The Doldrums During Fighting

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 24th, 2009 at 06:00 PM |

RESIZE: AAA

I’ve been in a funk these past couple of weeks. RedState is in my full time job and sometimes the behind the scenes goings on keep me from writing. Inevitably, as well, I also get something akin to writer’s block, though it is more like writer’s cramp — stretching out my fingers on the keyboard generally gets the cramp gone. But it also takes some time, made more crazy by a hectic travel schedule, a wife, kids, side obligations, etc.

There’s something more though.

I am a bit overwhelmed. I suspect many of you are too. The information is coming fast and furious, the GOP has yet to get back in the game with a full swing, socialism is creeping upon us, and many of my friends around me have decided the best course of action is to put their heads in the sand and hope for the best. The default is to shift into the doldrums in the middle of the fight.

We can’t. Freedom depends on our sweat equity.

Let’s be clear: we are being run into the ground by a group of leftists, half of whom are incompetent and the other half hate America. Between the incompetence and the hatred toward our way of life, it’s a lot to take in. Take it in we must. Digest it we will.

The fight goes on. The GOP seems to be getting its act together. I maintain that Obama is giving us a lot of material to work with. The idea that, as Abe Lincoln said, “every man can make himself” in this country resonates with people. It really does. It is why so many people seek out this country. Obama’s policies, unless we work like mad to make sure he fails, will destroy the ability of every man to make himself.

The GOP can and should be the part of choice and opportunity for every man to make himself. The message of limited government and liberty resonates with a people intent on making their own way in life. Any person who has ever tried to start up a small business knows the pain and frustration of dealing with the red taped hand of government. The GOP — and we — must stand with those people.

We need to get out of the doldrums, stay on task, and fight. And throughout it all, we must be happy warriors until the end. If you have not read Hogan’s post you need to.

Now,. who’s with me?

Tags: Barack Obama, The Advance of Socialism

COMMENTS

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citizenfx

I have been working relentlessly since last june to avoid the Socialist CREEPy that is BO. I am an economist. I don’t believe most people understand the troubled waters we will be in for the next 20 years if something miraculous doesn’t happen soon!! I believe BO is purposely bankrupting this country so Capitalism will never have a chance to re-live in the world again.

But I am perplexed. I am reminded of the 300 army in Athenian times that took on the Goliath in the Persian military and held its own quite well. All the while every Politician failed to see the threat that was at its doorstep.

We as the Army are doing an amazing job for what we have to work with.

BUT WHY IN GOD’S NAME, can we not get a GOP leader to get loud and sound the alarm on a daily basis of the threats that are coming. When these things come true, (which they will) this leader will look like an Angel sent down from heaven.

WHAT ARE THESE GUYS SO AFRAID OF? Is it racism, or do they just lack any kind of cojones and none of them should be our leaders anyway.

IT SEEMS SO EASY TO ME. They just need to speak the truth and their honesty will shine through. It needs not to be complex, It just needs to be real. I.e “O said that he would leave drilling on the table during the election, he lied, signed an executive order banning all domestic oil drilling. Your gasoline costs are going to go back up soon. That is all i have for today.” Your GOP leader

I saw this honesty and courage early in Sarah Palin and still believe she could be the one, but this army needs to cry out for her or anyone soon.

SO I AM CRYING OUT TO YOU ERICK! This soldier will do what he can to hold off this evil creep, but i don’t have the tools that you do. Please, for the love of GOD, try to get one of our elected officials on board to be, VOCAL, ALIVE, HONEST AND AVAILABLE TO our cause soon. They should not be afraid to do any of this. If they are. They are weak to begin with. When they are ready, we can get the money, the media exposure, the army re-energized and maybe we will be able to survive this.

I need to remind all of you of what I am seeing from an Economic standpoint. The destruction is happening at a rapid pace. The Great Depression happened from 1933 on when most of the wealth in the country was wiped out. It was because the policy inaction took too long. We are going into that same phase now and the Democrats look at this as their Golden opportunity.

Once Again, HELP, HELP, HELP!! I love this country too much to see all of us go down this unnecessary road.

FIND SOMEBODY SOON, or I believe we might be doomed.
bpaasch

but does America really want to survive? It is my understanding that our founding patriots were outnumbered by the loyalists to the king, but if a majority of my fellow Americans really want to kill our country…. the odds seem very long against us defenders of freedom.
Brian Hibbert

Talking here gives us ideas and people who share a common ideology to talk with, but it doesn’t really change anything.

If you want things to change, SOMEONE is going to have to get out and talk to your neighbors and there isn’t anyone else doing it. Get them involved. Ask them what THEY want the government to be (and steer them towards conservatism if you can). Get them to call your local elected officials about the tax increases their local Democrats are pushing. Get them to call their congressman and complain about the huge debts the federal government is piling up. Print out slips of paper with the contact numbers for the people that are supposed to be representing them.

And call your local Republican party. Find out what else you can do. Chances are they have a precinct committeeman slot nearby that needs filled. If not they’ll surely have something else for you to do.

Don’t wait for someone else to lead the charge! Get out there and be the leader!
citizenfx

We need a recognizable face that can reach and alert the masses of the coming problems. When these problems arise most people will turn to this Political Predictor as a honest refreshing person and then we will have the masses.
citizenfx

He is calling that the U.S. will be Bankrupt and he is right. Thank God for him standing up!
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

It doesn’t help that there are major upheavals here at home as well. Since Obama’s election to the presidency, I’ve watched blogging friends give up and fade away and I keep trying to find something to give me the energy to keep fighting. I spend more time here than anywhere. In the past month or two, I’ve blogged here more than my own blog. Considering that’s not much here, either, it becomes rather pathetic.

