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Conservative Republican Participation

By: Morton C. Blackwell (Diary) | December 17th, 2009 at 09:49 PM |

RESIZE: AAA

All – I commend to you this very important piece by one of the most important conservatives in the country. One thing I’ve always admired about Morton is that he is an unimpeachable movement conservative who at the same time remains an amazingly effective Republican Party official.

Morton’s observations, advice, and counsel for Republicans are absolutely spot-on. -Krempasky

Events of the past year should persuade every serious conservative that the Republican Party is the only practical party vehicle for us.

For a year now, we have seen how much damage the left would do to America if they get their way.

We should have no doubt now as to the disasters the left would create if conservatives, angry with terrible mistakes of many Republican politicians, say, “I hate the Republicans. Let the leftist Democrats win and take all power in the country for awhile. So what?”

We know what the leftists want if they obtain all power. They are statists as ambitious for total power as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Without effective opposition, they would go as far as Hugo Chavez wants to go.

They are on the brink of destroying the system of checks and balances and separation of powers so wisely established by America’s founding fathers.

Their agenda would ruin our country for the foreseeable future, surely beyond our ability to recover in our lifetimes.

Now is not the time for us to take our marbles and go home.

Now is the time for all good conservatives to work together whenever we can to promote conservative principles successfully through the Republican Party.

The time is ripe for this because non-conservative Republicans have lost so many elections that, for instance in the House of Representatives, they have an almost negligible presence in public office. Let’s build a new majority party which opportunists cannot cripple again by selling out conservative principles.

Here are two fundamental objectives:

1. To nominate and elect to public office a greater number of principled conservative Republicans.

2. To advance a greater number of principled conservatives to positions of Republican Party leadership at the local, state, and national levels.

To achieve these objectives, conservatives must develop systematic strategies to achieve the following fourteen types of actions:

1. Identify early, groom, and recruit principled conservatives to run for public office and manage campaigns.

2. Focus conservative time, talent, and money on candidates who, if nominated and elected, will actively lead for conservative principles.

3. Unite in a timely fashion to reduce the number of Republican nomination contests which pit multiple conservative candidates against a single content-free candidate.

4. Increase the number of conservatives who actively participate, through contributions and personal activism, in behalf of conservative candidates in Republican nomination contests.

5. Defeat in nomination contests a sufficient number of content-free Republican incumbents and candidates for open seats so that even non-conservatives will conclude that they must at least behave as conservatives if they wish to succeed in politics.

6. Identify and recruit dedicated conservatives who are willing to spend the time and money necessary to rise within the Republican Party structure.

This can best be achieved by making widely known the duty of solid conservatives to take positions of responsibility in the Republican Party.

Yes, leadership in party organizations necessarily includes associating with people who hold different principles or none at all.

But when sufficient numbers of conservatives fail to participate personally in party activities, opportunists and liberals dominate the party organizations.

7. Learn better how to distinguish between principled conservatives and opportunists who feign conservative principles in order to achieve power.

Never fully trust anyone who has not stuck with conservative principles in what appeared to be losing battles.

8. Change the behavior of national Republican committees (including the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and others) which generally tend to support content-free Republican candidates rather than conservative candidates for party nominations.

9. Change the behavior of national Republican committees, those listed above andthe Republican National Committee, which often direct party resources specially into the general election campaigns of so-called “moderate” party nominees rather than to the campaigns of principled conservative nominees.

10. Defeat the ambition of too many elected Republicans to subordinate to their complete control the Republican party committees in the state, district, or locality where those public officials are elected.

11. Identify and ostracize incompetent political consultants who greedily attempt to direct party and campaign spending into commissionable advertising expenditures rather than into a budget balanced as to paid advertising and vital but non-commissionable grassroots organization.

12. Get leaders of conservative organizations to persuade their groups’ members and supporters to participate personally in Republican Party committees, in Republican nomination contests, and in general election campaigns.

13. Get major conservative communicators (print, broadcast, and online) to urge their readers, listeners, and viewers to participate personally in Republican Party committees, in Republican nomination contests, and in general election campaigns.

14. Get large numbers of conservatives to participate at the local, state, and national levels in Republican Party volunteer auxiliary organizations such as the National Federation of Republican Women, the College Republican National Committee, and the Young Republican National Federation.

Every veteran conservative activist knows so-called “moderate” Republican politicians who specialize in knifing conservative Republicans in the back. For them, party loyalty is a one-way street.

If we allow these back-stabbers to prosper politically, they will destroy any chances for the implementation of conservative principles in public policy and for the Republican Party to regain majority status.

To succeed in the long run, conservatives who are within the party structure or who seek a party nomination must accept certain obligations of party loyalty. Except in cases involving a nominee’s misbehavior as serious as child molestation or bank robbery, they must at least tacitly support the nominees of their party.

Because there is undoubtedly a double standard in these matters, conservative Republicans who actively oppose a party nominee almost always destroy any future they might have in party committees or future nomination contests.

When content-free Republicans try to get away with violating this rule of party loyalty, conservatives should make them pay and pay and pay for it.

If they are not also leaders of the party, leaders of non-partisan conservative organizations suffer no such damage. They are free to attack a party nominee because they are not bound by party loyalty. Fear of them often can keep professional politicians from straying too far from conservative principles.

Nominations should be decided by grassroots party members. Conservatives, including those active in party committees, must reject the notion that there is a divine right of incumbents to future nominations.

Party committee resources should not be expended on efforts to re-nominate incumbents, and party committee members should be free to volunteer their support to any candidate in a party nomination contest.

Are prominent conservatives ready to agree that they must take on the fourteen very difficult projects I have just suggested?

Some are.

Senator Jim DeMint heads a political action committee called the Senate Conservatives Fund (senateconservatives.com). Congressman Pat McHenry heads the House Conservatives Fund (houseconservatives.com). These PACs seek the nomination and election of conservatives only.

Sen. DeMint has joined many conservative organizational leaders in openly campaigning for the nomination of former Florida Speaker of the House Marco Rubio, a dynamic and solid conservative, over “moderate” Governor Charlie Crist in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has intervened to support Crist in the party primary.

In the Congress, the Senate Steering Committee and the House Republican Study Committee have long records of effective action for conservative principles, often winning against the wishes of the official party leadership of both Houses.

These two special committees in the Congress spurred a conservative Republican revolution which produced the massive election victories of 1994.

Many conservatives through the years have invested time and money in personal participation in Republican Party activities and thereby earned membership in local, state, and national party committees. But there are too few of them, and therefore too seldom have they won leadership positions in those committees.

