Lets do this right and set the political landscape on its head. Just one more note, a radically conservative candidate would have little chance of creating enough interest. It would have to be someone who is moderate and open to any view no matter what side of the political environment. That is a position for which I strive and I have changed some of my ideas as a result of debates here on FR. Check my bio. If you are interested, pass the word and let the debates begin - well, as soon as I get back to California would be good, but whenever.
The other issue with this idea is that the 2 major parties use emotion and lowest common denominator marketing to sell ideas they will never implement. In our dumbed down society this works for those with a 30 second attention span. The arguments we as conservatives make are intellectually based and require people to shelve their emotional attachments and study. The commies in both parties have seen to it that the voting public won't want to invest that much brain power, it's easier to vote for the pretty candidate. This may get people riled but that is why the GOP focuses on the "evangelical" issues and voters. They are swayed by the highly emotionally charged issues like abortion and gay marriage and the like., These are issues the gov't should not be involved in. I want the limited gov't envisioned by Jefferson. Low taxes, almost no federal intervention in issues like education and energy. I want a President who will push his ideas and if congress balks then veto their bills. If nothing gets done, FINE! I want a gov't that fights wars when needed and fights to win, cost be damned. Our enemies should have the smell of our powder in their nose when we are done. I want a president to actually cust spending, not reduce the projected growth but to carve out the waste and reduce the levels of gov't spending. I would love to run but I fear I am just too annoying to get elected. Besides, I have a real job I can't just blow it off to run.
'Triangulation' is the act of a candidate presenting his or her ideology as being "above" and "between" the left and right sides of the political spectrum. A related term is third way politics.
The GOP have taken 'triangulation' to a new level, which I call 'strangulation'.
'Strangulation' is the act of a GOP candidate presenting his or her idealogy as being "abhorrent" and "baffling" to the right side of the political spectrum. A related term is RINO politics.
One last point, if we can't get a candidate I would love to see a huge conservative rally in DC while congress is in session. Libs can mobilize the rent-a-mobs at a moments notice. Imagine 1 or 2 million conservatives encircling the Capitol while the dunderheads are in session. let them try to ignore us. Better yet during a state of the union address. It might get somebody's attention
lol, sounds like a post you would read on DU
Bump
Lincoln - Douglas Debates of 1858
The debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were held during the 1858 campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois. The debates were held at 7 sites throughout Illinois, one in each of the 7 Congressional Districts [ Map of Congresstional Districts]. Douglas, a Democrat, was the incumbent Senator, having been elected in 1847. He had chaired the Senate Committee on Territories. He helped enact the Compromise of 1850. Douglas then was a proponent of Popular Sovereignty, and was responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The legislation led to the violence in Kansas, hence the name "Bleeding Kansas". Lincoln was a relative unknown at the beginning of the debates. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew the attention of the entire nation. Although Lincoln would lose the Senate race in 1858, he would beat Douglas out in the 1860 race for the US Presidency. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were re-enacted in the Fall of 1994 with live coverage by CSPAN.
List of Debates
- Washington Square, Ottawa, Illinois Freeport, Illinois. Over 15,000 people attended the original debate in Freeport, then a town of 5,000. Freeport Doctrine, which was the result of the debate, states people had the right to choose whether or not to exclude slavery from their limits.
- Union County Fairgrounds, Jonesboro, Illinois Union County Fairgrounds is today part of Shawnee National Forest's Lincoln Park) Union County is south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The debate subject split families into Confederate & Union factions. Over 50 cemeteries throughout Union County tell of many who lost their lives in the War Between the States
- Coles County Fairgrounds, Charleston, Illinois This was area was very familiar to Lincoln. Lincoln's father had lived and died here. Lincoln's stepmother & many relatives & friends lived here too. Lincoln had a thriving law practice in the community. A majority of the townspeople had come from Kentucky and Tennessee, moving north to avoid competition with slave labor. Most were poor and believed they had no chance to win out in the competition with slave labor.
- Old Main, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois The east side on East South St. between Cedar and South Cherry Streets was the site of the original debate. This location has the only currently remain structure from the original debates. [Photo of Old Main]
- Washington Park, Quincy, Illinois
- Broadway & Market Streets, Alton, Illinois
Remember the Terri Shiavo wars here on FR? Many here were at polar opposites, with those who understood the concept of federalism countering those of the RR who believed that death threats, flag desecration and getting children arrested were valid tools to use to get their points across.
