It will take a grassroots effort and a willingness to accept a baseline of agenda items and not quibble at the margin to organize the conservatives at this point.
I campaigned for Goldwater and Reagan in my time and you don’t win by demanding that everyone be conservative in every way on a checklist that is hundreds of items long.
The best way to accomplish all this is to rally around a specific candidate who can carry the day. To me, right now, that candidate is Sarah Palin. She might not be the most conservative or the most brainy or the most this or the most that but, let’s face it, she flat out rocks.
Center the effort around Palin. As daunting as the task of uprooting the Marxist incumbents might be, she could be the one person to pull off a miracle in 2012. And we need a miracle.
I agree. That's what seems to fracture FReepers, however.
I've seen it - two people who are both pro-life, but will roundly condemn each other as "RINOs" because the one wants to use federalism to end abortion, but the other thinks it's either go all out for a Human Life Amendment, or nothing. Likewise, two people, both of whom want America economically strong, but the one supports free trade, and the other wants some protections on manufacturing base - each accusing each other of being dirty, charging RINOs.
This junk's got to stop.
We conservatives can have all the arguments about the particulars of policy implementation....AFTER we're in a position to make policy in the first place. Until then, let's organise around a coherent, common sense set of principles and get busy winning America back for conservatism!
PaleoBob may have a point. It’s great to rally around a name/symbol/flag. It certainly helps. Yet this alone could be divisive and if something unforeseen about the candidate crops up the movement may take a tumble. Just as the netroots and Obamots had an issue [Iraq War] and Bush, we have our own issues too on which we could coalesce.
Think B. Hussein O, the Expansion of Government, National Security, and Abortion. These are defining issues. We don’t need a long list. Hussein is in a diametrically opposite corner to all these issues on which FReeper approval is unanimous. This helps us to weed out the RINOs and CINOs.
Thus Palin will fit this bill but there may be others too (Jindal?)
Any consensus here on this?
I’ve been thinking along the same lines. I would happily rally around Palin, but the MSM is already far along in demonizing her. We also need some basic concepts to get people understanding how dangerous gov’t is - whether far left or far right. About the only thing I can see that would have far reaching appeal is FREEDOM. We need that as the central tenet. It naturally leads to self-reliance. We must get back to limited gov’t interference in our lives.
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!!!
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.