I think the thread demonstrates the need for the party, both conservatives and otherwise, to get back to a party platform. The belief that politicians will protect our property rights or that a little bit of gun control is AOK is disturbing. The marking of ammunition that was mentioned (as a good thing, no less) is legislation introduced by Joe Dunn, one of your OC Commies.
The only way the party is going to gain is to expose the left for who they are and to educate the electorate as to what Rs stand for so they can see the difference. McClintock, Haynes, Devore, and others have written some informative articles to help educate. We need more! And we need campaigns to be informative and educational, not just soundbites and rhetoric.
But it all starts with the platform. I'll repeat from earlier in the thread:
How can grass-roots supporters go sell the party on Republicanism--take smaller government or fiscal conservatism, for example--when this party is spending more than any of their dem predecessors? IMO, it needs to start with the principles and the platform--not the "they can win" theory of candidate selection. Right now, I am hard pressed to explain to anyone why the Republican party is backing a big-spending, big-borrowing (read: taxes!), gun-grabbing, pro-GLBT, land-grabbing Governor who is forcing taxpayer/ratepayer subsidies of hydrogen highways, stemcell research, solar roofs, global warming, has appointed liberals statewide into key positions that will succeed his time in office, and made a huge number of liberal judicial appointments.
My idea of getting a bit toward what we would call dirty is not running fully to the right.
Look at what we have in the CA legislature and tell me how you think a bunch of conservatives could unseat a bunch of them.
I think this is war, and we are fighting a party that has bought the vote on their side.
I think we have to fight outside of our comfort zone and to then get voters to listen more and drag them to the right.
I think there needs to be at least a 4% shift in voting trends before you can run on a regular basis a very conservative candidate.
At the point there is a Republican/Conservative majority in the state Legislature, that is when you have a state ready to hear a conservative message.
At this time I think we do not have people in the state that would vote a super conservative person in unless they were famous like Reagan.
Sure I want the more conservative state, but my position is the reality of what is says there is no instant cure or candidates that can pull that off.
Meanwhile I say we in main elections put Republicans in and that we should not waste the vote on nonvoting or a pathetic third party. All that does is get Communist Democrats voting.
You want nonconservative? Look to those who on principles won't vote in 2006 or will waste the vote away from the Republican party. That would be your liberal in spades because actions speaks louder than words and those actions get Communist Democrats elected IMO.