Certainly the conservative time, talent, and money currently applied to the Republican Party are insufficient to make it, as currently led, an always reliable supporter of conservative principles.

You may agree with me that the fourteen projects I have described are desirable elements of a strategy to make the Republican Party reliable for conservative principles, but it’s obvious that no single organization now exists, inside or outside the party, to design and implement all those projects.

If such an organization existed, the entire power of the left in politics, the media, and academia would focus, with considerable effect, on discrediting and destroying it.

So I don’t suggest creating such an organization.

The mission is too large and complex to be achieved by a centralized structure with a detailed, comprehensive plan. That is not how we nominated Barry Goldwater and nominated and elected Ronald Reagan.

There are opportunities for new organizations to be founded to work on different aspects of these problems — if competent organizational entrepreneurs will step up and if initial funding can be raised.

Organizations and leaders in the always decentralized conservative movement should review carefully all fourteen projects and take on those of them which fit in best with their own missions and capabilities.

Those who adopt and work diligently on one or more of the projects should receive the support and praise of fellow conservatives.

Those who do not should be treated accordingly.

Many citizens don’t even vote. Most others do nothing more in politics than vote. The number of political activists on all sides combined is a tiny fraction of the public.

But about 40% of Americans identify themselves as conservatives. That makes “conservative” the most popular political designation in the United States, twice as popular as “liberal” and more popular than either “Democrat” or “Republican.”

No one can be excluded from party participation, because by law U.S. political parties are open at the bottom. (See my papers “Life of the Party” and “People, Parties, and Power,” available under Resources at www.LeadershipInstitute.org .)

Many conservatives would increase their participation in Republican Party activity if advised to do so by leaders they trust.

If individual conservatives and prominent leaders and their organizations take actions appropriate for them among the fourteen types I have listed, the resulting influx of conservative participation would change greatly for the better the composition, direction, and future of the Republican Party.

_____

Morton C. Blackwell has served as the National Committeeman of the Republican Party of Virginia since 1988.

Tags: Republicans, RNC

COMMENTS

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http://www.thehayride.com MacAoidh

…and the overarching message, that a third party is tantamount to ceding control of the government to the Democrats, is one which every conservative must take to heart.

vamoose

Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 with 43% of the popular vote, courtesy of the candidacy of Ross Perot. This must not be allowed to happen again at any level of government. Blackwell does a great job of explaining how to prevent such a situation from happening again.

Third Street

Just imagine what America might have been spared had the Clintons never come to power.

Imagine if we had had a president who took the ’93 WTC bombing seriously; who actually responded to the Cole bombing; who took out Saddam Hussein once and for all when the latter threw out the weapons inspectors in ’97; and who didn’t give Osama bin Laden ideas with a panicky troop withdrawal from Somalia.

Just think about it…

Finrod

This article is a road map for what we need to do. It should have a permanent link from the front page, IMHO.

http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

“But when sufficient numbers of conservatives fail to participate personally in party activities, opportunists and liberals dominate the party organizations.”

Amen. Do we not have in our country enough conservative registered Republicans (and conservative registered independents who would be willing to change their registration), to get to their local Republican Party office, or get in touch with their local Republican legislative district or county chairman, to volunteer to become a voting member of the Party — a precinct committeeman? The millions of people who have been to the various Tea Parties tell me we DO have sufficient numbers — the problem is most don’t know the Party is at half strength or even that the office of precinct committeeman exists.

And for the life of me I cannot understand why Rep. Tom Price, Rep. Mike Pence and Sen. Jim Demint did not IMPLORE those who were at the 9.12.2009 gathering in D.C. to come into the Party to fill up all those vacant precinct committeeman slots, which is about 50 per cent nationwide. Go here to learn more:

http://www.redstate.com/martin_a_knight/2009/05/05/the-committeeman-project/

Maricopa County, Arizona and Arizona in general, “Goldwater Country,” is in even worse shape — only one third of the PC slots were filled on Election Day in 2008. About one third of the precincts in Maricopa County had NO precinct committeeman. But then, all those vacancies make for a great opportunity for conservatives — and some of us are recruiting conservatives like crazy from the ranks of the Tea Partiers. The most frequent response I get from a potential recruit is, “What’s a precinct committeeman?”

We desperately need conservative “rock stars” to explain to conservatives that they’ve got to do more. Voting isn’t enough. Being well-informed isn’t enough. We need some “rock stars” to explain to conservatives that the Party is there for the taking, due to all those vacant precinct committeeman slots. I have tried to ask Sarah Palin to do it — I’ve sent her correspondence, but so far, apparently it’s gone into the circular file. TeamSarah.org has 78,000 members, for example. Imagine if she told those folks the existing Republicans needed them to join with them to create a conservative majority within the grass roots voting ranks of the Party? Imagine if she posted a plea on her Facebook page to all conservative, Constitution-loving and -respecting Americans to come into the Republican Party as precinct committeemen to create a conservative powerhouse of a party?

Time is short for the 2010 elections. In some states, if you want to be able to vote in the next round of internal party leadership elections, you better get moving, as deadlines are fast approaching. If you aren’t already a precinct committeeman, I hope you’ll become one. NOW!

Thank you.
ColdWarrior
www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

whatsso4me

The Republican party has been weak on conservative values, let’s face it. Bush let the mortgage crisis come to fruition. Republicans failed and the liberals grabbed the ball. I see no harm in contemplating a new conservative party. If the Republican party can seize the venue, great! If not, it’s only because of continued failure to inspire. I don’t buy the fear-mongering exhibited here. I am more than willing to take a risk in allowing the Republican party to be challenged in order to reinstate limited government. It is the government (Democrat and Republican) who has gone out-of-control, not us.

Third Street

Third parties have always been destructive to the very goals of their adherents. It isn’t fear-mongering, it’s historical fact. Please outline a scenario in which a conservative third party does not split the Republican vote and enhance the electoral chances of Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. Please cite a historical example of a third party that has been successful and enduring.

We’re still paying for the third-party candidacy of Ross Perot, and will be for the rest of our lives. Hell, we’re still paying for the third-party candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt.
whatsso4me

The Republican status-quo is in descent, that’s a fact. I don’t see any viable alternative to a third party at this juncture, come what may. Democratic voters aren’t the only ones seeking hope and change.
Third Street

You don’t take “risks” with things that have exactly zero possibility of success. A third party is a 100% guaranteed loser, and creates about a 90% chance of electing a Democrat.
hoosierteacher

It is great advice for us at the grass roots level (support conservative candidates, etc). Mr. Blackwell is obviously one of the good guys. But we already know these things.

