Posted on 05/10/2009 1:08:11 AM PDT by Ron C.
To add one final point: I attended the recent Free Republic Florida meeting and was impressed with the quality of the attendees as well grounded, dedicated people who compare favorably with the members of Republican executive committees. I am confident that the political talent here will be a major asset to the GOP and the conservative cause in the battles to come. I like the side I am on and I like my comrades in arms.
Don't read history much, do you?
Ping
Must have forgot his (/sarc) tag on this post.
Yes, I see why it’s in Activism. What I said was, it doesn’t belong in Breaking News, which is where I found it.
The problem with these graphs is that, in terms of the two-party system, the word “independent” has no real meaning. In the end, given the terminology of polling and pollsters, it’s just a way of dodging the issue. People say “I’m independent” as a way of saying nothing. Instead of presenting them with “nothing” as an alternative to something, the pollsters give them a way of saying nothing and then call it a “trend.”
In short, no matter what you or I might think, I promise you that most people who say “independent” have no clear idea of what they mean when they say it. In fact, they say it BECAUSE they are clueless.
If 0.01%of the energy wasted by listening to talk radio went into committee work with their opinions, it would make a far greater difference to the country than listening to pundits preaching to the choir.
I worked one election cycle for Goldwater and three election cycles for Reagan and I don’t remember any “committee work.” What is that?
Conservative talk show hosts have an important role and have been very persuasive. You or I might not need them, but as an alternative to the MSM and the Marxist education establishment, they are are particularly effective in giving younger listeners an opposing point of view to consider.
Conservatives by their very nature want to be left alone and have a let live attitude who view the unwashed radicals as quaint misguided poor souls who if they only knew the truth would come to their side. Bad mistake...... The left wants you dead, they want you property, your subservience and for you to validate their world view. if they can't convert you, they will kill you. That is why such affinity with radical Islam. Same modus operandi.
"The party," - all political parties are made up solely of elected and appointed members within each State of the Union, along with a few chartered party club members which are by charter are allowed to join the party, pay dues, and allowed to vote in state and local party business. In California, the most populous state, there are only about 3,000 dues-paying party members qualified to vote in party business meetings and in State Party Conventions. The huge majority of GOP members in every state are elected district party representatives in local district 'central committees' – aka, 'wards' in eastern states. Of course, any elected state GOP officeholder is a member, as are any alternates or those they are allowed to appoint as members of the state party. In smaller States, the number is much less. An average per state would be perhaps 1,000 party members in the more numerous smaller states.
Is it really possible to change the direction of the RNC, which appears to be more and more directing the party to Democrat-lite? It appears that they are just totally disconnected from us, but it seems you are saying that "they" (RNC people) are only in those positions of power because "we" (conservatives who vote but not necessarily involved in the local Republican party) have allowed them to get into power. I guess some of us maybe assume that they get into those high positions by being very wealthy or involved heavily in politics professionally?
I'm not totally understanding what you are talking about the "chartered" party club memebers. How does one get to be a "chartered" party member? I think the point is that you are showing that by getting involved in the local branch, that your vote at that level carried a lot more weight than in a general election so it pays to get involved there?
So where do we find out more about how the party is structured? Why are conservatives who do understand party political structure not doing more to educate other conservatives on places like FR, blogs, etc so that conservatives KNOW how to get involved and how it all works?For example, what if all the conservatives that are involved in the tea parties started attending their local Republican meetings, would it actually change things? Could they dump the RINO type RNC members and elect more conservative members to the RNC so that it would actually reflect our beliefs again? The tea parties are non partisan and just to raise awareness of conservative principles, but what if they were also used to educate everyday voters on how party politics works and encourage them on how to get involved? I'm just wondering why there aren't more posts like yours on FR. There are so many sharp people on FR who I'm sure faithfully vote and give to conservative causes, but who maybe are like us and don't know that getting involved in the party itself is actually available to us and that we can make a difference.
Well, thanks for this post, it is very helpful and sure is a lot to think about.
marker
I totally disagree, at least as far as the recent presidential election. The primary process as is currently configured completely disenfranchised ninetysix percent of the Republican electorate, by allowing four states representing approximately 3.5% of the US population to wipe out ALL conservatives from the primary process. After the first four states' primaries, only McCain, Huckabee, and Paul remained (Possibly Hunter, but he was a walking dead contestant) if I recall correctly. By the time TX got to vote, there was only McCain, Huck, and Paul. So NO, I DIDN'T ELECT THESE TURKEYS!
