Posted on 05/01/2012 8:27:38 AM PDT by mongrel
People who are on this forum, for the most part, are here because they believe in JR's guiding principles: God, family, country, life and liberty from a conservative view point.
Right now we're engaging mostly in yelling matches with each other about one thing: voting for Romney. How do we step back and look at the bigger picture and come up with a plan? Perhaps we need to stop arguing about whether or not we rally behind Romney and begin to think long-term.
Without unity, we will repeat the history of two groups. The African-American community is taken for granted within the Democrat party, their vote is assumed, but Democrats are not really there for them. Sure, they got their token win with Obama, but he really isn't one of them. In the end, the Democrat party will continue it's tradition of liberal racism and elitism long after Obama is out of office.
If we keep supporting the GOP-e candidates in the general election, conservatives will also be taken for granted and never taken seriously. We might occasionally get our candidate as president, but in the end it will be about tokenism and keeping conservatives on the plantation.
If we go out on our own with a third party, we'll end up in the same place as the Libertarian Party. We will be pure in our politics, but we will have little effect on the ongoing direction of our country.
The key to making something happen is forming coalitions that make sense. Before I give a specific proposal, I want to make something clear. I don't think we should give up on this election. I think the House and Senate races are vitally important. However, I do think we need to step back and look at the long view of how to cultivate and maintain political power for the conservative cause.
I believe we need to start planning now for the 2016 presidential election. Not because we're giving up on 2012, but because that perspective may help guide us today.
In late 2015, we need to have a caucus, convention, whatever we want to call it, to rally behind one candidate to be the conservative candidate for the presidential nomination. We should prepare for that caucus in the same way we would work at hiring someone in a company. It could even be done online at Freerepublic.com. We need to bring together social conservatives, TEA party, and flexible libertarians to find someone. We need national leaders who are willing to make this happen.
What we need in a conservative candidate for president:
1. Conservative Principles. Clear, consistant core principles that have been lived over a lifetime. The vetting process would mean looking at that record.
2. Integrity. This person should have a personal life that is filled with moral consistency and integrity. This does not preclude those who have had moral failures, but it does insist on a process of restoration where they have taken ownership rather than covered it up. We could do our own sniffing by hiring oppo research teams to find out if there is any dirt out there.
3. Leadership ability. This person should have a track record as a leader in the private sector or in government that shows they know how to properly manage people and complex systems toward the conservative cause. It does no good to have a true believer who doesn't know how make a bureaucracy bend to his wishes. Again, this should be easy to assess by looking at their track records.
4. Communication skills. This person should be able to effectively use the bully pulpit to rally the public behind them. They might anger one sector of the public, but they should be able to keep at least a strong majority with them through their communication skills. Perhaps some of our PR and Marketing people could come up with ways to put candidates through the ropes in showing us what they can do, and to even pull together focus groups to assess their skill level.
If we get enough nationally known conservatives to rally around this, we could then move forward, united around a single candidate.
Why is it important to do this now? Because in all likelihood it will be either Romney or Obama in the White House next year. There is an outside chance of a 3rd party candidate running and winning, but those who prefer this path still need a plan B.
If Romney wins, this caucus would happen anyway. He will know from the beginning he will get a primary fight from the right. That might be enough to even push Romney stay further to the right for his first term. We can replace Romney mid-term, and show the power of the conservative vote even against an incumbent president. That seems to me to be a much more likely possibility than electing a third party candidate this time.
The other possibility is that Obama will win another term. This means that the next Republican primary starts up again with no real front-runner. We need to be ready for that.
The last possibility is that somehow a third party candidate will win as a conservative. If that candidate fulfills the 4 points above, then the caucus would only serve to broaden and solidify support.
We won't have a clear idea about what will happen to Romney, Obama or a third party candidate until we get closer to November. In the meantime, lets begin building for 2016.
Probably not ....
“Probably not ....”
Second that.
If Perry indeed runs in 2016, I have my candidate.
