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.
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.
The "dialog" was from Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes, by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein, New York: Penguin Books, 2008, p. 162f.
Information about the recent GOP rout in Colorado gleaned from "Rocky Ride," by Rob Witner, in National Review, March 23, 2009 issue. People, this is a must read. Here's a sampler:
Democratic success in Colorado can be traced to a few donors, advisors, and elected officials who in 2004 shared the belief that by uniting in purpose, they could overcome the 177,000-vote registration edge Republicans then enjoyed....There ya go — that's how "the pros" do it. :^)One of the first donors at the table was Tim Gill, the openly gay founder of software giant Quark, Inc. His interest in politics began in 1992, when 53.4 percent of Colorado's voters approved Amendment 2, a ballot measure excluding gays and lesbians from being protected by state anti-discrimination laws. "Nothing can compare to the psychological trauma of realizing that more than half the people in your state believe that you don't deserve equal rights," he said in a 2000 interview....
Seeking political counsel, Gill enlisted Ted Trimpa, an openly-gay lawyer with widely respected political skills....
Called "Colorado's answer to Karl Rove" by The Atlantic Monthly, Trimpa believes that to win, you must project strength. "You have to create an environment of fear and respect [Don Corleone, please call your office].... The only way to do that is to get aggressive and go out and actually beat them up [politically]. Sitting there crying and whining about being victims isn't going to get us equality. What is going to get us equality is fighting for it."
Gill connected with Al Yates, the recently retired president of Colorado State University and a prominent member of the black community. Yates was a trusted advisor to Pat Stryker, a billionaire heiress from Fort Collins.... Like Gill, Stryker had been a supporter of progressive causes....
Gill and Stryker then reached out to Jared Polis, a 29-year-old who had sold his family's on-line greeting-card company for $780 million in 1999, and Rutt Bridges, a former geophysicist who had made more than $30 million selling software to oil and gas companies.... they formed the "Gang of Four" — and became the first example of what progressives now call a structured donor alliance....
Working with Timpa and house majority leader Alice Madden, they met regularly at a roundtable where they identified vulnerable Republican legislative seats — and then designed strategies to pick them off. The group understood they could accomplish more if they agreed on a common goal: winning elections. Discussion of policy, or anything else that could divide the coalition or distract from its objective, was strictly verboten.
They also understood that campaign-finance reform had for all practical purposes killed political parties, leaving a vacuum that could be filled only by nonprofit entities.... The group capitalized on a key provision of post-campaign-finance-reform election law: While nonprofits were no longer allowed to coordinate their activities with candidates or political parties, they were perfectly free to coordinate amongst themselves.
And coordinate they did.
My blood boiled when I saw Gill's name on this. I've been a Quark XPress user for 20 years now, and it's time for an upgrade. But I'll tell you what — I think I'll pass on the upgrade this time out, and go with Adobe In-Design.
Gill is free to think and speak and act as he feels appropriate. So am I.
Hi, I just went back through my old Freepmail and the Freeper who mailed me about TheNuList.com was “baynative”. I checked that profile before replying to that first letter about TheNuList.com. Everything seemed AOK. I am a new member as of last November(although I read FR for many many years), and I am not familiar with that Freeper’s posts. It did initially occur to me that it could be a troll scam, but as far as I know it is on the up and up. I emailed the website TheNuList.com with local talk show hosts that may want to interview those starting TheNuList,and emailed them any good conservatives to support here. I got very fast and friendly replies to my emails and I am confident they are a legit conservative movement.
They’re east to spot. A troll is usually as obvious as a toilet seat in a rose garden. And so far as carrying tales back to their cronies — let them and be damned! It’s far too difficult to seal up every crack in the woodwork and a true Freeper would die rather than be in fear of them.
Palin is not near enough what we need. I like her and I admire her but we need someone massively dynamic and brilliant to turn this tide of Marxism around.
We are inside of their OODA Loop! Why does everyone assume that there will still be elections by 2012? And, even if there is,(for appearances sake only) it will mostly be controlled by “The Only Party”! I believe we need to move now. Lets get more State Sovereignty Initiatives going, based on the 10th. Let’s Secede, if we have to...we’re running out of time!!!
The excuse has always been conservatives have jobs and families and have no time to protest. We if we continue to sit and watch our country die we will have NOTHING left to work for . We need to take to the streets and get in peoples faces.