Groundhog day....all over again.
News/Activism is a forum on FR. Is your beef with FR? :)
Very easy to skip any post that you don’t want to read - right?
I totally agree that we should read the US Constitution and be very familiar with its elements and message. That will place us in front of 97% of the US public (unfortunately).
“Third - one thing needs to be understood clearly. Conservatives are extremely unlikely to ever prosper outside of the Republican Party. They must either fight to keep it pure (that is, socialism / socialist free) at the local level – or haul up the white flag of surrender. Third parties have done nothing to prosper conservatism, throughout this nation’s history. In fact, the few that have claimed conservatism (and largely aren’t) have repeatedly succeeded in doing nothing more than electing Democrats in the districts where third party candidates drew 1 to 2% of the vote – the margin by which the Democrat won. When any do gain office, they generally prove far less than conservative.
In fact the largest ‘third party’ vote ever recorded in US history was that of the ‘Progressive Party’ under Theodore Roosevelt, which drew 27.4% of the vote. But, note well - in the early 1900’s Democrats were the conservatives, while Republicans were the first to drift off into ‘progressive’ socialist politics. Unfortunately for us today, early 1900’s ‘progressive’ Republicans radically altered our political process, by co-opting political power to the top of the political ladder from the local level where it had resided for over 130 years. That single action helped send the party into the wilderness for near 50 years, and while it was there Democrats turned socialist and the Republican Party slowly became conservative.”
Rockingham: “Well reasoned. The GOP is the best available vehicle for conservative political activism. Whining and carping from the sidelines gains nothing.”
++++++++++++++
I see this debate from both sides. I understand the sentiments of Conservatives who have been LET DOWN and BETRAYED by the Republican establishment. Let’s not pretend that this hasn’t happened. As other posters have said, what are we Conservatives supposed to do at a state and leg. district level when our values are again and again kicked to the curb?
Ron, that is what your argument just does not address and must address if you want to win us over; win this debate. How would you speak to this glaring issue?
The message to you is we can force the Republican Party to acknowledge the Conservative power base. We can do it through a comprehensive approach to the primaries and general elections that includes indepedents and 3rd party candidates running against RINOs, while still supporting true Republican conservatives. If the R party continues to contend the Conservatives by putting RINO after RINO up - we’ll support the independents and 3rd party candidates - even if the R loses in the General election.
The Republicans WILL get the message.
I totally agree with you that history denies the pipe dream that we can kill off the Republican party and just magically put a Conservative party in her place. That will not happen and history speaks that lesson CLEARLY to all of us. Are we listening? The one time that an existing second party was replaced with another was when abolition was brewing enough to tear the country in two. Do we have a coalescing issue like aboltion to unite us? Perhaps. But do we have the passion and commitment of the abolitionists that brought Lincoln to the White House (although by less than 40% of the popular vote, recall!)? And if not - how in the world do we think we can displace the Republicans? And we know for a fact that there won’t be 4 candidates polling over 10% in 2012, as there was in 1860.
People need to quit calculating all the time and just do the right thing.
People act like God doesn't exist, and that He doesn't reward those who love and obey Him.
That kind of faith is what made this country possible and preserved it all this time. If our forebears had acted the way Republicans act now, this country would have been dead long ago.
Great Post!
Thank You!
Here is where I offer a different opinion. Talk radio is a commercial business. Just as a radio station attracts a certain audience by specializing in the type of music that audience wishes to hear, conservative talk radio is aimed at an audience that wants to hear conservative talk.
A classical music station will convert few followers of rap stars into opera lovers. Neither is conservative talk radio apt to convert many liberals into conservatives. Yes, it is good to have it out there, but its primary purpose is to sell advertising time to businesses whose target markets (White higher income men 35-55+) are apt to listen, not political wisdom.
Committee work Working for a specific political candidate is not necessarily the same thing as being involved in the work of a political party. Attend a local Republican Party committee meeting.
I just can't let this point go: Rush Limbaugh, today a staunch advocate of a sane immigration policy, spent years telling listeners that "Illegal immigration, was the sign of a healthy economy," or some such drivel, parroting the line of the National Chamber of Commerce.
The guy is great, OK? But we're in sad shape when we have to get what passes for political education from what is essentially an entertainment format.
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