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people need to get off their buts and DO Something to help the party get back to its foundations

I think that in turn comes back to the voters. In the end, "the party" is just a bunch of people trying to get elected. The reason there are so many RINOs is that there are so many people who vote for RINOs.

I believe that we are winning this struggle, but it is a long, slow process. It is essentially a struggle against a media establishment that has chosen to become the propaganda arm of our political opponents. From Global Warming to Tailwind to feminist claptrap, all that most people have heard for many decades is the liberal spin on events. That is now starting to change... partly because of the Internet, and partly because of Rush Limbaugh -- whose success demonstrated to Rupert Murdoch that there was a huge unserved market out there that could be as easily tapped via television as by radio. That gave us Fox News, whose roaring ratings success is finally causing the ground to crack around the leftist media monolith that for too long controlled almost everything people read or heard in this country.

I think half the battle is just having media outlets of size with which to get our side of the story out. Conservatives have not had that. The Internet has turned out to be a big surprise in this area... it's a much more influential medium than people saw coming, and we here at Free Republic have been a big part of that. People rant about "keyboard cowboys" not doing anything, but I think that except for our serious kookburgers, we provide a reasonable place where people on the fence can hear a side to stories that they're not going to get from their AP-supplied newspaper, and certainly not from Dan Rather and his ilk. I think this has value.

To me, a big part of "getting the party back to its foundations" is continuing to pound away at the voters... giving them a side to the news that they haven't heard -- and won't hear -- from the Press Democrat. My belief is that half of the population is fundamentally, natively hard-wired to accept conservative politics if they hear it well-articulated. For many years they had not. But now we, right here on FR, can participate in the media revolution that is finally giving conservative politics a voice that can be heard. Let the CNN's and the ABC's continue to stack their news shows with Clinton cronies and DNC hacks; they are no longer the only game in town, and they can no longer do these things without suffering for it. Let's help them suffer.

Where the voters go, the party will go. My suspicion is that most of the people who vote for RINOs are native, hard-wired conservatives who vote the way they do because they live in a sea of liberal media; they are as far to the right as a liberal media ever articulates. Bring them less liberal media, and they will move right. Let them hear conservative policies described as something other than the heartless throwing of widows and orphans into the street, and they will vote for these policies.

Move the RINOs and we move the party. I really think it's that simple.

Let them hear conservative policies described as something other than the heartless throwing of widows and orphans into the street, and they will vote for these policies.

To me, this is one of the most critical jobs an office holder or political candidate has. Newt was amazing at this. Yes our conservative office holders need to legislate, but they needs to lead also. You lead by championing your ideas. You lead by explaining to people why lowering taxes is good for them. You explain why allowing states to control more of the school debate is good for them. You basicly lead them through the issues so that they have a better understanding. Then at election time, you run on your core values.

To my way of thinking, we are selling ourselves and our values short if we do not run on them. If we don't tell people what and why we stand for things, who else will? That's why I am very leary of Republicans who taylor their campaigns to what they think the people want to hear. If we don't express our beliefs and explain why, those beliefs evaporate from the public arena never to be supported openly to those who haven't heard of them, or had them explained to them.

Personally I believe this is a major reason why we move slowly leftward all the time. If our ideas are not championed, what else could happen but this? It also leads to a less informed group of people who back you. And if they are not brought up to speed on important issues, they too will waver or slip away from conservative core values. With appologies to some, I feel that we see that very thing happening to some degree.

Let them hear conservative policies described as something other than the heartless throwing of widows and orphans into the street, and they will vote for these policies.

Good point. For example, there is a bold and sassy conservative contingent right here at FR that daily champions dope, porn, and the gay and lesbian lifestyles as keystone conservative policies for a new, revitalized America.

Given how much wonderful cost-free freedom and miraculous prosperity these new conservatives stand ready to deliver to the families of America, it astounding they don't already run the country.