I keep trying to be optimistic and, really, I do believe that Americans will eventually realize what makes them American versus anywhere else but every day, that optimism dims a little more until I fear that the only thing that is going to work is a huge eruption of violence.

I’m tired of the posturing in D.C. and elsewhere; the making noise like they finally get it, only to watch them turn around and do something stupid like the 90% tax on the AIG bonuses.

I have no clear answers. The conservative message has been branded as evil and nobody wants to hear it, even when you couch it in terms anybody can understand and not even use the “c” word.
SteveLA

Erick

Maybe there is good reason why many of your circle of friends are just saying lay low right now, and it’s mostly for the same reason the election of 2006 and 2008 was lost…In my view right now there is a lack of conservative counter ideas which are clear, concise and concrete Republican answers in response to the Obama machine and proposals. Just saying “NO” is not leadership in my view, and will not win elections.

I’m watching for Newt, or Governor Jindal, or Governor Palin, or Michael Steel, or ? to start hitting back with a clearly explained conservative alternative plans to the madness of Obama. Until then, what else can you do if you think that “NO” is not an answer?

Maybe now is a poor time to counter punch, other than saying NO, but when will it be time? In that same vein, where is the second Contract with America, who in ether grass roots or elected officials or party officials are prepared to start the dialog about a second contract? I’ve read a few versions of Contract With America 2 floating around the internet, and mostly they are lacking in my view, or at worse a bit silly.

The question of what do Republicans and Conservatives stand for in contrast to Obama madness is one that is still forming and the leaders who are selling that vision is not clear yet ether. The sooner that vision is firm and has teeth, the sooner the R brand will come back.

As Ronnie once said in a story he told, there’s a pony in that poop somewhere.
janis

You wake up every day and wonder if this is the day that the walls are breached irreparably. Part of me says that no matter what they do, we can turn it back. But then you look at other countries like Great Britain, and you wonder if they will ever recover before it’s just too late.

I’ve spent more time here than anywhere else, too, Steph. It’s a comfort to know that others are keeping the faith, that we can commiserate, inform, encourage each other–and make each other laugh. No matter how dark it may get, we must be sure to continue to make each other laugh.
Brian Hibbert

The grunts will have to use their initiative to continue the fight until a new set of leaders is chosen. Consider this a battlefield promotion and start leading your platoon.
Jack_Savage

Nationally, we need to focus on three things:

1) The breathtaking fiscal irresponsibility of the current Congress and Administration. It isn’t red, it isn’t blue, it’s MATH. We go back to our core, we seize an issue that nearly everyone agrees with, and we relentlessly pound away.
2) The culture of entitlement and corruption that has made the Democrat Party rotten to the core at the local, state and federal level. From sweetheart deals, to tax cheats to pay-to-play schemes (not to mention good old fashioned adultery), Democrats have used their brief time in power to enrich themselves and their cronies.
3) The erosion of our freedoms in the name of saving the planet, diversity, health care reform, mandatory volunteer service, etc, etc, etc. If I want to smoke until I die, or eat only tofu and drink green tea, I should have that right. Liberals love to use the old saw that the government should stay out of the bedroom, and we should include our dinner plates and thermostats as well, and ask them to join us. I have a Mom and a Dad, and also a Messiah for that matter. I don’t need any more.

Personally, we need to focus on three things:

1) Come out of the closet. Put on a bumper sticker. Let your friends know you are very uncomfortable about the way things are going, the Obama hero worship is a little creepy, and have three concrete examples that they can research and ponder themselves. You know what appeals to them – is it school choice? Is it skyrocketing deficits? Is it the war on American business? Is itsubsidizing slackers? Be a leader. Bloom where you are planted.
2) Pick some races to adopt – preferably locally, butTedisco in NY 20 or similar is fine, or a combination of the two. Follow the race, donate if you can, send e-mails of encouragement. These people are the front line soldiers, and they need our support.
3) Right now, find out when the next meeting of your local Republican Party is, and go. Just your presence will bolster the group, and if you can be encouraging and positive and energetic, all the better.

Do what you can. Start now. Plant the seeds and the harvest will come.
http://brockwayfamily.spaces.live.com/ Erick Brockway

“I am a bit overwhelmed. I suspect many of you are too. The information is coming fast and furious”

It’s a bit like trying to get all the Porkulus read in time to either sign or not by 7AM.
In fact, so much has happened so fast, I’m having a hard time tracking back to it all.
Thinking I need an interactive timeline starting Jan 20 just to keep track of everything. All the links I’ve visited filed by category and date.
Now if I wasn’t working seven days a week, I could do that.
Sitting here listening to POTUS expecting him to call on Huffpo.
He just said “I inherited” and I have nothing to drink!
Aarghhh!
Jack_Savage

“…a clearly explained conservative alternative plans to the madness of Obama.”

Absolutely.
Let me say that I think it is too early to do so right now though – we need to fight as hard as we can to stall the socialist juggernaut, and lay low in order for the Democrat self-immolation to proceed. While they are trying to put each other out, we formulate a clear and comprehensive alternative, with the budget / economy at its core.
citizenfx

More money in your pocket, because we will tax you less
More jobs, because we won’t micromanage business opportunites
More Healthcare, because we won’t ration your healthcare providor
More Oil, because we will use what we have at home.
More Energy, because we won’t rely on which way the wind blows
More Freedom, because we won’t single out someone’s pay
More Security, because we will send troops to the border
More Happiness, because we know that being Self-Reliant is the key to having a productive life.
reddog53

In the midst of a disaster, while the normal ‘chain of command’ is regrouping and redeploying, the folks on the ground have to develop short tactical plans and execute leadership in their own sphere. That’s where we are now, and that’s why it feels so exhausting.

