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Conservative Donors Must Invest in Platforms, Not Just Candidates

Conservative Donors Must Invest in Platforms, Not Just Candidates
(Walldemarus/Dreamstime.com)

By    |   Tuesday, 13 August 2019 04:51 PM EDT

In the 90’s, it was Limbaugh. In the aughts it was Hannity and Levin. Today, Ben Shapiro is the voice of the moment for many center-right Americans.

He deserves the admiration. He’s sharp, substantive, and witty. But whether it’s Ben, Rush, Sean, or Mark — they can’t stop the advance of American socialism.

The fight to protect American freedom isn’t won with talking heads and podcasters or think tanks and policy papers. It’s not won by dumping money into the Republican National Committee and calling it a day.

It’s won by relentlessly protecting freedom through T.E.E.N. — Tech, Education, Entertainment and News.

The Left has been doing it now for decades. They’ve been indoctrinating students at America’s colleges and universities. They’ve been controlling the news media and entertainment complex. They’ve seamlessly incorporated tech companies and platforms. Activism, ideology, and big business go hand-in-glove.

Conservatives have Fox News, NewsmaxTV, a smattering of religious programming you can barely find on basic cable and of course, conservative talk radio. A handful of solid podcasts like Shapiro’s and resources like Prager University certainly have value. Together, however, they barely make a dent in combating leftist T.E.E.N. that hits every one of us, every day, everywhere.

Information, imagery, and infrastructure are the weapons of the Left. Conservative donors are going to cocktail parties.

Hundreds of millions are spent every year by high-end donors on think tanks and television commercials for Republican campaigns. The real beneficiaries of that largess are consultants, media firms, and fellows ensconced in offices in Washington D.C. It doesn’t work. The latest reports of record federal spending and deficits should make that abundantly clear.

Even when Republicans win elections, they’re barely moving the needle on public policy. Those dollars don’t build human capital that translates into action in the streets nor influence on consumer habits.

Liberals learned long ago that marketing their ideas to the masses was akin to consumer product placement. They needed Leftist ideas to be like the Ray Bans in "Risky Business" or the Reese’s Pieces in "E.T." Hollywood, tech, and the news industry understand that their leftist brethren in higher education are often more transparent about their views and agenda, but the better and more effective method to advance their cause would be to indoctrinate people without them actually noticing.

The Left’s use of T.E.E.N. is more insidious than just a pure partisan play. In order for them to succeed in transforming America from freedom-minded and individualist to collectivist, they need to divorce people from history, organized religion, the rule of law, the concept of individual responsibility, and personal liberty.

That’s why so much of T.E.E.N. is focused on giving an outsized voice to grievance politics, the victimhood society, race-baiting, divisive labels, and the political-correctness that is sapping the very soul out of American life. Using T.E.E.N. the Left tells us that America is evil. It demonizes to the point of ruination those who espouse patriotism, religious freedom, and limits to government power.

The latest polling about pride in America sinking like a stone is therefore unsurprising.

President Reagan warned about what he called, “an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.”

It’s happening. No conservative think tank or campaign commercial will undo it, only T.E.E.N.

The Left has Steyer, Soros, Buffett, Bloomberg, and others willing to invest billions in hundreds of organizations. They own nearly 100 media outlets at last count, with more than half in swing states. It’s a safe bet that, especially the papers and radio stations, aren’t financially successful. That won’t stop the Left from buying them.

The Left has the titans of the tech world including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others driving its message. They’re shadow-banning conservative thought leaders and censoring conservative speech. Even Amazon, America’s most popular online shopping platform, is run by liberal Jeff Bezos.

High-net-worth, freedom minded donors must start investing in platforms — not just candidates — that will compete with the Left on the same battlefields. Prioritize newspapers, radio stations, movies, and growing television news alternatives to Leftist platforms over think tanks.

There needs to be a full-fledged donor revolt against colleges and universities that seek to brainwash students with a leftist agenda. No freedom-loving American should give a dime to a school that bans conservative speakers, has safe spaces, or offers therapy for students ‘triggered’ by traditional American values.

Bernie Marcus has pledged to give 90 percent of his multi-billion-dollar fortune to his various ‘passion’ projects and causes. Peter Theil, one of the few center-right tech giants, is going after what he calls Google’s “treasonous” behavior. Marcus and Theil are showing vision and courage. We need more of it or we’re going to continue to lose our country — even when we think we’re winning.

Tom Basile has been part of the American political landscape from Presidential campaigns to local politics. He served in the Bush Administration from 2001-2004, as Executive Director of the NYS Republican Party and has held a range of senior-level communications roles in and out of government. Basile's critically-acclaimed book, "Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq" (Foreword by Amb. John R. Bolton), chronicles his time in Baghdad fighting media bias and driving fairer coverage of the Iraq war. In 2011, he was featured in Time Magazine's Person of the Year spread about political activism around the world. Basile is an adjunct professor at Fordham University, a local elected official and runs a New York-based strategic communications firm. He is a member of the New York Bar and sits on a number of academic and philanthropic advisory boards. Learn more about him at TomBasile.com or follow him on Twitter @Tom_Basile. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.

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TomBasile
High-net-worth, freedom minded donors must start investing in platforms — not just candidates — that will compete with the Left on the same battlefields.
conservative, donors, platforms
952
2019-51-13
Tuesday, 13 August 2019 04:51 PM
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