And yet, for the movement to succeed, it will require a larger and more coherent organization that will attract a greater number of citizens, and act both as a magnet and as a clearing house for ideas, strategies and tactics.
In the past, the Republican Party would have served this role, but has presently abdicated its former influence in pursuit of a disastrous, rootless, value-free centrism. And in this respect, what the GOP requires is not "rebranding" - as though it were a commodity to be marketed like washing machines and cell phone providers.
What the party does need is a renewal. The GOP's rebirth will herald itself only by a conscious decision to once again promote a coherent set of core ideas, and - this is equally crucial - to declaim others. This means deciding that some things are right and some are wrong, that some things work and others do not, and choosing to accept the consequences of that decision. It means no longer trying to be all things to all people and winding up being nothing to no one.
A large segment of the American people are crying out for such leadership today, and finding none. The world of our childhoods and own dreams is slipping from our grasp, sinking beneath a sea of taxes, red ink, regulation, and government-approved social decay.
In this hour, a New Traditionalism waits to be born. Who among us will lead the charge?
I think at this point we need ten thousand leaders. We need to articulate to our family, friends and neighbors just what is in store if they do nothing - and basic steps that learn from the past mistakes of the left AND the right. And to develop basic policy concepts to stabilize the private-sector middle class, such as shrinking government jobs, encouraging entreprenuership while still providing needed regulation for the financial masters of the universe that helped dig this hole we are currently in - while avoiding pie-in-the-sky platitudes - that it will take a lot of hard work to reverse the current course of events.
A LOT of people sense what is going on but don't follow politics and economics enough to start to grasp the next steps. And it HAS to focus on preserving the middle class - a coalition of conservatives and Blue Dog dems and small-'l' libertarians, IMO, can find enough common ground over middle-class issues to form the critical mass for an electoral majority.
Once the movement gets started, it will attract those with political skills and ambitions, as all grassroots movements do. The trick will be to steer them, and not let them hijack us.