Leadership is out there, and it is coming. But we’re here now, and it’s up to each of us to find out the answer to ‘What can I do now to help the cause?’

Most of it seems trivial in the initial stages, but like simple acts of clearing trees out of streets and driveways to enable vehicles to come through after a storm, these initial steps are needed to set the stage for later progress. It may seem like a waste of time, but restoring a sense of purpose and linking up with others on the ground via Red State and Tea Parties and the like is the best thing to do right now.

I admit to absolute fatigue in trying to assimilate and fight back the blizzard of bad ideas coming from DC. But we must. There is no alternative.

In the words of Tim Allen in Starquest “Never Give Up. Never Surrender!”
Jack_Savage

Just ask, “Do you believe that everyone, including government, should live within their means?” When they say, “Yes!” just say, “Congratulations – you are a fiscal conservative. Join us.”
javantiger

If you want to see a bunch of fired up conservatives just follow the tcot (Top Conservatives on Twitter) tag for a few hours. There’s all kinds of activist groups fighting for conservative causes across the country.

Get on Twitter and search the #tcot tag. C’mon! Will ya?
citizenfx

You are right on Point. This is a great Plan. The first one I have heard in along time. Please get this in ACTION.
SteveLA

How do you propose to do that, what are the specifics?

That’s not meant as a poke by the way, but to sell Joe Q. Public on the concept that Obama is wrong, and this is a better idea, a conservative idea, you have to be specific.

The Republican minority in the Senate and Congress is not exactly awe inspiring now are they? The spending orgy of which Republican Congresscritters were party to when in the majority is still a recent memory and I think that I read the number two ear marker in Porkulus was R Senator Shelby.
http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb

Look at what Erick said in his post:

“….and many of my friends around me have decided the best course of action is to put their heads in the sand and hope for the best.”

Obviously they have better things to do.

Just the other day, right here on Redstate, when Mark Impomeni blogged about Obama’s creepy “permanent campaign”, where “Volunteers recruited online by Obama?s Organizing for America, a post-election group, will ask citizens to sign a pledge in support of the president?s policies on energy, health care and education”, I suggested that the GOP simply do the same thing, canvas neighborhoods. Two people responded, “I’m too busy! I have a job to go to!”. Heck, so do I, but sitting back and doing NOTHING is exactly what got us into this mess.

The left controls the news media, entertainment, and the schools. They obviously control the government (they always have, to a point). If all people on our side can do is sit back and moan, “gee, what a shame. Too bad I’m too busy to do anything about it” then we may as well throw in the towel. Until the right wants freedom as bad as the left wants socialism, we’re doomed.
citizenfx

You just stirred up the most action I have seen on this WEBSITE in 4 months.

FINALLY, THESE ARE IDEAS PEOPLE. PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING AND WE WILL GET SOMEWHERE!
Vladimir

Civil disobedience cuts against the grain of most conservatives, me included.

But putting a tea bag in an envelope seems an awfully impotent reminder of the original Tea Party.
redneck_hippie
janis

in terms I hadn’t thought of. He said that the tea bags would never get to Obama or whatever other politician they were sent to for security reasons. Given all the times that some kind of powder has been sent to so many people over the past 8 years, particularly through the mail, things with any kind of substance in them get looked at, then they get trashed. Made sense to me. I think the tea parties getting massive attendance would have more impact.
Brian Hibbert

Everyone has to take some initiative and work in his/her own area. If enough of us take back just one neighborhood, then the whole country will follow.

It may not seem like we are making a difference, but all we need to do is shift 2% of the vote our way. 2% is doable in just about any area.

I’ve been following Art Chance’s advise and reading Tip O’neill’s autobiography (it was in my local library). One thing that he keeps coming back to is “People like to be asked.” Ask them to support us. Ask them to help. Ask them to call your local politicians and tell them what they think.

The tea parties are good. They keep people involved. But we still need to knock doors and ask people to help.

I was in the doldrums myself for about a week after Obama took office. But someone chastised me for making a defeatist comment to one of Rep. McCotter’s posts. You know what, he was right to chastise me. It got me started in the right direction. I wrote a letter to the local paper against the porkulus package and promoting the Republican alternative. I got some positive feedback from people I know about it. Since then I’ve been getting more active and more positive. Ever time the Democrats propose more spending and more taxing it gives me yet another bullet to use against them. And they’ve been providing plenty of ammunition for me to use.
citizenfx

I subscribe to IBD, a lot of their editorials they pluck from blogs. Usually the MSM is forced to cover some things once they get on board. This just came out today

Tea Parties And Thugs

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 3/24/2009

Media Bias: The press need not support every protest it covers. But when it ignores a grass fire movement against government spending while its favored politician watches closely, then there’s dereliction of duty.

Read More: Media & Culture

Five more “tea parties” took place last weekend to protest runaway congressional spending. Showing up with hand-lettered signs were people not often seen at protests.

Inspired by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli’s rant over excessive bailouts, these demonstrations started small but now draw thousands. The weekend protests were held in Orlando, Fla.; Raleigh, N.C.; Solomon’s Island, Md.; Lexington, Ky., and Ridgefield, Conn. Another 150 tea parties are set for tax day April 15.

