public confused as to what they mean, and unable to see the difference between them and their liberal opponents.

Why was the cartoon of Mohammed with a burning bomb fuse sticking out of his turban so explosive? Because in a few simple lines of ink and some limited coloring, it aptly stated the nature of the problem. Stating the nature of the problem is a very dangerous thing. In a political culture built on confusing the issue, stating the nature of a problem plainly is about as explosive as free speech can get.

The public is prepared to hear the problem plainly stated. Most of them understood the nature of the problem on their own, or at least did until the newspapers, the evening newscasts and the rest of the garbled newspeak of liberalism got hold of them, and left them thinking that maybe black really is white, and terrorists are just misunderstood people angry at injustice.

But the problem is not extremism. The problem is not injustice or lack of communication or not enough Americans wearing keffiyehs as a fashion statement. The problem is Islamic terrorism. The problem is Muslims. Islam is not a Religion of Peace. It is an ideology built on violence, deceit and terror, and perpetuated by violence, deceit and terror.

Immigration allows more and more Muslims to enter America and Europe. Every Muslim who crosses the border increases the risk of terrorism and Muslim violence. That is the nature of the problem.

The problem is not capitalism. The problem is that the endless expansion of government has made entire domestic industries unprofitable, and overregulated the rest. Global treaties have swung trade balances over to favor countries using slave labor for cheap manufacturing, while leaving civilized countries in the dust.

The real problem is the social cost of immigration. A national health care safety net is viable for working class citizens, but it will always be overloaded beyond sustainability by the dysfunctional overgrown families of third world immigrants. So will all other forms of social services, not to mention the justice system. Immigration drives organized crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, terrorism and a hundred other social ills. There are only two reasons that the immigration portals remain open, dirt cheap labor and votes for liberal politicians. And we'd be better off without both.

You can't win the argument, if you can't state the problem. When Conservative politicians are ready to begin stating the problem, they'll be ready to start winning elections.

Comments

  1. oooooh, a little torqued today, Sultan? This post was awesome - clear, concise and right to the heart of the matter. Firing on all cylinders today I see.

    Bravo!!!

    Now what do we do about firing the whole government?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It makes me feel murderous when our politicians tiptoe around stating the REAL problem and what should be REALLY done about it. Instead they harp on about how "The Palestinian people are not our enemy, we love you, blah blah blah".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't think today's leaders see problems as they are. I think they see roadblocks in the way of dollar signs and little else.

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  4. Anonymous4/2/09

    I am actually ashamed to say I was once a member of the democratic party. It's pretty scary when people like Laura Ingram start sounding normal to me. Maybe I never was a "liberal" in the sense that others were and did not know it. But after Election 2008 my eyes are opening and I do not like what I see. When Democrats act and sound like Republicans, we know things are pretty bad.

    Obama wants to spend millions on a national database for health care records. I am not sure why he considers this to be such a big deal, perhaps to find jobs for people. Not sure what his agenda is in that regard. I do know, that if you hire 'incompetent' people or people who really do not care about their jobs to enter information into databases, you will have mis-information at all levels and chaos somewhere down the road. I think a more important database would be involving National Security. After 9/11 I thought we were going to be more tough on getting information regarding who was in our country. If we have a flood of illegals suddenly legal, we have no proper systems in place for names, addresses, contact information, things we have every right to know. I do not think much progress has been made in that regard. Your article is right-on, Sultan. Thank you.

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  5. Anonymous4/2/09

    I like your blog but you should think about having an independent source edit your text before you post it. The grammatical errors are distracting.

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  6. Anonymous4/2/09

    The answer is here

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=2CCED709-29BE-4639-A7E3-9858AD98271E


    We must not allow Muslims into our country(North America) and deport Muslims as best as we can, who are practising Sharia

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  7. "Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step." -- Sir Winston Churchill - circa 1899

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous4/2/09

    Help my feet are falling off because I cant state my problems. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp me

    ReplyDelete
  9. When Conservative politicos become vague I zone out. I'm sure I'm not the only Conservative voter that zoned-out during the debates.

    The trouble is, when any politician becomes ambiguous it comes across as lying.

    The Republicans really do need to choose a candidate who is a good debater or at least takes a course on debating 101. Remove all of the satellite politically correct qualifiers and get to the heart of the matter.

    I think Rudy Guiliani was good at this. Hopefully he'll run again.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous4/2/09

    New blog dedicated to defending Geert Wilders.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous4/2/09

    Oh Mighty Sultan,


    One small quibble... I don't think a politically correct regime would call any ship Titanic, as it would detract from the Great Leader.

    How about the P.C. Inoffensive or Average?

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  12. Thank you Logistics. Government derives its power from the people's obedience and a perception of legitimacy. Without those it becomes an empty box.

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  13. Anna, yes and that is the main reason that the so-called peace process continues.

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  14. Susan, considering what kind of use the Obama people have made of records and databases, I can think of a few million reasons they'd want something like that.

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  15. Jack, or the Environmentally Sustainable and Completely Green Titanic

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  16. We've got to stop Muslim immigration to the United States while we still can. Please sign the petition:

    Stop Muslim Immigration

    Sultan, excellent article. I think you should put this petition in your sidebar. Don't you?

    ReplyDelete

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