The Medium is the Message – Republicans Should Look in the Mirror

            "The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.  This quote was lifted from Wikipedia but most people are well aware of this age-old adage.

Unfortunately, after losing an election due to creating the perception that the Republicans were a bunch of intolerant, angry, old, white men – they still have not figured out that tone does matter – that the medium is the message.

Senator Rubio from Florida has recently shown his inexperience by allowing himself to mimic the angry white men behavior.  Instead of focusing on the positives of his immigration proposal (the fact that there is a proposal that includes the possibility of illegal immigrants being able to come out of hiding), he has stressed that those here illegally will have severe burdens to overcome in order to stay in the United States and even more severe burdens to become citizens.

Not only has Senator Rubio stressed all the negativity of the proposed bill, but he did so with vim and vigor to stress that the burdens were a punishment.  His angry presentation did not help Senator Rubio gain any “favorability points”.

Do we really need to make the burdens so severe?  There are at least eleven million people here that we cannot round up and deport.  These poor people are not wealthy.  Do they really need to pay a couple thousand dollars fine and back taxes in order to identify themselves as residences?  I do not believe these burdens help solve our immigration problem.  The vast majority that cannot afford these fines and back taxes will have to remain in the shadows of society. 

These burdens are in the proposed bill to satisfy the angry white men that will vote on whether anything will be done – our beloved elected Senators and Representatives.  This is probably why Senator Rubio stresses these portions of the proposed bill.  But by doing so, he is continuing to portray the Republican Party as the angry old white men (even if Senator Rubio is Hispanic). 

The proposed bill needs to be streamlined.  Pick a date in the recent past (for example January 1, 2013) and establish that anyone already in the country on that date for longer than one year can register for permanent residency.  They can get social security numbers and begin to pay income taxes on the wages they earn.  The wrinkle that Senator Rubio added that I thought was enough to satisfy the angry white men was tying the path to citizenship to establishing effective border control.  Isn’t border control what the angry white men have been saying they wanted all along?

President Reagan granted amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants in the 1980s but did nothing to prevent immigrants from continuing to flow into our country.  In fact, the granting of amnesty made America a magnet for more illegal immigrants because they believed that by just crossing the border – America would eventually grant them amnesty too (and, they were correct).

Senator Rubio’s bill should be President Reagan’s bill with the border control prerequisite for a path to citizenship.  That way we accomplish the good that President Reagan’s plan accomplished and we demagnetize America from future illegal immigrants (grammatically it should be “demagnetize America to future… - but the “from” sounds better).

Another Hispanic Senator is propagating the angry white men image: Senator Cruz of Texas.  The Senator appears to be a very intelligent man and well meaning.  He wants what is best for America and he is attempting to hold people accountable for failures that have hurt America.  I applaud him for that.  My problem is that the party of angry old white men has two Hispanic Senatorial leaders that portray themselves as angry old white men.  This is going to help win the Hispanic vote – how?

The administration is deservedly under fire for many blunders: Benghazi, IRS discrimination against conservative groups, the Justice Department’s tapping of reporters’ telephones and emails, and we have already forgotten the stellar management job performed during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Somebody needs to take the administration to task to find out if we have people or process problems and fix whatever the problems are.  However, the Republicans need to appoint a few attack dogs and also appoint a few party ambassadors.  We cannot prime Senator Rubio as a possible presidential candidate while he is speaking with fire and brimstone. 

Senator Cruz is another valuable commodity.  He is Hispanic; he should not be an attack dog.  By the way, is Representative Ryan being quiet because he knows the next presidential candidate has to be someone that people can actually like?

The Republicans need to organize themselves.  Senator McCain is a perfect attack dog.  He has the trust of the American people and he is not going to run for president again.  Surely there are other Republican’s that can do the necessary job of being the bad cop while grooming can continue of the good cops that may have a future as the nation’s leader.

The message is the medium.

Incompetence Begets Incompetence

            The Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot.  They are so caught up in achieving a “gotcha” with the Obama administration that they cannot see the forest for the trees.  Sometimes, incompetence is just incompetence.  For example, the way the Benghazi attack was handled was incompetent.  For the Republicans to be barking up the Benghazi tree is stupid.

It is just another tree.  And, if you look at all the trees the Republicans are barking at you begin to see the forest.  That forest is called “Angry White Men”. 

Was the rewording of the Benghazi talking points political?  Probably, but was the failure to respond with any military action done with malicious intent?  Most Americans do not believe so.  Most Americans believe that it was pure incompetence.  If the Republicans want to assist in curing the administration’s incompetence, the American people would be pleased.  Americans are not pleased with the never-ending bickering that the Republicans continue to dribble out day after day.

This past weekend, the New York Times reported that the average time from nomination to Senate confirmation for Obama’s appointees is 510 days.  The story sheds more light than I am providing here.  After reading the article I (a conservative) was convinced that the delays are politically motivated.  Note to Republicans:  the President won the election and he now gets to choose his nominees.

The latest Republican bickering is accusing the IRS of intentionally scrutinizing tax exemption applications for organizations with the terms “Tea Party” or “Patriots” in their name.  Okay, some underling of the administration screwed up.  It’s the government, of course there is incompetence.  The problem is that there is so much incompetence that the Republicans believe that it is not incompetence.  Rather; it is well planned political maneuvering.  Really???

So to sum it up, the total incompetence of the current administration has so confused the Republicans that they have not changed their behavior since losing the last election.  And, let us not forget that it was the “Angry White Men” behavior that contributed heavily to that last defeat.

Incompetence begets incompetence.