Bloggers and local press do cover these events, and to give credit due, so did Investor’s Business Daily in a front-page story Feb. 28. But the national TV and print media are conspicuous by their absence. Some big news outlets see these events as atomized and unlikely to lead the nightly news. Others aren’t interested because they’re well outside media centers.

But the real reason the major media aren’t interested in these protests is that they don’t agree with them. In the final analysis, these affairs are really taking issue with the political party they helped elect without hiding bias in the last election.

That’s why a small scrum of Acorn-financed wackos on a bus tour to intimidate AIG execs last weekend made the news while the tea parties didn’t.

But unlike the staged, sparsely attended Acorn event, the tea parties are national, growing and indicative of a shift of public sentiment. If proof is needed, one need look no further than the attention the protests are getting from the Obama administration.

One of the biggest protests so far drew 15,000 on March 8 in Fullerton, Calif. But a Los Angeles Times blogger dismissed the event as “a radio stunt” because it was organized by local radio deejays. There was no explanation why the Times and other media were all over a 2006 immigration protest that was also called by deejays.

It wasn’t far from Fullerton that President Obama chose to make a series of Southern California town hall visits in the wake of Santelli’s criticism to sway the locals to reverse course and back his pro-spending agenda.

The media may have been dismissing the protests as insignificant, but Obama’s political sharpies knew a challenge when they saw one.

The mainstream media only hurt themselves by ignoring news. If the Obama camp takes tea parties seriously, so should its toadies in the press.

Copyright 2000-2009 Investor’s Business Daily, Inc. Click here for copyright permissions!
Copyright 2000-2009 Investor’s Business Daily, Inc.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

I’m technologically inclined but I don’t do twitter, facebook, or any other social netoworking site. And I hate Google. All things considered they’re part of the social engineering movement, since everything you do there is not protected in any way, shape, or form. Everything is moving toward so much openness, As it is, I’m beginning to wonder if Google even knows when I go to the bathroom.

Paranoid? You betcha! When I see the things that come out of these sites, the information that is shared and distorted? You betcha! I don’t think we can win with these sites. All we’re doing is sharing our “game plan” with the opposition before we’ve had a chance to implement the plan while giving them plenty of opportunity to plan their opposition.

Sure it’s a great way of reaching larger numbers of people in the shortest amount of time, but…

You know the old clich? about playing your cards close to your chest? I think that’s something that should be intensely considered right now.

It seems like every counter we have, they already have a counter act ready to deploy and the places such as twitter, facebook, and Google are more sympathetic to their cause than ours because it’s all about power and control.
casel21

Levin’s Libert y And Tyranny could not be more timely. It’s a wonder how things work out. I read that Levin put off writing this book in order to write Saving Sprite. Had he not, Liberty And Tyranny would have come out 18 months ago. Instead, it came out on a day when the feds were announcing they are going to try to take over all ailing corporations. I guess even Sprite played his part.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

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http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

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http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

Obama this, Obama that and then you counter their counter with “words and actions” and they counter your counter of their counter with excuses of why Obama is really doing that but in the most illogical manner that it becomes a senseless ramble for which you have no counter to their counter to your counter to their counter….

It’s crazy making.
The_Rebel

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416562850/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon

can show those who wish to read it that the conservative message is not evil. Rather, the message is based on facts that those statists always seem to ignore. Mark Levin is a great conservative who is trying to educate those Americans who are willing to listen. I’m already getting used to “statist” in place of “liberal”.
redneck_hippie

to get Mark Levin to sign it. They only had 1500 books and the line went on for blocks.
citizenfx

This is the easy part. Use the talking points exactly as I have just laid out. What you have to understand about the liberal HOPEY DOPES, Is that you will never get anything through to them no matter how much you try. You are targeting the doubters. THAT WHEN TIME IS ON OUR SIDE.

You cannot make these statements when it HAS already happened. Make them now and often.
BUMPER STICKERS, BANNERS ON BLOGS, SIGNS AT TEA PARTIES, FLIERS AT REPUBLICAN GATHERINGS.
When the doubters start to cave, and they will. They come to us looking for the explanation. These are the ones we want.

EXAMPLE: 1
More JOBS, because we won’t micromanage business!
When someone sits on the un-emloyment line for longer than their benefits last they begin to get worried. In California, I know of about 20 people who have about 3 weeks left and they can’t find 1 job. They are wondering why.

EXAMPLE: 2
More ENERGY, because we won’t wait for the wind to blow.
I read research the other day on 5 major Utilities that are going to slowly begin to raise rates because of impending CAP and Trade. When these people’s utilities go up you have the answer

EXAMPLE: 3
More MONEY,because we won’t raise your taxes.
I just got done filing my taxes. Anyone who has a business or any real capital usually goes through tax planning with his CPA after his filings come in. I have never heard so much concern on next years tax planning from my CPA in 15 years as I heard this week. It is his duty to let his clients know. 100 million other filers are being educated as we speak.

EXAMPLE: 4
More OIL, because we have it.
OIL Prices this week began to surge and a very reliable analyst believes we will see $150 by December
READ THIS USGS REPORT, that came out last april on how much oil we have in the U.S. PLEASE BY THE WAY SPREAD THIS LINK TO OTHERS So we can counter these Environmentalists stupidity

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska ‘s Prudhoe Bay
>> , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil.
>> The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion
>> barrels.. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel,
>> we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana?s Bakken Formation?25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate?USGS RELEASE

The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.