The problem is that the leadership of the NRSC DOESN’T.

With the greatest of respect, I ask these things with sincerity and hope.

Once again, we are being told to support our party, NOT because our party stands for conservative values, but because the democrats are so terrible and socialist. It would be much easier to support our party if we had something to support (a republican party that is conservative) rather than just voting for a bunch of RINOs to try and oppose the democrats.

Look, I have a problem with third parties too. I realize that a viable third party would split the votes of those who lean right in this country. I get it. But the way to stop an effective third party isn’t to complain that it would siphon votes. They way to stop a third party movement is for the GOP leadership (both in congress and the party itself) to start acting like real conservatives. It took the “Conservative Party” of NY to stop a socialist republican in NY while the actual GOP dropped the ball.

And now we need to support the party that kicks Rubio and Devore in the teeth? And the reason for this is that the dems are worse than we are? Wouldn’t it be better to support the GOP because WE are BETTER than the bad guys?

I thank Mr. Blackwell for his views, and recognize that he is one of the good guys in the fight. All I ask him is this…

With the greatest respect, I keep hearing that we (the grass roots) need to stick with a broken machine. You and I agree that the machine is broken (as seen by the rise of tea party activists). You and I also agree that a viable third party would set back conservatism for at least a century or more. So I ask – is the party that we send our money and time to planning to do the right thing anytime soon?

When is our party going to stop supporting socialist RINOs in primaries over and against conservative challengers who poll better (both at the primary and general levels)?

When is our party going to freeze or cut spending? (We saw wasteful spending increases under a republican president and congress. Not as bad as the dems, but still spending like socialists).

When is our party going to stop the creation of big federal programs? (We saw a GOP president and congress create a federal program relating to medications, as well as a federal grab of power over education. Today, we see Ben Nelson and Howard Dean working harder to stop ObamaCare than our own team; our own team that suggests helpful amendments instead of proccedural roadblocks at every opportunity).

When is our party, if in power, going to roll back ANY big government program or spending initiative? We saw Bill Clinton go after welfare with work requirements, but will a republican president or congress ever shut down a major program or agency?

I salute our president (Bush) for the work he did on getting two conservatives into SCOTUS. However, I’m sickened that the dems resort to fighting tooth and nail at the SCOTUS level and for every nominee at the critical judicial levels below SCOTUS. The track record of the senate below SCOTUS shows that our party isn’t as on fire as the bad guys are.

I’m frustrated at my party, and have (I admit) stopped being active some time ago. In the last couple of months I have even flirted with changing my registration to independent. When I express my anger, I get the same answers (year after year). These are the answers -

1) Keep sending money. The dems are worse than we are.
2) Work from the inside to change things. We’re broken and can’t fix oureslves. (Oh, and send money).
3) Don’t support a third party that might be closer to your convictions, support the party of Arlen Spector, Crist, Dede S., Fionna what’s-her-name, etc.
4) Watch our elected officials sit on the sidelines while blogs like RedState fight harder against socialized medicine than our own senators do (but send us money because we aren’t the democrats).

When is the republican party going to start acting like a republican party and stop acting like “The Party that Isn’t as Bad as tTe Democrats”? With respect, THAT’S when I think folks (conservatives and independents) will start rallying to the party. The excuses are wearing thin.

The republicans will gain seats next year because the democrats are so terrible. Folks will vote against the democrats more than they’ll vote for republicans. If you want to see a REAL landslide, give the republicans something to vote FOR, and not just AGAINST.
karenmartin

*clap clap*
Scope

It sounds like you either didn’t read Mr. Blackwell’s diary, or you have choosen to ignore his words. He mentions content-free Republicans (RINOS) many times. You seem to be still stuck in the Bush years. They are gone, you can’t change what happened then, but, you can participate and work to change the parties direction from now on. He very specifically talks about finding and recruiting (noun) conservatives, and, primaring the content-free incumbents that have not supported conservative principles, such as those that refuse to get off their butts and fight the liberals agendas. If you don’t actively participate in some meaningful way, you have no room to complain.

There have been many diaries, and comments here that suggest that we don’t “send money” to the national committees that Mr. Blackwell mentions, the NRSC, the NRCC and the RNC, but, rather to the candidates themselves. The less money they receive, the less they have to support their moderate choices.

There are many comments above claiming that we have heard this all before. I see a major difference in that Mr. Blackwell is advocating that the very republicans that have destroyed the conservative brand, namely the elite moderate so-called leadership needs to be replaced. He is one of only a few, in a high position within the republican party, that has been willing to call a spade a spade. How many others, in a position of authority and influence, have you seen write something as clear and direct as Mr. Blackwell has. Mr. Blackwell acknowledges the fact that the grassroots and the Tea Party people, are who is driving the conservative movement, and he understands that us little guys will decide the future direction of this country. And, we will do it within the Republican party.
hoosierteacher

“I see a major difference in that Mr. Blackwell is advocating that the very republicans that have destroyed the conservative brand, namely the elite moderate so-called leadership needs to be replaced. He is one of only a few, in a high position within the republican party, that has been willing to call a spade a spade. How many others, in a position of authority and influence, have you seen write something as clear and direct as Mr. Blackwell has. Mr. Blackwell acknowledges the fact that the grassroots and the Tea Party people, are who is driving the conservative movement, and he understands that us little guys will decide the future direction of this country. And, we will do it within the Republican party.”

Great! We agree!

Now where is the change in the national committee of the GOP? I see a lot of folks like RS and tea partiers trying their hardest, but I’ll be darned if I see the leadership of our party fighting nationalized health care, or trying to cut or freee spending, or fighting ANYTHING tooth and nail in the senate. The little guys have been giving their time and money for years! Where are the results?

Well?
Scope

The fact is that after every election in the past, the Republicans/Conservatives went back to sleep. How do you think they earned the name the “silent majority.” They were never activists. Unfortunately, you gave your time and money at a time when everyone else was asleep. Now you want to go back to sleep when what you worked for before is gaining traction. That’s snatching defeat from victory, and giving up when your goals are finally realistic.

What you are seeing today is activism. The little guy is “mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore.” When’s the last time you saw the crowds at townhalls, protests across the country, gathering by the thousands in Washington on just a few days notice? I haven’t seen this momentum in my lifetime, and, I’m pretty dang old. The last time I remember seeing protests of any size was during the Vietnam War days, when the same communists in the government today were the young, impressionable dumb college students of the 60′s, and, Jane Fonda was their leader, in between the feminazi Gloria Steinman. What is happening now is much different, and, quite the opposite of the 60′s protests.

