To sell anything one must have a sales plan. I had always thought that the so-called conservative think tanks were out there to play that role. The “salesmen/women” for the plan was the RNC and the candidates it ran—I thought.
If anyone can explain exactly what these two entities have done with regard to the above I’d like to hear it.
So, if conservatives truly believe in their relevance they must be prepared to make the long term commitment necessary to achieve thier goals. The left has succeeded in getting a half black Marxist elected. That is a significant achievement and it didn’t happen by accident.
Essential to the success of the plan is education. Dems have had 30 to 40 years to propagandize our students from kindergarten through college. Presently, they’re pushing to extend that influence to day care. Republicans have been content to allow the dems this advantage. Heck, conservatives are not even permitted to speak on college campuses. Bottom line: Dem’s hard work finally paid off this election.
Of couse there is much more to it than just the two things I mentioned above—i.e. organization and education. But without them everything else is disjointed and wasted energy.
I’m so tired of the people who find all sorts of reasons to do nothing. After Republican political beatings there are always those of us who cry out for the creation of a new party. Each time we are shouted down and everything returns to the status quo. Result: Once again the GOP runs a RINO candidate and he gets slaughtered.
It would seem this time there is an opening for doing something different. Heck, if the Marxist Onada being elected president is not a wake up call I don’t know what is.
I would also point out the Bush ran as a conservative and got elected. Of course, he turned out to be something different and that is why is administration failed. I give him credit for taking it to the jihadis, but he quickly lost his way with the war on terror.
I give him credit for his two Supreme Court picks, but that achievement will be negated by at least two justices Obama will no doubt have an opportunity to choose. And I don’t expect the House and Senate RINOs to mount any serious opposition—even given the dems failure to achieve super-majorities.
Sadly, Bush’s seminal achievement may very well turn out to be killing conservatism. His face will be the face of conservatism for a long time to come. And it won’t matter on whit that he, in fact, was not conservative.
We can sit there and wring our hands and be defeated, or we can regroup.
Third parties don’t work as power blocks in the US. The best they do is generate ideas and concepts that the major parties adapt. Both major parties are coalitions of various groups who have to work together or none would have the power to get anything done.
This is a truth of American politics that cannot be denied.
We need to do several things. One is study how the other side did it from a techniques point of view, not throwing around the demonizing buzzwords that keep us from seeing how they did what they did. What they did was get a message out, get people enthused and willing to support it, and got their version of broken glass voters out and to the polls.
We can wring our hands and say our cause is dead, or take the goodness of our message, figure out how to reach people with it and win again.
We can suck lemons or do the lemonade bit.
We may have to think outside of the box. We may have to find different ways to appeal to people. But if our message is worthwhile, we can do it. Or we can choose to sit on our thumbs and whine how the other side is evil, and fade away.