The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest “continuous” oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A “continuous” oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest “continuous” oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

YEAH YOU SAW THAT RIGHT. 4 TIMES AS MUCH OIL THAN THERE IS IN TEXAS.

The oil is Light sweet crude, The best oil you can have at an average cost to pump of $16/ barrel. This could ignite the entire U.S. economy alone by not sending 700 billion overseas + all the oil related jobs.

Thanks Democrats!! They are feeding their young to the terrorists.
citizenfx

Don’t Forget More Freedom,

More Freedom, from Union Boss thugs who wan’t to confiscate your paycheck and right to think!
The_Rebel

as quoted by Mark Levin in his new #1 best seller, “Liberty and Tyranny”:

?Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn?t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children?s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.?
http://fairfaxgardener.blogspot.com ddstrain

we could organize investment clubs to buy up the MSM, dump the liberal ideology that obviously can’t sell papers and make some money when the public comes back to truly objective, informative and unbiased news (as opposed the opinion masquerading as news).
brandoncraig

As Republicans and conservatives, we know our ideas and principles are correct. The facts are on our side that true conservative policies will make this nation stronger and a better place for us and our children.

What we lack right now is a credible leader to articulate these ideas to the masses like Ronald Reagan was able to do. If this person does not emerge soon, it will be a long 4, maybe 8 years.

I still hold out some hope for Gov. Jindal.
psyop_hic

…a lot of hope (real hope, not the hopey-changy variety). The ideas being thrown out here tonight is exactly what I’ve been doing in my Northern Virginia apartment complex.

For those of you who aren’t fimilar with Northern Virginia, it has turned solid blue in the past 10 years. It is no wonder NoVA is trending this way. When I walk around and talk to folks, 90% of them are government employees or otherwise dependent on the government for their way of life. In the spirit of full disclosure, I work for a company that gets the majority of it’s funding from DHS contracts. Secondly, most people in NoVA would just as soon spit in your face than engage in conversation (let alone a political conversation).

These days, most people are willing to listen. They have some serious buyers remorse and want to know what conservatives have to offer. They want more money in their pockets and more choices.

Needless to say, this is not a battle we have perminently lost, nor is this a battle we can lose! Get out an engage your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Tell them our “gospel.” Our national leadership may be failing us, but that does not give us an excuse to hide amongst the weeds.

Amen!
psyop_hic

…a lot of hope (real hope, not the hopey-changy variety). The ideas being thrown out here tonight is exactly what I’ve been doing in my Northern Virginia apartment complex.

For those of you who aren’t fimilar with Northern Virginia, it has turned solid blue in the past 10 years. It is no wonder NoVA is trending this way. When I walk around and talk to folks, 90% of them are government employees or otherwise dependent on the government for their way of life. In the spirit of full disclosure, I work for a company that gets the majority of it’s funding from DHS contracts. Secondly, most people in NoVA would just as soon spit in your face than engage in conversation (let alone a political conversation).

These days, most people are willing to listen. They have some serious buyers remorse and want to know what conservatives have to offer. They want more money in their pockets and more choices.

Needless to say, this is not a battle we have perminently lost, nor is this a battle we can lose! Get out an engage your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Tell them our “gospel.” Our national leadership may be failing us, but that does not give us an excuse to hide amongst the weeds.

Amen!
ColdWarrior

Lots of good ideas. Thanks to all.

And a good question: ?BUT WHY IN GOD?S NAME, can we not get a GOP leader to get loud and sound the alarm on a daily basis of the threats that are coming. When these things come true, (which they will) this leader will look like an Angel sent down from heaven.?

Tonight Judd Gregg was on Hannity as the Republican antidote to Teleprompter Boy?s socialism. Of course it would have been more effective if Michael Steele, Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, Kyl and McCain had been there, too. Why don?t they have a daily press conference together telling the American people, together, how Obama and the Dems will be bankrupting this country?

I don?t know other than I think it?s because too few Conservatives are active within the Party ranks. And I also know what I?m going to try to do about it. I?m going to recruit every other Conservative precinct committeeman I can here in Maricopa County to join me in demanding a meeting in person with Kyl and McCain (separately) and have each answer that question. Along with a lot of other questions. And if they try to put us off for weeks, we?ll demand a conference call first. I hope to have that accomplished in a few days. And we?ll let McCain know we?ve all been in touch with the conservative Republican here who as already filed to run in the primary against McCain.

And I?ll keep trying to get my friends, neighbors and strangers to become active precinct committeemen. (See more at end of this post ? sorry for the repetition, but I?d like to see every RedState.com-er become a precinct committeeman, too.) And I?m going to try to get someone at the Tea Party here in Phoenix at the capitol on April 15 to ask everyone in attendance to join the Party as a precinct committeeman or as a volunteer if they haven?t already. And I?ve asked the organizers of the Tea Parties to try to make that happen at all of them. I got a conservative AZ state assemblyman to make that pitch at the Americans for Prosperity Tea Party that took place here a few weeks ago.

And I?ll keep displaying the bumper sticker I?ve been displaying since last fall, from World Net Daily, that says, ?Better an Imperfect Republican than a Perfect Socialist.? Seems to be generating more thumbs up to me since the inauguration than before it.

And I?ll keep wearing all those pro-conservative, anti-Obama t-shirts I buy at www.thoseshirts.com.

And I?ll keep trying to get the Maricopa County and AZ GOP staffs to fix all the problems with their web sites and keep providing them content they can use to improve it.