The ultimate goal IS to get rid of the same ones you complain about in the Congress today, not to re-elect them or to elect others like them.
http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

So why should we take your advice?

And especially since your advice is a Catch-22:

“When is the republican party going to start acting like a republican party and stop acting like ‘The Party that Isn?t as Bad as tTe Democrats’? With respect, THAT?S when I think folks (conservatives and independents) will start rallying to the party.”

So let me see if I can follow this logic. We should do as hoosierteacher does, sit on the sidelines and not “be active” in the Party, and then expect “the republican party” (which is defined by its actual, boots-on-the-ground, “active,” in-the-trenches, going-to-the-local-meetings-and-voting-for-the-leadership, precinct committeemen) to somehow magically change without more participation by those people like hoosierteacher who prefer to sit on the sidelines of party politics.

I see it a little differently. The Party will start acting like a Party that embraces the virtues and principles set forth in its Platform when more conservatives will actually do something other than just talk and blog. When conservatives actually come into the Party and fill up all those empty precinct committeeman slots. As they have in Nevada.

hoosierteacher, your post will not help change the Republican Party. Going to a local GOP meeting and actually DOING SOMETHING might.

I found one Indiana county GOP web site that explains how to become a precinct committeeman there. I put the link on my precinct committeeman recruitment blog. Here’s the direct link:

http://www.duboisgop.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5

Assuming you live in Indiana, and want to actually do something, you may want to check it out.

Thank you.
ColdWarrior
hoosierteacher

But I respectfuly disagree with some of your content.

First, I’m not advocating a withdrawal of activism. I’ve invested more time for campaigns than most folks, and I’ve even founded branches of YRs and CRs along the way. I’ve been there and done that. However, it is fair to point out that all the activism in the world won’t replace soiled leadership (unless you are seriously suggesting that anyone can just jump up and declare themselves a viable candidate to become a committeeman. It just doesn’t work that way. Despite my work in Colorado some years ago, I’m now in Indiana. Folks at the local level want your time and money, but the leadership involves cracking the old boys network, and doing that involves putting your own family in the firing line like any elected representative does. No thanks).

Working from inside is a nice plattitude, but it often falls far short. Take my investments in churches.

Despite my time, energy, and money, I saw my first church (the Epsicopal church) become an adovcacy group for gay clergy. I switched to the Presbyterians (PCUSA) and gave more time, moeny and energy. I was told to stay inside, and fight the good fight. However, the national body of the church came up with some freaky replacement for “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” that became “Mother, Child, and Womb”, while also taking the gay liberation theology thing to heart. My time was wasted there too.

And now I’m stuck with false choices.

1. Continue to give my time, money, and energy to a broken, lightly liberal party (or be called a quiter by ColdWarrior; oh my),

2. Look for a party more in line with real conservatism (which would only strengthen the hand of the democrats against a divided right wing. Oh, and it goes against the rules of RS, which is fair enough),

3. Or just throw in the towel and spend more of my valuable time and money on things that really matter (like my family and my full time work).

Try this one on for size. Instead of pleading for more of my time and money (as well as trying to get involved with the local structure, which is really an old boy network that doesn’t admit outsiders unless they are mindlessly stuffing envelopes and bother folks at home with telephone solicitations), how about something completely new!

How about we see some evidence that this party is worth giving continued support!

How about seeing our leadership in the GOP Central Committee replaced with folks that support conservative candidates first? How about seeing a majority of congressmen actualy voting to cut or at least freeze spending first? How about seeing real reform within the party?

Frankly, it is YOUR logic that is perplexing. You would have everyone reward this current GOP leadership by continuing to stuff envelopes and send money, while complaining about the direction of the party (such as venting on a blog). I don’t understand giving a carrot to a failed entity. I prefer the stick.

The point that you miss is that there is only one thing that scares the GOP leadership, and that is “the base stays home or takes the ball elsewhere”.

As long as the majority of folks that call themselves republicans keep financing and volunteering and voting for these moderate to lefty people, the GOP reaps a positive reinforcement, don’t they? Did our “Hill to Die On” affect anyone in the party? It got some communications guy to write to RS a few days ago with a complaint that the blogs just don’t get it, while Devore continues to be shunned. I don’t see the NRSC supporting Rubio yet. And you and I both know that there is now chance of any organized senate campaign against health care socialization. We’ve had months to look for it, and where are the republicans we elected?

The sad fact is, we have to rely on democrats like Nelson and Dean to do our work for us, because the senators on OUR side don’t seem to feel any urgency about the matter. Apparently, wondering the wilderness for the last two election cycles hasn’t taught our elected representatives a thing.

I’m sorry, but I follow a conservative philosophy called “the free market”. It dicates that the good or service that wins me over gets my money. When the GOP becomes a conservative body instead of a bunch of “me too” RINOs, they get my time and money back.

In your world (more of a “union” ideology), we have to support the union no matter what. Let them take our money and time and invest it in issues we don’t believe in. Just as a union takes money from a laborer and uses it to fund abortion candidates and preaches “union uber alles”, the GOP wants us to ignore the funding of liberal candidates, the votes for increased spending (at least if WE’RE the ones in congress), and the complete lack of spine in fighting nationalized health care.

In your world, there is no capitalism of ideas. If a car is built badly, you think I should buy the car anyway. If I complain, I should go work at the factory (as if that will change anything). It doesn’t work that way. The better product gets the support. Right now, less folks like the democrats than the republicans. You may think this is a good thing. Well it isn’t. A good thing would be when folks LIKE the republican brand, as they did under Reagan, or they did in ’94. But in your world, the lesser of two evils is something to get motivated about. That’s very sad.

So what’s my answer? Well, it certainly doesn’t involve throwing good money after bad (another democrat ideology). It also doesn’t involve giving my time to a party that doesn’t give any of us the time of day (or perhaps you missed the Brian Walsh foolishness we got the other day, in which he totaly ignored the comments under his post. He didn’t tell the truth to us, and failed to respond).

By now you think I’m a hypocrite. I’ve decided that being an independent is probably for the best, and the GOP isn’t worth my time. And yet I also wrote that you are wrong; leaving activism behind is a foolish idea. Here is where you get it wrong again.

Folks should stay active. But by supporting conservatism, not a “conservative in name only” party. Get active with a local tea party. Work for a local campaign (just the candidate, NOT the party). Read and comment at RS, or anywhere that debate is allowed.

