Wrong. FR has ALWAYS been marginalized. It is too grass roots for the RNC, a Tory elitist, financialists, hereditary organization that at it best disdains working class conservatives in the millions, small business in the hundred of thousands with their petty gripes. We have done nothing for the RNC and the Republican party save raise money, voters and issues in local and national media. With zero thanks. FR was near neigh responsible for bringing down Dan Rather and many other successful illuminations of MSM lies, distortions and out right daily sloppiness. Something that the billions of dollars spent by the RNC could never do. (Of course it is hard to be taken seriously when you wear an ascot in the shower.)
Anyways, we don't need the RNC, the Republican party anyways. Real politics is in the street, at the one to one level. Elitists of all stripes that think productive citizens are some sort of resource cattle to be mobilized in some lame campaign by one of their overpaid hack friends with a 'consulting' business, haven't a clue. Internet and talk radio is the reality. Politics shuffles along in the dust of our passions and ideas.
What you said!
Would the RNC lawyers have had a chance in the court during the 2000 elections if it weren’t for the few (relative to what the DNC can bus in) but voriciously dedicated FReepers and like minded protestors who got in the face of the Palm Beach vote “counters.”
And what of the recent immigration bill failure? FR rallied the troops along with talk radio like Mark Levin. The bill died over the consternation of President Bush and RINOs like Trent Lott.
Of course we’re unappreciated by the powers that be. I don’t want FR to be loved by the RNC and RINOs. I want it to be feared!
That's a mystification, and wrong. The Republican Party is a confederational, not a Leninist, party. There are rip-snorting battles for control among various factions all the time at the county level and periodically at the state level.
The RNC itself, however, is simply a confederation of the state parties. There are 165 members: a national committeman, national committeewoman, and a state chairman from each of the States, the territories, and D.C. You want to be on the RNC? Go ahead: get active in local GOP politics and run for national committeman or state chairman. Nobody from D.C. is going to annoint you.
The full RNC meets a couple of times a year. It elects a Chairman and an executive committee to hire the staff and run the day-to-day business. Its unending mission is to raise money to help Republicans beat Democrats. Its other great continuing mission is to organize the Republican National Convention, which is the ultimate governing body of the Party. It is the Convention, not the RNC, that establishes the rules of the national Party. The RNC itself is a creation of the Convention.
You want to reform the rules and mission of the RNC? Easy enough, in theory. Get yourself elected as a delegate to the National Convention. This is usually done in your local Republican primary or at the state convention, if you're in a convention state. It's not that hard if you've got serious grassroots credentials at the local and state level. The number of delegates varies by state, but there's quite a crowd. There's usually an "official" slate put together by the state committee, but insurgents can and do get elected. Takes a little work, though.
If there are any past or present county chairmen on this thread, I'd invite you to weigh in. My point is simply that power flows from the grassroots up. That can make for a long slog to the top -- we don't have hereditary peerages like the democrats, with a lot of appointed or ex officio delegates.
To some extent, the set of conservative sites on the Net can serve as a "shadow RNC", and to an extent supplant it (which has the elites worried).
What is the RNC at its essence? It is an organization which sets the tone of what the Republican party as a whole should be, and enforces its position by its ability to grant or withhold support, recognition, and soft money funding to individual candidates
Well, what is FR doing? We let people know about the strengths and weaknesses of candidates, and allow people to make informed judgments on who to send their money to. The net result is to diminish the power of the RNC (and the elites that control it) over the party. If a candidate, detested by the elites for his positions, can secure campaign funding without support from the elites, then that strips the elites of power.
The solution to elite control is to never send money to the RNC. Always send money to individual candidates that you admire. And mention in the letter that you made your decision to send money from what you heard about them on FR
Spot On!
I hope you get the Post Of The Day Award.
NO2