And I?ll keep working with the gopguerrillas group that is trying to build the activist tools that the RNC is still debating.

And I?ll keep trying to help my legislative district chairman increase the ranks of active precinct committeemen in our district. And because I?m a Legionnaire, I?ll start speaking to American Legion posts here and try to get the Legionnaires to, once again, do something by getting actively involved with the Republican Party.

And keep asking Conservatives wherever they gather, in person or on the net, to join the Party and strengthen it. Tomorrow night I?ll be meeting with an ad hoc group of conservatives here at a coffee shop. They are searching for something to do. I?ll listen to their ideas and then, you guessed it, I?ll urge them to become PCs. (I?m crossing my fingers that they already are!)

What follows is one of my ?precinct committeeman spiels.?

If you really want to change the country, start by becoming a Republican Party Precinct Committeeman! The most powerful office in the world because Precinct Committeemen determine who gets the chance to be elected to office at every level of government.

1. To change things, we must change the laws.

2. To change the laws, we must change the people who make them.

3. To get elected, your candidate must be on the ballot.

4. To get on the November ballot you must win the Primary.

5. To win the Primary, you must get the support of people who make endorsements in the Primary, who reliably vote in the Primary, and who get out the vote of others in the Primary. Those people are the Precinct Committeemen.

Most importantly, Precinct Committeemen get to vote in the Party elections that determine the leadership of the Party. The more conservatives who become Precinct Committeemen, the more conservative the Party, and its candidates, will become. The Party again might appear to the voters to offer a clear choice from the Democrat Party, rather than an echo of it.

Go here to learn more:

The Most Powerful Office in the World is NOT the President of the United States. ( http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/brochures/precinct-committman.shtml )

By becoming a Precinct Committeeman, you get to ACTUALLY VOTE for the Party leadership. YOU GET TO CAST A VOTE FOR YOUR LOCAL REPUBLICAN LEADERS UP TO THE COUNTY LEVEL, AND THEN GET TO ELECT ELECTORS WHO ELECT THE STATE AND NATIONAL PARTY LEADERS. If those who accept, understand and advocate conservative principles become a majority IN THE PARTY RANKS, guess what? The Party leadership voted in will be those who accept, understand and advocate conservative principles. This just happened here in Arizona.
icbm

n/t
Yahuti

have become convinced that in order to survive, then prevail, we need to begin again – and that means shucking all the failed trappings of a political system that time-after-time fails us.

That means we step away from existing political parties and political mechanisms. That means the Republican Party as well all others. We need to manufacture our own tools and mechanisms as the only certain means to develop, project and promote our own message.

We need to become apolitical according to ‘their’ rules, ‘extra-political’ according to our own. I’m not describing ‘change’ here I am proposing reconstitution and reconstruction from the message all the way through the medium.

Enough of this for here and for now. I am building my own website as a medium to discuss and propose reanimation after implosion of the current snake-bitten methods of taking care of the nation’s and the citizens’ business.

I am with you Eric; but I will not sign on to an effort that relies upon the good faith and functionality of already thoroughly discredited political mechanisms. I have already seen too much of that.

GB
lonebeagle

leaders like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal.

From just reading the posts on this blog, I’m within ONE INCH of going back to being an independent. Technically, I am an independent.

I gave to a political campaign for the first time in my life last year when I donated several times to McCain after he won the nomination. I also volunteered for McCain and traveled from Burbank to Henderson Nevada to canvas for McCain and Palin in the weekend before the election.

What I see now of the Republican Party makes me sick. Obama and the Democrats have always made me sick, but the sexism and prejudice emanating from this Party makes me believe that Republicans really don’t believe in anything.

I grew up in California watching Reagan lead this state. What I see now from the members of this party is nothing like Reagan. Palin and Jindal are like Reagan–they’re outsiders and just like Reagan, a large part of the Red Party hates them.

So it may be “hasta la vista” for me. And no, I can’t stand Arnold, either.
kchand

What’s with the whining and the funk? Who isn’t up for THIS fight?

We all have fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, grandparents and many others we know that looked into the eyes of ominous power and pure evil in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and said the equivalent of “Let’s Roll”. The entire country dug deep with an unparalleled collective will and was victorious.

We are facing some incompetent, immature, prevaricating socialist blowhards. They’re nothing but con men. Their values are theft, envy and power. They label it fairness, which it is not. Our over-arching value is freedom. It shouldn’t even be close. We are the vast majority. Our biggest problem is complacency, pettiness and our need to feel we must “get along”.

If there was ever a fork-in-the-road in the modern era of this country, it has arrived. The paths are clear. At least for many. I will be damned if I will sit by and let my child, and any descendants she may have, be left with a staggering debt, less freedom, fewer opportunities, and a DECLINING standard of living. I will do whatever it takes. I could not be more energized.

I have, and will continue to:

1. Attend meetings in my CD and legislative district.
2. Start talking with and vetting incumbents and potential replacements for EVERYONE from the city council, the school board to Congress and POTUS. That starts NOW.
3. I will show up at every single local TEA PARTY that I can find.
4. I will take pictures of event and spread the information far and wide as I did last month. http://stickerpatch.blogspot.com/2009/02/obama-at-dobson-high.html
5. If it takes more time, more money, more actions, I will do it.

Some things are really worth fighting for. I don’t plan to leave the next generations with a more dismal future than the one I was given. Our generation cannot blow it. I’m not planning to lie on my death bed and tell my progeny that I wish I had done more.

