Posted on 03/28/2009 10:53:58 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Fellow Conservatives,
I'll make this brief, so as not to use more bandwidth than necessary, so graciously provided by our most excellent hosts here at Free Republic.
The major part of conservatism's problems today is a lack of unity and organisation. We're in disarray. We get out-manoeuvred by the Obama ground game. They have 10 million names on call that can be text-messaged or emailed and given marching orders at a moment's notice, and we don't. They work together, even on the parts of their agenda that they don't individually care about, and we don't. We fragment. If it's not "our" issue, or if you deviate from "me" even one iota, then we split up and refuse to work together.
This is idiotic.
We all want to see conservatism resurge. We want to see this country return to the values and practices that made it great. It can. Other than in the area of theological eschatology, I don't believe in the "inevitability" of anything - especially in politics.
I propose that we FReepers start being the nucleus of an organised grassroots effort designed to unite conservatives, unite conservative groups, and unite conservative outlets to get us all on the same page. Unity in this is key. We need to reunite the Reagan coalition, which is still out there.
To this end, I propose that interested FReepers get together and really, seriously, committedly start to brainstorm ideas, and then put them into practice, as to how we can generate the sort of grassroots effort that will produce the results we want. We can no longer just care only about one particular social issue or one particular fiscal issue. We need to get it all together, on the same page, and this needs to be done yesterday!
I propose that conservative, liberty oriented groups work together with conservative elements in the GOP to regain control of this Party and use it as a vehicle to effect OUR change. The GOP already has the apparatus, the network, the organisation, and the national reach - let's take it back, and use it. Sure, the GOP is flawed - but fixing flaws is at the heart of America. Let's take it over and use it.
Please FReepmail me if you are interested in this proposal for conservative unity leading to conservative ACTION. Please FReepmail me if you're concerned about the direction this country is heading in, and you aren't willing to resign yourself to the "inevitable." Please FReepmail me if you think you have good ideas you'd like to bounce off other conservatives about how to do all of this.
Don't FReepmail me if you just want to be a splitter for some ego-trip, pissant third party. Don't FReepmail me if you'd rather just whine about past failures instead of looking forward to future successes. Don't FReepmail me if you're too lazy or too afraid to work hard for what you'd like to see happen in this country.
Conservatives, let's get serious.
mark
Your suggested approach is part of what got conservatives into their present situation in the first place.
Implementation is important. Small, limited government—and that *is* implementation right there—in accordance with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and other foundational U.S. social contracts is, and ought to be, the heart of the conservative movement. In more philosophical terms, small, limited government that protects the individual's God-given rights to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness...that's the real core of conservatism, that's the real "coherent, common set of principles" that conservatives ought to rally around.
Otherwise, all you've got is a bunch of folks who are willing to install their views on their country and their states, by any means necessary, including resorting to the machinations of Big Government, thereby creating a political machinery that can be later turned against them, and in service of a different yet contradictory set of views to their own.
Both parties have displayed a certain willingness (or, in the case of the Democratic Party, explicit desire) to resort to collectivist, Big Government principles in order to fulfill their own agendas. If you want to differentiate the conservative movement, and its primary, yet not only, political vehicle, the Republican Party, from the left-wing forces of evil, then you ought to take up the cross of small, limited, Constitutional government.
Earlier this year a Freeper told me about a new organization called The Nu List www.thenulist.com which seeks to organize support for local conservative candidates, and other levels of conservative candidates.
I have begun re-reading Atlas Shrugged and have Liberty and Tyranny on order. Great minds think alike.
I have been thinking like this for awhile. I've joined the Texas Chapter of We Surround Them and the 912 Project, have plans to attend a tax day Tea Party, and have raised awareness of everyone I can to pay attention to what we are losing with these losers. Beyond that I am open to suggestions.
The nulist.com sounds like a good start, check it out!
Perfectly stated. As long as this is the focus of our efforts the candidates will emerge.
I was talking about the leftists among us in the grassroots, some right here on this forum.
