The Conquest of Cool

The Conquest of Cool

I just finished reading The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. This book addresses the common mythos of how out of touch corporate america was during the cultural changes of the 1960s. The common belief is that the counter culture rebelled against corporate America while it tried to co-opt counter cultural themes. Thomas Frank argues that corporate America created as much of the cultural change as it co-opted, and he backs it up with plenty of research and examples. He lucidly explains how corporate America rebelled against itself, co-opted the images and slogans of the cultural revolution, and then pushed these themes forward through their own change. Corporate America was not a passive beast manipulated and changed by the cultural revolution but an active participant in the transformation. Overall, an entertaining, in depth, and enlightening read.

Back to the Basics in the Republican Party

With the numerous losses in the last few elections, it is clear that the Republican Party has to do some soul searching and reconnect with the American people. Granted, it is always hard to perform with a party member in charge who is so hated, but I do not think that was the only cause. The Republican party has lost the connection it had with the average person on home town issues.

The Republican party must restore these connections by returning to the quiet intellectualism, reserved foreign policy, and responsible economic policy that lead to the prominence of the party coming out of the 70s.

The Republican party has trambled on its own authority in the attacks on the “liberal collegiate elite.” What started as describing and demonizing these figures as smart but out of touch with the basics of human nature and economics degraded in to outright anti-intellecualism. We’re labeling not just some of our brightest supports, but our future leaders as against the party whenever they disagree with a platform. This has eroded the intellectual core of the party and threatens to impact the recruitment of smart and capable members in the future. This party built a base on leading from the brain, not from the heart, and we must return to our intellectual ways and regain the intellectual high ground in policy.

The old joke goes that the Republicans want the biggest military but don’t want to ever use them, while the Democrats don’t support the military but want to send it everywhere. That joke just doesn’t have as much relevance since the last few years. The party should recapture that spirit, at least the never wanting to use them. The Party of leading from the brain knew that foreign entaglement would just waste our money and engender ill will in the world. The military was to be reserved for only the most severe and necessary military adventures. Additionally, the party conflated a big military policy, designed to fight the Russians in a manner that didn’t require killing anyone, with a reasonable policy that holds at all times. The party of smaller, cheaper government should make the tough decisions to cut and curb military spending and benefits. We can have the best military in the world and reward/support our warriors appropriately without spending anywhere near as much as we do and without creating a secondary wellfare system.

Finally, the Republicans have to regain the high ground on Economic policy. The American economy is the most flexible, resiliant, and productive due to our use and support of a free market economy. Republicans used to understand the nuances of such as system and the need to create necessary regulation and controls to support these markets, in a manner to avoid ineffencies, and to minimize the trade offs between growth and safety. At some point we began to abandon the nuanced, subtle approach to regulation and simply cast it aside for good. (Or at least that is the perception.) We need to return to the party that was business friendly without forgetting the little guy.

A last note, we must remember that we should be the party of intelligent policy and leadership, not of partisan politics and obstructionist government. We must be willing to work with the Democrats in congress to find reasonable solutions to the problems of our country and work towards our Republican ideals and policies. Doing anything else will ensure that it will be many years before we govern again.

HOPE for a Moderate Obama

There is hope for moderates and conservatives in yesterday’s election. The landslide victory for the Democrats is not the vote of sweeping change that leaders like Pelosi wanted (or will claim). The popular vote only leaned by a few votes for the Democratic choice for President and the overriding theme at the Senate and local levels is change. Not necessarily change to a Democrat, just change from who we had.

A great many people that I’ve spoken to didn’t cast a vote for Obama’s policies or goals. They voted against Palin. They voted for Obama’s inspiring vision for America. They voted against the Republican party, but not its ideals. Many that I’ve spoken to agreed with the McCain platform, but weren’t inspired by him.

Hopefully the Obama team knows this and will take the Whitehouse with a moderate platform. These voters may have been inspired to vote for Obama, but a left heavy agenda will lead to a quick change in House and Senate makeup in 2 years as voters find it easier to vote on and reject the platform.