We don’t necessarily need specific leaders at this point. We need a show of force and a demonstration that we will stand by our convictions. We have more tools and ability to organize than ever. You don’t get many chances to make a difference. The time has come.
kchand

You don’t run away, you fight hard to make changes. Reagan did it. He could have let the Rockefeller Republicans take the party. There will always be intra-party squabbles. It’s happened since the 1770′s.

Otherwise, you GIVE IT TO THE DIMS.
rightpatriot

and have faith in the work you are doing. I remind myself often that up until this last election I had never donated to a Presidential campaign, visited a website, read blogs or called an elected official. Oh sure, I voted, but that was the extent of my participation. Obama changed all that. And I’m not alone – my friends, family and co-workers who were never active in politics, are all dialed in and getting involved in ways we never imagined.

I feel we are in a battle to protect the most basic and fundimental principles of our nation and need to channel my fear and anxiety in a positive way. Redstate has given me the tools to do that.

Redstate matters and is helping those neophytes like me who feel a call to action -but need help on how to follow through with it.
rick554

And dont be afraid to lead from the front! This Country is worth it.
javantiger

The GOP needs to get into the 21st century. I have spent the morning on Twitter encouraging donations to Ted Tedisko. Whether you go there or not your opponents are already there and they’re kicking our buts.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

But, whether I go there or not, they’re kicking our butts simply because we have more scruples than they do. To them, the end results justify the means. Conservatives have ethics.

No matter what we do, no matter how technologically into the 21st century we become, the left will use our ethics against us.

That was the point of my comment. If we can’t bring ourselves to fight as dirty as they do, and we shouldn’t because that would make us just like them, then we have to fight where they can’t counteract us as quickly or thoroughly as they have been.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
javantiger

We are using tin cans and string while they are using iPhones.
Maggie_in_Indiana

You know being retired hasn’t been what I thought it would be. No beaches and drinks with little umbrellas,no cross country vacations,no sitting on the porch watching the grass grow either. The 08 campaign kept me occupied and now the Obama administration keeps me glued to the computer ,radio and the TV.

Helping with the upcoming Tea Party in Columbus Indiana will be a breath of fresh air. Instead of a pina coloda I’ll just have a glass of iced tea from a mason jar and yell my head off. Yeah that’s for me the laid back life of retirement.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

We’re using the same things in the same ways they’re using them. It doesn’t work for us because they are louder , more obnoxious, and quite willing to say and do anything to get their way.

Why not use the same things in a different way, with a sincerity and honesty not often found with those using the technology?

People using the technology, especially internet technology, operate under a false sense of anonymity. That illusion gives them the “courage” to say and do things they wouldn’t do in public view. There’s no such thing as true anonymity so why not treat it like you would in a face to face, one on one, encounter?

Keep it real and stop the posturing. That’s a strategy few have tried because we’ve bought into the premise that we’re in a technological stone age with left always beating us and being better at it. They’re only better at it in the same way they’re better at any other type of bullying. Look at ACORN, for example, and groups like ACORN who are bullies no matter what venue they use, and most of their work is done at the street level.
Brian Hibbert

In order to fix things we need a framework. Abandoning an established party and attempting to build a new one is rarely successful. The last time this worked was when the Republicans formed in the first half of the 1800′s. It’s not been shown to be successful since. Oh you might find an occasional Green party city councilman or some such, but on the national level all they can do is act as a spoiler to the party that most agrees with them. I strongly encourage the Greens to keep active in elections wherever possible. All they do is bleed off votes that would otherwise be Democrat. I am less thrilled with Libertarians or Constitution party candidates. They tend to bleed off votes that rightfully belong with US.

What HAS been shown to work is a determined group of activist taking over the existing structure of a party and remaking it. This is what the Regan conservatives did. This is what the socialists have done to the Democrats. It’s what we can do again.

Don’t knock down the framework. But we can knock down the interior walls and rebuild them to suit our needs. That’s going to have to happen from the ground up. Precinct by precinct at the thousands of local level divisions of the country. We can do it. And if we don’t do it, no one else will (at least no one that agrees with us).

This takes time, but if there are enough of us, working in a somewhat coordinated fashion, it will take less time than you might suppose.
Finrod

We all knew this wave was coming after the November elections. What we didn’t know was that the wave would crash so hard on the hard rocks of reality. Like all waves, this one too will break and roll back; we just have to hang on a little bit longer and be ready for when it does.
aarongardner

From what I read, both in your comment and in your sigline, you are not talking about any sort of retreat or going off task, you are just talking about engaging in a guerrilla mission. An apolitical outreach of our message, such as the tea parties and the campaign for liberty with the 10th amendment protests.

If this is your intent then I support it, because in the battle to liberate the oppressed we will need guerrillas just as much as we will need good men who can be elected to Congress and State Houses.
Yahuti

you are intolerant of ANY divergent opinions;
unless you insist that I walk the same wire behind you, and in lock step.

My goals for the country are the same as yours (I suppose).
My view of the condition and position we’re in are the same as yours (I suppose); perhaps even a little more dispirited.

I’ve watched (even participated in a little) the decline of this country for four decades; and I know who and what is responsible. I’ve become jaded by the experience. I have no – zero! faith that any of the participants or activities involved in our decline are capable, or worthy – of not only our support but also our trust: and that includes the Republican Party.

I am searching for other means and methods to recapture and sustain our national character. So, I guess to some degree I prefer a somewhat different methodology than ‘politics as usual’ to obtain that goal.