But if your answer to me is that I should shut up and give my time and money to a party that doesn’t give a rip about folks like Palin, Rubio, and Devore, then you are every bit as much an establishment republican as Brian Walsh and his GOP COMM people. And Mr. Walsh’s reasoning and excuses don’t work.
Scope

is when I find your sorry pessimestic attitude not worth responding to. Because you had some bad shakes in the past, and can now claim victimhood status, you are taking it out one one of Redstate’s most active and conservative warriors, to borrow his name. Your attitude would only depress those you would be working with in party activities. You’re right, just stay home and do nothing, and, don’t complain when the party does not meet your standards.

Your portrayal of ColdWarrior is so dead wrong, and, I would say that most all regulars would agree with me.
aesthete

I don’t embrace hoosierteacher’s pessimism or his opinion on CW, but he does bring up an interesting point when he talks about his inability to get into the local Republican club, and that is this: we need more people who are experienced at interparty battles and politics in general. It’s great that we now have a motivated and willing base, but that base will be squandered without effective organization, intelligence, and the wherewithal to be able to “take over the party from the inside”. CW and Mr. Blackwell (great guy) have excellent primers for people looking to become more involved in their local parties, and we need more people like CW and Art if we’re earnest in our endeavor to make the GOP “our” party; otherwise, people will get frustrated and leave.
aesthete

Unlike the free market, where you can choose to buy, or not buy, a car, you have only two choices when it comes to parties: the GOP, or the Democrats. To extend your analogy, you essentially have a choice between a broken, crappy, and ludicrously unwieldy vehicle that (barely) works, or one that blows up if you turn on the ignition. There are no refunds, you can’t keep your money, and you can’t not choose: you can, at best, let someone else choose for you.
brojohn2

I too hated voting for McCain, but I did, primarily because of Sarah. Love the lady. I also have decided that I can’t change anything unless I am willing to get down in the mud, and clean it out to find the floor again. For too long we, the conservatives, have allowed the party apparatus to be taken away from us. It is time to fight for the Party to once again be the home for Conservative principles.

We do need to return our party to the Constitution, to fiscal and social conservative principles that will protect and defend life, and liberty with honor and respect for one another. We are the ones who MUST take responsibility for our party. I want to see conservatives at every level of our party and our government. That’s why I am running for party chair in my county. If you want to make things right, it is best to get active and move the RINO’s out so we can again be the party that speaks Conservative.
God bless
realskinny

Republicans when enough conservatives get off their rears and make them.. Read Cold Warrior’s post above. The only vehicle to enough power to restore the Republic is one of the two major parties. It is far more practical to influence the Republicans and they have been the natural home of conservatives for a century. Constant sniping at Republicans only makes it harder on people like Inhofe and DeMint who really are standing up for the people. I know, It about made me barf when McCain said how much he respected Durbin last night.—Durbin! But we can’t take our eye off the ball because of disgust at some outrageous behavior by one of the team.. We have to build a better team.. When I was in the Corps in the 60′s we had a saying “There’s always that ten percent.” Meaning there ‘ll always be a few who will let you down and not carry their share. You have to account form them, work harder to make it up, and work to eliminate them..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jacobson get2djnow

N/T
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jacobson get2djnow

The GOP kicked the pooh outta the Left. Predictions aren’t your forte, I guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jacobson get2djnow

nt.
soljerblue

The US political system doesn’t respond well to third party movements, and never has. The closest a third party candidate came to winning was Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party in 1912. TR succeeded only in getting Woodrow Wilson elected. Alabama Governor George Wallace split with the Democrats over civil rights, ran as a third party candidate, helped Richard Nixon get elected to two terms. Ross Perot helped give us eight years of Bill Clinton.

We must do, again, with the GOP what the Goldwaterites did after 1964 — take back the party and turn it back to its traditional conservative positions of limited government, lower taxes, individual freedom, a strong defense, and respect for life. The left accomplished its takeover of the Democrat party over a period of years. It will take time, but we can do likewise with the Republicans.

It’ll take awhile. We need to get going.
Scope

The way the party system is currently set up, favors a two party system. Anyone wanting to run for the presidency on the Libertarian, Conservative or Constitution parties for example have little chance as they have to jump through many hoops just to get on the states ballots. They have to collect signatures in every state. The size of the state determines how many signatures are required. I have yet to see anyone get on the ballot in every state. Some parties are known by different names in various states, which obviously confuses the electorate. It would take a very powerful, well known person to accomplish the feat. I don’t know of any person who would be successful, and even have the slightest chance. Ron Paul ran on the Libertarian party ticket in the 80′s, and guess what, he’s back in the Republican party.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

But if you try to promote third parties here your account will be disabled.

End of topic.
onyon43

Isn’t this an activist site? Wasn’t the point of Ross Perot that people didn’t want a “moderate” anymore? While I agree with the article that Conservatives should help the Republican Party because it is the better of the two options, for now, I hardly believe that ending the discussion on a third party, when there are valid arguments for it as well, is warranted. Your post comes off a little Al Gore-esque (the “End of topic”), wanting to silence opposition to a position you hold (I also don’t necessarily support the idea of handing Democrats election victories in the name of not electing RINOs) instead of embracing the discussion. Why can’t we advocate totally disbanding the corrupt GOP for a more sensible, conservative party? We would still have two parties, just no more Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Michael Steele, and more Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley…

Just sayin’…
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

Further discussion of the rule goes to the contact form.
janis

I’ts what? 3:20 in the morning where you are now? I’ve been up since around 5 a.m. central time this morning because I made the mistake of falling asleep early last night. When do you sleep?
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

… due to having blown two and a half days helping my parents, both of whose computers had serious problems on the same day, heh.
janis

a whole lot in my book, speaking as the mother of one son. My son has the advantage of only having one parent with a computer as my husband knows just enough to avoid the thing at all costs and makes the sign of the evil eye when he has to get close to it.

Too, my son couldn’t fix my computer if my life depended on it, but he’d get my PS3 up and running in a jiffy if I had one.
realskinny

Any talk of third party splits Conservatives and elects Democrats.
janis

Neil is a site moderator. You’d do well to listen to his advice. And no one is allowed to come here and advocate for a third party, for the reason stated in the subject line. We win by making the R party into the vehicle that carries conservatives across the finish line. Period.
reddog53

This whole line of caterwauling is getting very old and stale…

Have you not noticed that Cap and Trade is essentially dead?

Have you not noticed that Health Care Reform has been stalled since August because the Democrats are over-reaching and the Republicans are basically united (not easy to do!)?

Did you not pay attention to the races in Virginia and New Jersey?