Do you want corny, short-term solutions that won’t mean diddly squat decades from now or do you want meaningful, well thought out, long-term solutions?
Here’s a hint:
Why do you think the NRA has been so successful with their campaign to liberalize the firearms laws here in the USA over the past 30 years?
It’s very simple.
I’m going to vote for the northeastern liberal Romney because his opponent is a red communist muslim, and that is all there is to it.
One more term for Obama will destroy the US. Nothing else matters for now.
Yeah, put me in for Thirds.
The MittBots are having too much fun acting like TSA agents...
Every little old white American Grannie who wont vote for Willie Mitty is suspected of carrying a contrabad vote for Obama...
My good conservative name has been well groped...
Here’s where conservatives have failed:
The Tea Party movement never organized into something cohesive with clear leadership. Instead, we have different factions - all claiming to be THE Tea Party - with different leaders spread out across the 50 states. There is no clear hierarchy.
While that may sound good at first, it dilutes the movement. Instead of the grassroots effort turning into something bigger, I’ve started to ignore the countless emails I get from all these branches. Why? Because I have NO IDEA who is really requesting money. Oh yeah - that’s pretty much all I see these days, too: requests for money... to a nebulous organization with no clear leadership.
All these Tea Party leaders need to rally around someone like Allen West (for example). They need to create a national organization with clearly defined leadership and goals. We’ll never break the back of the GOP establishment and create a TRUE conservative movement unless we join forces.
Now, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe something is being done to organize this. But I follow FR pretty religiously and consider myself pretty well-informed. If I’ve missed it, a lot of others have as well.
Bingo, and every time someone said it needed leadership or structure, it was shot down.
You are also right about the fundraising part. There was actual fraud going on. The Dems put up fake Tea Party groups and candidates to run against Republicans and at least one major so-called Tea Party website was run by some email marketing scammers who were using it for data gathering.
—Perhaps we need to stop arguing about whether or not we rally behind Romney and begin to think long-term. —
That is exactly why I bought my small farm in central Rural KY two weeks before the 2008 election, and moved there last August, leaving my home of 45 years, Seattle.
Looking for politicians to solve this or help is like looking to the Crew of the titanic to help when the icy Atlantic is starting to lap at the door to the Bridge.
You are on your own. Make the most of it.
In our case, we just started planting the 1/4 acre garden and finished the chicken coop for our 14 layers. Next is Beef.
Exactly. Conservatives have gotten in the habit of looking for someone 'from the government who is here to help'.
I don’t believe there will be a 2016 “election”. I see a different future and prepare for that one.
You never know. Personally, I believe we’re probably heading toward the end times——all bets are off, if that’s the case.
>> Are we ready to look for solutions rather than calling each other names? What do you all think?
Who are you accusing of name calling, “weasel breath”? :-)
My personal fave solution to the nation’s problems is right wing death squads, but I imagine that’s a non-starter with you namby-pamby civilized work-within-the-system types.
—You never know. Personally, I believe we’re probably heading toward the end times——all bets are off, if that’s the case.—
Me too. I hope not, for my children’s and grandchildren’s sake. But there is no solution to the current problem. The man is at the door. They can’t kick the can much further down the road.
We cannot win if we are fighting both the Republicans and the Democrats at the same time (as we are doing now).
First we have to beat the Republicans, then we can run real conservative candidates.
Nice thought, but how do you play chess with an opponent who only knows checkers? Clearly, rules have to be taught. And dey no likey rules. I don’t know of a way around this. Other than severe pain for the “aspiring” student. They have to want to learn the rules, which are a bit convoluted in chess for a brand new newbie who has never played. I think this is kind of a fundamental issue. Learning rules of a new game gets you no benefit for the effort, and you know you are going to get slaughtered the first 300 games you play after you learn the rules. So how do you get people who expect their stuff for free to subject themselves to that learning curve/loss curve? Except, as I said, by having it demonstrated to them that their current course is a near death experience.
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