Howdy everyone! I’m baack. To answer some questions, first, no regional FR meetings have been scheduled yet. I think there should be several regional meetings, culminating in a national convention in DC.
Where and when the meetings are held will be up to the members involved. Looking at where our members are located, I would think we should have regional meetings in at least Northern and Southern CA, possibly one in Seattle, two in Texas, perhaps Dallas and Houston, one or two in Florida, one in New York, One in Denver, one in Missouri, maybe one in Chicago. In fact, I’d like to see meetings anywhere we can get a group of a hundred or more FReepers together and then each group can send two to four (or more depending on number of members they represent) delegates to a national convention in DC.
Anyone who wants to can go to the DC convention and join the debates, but the official delegates will be the ones voting on issues brought before the convention.
If we form a PAC, it would be separate from FR. Again, anyone can become a member, but there should be certain requirements met to become voting members. As it would be a separate entity from FR, I may not have much say, but I’d like it to be a strictly conservative PAC. That is, 100% in defense of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, free enterprise, capitalism, national sovereignty, traditional values, and individual rights, etc, including the rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness and in defense of the Bill of Rights including free speech, freedom of religion, rights to keep and bear arms, rights to self-defense, property rights, individual rights, federalism, limited government, self-government, etc.
There should be specific issues defined and prerequisites and qualifications set forth before any candidate receives support from the PAC. We’ll have to strictly follow all laws governing PACS, etc, but I would think a formula could be developed giving individual donors rights to vote (perhaps based on the amount of their contributions) on the rules of the PAC and to whom and how any PAC funds are disbursed and or any candidate is officially supported or opposed.
Or it may be that we can also hold local meetings anywhere we can get 25 or more members together. If possible, there can be one delegate per 25 members going to the DC convention. I’d like to see an effort to rebuild our local chapter efforts and have a chapter in each and every congressional district. I also think it would be a good idea to get local members elected to local Republican groups so conservatives can have more of a voice in local elections.
Jim, IMO - this one right here might prevent you from getting 100%. I've found that a large percentage of people here at FR oppose abortion (I am one); however this is on the opposite end of the spectrum from individual rights (which is not dictated by others).
p.s. I'm interested in your idea but will wait to know more. I agree in principle to some of the other ideas here about combining our resources with a like-group already in existence so that we make a bigger entity than is currently out there. It will be interesting to see what the final entity looks like.
Oh, IMO, one of the biggest changes we need to make on the Hill is to get rid of most of the lawyers and put in some business people.