It really is time to start positively supporting those that are working to support things we agree with (such as Rubio, Haley, etc) and get off this Eeyore-bleating stuff about how the Republicans are disappointing you for things they did in 2004 and 2005.
onyon43

You win on the site policy thing, I don’t really care. Coming from Oregon State, I was often graced with Jane Lubchenko on the homepage saying “the time for debate is over”, and so when someone says “end of topic”, it strikes me as a little over-the-top. I understand though that it is a site policy, and I respect that.

On the Ross Perot thing, I don’t think that the whole point is that Bill Clinton got elected. People in a representative democracy are allowed to vote for whom they wish, and a lot of people (19 million) said no to George Bush 41, as well as Bill Clinton. The GOP has had since 1992 to fix whatever it needed to to ensure that “republicans” and “independents” understand what we stand for and all it has become is Democrat-lite. Call the R party what you want, but the point is (and I think the next post down addresses what I am trying to) America is by-and-large a Conservative-minded nation, not a republican nation. So, I won’t advocate changing the name. I will advocate (as you do) changing the party (but keeping the R) to have leaders like Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio and Nikki Haley. When that happens, there won’t be a need to change the name.

Cheers! And keep up the good work all, I thoroughly appreciate all that I learn here. We have a tough fight, but a fight worth fighting. Keep the faith.
makemyday

and I’m sure it would be a winning plan in the long term. We should follow it as the left follows “Rules for Radicals” and get with ColdWarrior in the “how” it can be done.

The question I have what do we do for the short term? We have less than a year until the midterms which will be our Waterloo if we lose. We need a cogent plan for the midterms. A well thought out, implemented plan that will grab the attention of everyone. Perhaps RedStaters in each state can come together and meet face to face to discuss then act according to the unique situations in each state. Maybe we could meet at local Republican events, townhalls, local congressional and or senate offices.
reddog53

We need to scoop up some of his recruits and get them to the front lines for 2010.

There are elements of what he is talking about underway in a lot of different places, as he says.

The trick is for us to network and find out how to link the pieces together quickly–much like what has been done in the last year with the rallies, etc.

Local parties will be having their conventions shortly–get on the mailing list and press on from there.
makemyday

I’m in Oakland Co. Michigan, any others out there want to meet up? I know JLeonard and gekster are from Michigan. Any thoughts about a meet up?
http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

Do it at your local GOP meeting.

In the “meeting after the meeting.”

This is how I did it. I went to my local GOP and introduced myself as a conservative Republican who wanted to become a precinct committeeman. I stressed the word “conservative.” I said I would work for primary candidates who embraced the entire Platform, not just some it. I listened to others and soon figured out who the other conservatives were. After the meeting, I hung out and tried to introduce myself to as many folks I could who seemed to be conservative. Some conservatives introduced themselves to me.

I did this meeting after meeting. I did this at meetings of the Arizona Republican Assembly, an ad hoc group of conservative Republicans, many of who are precinct committeemen. And other conservative groups. I’d just stand up and announce that I was a conservative and a precinct committeemen and then tell them how they could make the Party more conservative by becoming a voting member of it. I told them to talk to me after the meeting and I’d have a short flyer to give them that would tell them everything they needed to do to become a voting member of the Party and that it was easy to do and there were lots of vacancies. And that it was fun.

Now we’ve got an informal conservative caucus in our legislative district and county. We communicate by e-mail and otherwise.

Bottom line: network with other conservatives at the GOP meetings as well as otherwise. Let the moderates see you working together. I’ve found many moderates are moderate only because they are too timid to express their actual conservative beliefs. They’re afraid someone might think they are “right wing” if, for example, they openly express a pro-life belief. So they remain silent. But, when they cast their votes, they’ll vote for a conservative over a RINO every time. The point I’m trying to make is that conservatives may not even have to achieve an actual majority in order to, for example, elect conservative leadership in a local or county GOP organization because a lot of the “silent moderates” will vote for the conservative candidates rather than the RINOs.

Of course, my approach may not work where you are. Your only limitation is your imagination.

Thanks for getting involved!

ColdWarrior
janis

Republican party, onyon43, but, yes, the point of Ross Perot IS that it elected Bill Clinton. That’s the hazard of a third party, and we cannot afford that at this point. We need all hands on deck and voting for Republicans everywhere we run one. Conservative R’s, yes, absolutely without question. Don’t misunderstand me, I detested JMac as our candidate, but I voted for him anyway because Obama and his goons posed an even worse threat.

But now, victory for conservatives is actually within reach and it’s no time to take our votes elsewhere and sabotage our chances. Rubio, possibly DeVore, a whole bunch of conservatives running for House races, and lots of local and state ones as well. We can do this if we keep our focus on our ultimate goal: a conservative-run national party capable of winning elections and taking back our country from the brink of disaster on fiscal, cultural and defense fronts.

You up for that?
red_oakster

including two way polls. Bush 41 broke his taxes pledge, the economy had been in recession, and the Republican had held the White House for 12 years Clinton would have won without Perot.

That said, why would conservatives ever abandon fighting for control of the Republican party. We are the core of the activists. We bring virtually all of the intellectual energy. Blackwell’s whole point is that the odds of our advancing conservative with the party are excellent. Why unilaterally disarm?

On the whole I think the battle for conservatism is going very well within the party. When I look around and I see candidates like Rubio, Toomey, Murray, Norton, and Grayson, that looks like a glass more than half-full. And we’ve got Bob Bennett on the run in Utah. And as much as most folks here prefer DeVore to Fiorina, Coburn’s endorsement of Fiorina tells me that me that while she may not be a DeMint, she’s not a RINO either.

So buck up and keep battling. We’re winning.
http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
Third Street

I remember ’92, and what an extraordinarily powerful force Perot was for much of the summer. At one point he was polling at 39%. His support ultimately collapsed (due in no small part to his I’m-in-I’m-out-I’m-back-in-Larry! tap-dancing and his insistence that space aliens had partnered with the CIA to spy on his daughter’s wedding via microscopic cameras implanted into his fillings, or something like that); a large segment of both the Republican and Democrat electorates “came home” to their respective candidates, and Perot received 19% of the vote. Bush was coming back strong in late polling and Clinton won with only 43%.

There is no doubt in my mind that without the Perot factor, the GHW Bush administration would have lasted into the Macarena era.
aesthete

We can all see how well that turned out. Besides that, I’m in complete agreement with your post.
onyon43

good post.
Scope

I have never seen this country so united in it’s opposition to the Congress and WH agendas. I have never seen poll after poll indicating that conservatism is on the rise country wide. It gets a little discouraging to read articles, posts and comments all still stuck on Bush, and those Republicans that voted for his spending policies. Let Obama keep blaming Bush for everything, he will do it until he is out of office, wheather he is correct or not. The Republicans and Bush did in fact screw up on some issues. Yes that is correct. We have acknowledged it over and over.

