Why Obama Won

(Updated)
Why did Obama win?  Two words, Alinsky and Inception.    

I'm borrowing the term Inception from the 2010 movie by the same name.  In case you haven’t seen the movie, "Inception" refers to the implanting of ideas by entering the subconscious during an induced dream state and then manipulating the dream to get the implanted idea to take hold.    

In the movie, Leo DiCaprio plays the protagonist, Cobb, who explains the power of ideas:

  

Cobb: “What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate.”

The elements of Inception are these:

• An idea to implant
• An induced dream state
• A compelling dreamscape
• Active manipulation of the dream
• A strong defense against competing ideas  

The left has either consciously or unconsciously understood this concept for decades and used it to make their ideas resilient, contagious, and impossible to eradicate.  Today, the right has nothing to counter this strategy.    

Here’s how the left has achieved inception success:

•  An idea to implant:  The left's idea is that they will give you whatever you want, work is optional, you will suffer no negative consequences, you will not be held accountable, you will not be judged, and some faceless rich guy will pay for it all!      
• An induced dream state:    With their near monopoly position in entertainment, academia, news media, and pop culture, liberals have unique access to the subconscious.  Whether sitting in a classroom,  in front of a TV, reading a newspaper, or in a theater, the captive subject is in a state of “suspended disbelief” where the critical mind is on standby and open to implanted ideas.   
• A compelling dreamscape:  Free stuff is awesome!   Add in, social security, social justice, equality of outcomes, utopianism, lowered seas, and a healed planet and, voila!   A one-sided presentation of these benefits makes the dream irresistible.  Of course, the costs and the moral hazard are never mentioned in the dream.  Why spoil it?    
• Active manipulation of the dream:  To advance these ideas,  every possible tactic is used, including disinformation, and outright deception.  There are no limits.  As Saul Alinsky, the father of Community Organizing and the left's tactical guru tought in "Rules for Radicals", the ends justify the means.  No tactic is off limits.       
• Finally, a strong defense against competing ideas:  The left works very hard to destroy any competing ideas, regardless of merit.   Polarization, ridicule, and fear-mongering are just some of the tools utilized to make competing ideas toxic. Again from Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals":

• “…Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” 
• Thus Mitt Romney became a greedy villain who hates women, tortures animals, cheats on his taxes, and is responsible for a woman's death.  Paul Ryan is shown throwing granny off a cliff.     
• “…Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”   
• This is why Comedy Central, Broadway, and Saturday Night Live spent inordinate amounts of time ridiculing Mitt Romney, including even attacking his religion.   

Conservatives have a marked disadvantage when it comes to Inception:  

• The right does not have access to the subconscious.  With the possible exception of a few media outlets, conservatives have almost no active voice in the pop culture, pop academia, or pop media.  Even religious communities, which were traditionally right leaning, are on the wane or have moved left.        
• Even if conservatives had access to the subconscious, they still could not easily make their dream compelling!   Personal responsibility, accountability, and hard work are, well...hard.  Work sucks!  Who wants a job when you can get everything you need without working?  
• Conservatives are programmed to tell the truth.  Of course, nobody’s perfect and conservatives wander plenty.  But high standards, accountability, and veracity are traditionally conservative values.       
• Conservatives are pre-disposed to avoid gratuitously destroying their enemies.  Decorum, manners, honor, and tradition are all conservative concepts.  Liberals have no similar fealty to such antiquated notions of behavior. 

Until conservatives understand the tactics of Alinsky and Inception, they cannot compete.  Mitt Romney had no idea what hit him.  The left successfully destroyed his sterling character and resume.  What did Mitt Romney do in response to being smeared and destroyed?  He smiled, said nice things about Mr. Obama's character, and told Americans he'd find them a job!  

As you can see, this was never a fair fight.  With half the country now paying zero income taxes, and an equally large segment on some kind of government assistance, it is near impossible to see how economic conservatives ever regain power in the US until after the collapse: the very painful economic collapse which we are steadily moving "Forward" towards.  

In the movie "Inception", DiCaprio's character uses a spinning top to remind him whether or not he's dreaming.  If the top spins indefinitely, he's dreaming;  if it stops, he knows he's awake.  I'm gonna find me a top and start carrying it from now on, just to remind me.  

Inception

I was watching the movie “Inception” last night and was struck by the following quote: 

Cobb: “What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate.”

