Is Conservatism Dead?

The New American ^ | 2009-01-06 | Patrick Krey

[truth_seeker]

Your ideas sound great. A few other comments.

Reagan did it from within the GOP.

Gingrich did the Contract With America from within the GOP.

McCain won 19 of the 22 closed GOP primaries in 2008, and probably did as well or BETTER than any other candidate could have done.

(That was the result of the damage done to the GOP “brand” by Bush and by GOP scandals)

So for as much as the typical FR member may want hard line far to the right conservatism, it didn’t sell in the last election cycle.

Again, there are 535 separate elections, of which 3 apply to each voter.

Plus President/VP.

You can donate to and work for each in the primaries, without an intermediary “true conservative” organization.

But go ahead. Form a PAC online. Research what the dems did. Former candidate Howard Dean did a top flight job, heading the DNC and their 2006 and 2008 election efforts.

Research what Obama did. It was obviously effective, too. Apparently to this old guy, a lot of those successes was online.

I am not saying it is all online, but that is a major component.

McCain and the GOP did NOT have effective internet based activities. But apparently the “true conservatives” didn’t, either.

Unless of course Ron Paul is your preference. He attracts some younger, technology savvy followers. Learn from them.

I don’t personally get emotionally invested with candidates that cannot win. Therefore I didn’t and don’t spend my focus on the Duncan Hunters of this world.

I always focus on the best candidate with a realistic chance of going all the way.

Finally the GOP (and conservatism) cannot win as mainly southern white Christians. It needs greater depth and breadth. Just being more hard core “true conservative,” is not the formula to win, IMO.

Some of the appeal of Obama was age/image. But another aspect was the positive attitude.

Reagan had that same appeal, to the positive. (Yes, that is right. I AM making a comparison about what was the appeal; what the average votEr liked about the men.)

All of it is for nothing, if there is not a good amount of $money$ raised to distribute. It takes visibility, name recognition, trust to do that.

You probably need a national figure—that is not polarizing. (Fred Thompson—yes. Dr. James Dobson—no.)