Janis your inspiration to move on, and take the rise of conservatism and run with it, is the positive message we all need to digest. We can’t change what was. We can only change what is to come. We are winning.
janis

only healthy alternative I see at this point. I cannot spend every waking moment terrified of what is looming in front of us because that’s a paralyzing position to be in. I’m cynical and pessimistic by nature, but find the opposition to this government to be uplifting and encouraging.

Man proposes and God disposes– Obama and the Left may not believe in God, but that makes no difference to God. That’s why He’s God and they’re NOT. I remind myself of that at least a couple of times a day. No matter what they have in mind for us and this country, that doesn’t make it a done deal. And you’re so very right, Scope- “We can only change what is to come.”
diamonddave

that’s why i’m pushing a campaign to call obimbo and his ilk anti-freedom, anti-liberty, anti-constitutionalists to identify them for what they are. in my opinion calling them socialists or communists or fascists or nazis, which they are all that, doesn’t resonate enough with the average american. but calling them anti-constitutional makes them sound exactly like what they are, anti-american. it is specific and definitive enough to make it stick. it is also distinctly american. will you support me in this and help it go viral? and i’d like to have everyone wear white shirts on thursdays to show support for the constitution.

dave
realskinny

they are anti-American but you’ll just get into arguments about who has a right to say who’s American or not. They are Marxist revolutionaries who behave exactly as Communist did in the thirties except they don’t hide it now.

Finrod

They’re useful to have the *other side* split their votes and thus make it easier for us to win. That’s why I’m always amused to see parties like the Green Party and the like making noise; the more noise the other side makes about abandoning the Democratic Party in favor of ‘real progressives’, or whatever phrasing they’re using this year, just makes our jobs that much easier.

edwlstr

And as you suggest, we should be held hostage by loyalty, our sage RNSC continues to select RINOs to guard our conservative values. A new order is being shoved forcibly up your hoohaw, as well as mine. This makes it hard to sit comfortably. The half-hearted Republican resistance in the Senate to the health care bill is just another example of liberty sacrificed to decorum. Tell your grandchildren how we lost our liberty but, at least, we were polite about it. Has this generation no men and women left who would die for principles?

Third Street

Dan Perrin

Pearls of wisdom from a Great American.

http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

Appreciate the post, but we cannot win against the GOP fortress and their supporters in the media. Bush the father failed to campaign in 1992, that’s why we lost. He stayed in the White House and let Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson dominate the airwaves. George Bush the son was scornful of us, told us to stop frothing at the mouth (via one of his mouthpieces), wanted amnesty (as did the vile Karl Rove), and knew if he had more democrats elected in 2006 he’d have a better chance of getting it. A prominent republican mentioned on this site a few months ago he was blindsided by their losses in 2006. This is an example of the problem. There were violent demonstrations going on splashed across the meda 24/7 for years and not a word from Bush. Dead silence. Not only were republicans passive, they actively supported the opposition. You will recall Bush talked up Hillary for the presidency. The current GOP lost us our country over the past 8 crucial years. They either encouraged or failed to stop the sub prime scam, the ascendancy of Soros and Goldman Sachs, and the advancement of global warming and cap and trade. You might as well line us all up against a wall and shoot us and our children. This was a good post, but most of it is talked about a lot on this site anyway. For us to win, Gingrich and Karl Rove must never appear on television again.

Scope

Rove and Gingrich, and McCain are regulars on both his radio and TV shows. I always have fox radio on mainly to listen to our local conservative host, and Rush Limbaugh. As soon as I hear Rove’s, Gingrich’s or the sickening Bob Beckel on, I remember to turn my radio off. Oh, and Dick Morris is another idiot, as he never got over his love affir with Bill Clinton. As they say, Hannity’s mind is so open, his brains have fallen out.

aesthete

is his hosting of Erick from RS. It’s weird to hear him preach the doctrine of smaller government when he was so defensive of Bush’s expansion of the same.
Scope

I forgot that Erick has been on his show. That was probably the only time it was worth watching.

And, yes, as I said, his mind has opened so much, his brains have fallen out. How can you preach that you are a conservative daily, and then invite mostly moderates (not Erick) on your shows. It can’t be because he wants to change their minds, as he doesn’t have the intellect to articulately accomplish that.
aesthete

Of inviting guests so terrible, that they make the host look good. Case in point: O’Reilly and Obama
Scope

It has given me one of the only laughs I’ve been able to find today.
Scope

It has given me one of the only laughs I’ve been able to find today.
phenne

Cold Warrior —

Okay, I want to be the change my party needs.

I visited the Los Angeles County GOP website. I searched around, and did not find a way to find if any “precinct committeeman” positions were unfilled. I am not sure that is what they call them. I know my District (25th) and my representative (Howard “Buck” McKeon-R).

I feel they want volunteers, money, and (basically) phone-bankers and envelope-stuffers. “Done-Did” that the past three elections.

Any tips, or is it “old boys network” here, too? California Republicans have (I think) several organizations, but you need to be somebody/know somebody to get into influential positions.

I just do not know how to get where you need me to be ….

jmimac351

Instead, volunteer next year for a conservative’s campaign. I’ve done it in the past and it’s very rewarding. You can do as little or as much as you can / like and it’s really cool to be around others who share the same beliefs.

If good men do nothing Obama will win. This country may be too stupid already but I’m not just going to watch this happen and scream at articles on Drudge. My country is worth a little bit of my time, money, and a Rubio bumper sticker on my car.
soljerblue

If New York’s 23rd shows anything; if the Florida GOP senate contest shows anything, it’s that conservatives — acting within the party — can shake things up and force the powers-that-be to pay attention and react. This has to be replicated over and over in the next year, and beyond, but it can be done. And I think it is being done. I wasn’t very hopeful at the beginning of this year, but I do believe there’s an awakening going on; a realization at last that we’ve been docile too long and it’s time to take back our country and Constitution.

mosander

While the Democrats are taken over by communists, they also remembered to infiltrate the Republicans. No one in the current Republican Party is standing up to this dictator. The Republicans continue to put the “friends” like Charlie Christ and ScuzzyFuzzy up to run of office like that will fix it. Until you get principled people with conservative values, we will not fix this. England is beginning to put up a third party with great success. Principled conservatives will win. Had the Republicans helped, Hoffman would have won. Without help Rubio is doing well. As a R. party member, here is my observation of the attitude of the R. leadership: This is my party. I built it, I put time in it and have made it what it is today. I’m not going to have that rabble Tea Party groups dictate anything to us. We will run who we want and they will HAVE to vote for US.