In case you haven’t seen the movie, “Inception” refers to the implanting of ideas by entering the subconscious during an induced dream state, and then manipulating the dream to get the implanted idea to take hold. 

The elements of inception are these:

• An induced dream state
• A willing subconscious
• A compelling dreamscape
• Active manipulation of the dream
• An idea to implant
• A strong defense against competing ideas  

Political liberals have either consciously or unconsciously understood this concept, and used it to make their ideas “resilient… highly contagious…. and impossible to eradicate”. 

Here’s how liberals have achieved inception success: 

• First they induce a dream state:  With their dominant position in entertainment, academia, and news media, liberals have unique access to the subconscious.  Whether sitting in a classroom, living room, or theatre, the captive subject is in a state of relaxed “suspended disbelief” where the critical mind is on standby. (How else could you believe in talking toys, Jedi Knights, or time travel?  The “willing suspension of disbelief” is one of the keys to entry into the subconscious, which is why it's key for hypnosis too.)
• Next they make the dream appealing:  Utopianism, Hope and Change, Free Stuff, Social Security, Social Justice, and Equality of Outcomes.  Who in their right mind wouldn't find a one-sided presentation of these ideas appealing?   
• Next, they manipulate the dream:  To advance their ideas, liberals employ bogus statistics, sophistry, and outright lies.   I realize this is a serious charge that requires some backup.  A full accounting would take years, so in the interest of brevity, I’ll just cite a few examples from...    yesterday:  
• The President stated that if the Supreme Court overturns ObamaCare, it would represent an “unprecedented, extaordinary” act because the law passed congress.  This is a lie:  The Supreme Court routinely overturns unconstitutional legislation.  In fact, that is its purpose.
• The President indicated The Supreme Court lacks credibility because they are “unelected”.  This is a lie: The Constitution deliberately insulates the Supreme Court from politics by creating a court of lifetime appointees.
• The President stated that if ObamaCare is found unconstitutional, that would be an act of “judicial activism”.  This is a lie:  Judicial activism is when judges find new rights and powers not specifically enumerated in The Constitution.
• Finally, liberals work very hard to destroy any competing ideas, regardless of merit.   Sarcasm, snark, propaganda, and fear, are just some of the tools utilized to make any competing idea toxic.  Perhaps the best illustration of this comes from the following quotes from Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, the tactical bible for today’s liberals:

 

“One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.”

“…Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

“…Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

Ever since these ideas entered the community, in an organized manner, polarization and demonization have been the rule from liberals. 

Conservatives have a marked disadvantage when it comes to inception:     

• Conservatives do not have access to the subconscious.  Conservatives have almost no voice in the pop culture, pop academia, or pop media - the entry points into the subconscious.  
• If conservatives had access to the subconscious, they still could not easily make their dream appealing.   Personal responsibility, accountability, and hard work suck!  Moreover, these behaviors never offer immediate gratification.
• Conservatives are programmed to tell the truth. That's not to say they always do.  Nobody’s perfect.  But I would argue, this one characteristic is the defining difference between most liberals and most conservatives.  [UPDATE:  This is one reason Donal Trump is so unnerving to liberals;  he's co-opted their main tactics!]  
• Conservatives are pre-disposed to avoid gratuitously destroying their enemies.  Decorum, manners, honor, and tradition are all conservative concepts.  Liberals have no similar fealty to such antiquated notions of behavior.  [UPDATE:  Ditto above.]         

In order to deal with this imbalance, conservatives must find new ways to implant their ideas. 

Perhaps the best example of this today is Glenn Beck who has combined education, comedy, internet distribution, live performance, publishing, and even God to get his conservative message out.  Others in the fray are a few internet-based media-focused groups who also use comedy, news, entertainment and education, to get their messages out.

Conservatives do have a voice in some traditional media outlets like talk radio and cable news.  And thanks to the internet, a conservative revolution in news and commentary has already occurred there.  But, to a large extent all of this is currently preaching to the choir. 

What is still needed is a concerted effort to potentially reach everyone, and to do that, conservatives must produce more high quality general entertainment content.  Some of it is out there no doubt, but much, much more is needed.  Movies, music, comedy, and theater: only through more of this will conservatives be able to break into the vast subconscious that liberals currently have near exclusive access to.          

Until Conservatives figure out how to generate much more quality content in general entertainment, they will forever be losing to liberals in the war of inception.  For my part, I'm going to take a stab at a screenplay.  Maybe you should too?