I am a Republican and will remain a Republican until something better comes along. It’s just that I am also actively searching for that something better. Party politics – all party politics – are what brought us to this point. We need to discover a better medium.

Now, Neil, you tell me: Am I with you or am I not.

GB
http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

Your privilege, of course. Maybe you’ll feel differently in the next election cycle.
Yahuti

However, the effort to ‘take over’ the Republican Party (or any party) is just as long and difficult. It can be done, and probably should be attempted. I go for that method – uless it is the only method er have.

What would be our stated goal: Set the path, method and tempo of taking our country back? Or attempt to take over the RP to do the job. These aren’t similar goals. Related: Yes. Similar: No.

BTW, I would suggest the left’s model of taking over the moribund Democratic Party, and employing it as the instrument to gain nearly total and irrefutable power in the party – and now in our government.

But that can NOT be our only instrument.
Yahuti

Very perceptive.

GB
aarongardner

The world needs more quiet professionals.
Yahuti

Your choice. Not mine.
javantiger

You must be responding to another thread somewhere because you have no idea what I’m talking about.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

I said: no, we’re not.

And then I further said you’re buying into the liberal premise that the right is technologically in the stone age. It’s a false premise and if you buy into it, it becomes a self-fulfiling prophecy.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

You’re the one under… illusions… that you’re better than everyone else and curse the Republican party.

That’s you. Don’t try to pin your self-absorbed choices on us.
Yahuti

Better than everyone else?
Curse the Republican Party?

If there is any hallucination running through this string, I suggest that it might not be mine.

FYI. My underlying premise: The issue (s) confronting this country are far greater (and important) than reanimation of the Republican Party. Although I agree that reanimating the GOP is a worthy cause and ought to be done, it is certainly NOT the panacea for our national meltdown. As a political target/goal, that is simply aiming too low.

I am a conservative first – a Party banner-carrier, second. Anything less than total revision of many of our national political processes is simply party politics; and I refuse to view more party politics as a counter to our declining national circumstances brought about mainly by – party politics.

Suggest some readers take a deep breath, go back and reread my comments here and decide whether or not they wish their recruiting mantra to been seen as: ‘My way or the highway, Jack.’ That is usually an effective method of making enemies from friends and allies; or worse: create indifference where once exhuberance once lived.

Historionics aren’t helpful under these circumstances, either.

GB
http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

You’ve got “blaming other people for your decisions” down pat already.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

And yet, you blame us.

Moe’s right. You’re pinning on us all your own faults.
AKSteveB

There are a couple of guys up here from Alaska including myself, who have some strong feelings about Gov. Palin based on local politics. We put what we know out there for the greater discussion. Both Gov. Palin and Gov. Jindal have a lot of fans here, but it is real early. For some of us, this headfirst rush into socialism has been a surprise, for others, well they called it ahead of time. I guarantee every single one of us will do what it takes to fight it, all of us are having to figure out how to do that.
Yahuti

I am NOT pinning or blaming anything on Red State. Go back and read my comments.

I have said here many times. and about everywhere socially and professionally Red State and Redstaters perform essential functions very well, and under extreme circumstances; no one better.

I am an avid supporter, have been for over four years. The only difference between my views and those of RS seen here in these posts is ultimate objectives. Mine include yours, but do not focus upon them.

My objectives are to research a better political/governmental model within which the Republican (and other) parties may function
with less emphasis upon political participants’ longevity and more upon the needs of those who placed them in thee offices. I see this effort as being mid-to-long term, of close impact upon or national/culteral survival and superseding the needs of mere politicians and party politics.

You guys are doing the trench work here, the political mano a mano. I’m aiming over your heads at the rear echelons. I am not your enemy, nor a detractor not even a grudging follow-along. I am on RS side; and I am and will remain a republican.

And, i can not believe my interests vis a vis RS can be so odious to RS. And I will not believe that RS is so dogmatic. However, if that turns out to be the case – so be it.

I am off to Johns Hopkins today for a post-surgical work-up. Tomorrow or the next day I’ll begin a comprehensive diary on my views and goals and how they relate to RS.
Brian Hibbert

After several of your posts where you attempt to clarify things.

You don’t like the way our whole political system works and you are going to undo it and rebuild a completely different structure.

Good luck with that. Our current system has been built on hundreds of years of trial and error. It results in some unpleasant side effects (earmarks and pork, etc), but it’s a system that mostly works.

Frankly if you’ve got some magic formula for taking the self interest out of politicians after they get elected, I’d like to see it. I don’t believe such a formula exists. The best hope we have is to set up a system of checks and balances to keep the effects of the self interest at a minimum.

P.S. If you want to change the current system, you’re going to have to master it, turn it to your own devices, then change the laws to eliminate it. Again, good luck with that.
Yahuti

Simple as that.
No practicality to them.

But, alternatives need to be presented to public-minded citizen at some point
. They are certainly searching for them.
Yahuti

I’ll just overlook this small experience in irrationality.
I mention above that my pursuit is simply theoretical. I’ll keep it at that, and keep it to myself pursuing it on my own blog.

Meanwhile, I can be just as good a soldier for RS as the other guy.

BTW. As stated earlier – I am not blaming anybody for anything. I simply said I had differences of opinions on certain issues.

This whole exchange has been very educational for me. It suggests that you (and some others) might want to recalibrate your Dogma meters. Dogmatism makes no friends – even doesn’t make good enemies-

Finally. If tou can slander me as being a future good democrat, you might as well give in to your inner urges and come out as a Green.

GB

RS

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