To me, the baseline principles around which we’re organizing are fairly obvious and not likely to cause much internecine bickering. Go back to Conscience of a Conservative by Goldwater or Reagan’s great 1964 speech or any number of Buckley tracts, etc. For a modern text, I bet Mark Levin’s new book will fill the bill nicely. Rush’s CPAC speech hit most of the points that really matter.
As for how we lost our way, I don’t think we did. I think W. got painted by the Left as a conservative and we ended up taking his lumps as if they were ours. I like W. and all, but when he called himself a “compassionate conservative” I understood I was being insulted. But I think every conservative should be allowed to leave the ranch and go wobbly on one issue and still be allowed to retain their conservative credentials. Tammy Bruce is pro-abort but I still love listening to her and agree with almost everything else she says.
Electoral politics ends up being a pragmatic exercise no matter how idelogical you are at the outset. I worked as part of team that converted Democrats to Reagan in 1980. We’d go into union, Dem households (in Pa. and Md.) and talk to people about meat and potatoes issues. You don’t get very far if you are iron-fisted about hundreds of issues.
The idea is: get a conservative nominated and go out and win. The conservative spoils will follow. Hell, Reagan took down the Soviets. If I had to bite my tongue a little on the abortion issue while sitting in a living room in Allentown to have helped make THAT happen....
Come over to www.the912project.com. We are trying to get things moving through there. It is rather new and looking for people to take the lead. someone trying to take back the GOP for conservatism would be supported well there.
I'm in. My stomach can't take much more of this hope and change, let alone my wallet and my desire for freedom from government intrusion.
We need to choose our battles.
I think the US CENSUS count is a good place to start.
Taking liberty to ping some folks from several ping lists to this thread.
Any ideas? comments welcome.
Unite and Organize under what? Not the Republican Party of today!
Republicans today behave as the Democrats of 30 years ago... and Democrats today sound like outright socialists!
America is off the rails folks! We need a serious change of course. Something like the fall of a major political party and a re-birth of true conservatism under a new party name and organization...
ping
Conservatives in general are not part of a "group". They identify themselves more by what they believe than what group(s) they join. They behave more like free-thinking, self-reliant individuals.
You will never get the conservatives to start acting like a "group" in the same way liberals do. It's just not in the conservative nature to put the "group" ahead of the individual.
I remember 1976 and campaigning for Reagan in the primary season and even after (during the ‘76 write-in campaign) .... we would often talk about a “new party.” But if we had gone that way, it would have eliminated any chance of winning in 1980 because a new party takes decades to create.
The weakness of the northeastern Republicans should not be seen as a problem. After all, they are weak. BEAT them at the polls. Plus, there are still a lot of Repubs like Michelle Bachmann and Bobby Jindal and Sarah who I want on my side.
I wouldn’t presume to know more than the best conservative Republicans know about winning elections.
You will never get the conservatives to start acting like a “group” in the same way liberals do. It’s just not in the conservative nature to put the “group” ahead of the individual.
Sad truth is, We are not as committed to our cause as liberals. They've captured the education system, the media, entertainment, and both political parties. They own the machine, We must take it back or Conservatism is dead.
I agree. Apathy keeps people from organizing and becoming aggressively vocal and taking action. Where does this conservative apathy come from? I think that if you can figure out the root of the apathy then the unity and organization will spontaneously grow.
Perhaps part of the problem is that many conservatives view the government - as run by socialist bureaucrats - as the problem and that by protesting and getting involved one becomes part of the “government is the answer crowd”. In other words by trying to reform government you are validating the “government is the answer” mentality and by not getting involved you are basically saying that government isn’t the answer. So in order to stay intellectually consistent one must be not engage.
While intellectual consistency is admirable it does not serve conservatives well in this instance. That contradiction is powerful.
I think the answer is to abandon the extreme version of the “government is the problem” position at least in a practical way. In order to regain control of the government, to purge the socialist elements from it and scale it back to it’s proper size one has to become part of the government. There is no way around this truth.
Maybe by embracing the concept of “proper government” this conservative apathy can be overcome.
IMO, the major part of conservatism's problems today is a lack of a message to unify around.
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