Have you been on a 2d Amendment thread? There are those here who believe the militia movement is the only thing that can save this Nation, and believe firmly that every type of weapon including nuclear arms is the God-given right of every American.
Have you seen the homosexual threads? There are those here who would completely outlaw homosexuality in the Country if they had their way, while most Freepers take a more balanced approach even though they don't personally like homosexuality.
I'm sure you've seen the tax protester threads here over the past years. No one likes paying taxes, nor do many Freepers care for some of the programs using our tax dollars, but they pay their taxes.
It goes on and on. Some here would outlaw the teaching of evolution. Others would rescind all smoking bans and laws. Still others would place the Ten Commandments at every intersection and building in the Country. Mitt Romney will have a tough time because of quite a few here on FR. It goes on with prayer in schools, stem-cell research, even abortion policy is not agreed on here. Anyone who is not a card carrying member of the RR is a Rino.
There is no agenda, or platform that could get Free Republic members to agree on...any more than the rest of the Republican Party. Free Republic does reflect the vast differences that exist today even among those who believe they represent conservatism.
No third party will ever accomplish any more than putting the wrong candidate in office, because no third party effort has the patience to begin at the grass roots and work upward. There is too much money involved in the two party system, and it would literally take several hundred million dollars to compete effectively.
Count me in.
There never is a "right time" to take action to change things that you deem wrong. There is also never a "wrong time" to act, even if you deem it too late. The point is, that people must take action to make changes that affect other impassioned ideals.
There are a lot of people who post on this website and many more who read it daily and do agree with the content. There would be more people willing to spread the word if some folks decide to move forward.
BRILLIANT ACTUALLY... diabolical but brilliant..
ALL thats left are either craven cowards(all mouth) or stuck on stupid..
Many of us live here in Kalifornia. Maybe, if we can show conservative progress here, it will spread across the country, just as the wacky enviroideas have.
100% waste of time.
If you want to be relevant you must step into the existing relevant political party.
Right now that is the republican party.
A FR party is a futile and delusional effort. Now make a FR caucus in the Republican party then you have something. However again you risk being marginalized.
Martinez is a perfect example of preventable incompetence.
"It would have to be someone who is moderate and open to any view no matter what side of the political environment"
Why bother, we already have McCain, Rudy,Romney,Gingrich, I'd say there are too many moderates already.
The Republican Party still holds some semblence of an organization which shares our conservative values. The Party Platform demonstrates this. The make up of the grassroots members of the Party show this also.
So, why is the GOP not working towards the more conservative goals contained in its platform and shared by its low level members? That is because the leadership of the party ignore the Platform and the wishes of its members and are working for on a completely different set of goals and ideals. They have a different agenda entirely.
The GOP is still the best vehicle for meeting our conservative goals. The party is already established, the fund raising and campaigning appratus is in place, and the a great deal of its grassroots members are conservative. So, how do we fix the problem with the leadership?
We still need to work within the system but we need to do a better job of it and use the Internet (as you suggested) to become better organized.
First, each and every person who shares our conservative ideas here should become a Republican Precinct Committeman. Right now is the time to find out how to do that in your district or precinct so that you're ready in 2008 (the next election) to get elected to PC. If you're lucky, a PC slot in your precinct is vacant and you may be able to just get appointed to it. However, depending upon the Republican Party bylaws in your area, you won't be a voting PC until you actually get elected. But, even so, you can still attend the party meetings, make your voice heard (carefully until you get elected) and start to learn how things work in your county and state parties.
You also need to be recruiting like-minded PCs. A good place to do this is in some of the more conservative-minded churches. Many churches encourage their members to get involved in civics in order to fight the evil that pervades our society (abortion, promiscuity, gay marriage, Hollywood obscenity, attacks on Christianity in the public square, etc). But the members really don't know where to start. If you can get a Pastor, Priest or whomever is in charge to let you come in and do some voter registration and PC recruitment, that's where you start. Now, when you're doing this you have to also, by law, sign up Democrats and such. But that's not as big of a problem as you may first think.
If you've selected the church carefully, you already know that most of the members who register to vote are going to be somewhat conservative and want to register Republican and will make good Republican PCs. Those who register Democrat and to whom you give info and they end up as Democrat PCs will likely, after a short time, become disgusted with what they see the Democrats doing. The Dems radical pro-abort, pro-gay agenda, etc. stuff the Dems will be talking about and doing will cause the faithful church-goers to turn away and possibly switch parties. At the very least, the church-goer will be a moderating voice in local Dem politics and that's not such a bad thing either. But these will be a minority of what you get if you learn how to do this right.