Seems to me we need a miracle before 2012 — we need one in 2010. It's hard to brake a runaway train....
I'll be looking to Sarah Palin for leadership throughout the next four years and beyond.
Meanwhile, there is that election in 2010 that we need to be focusing on. Hopefully, that will end up something like the Orkin Man coming to fumigate congresses at all levels — but particularly, those noxious infestations of termites that hang out at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and on Beacon Hill in Boston.
Term limits seems like a necessary item on the short list.
Term limits seems like a necessary item on the short list.
You are so right, Mountain Mary. Everyone should read “Atlas Shrugged” and Mark Levin’s new book which I haven’t.
I am reading “Atlas Shrugged” thanks to Freeper WayneH who offered his copy to anyone who would read it and pass it on. I was the lucky recipient and it’s a fabulous book with fully developed characters through dialogue and emotional descriptions. Ayn Rand was brillant. Anyone reading this book will not only recognize how the events from the story published in 1957 duplicate what we see now in Obama’s administration and the further left turn to socialism we are taking. You will also recognize the wimps, the non thinkers and the few courageous people you have met or know in business, politics, and education. So I carry my “Atlas Shrugged” around wherever I go and talk about it when I can and in an appropriate way. An amazing number of people will ask you what you are reading. My doctor has my promised copy and she promised to give it to someone else. I also mention the Tea Parties-Asheville is having one on April 15th as so many others wil occur then too. And the local people NEVER see, read, or hear of these events from the media. I also wrote my email group, conservatives as well as libs about the book and author and gave them the website fo Ayn Rand which is an AynRand.org, I believe. I’m not covering a lot of people but any of us doing that can increase the numbers we influence. It is also so exhilerating to be able to communicate these ideas and be enthusiastic about the so called fiction of Ayn Rand without being political. It is what it is and I am not one to find characters in fiction to be believable but these characters and events are.
Cordio
It is true that conservatives are hard working bunch with little time to devote to “community” and politics stuff, but if we do not do it, we are in danger of being overrun and our businesses and livelihood taken away by the commie hoodlums. So we need to strike the balance and those who made it, need to support and share some $ for the cause and survival, rather than let the Maddofs handle it.
Media have major role in brainwashing the sheeple. We need to influence dying MSM and get growing conservative talkers and Internet to get the message out, point out destructive direction of Obamabots and make lot of noise about it. Get your friends onto FR.
RATs stole the elections by energizing sheeple and cheating at the polls. Need to have our observers at the polling places and check who is voting (dead, illegals, multiple bussed “voters, etc.) making sure there is a paper trail and not just rigged computer voting machines.
Start grooming candidates for local and state offices that are patriots, no skeletons in the closets and dedicated to the cause.
Get organized around the strong leader and hit the next elections.
We need lawyer types to dig some stuff on RATs and go after them, just as they do unto us.
Anyone in the NY/NJ/PA area willing to get off their butts and to lead the conversion?
Yes, Leo; but probably just "seed money." Gill and his Gang of Four, as I understand it, didn't really have to rake over a whole lot of personal dough to pull off this coup. If I understand what Rob Witner was saying, they set up a multiplicity of "nonprofits" (usually single-issue groups — gay rights, Greens, pro-abortion, etc., etc.) which then began to receive donations from lots and lots of small contributors. Once they had the source of their slush funds in place, the Gang was able to coordinate the activities of these nonprofits, to ensure that they funded the non-GOP candidates....
What is disturbing is how the campaign-finance reform really did make political parties effectively obsolete, toothless, leaving a vacuum to be filled by "issue activists." McCain has a lot to be proud of there — Not!
I started by joining my local GOP chapter. I am disabled, but, I can sure as heck make phone calls and send emails. I just hope my participation at the local GOP level works UP to the strongest national GOP ops.
You could say the same for the left. Most of the people I know who vote for the Rats have NO IDEA what they are REALLY voting for. Ever notice how Rats run on as right-of-center moderates then govern as leftist shills?
No fear of trolls, Dionysius. We just need to be cautious..
do you think the present situation is comparable to 1976? Or, is it worse?
You just cannot get conservatives to rally around a “big tent” of disparate ideas as the liberals do. Conservatives are just too individual to make that happen.
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