To properly recruit the PCs from those you're talking to and registering is to have a map of all the precincts in your county. You also need a list of the precincts showing the PCs in each and the vacancies highlighted. It also should help to have the liberal RINO PCs you want out of their position highlighted so that you can target them. If you become a PC or just start attending all of the Republican meetings in your area, you'll soon learn who the liberal RINOs are and who you need to target to eliminate the liberals and pack the party with conservatives.
This is not a quick process and will likely take years of work. In my county, we've pushed out most of the liberal RINO PCs but we're a rural county which gets pushed around by the larger, metropolitan area counties. Most of the rural counties in my state have conservative majorities in party positions but the metro counties have a bunch of liberal RINOs. It makes for some interesting state GOP conventions but the conservatives have lately been getting some of their people elected at state level in the party despite the efforts of the better financed RINOs.
Which leads me to the next step. You will need to organize your recruited PCs. You need to keep them informed along with all of the other conservative PCs that you've found that are already in place. Keep them informed about county politics and what is going on and when to show up to vote for what. Vote as a block. Use the Internet to get the word out about upcoming meetings and what the conservatives are planning. Sponsor resolutions that the conservatives are ready to vote as a block to pass. When you get enough conservatives, and you find a worthy conservative candidate for county party chairman, then you get him voted into office.
Remember, there are two types of PCs. Those who get involved and those who just vote at mandatory meetings. You can save the vote-only PCs a lot of trouble by offering to carry their proxy so they don't even have to show up. Get your other conservative PCs to gather proxies too.
Be ready, however, for the liberal RINOs to pull out all the stops, spend a bunch of money, and fling all kinds of dung at your guy. That's what they do when they're challenged. They'll start whisper campaigns, spread rumors, etc. Be ready for that. Counter it by keeping in constant touch with your conservative PCs, keeping good relations with the PCs that fall in the middle, and being the best at getting info out to everyone. A website, a good mailing list (email and snail mail) and some money are how to do this.
Money. Yes, that's a problem. You'll have to figure out some ways to get that. But a website and email and other Internet means of communication are free or dirt cheap. Snail mail is a different issue and printing costs for professional looking literature can become prohibitive. You'll have to be creative in legally obtaining funds. You could start a conservative club and hold fundraisers. You could find a wealthy conservative who would be willing to pay some of the costs. If something gets organized nationally or at a state level, this could become easier.
Next comes the state conventions. This is where the state party leadership is elected. You need to make sure that all of your conservative PCs are signed up as or elected as delegates to the state convention. You all show up to vote as a block and carry as many proxies as you can get for those who are elected but don't want to attend.
Now, you've got a little power. If you've got the county chairman, he's likely got a seat on the state party's executive committee. Get him working with the other conservative county leaders to make changes at that level. If you can get enough counties to emulate what you've been doing in your county, you'll have enough votes at state convention time to make a difference.
At the state convention you can vote for the conservative resolution and get conservatives elected as state chairman. It is critical that you elect a conservative national committeeman. He is your state representative to the Republican National Committee. It is the national committeeman who get together and vote on the chairman of the RNC.
A "Revolution" is for the impatient and it will fail. A third party is not a good idea, not practical, etc. We have to get organized within the Republican Party and boot out the liberals who have taken over the leadership of the party. We need to organize this on a national level (tracking our progress in each individual county and state and coordinating and fundraising) on a mission-oriented forum and website.
I'd flesh this idea out some more, but I've got to get ready and go to church. There is an organization in my state that is essentially doing what I stated here and had some success. Randy Pullen is the result of this. He was elected as national committeeman 2 years ago, has been making waves at the national level, and is about to be elected state chairman. The biggest county party in my state now is dominated by conservatives and recently made news by voting John McCain as the most undesirable Republican presidential candidate and Duncan Hunter as the favorite. Last year, they voted to censure John McCain.
We need to emulate what they're doing and do it nationally. Let's get started. If Jim Robinson is willing, we could do it here. But we have to be able to keep the liberals and RINO disruptors away from what we're doing. They've done enough damage to the party and the nation, we don't need them sabotaging our efforts.
Yep--the time HAS come--1984 HAS also come....AND GONE--so what?????