Well, they are wrong. And it is that attitude that will destroy the Republicans. They can’t figure it out. While they are trying to save the party, the rest of Americans ARE TRYING TO SAVE OUR COUNTRY! Like England that attitude will cause a third party to arise. And they don’t even know why.

http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

mosander, you’re wrong about how Scozzafava got the nod. The entire affair was reported upon by Michael Patrick Leahy at www.tcotreport.com. I spoke with one of the county chairman in NY-23 and he confirmed the following, as well.

Scozzafava got the nod because the 11 counties in NY-23 DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH CONSERVATIVES PARTICIPATING AT THE GRASS ROOTS as Party precinct committeeman. The rules in the New York GOP provide that precinct committeemen get to vote to recommend who the county chairmen ought to nominate for the special election ballot to fill a congressional seat that has become vacant. They took those votes. The conservatives PCs did not unite around a single conservative. The moderates/liberals/RINOs did unite around the relatively well-known Scozzafava. The county chairman then voted based upon their “sense” of the grass roots. Don’t like those rules? Well, then become a precinct committeeman, if you live in NY-23, and change them. Precinct committeemen ARE the Party. Want to be a part of the solutions the Party needs to be more conservative? Then you have to become a voting member of the Party. It’s easy to do, half the slots in the Party nationwide are vacant, and being a precinct committeeman does not take more than a couple of hours a month on average. Is your country worth that?

Thank you.
ColdWarrior
www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

realskinny

thinking any third party can help. As for Britain and other Parlimentary systems, we wish the conservatives (small “c”) luck. There is a reason we only have two viable parties in USA. Our excellent Electoral College system has had an (I believe) unintended consequence. The president is elected by the states not the popular vote. Any party with hopes of capturing the Presidency must have a nation wide appeal. Having a lot of support in a few populous states or region of the country will not win. Only parties with broad appeal can become established and win it all. Any third party will have their big issue co-opted by one of the established parties. Only the failure of the Whigs to adopt abolition of slavery allowed the Republican Party to be successful in becoming established. (they also attracted anti-slavery Northern Democrats)

Since the Republicans now represent the small government free market position (however imperfectly) any TEA Party will simply split the majority conservative vote. The result is to elect the minority big government party who are now dominated by Marxist revolutionaries. To push for a third party is to push for the destruction of the country.

I suspect many of the TEA party people are conservative Democrats who have come to the realization their party no longer represents them in any way. But they have an ancestral dislike for the Republican Party so wish there was an alternative. My answer is if you are conservative is to work to change the Republican Party into something that represents you. If you are not conservative please join Algore in that place where it’s “millions of degrees”.

hoosierteacher

…until you went for the weird conspiracy angle.

“I suspect many of the TEA party people are conservative Democrats…”

Yep; that’s it. The big conservative push in America can’t POSSIBLY be because the GOP has failed to uphold conservative values. It must be the legions of conservative democrats.

Hmmm. If the GOP had a home for conservatives anymore, they wouldn’t need tea parties. If consevative dems suddenly woke up and realized their party was leftists, they’d vote republican (instead of going to these parties).

Really. you and Cold Warrior need to wake up and smell the coffee. The GOP is making a lot of us angry. Your response is to blame us for not sending enough time and money to our party. You want us to stick with a broken entity (as I have for decades). Then (to top it off) you completely dismiss the tea party activists a secret outlet for conservative democrats.

Is it any wonder that more and more people expect better from the GOP?

hoosierteacher

The GOP supported a liberal, socialist, leftist candidate. This was done at the local AND national level.

In the meantime, conservative activists (the little guys) did their darndest to fight the GOP establishment. Our friend in the race wasn’t the GOP, it was the conservative party of NY.

Again, I appreciate your idealism (walk into a NY GOP precint as a conservative and magicaly become a precint chair). I know that’s how they teach it in high school. But that isn’t the real world my friend. Stuffing all of the envelopes and manning all of the phone banks (and putting up yard signs) won’t get you a precint committeeman position, especialy in NY.

I’m glad you can say, “I became a precinct committeeman before it was cool ” in your sig. But I’ve got news for you. It isn’t going to happen for most of us, and from what we’ve seen of our so-called GOP leadership, it is FAR from cool. If you live in NY, the Conservative party does more to elect conservative republicans (and conservative party members) than the GOP does. Their endosement is key in many races.

By the way, where we also missing precint people in Florida? How about California? What about in our last presidential election (I don’t think McCain’s recent buddy-buddy comments about Durbin add to the McCain as conservative myth; do you?)

http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

Maybe the chicken and the egg analogy will work. Which came first, the Party or its voting membership?

The voting membership elects the Party leaders. The leaders don’t elect the membership.

You admit you haven’t been IN the Party. What are you complaining about? You didn’t have any say in the election of the leadership of the Party.

Let’s try some numbers. Nationwide on Election Day, 2008, the Republican Party was at half strength in the PC ranks. And split about 50-50 between conservatives and RINOs/moderates/liberals. IF, tomorrow, conservatives who have been sitting at home, complaining, like you, invaded the Party nationwide and filled up the empty PC slots, that 50-50 ratio would go to 75-25.

With that kind of majority, in the next round of leadership elections, the Party leaders would all be conservative.

For example, in Utah, Bob Bennett is facing a primary. The Utah GOP does not allow “mere” registered Republicans vote in the primary for the Senate seats. Only party delegates/precinct committeemen can. Grass roots conservatives from the Tea Party and 9.12 movements there have discovered this and are invading the GOP to become delegates in attempt to make sure Bennett either does not get the nomination or has to go to a run-off.

You can read about it here:

http://rightjeff.blogspot.com/2009/10/utah-912-and-utah-tea-party-rally.html

I hope you’ll become a PC.

Thank you.
ColdWarrior

hoosierteacher

It wasn’t from within. The Conservative Party of New York did the fighting, and it was against the GOP. The same GOP that supported Arlen Spector and actively fought against Toomey. The same GOP that continues to fail Rubio, Devore, and others.

Activists who were conservatives had to fight against the GOP to stop Dede S. from winning. In the end, the best thing we can say is that we prevented a liberal GOP victory, and elected a liberal democrat. If the GOP hadn’t been fighting against the little guys (guys like you and me), perhaps the conservative in the race would have won.

Now THAT would have been something to brag about. But the GOP did everything they could to sabotage the conservative from the start.

Scope

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/the_battleground_poll_and_the.html

This is very encouraging for the Conservatives. The Tea Parties and the peaceful protests cannot let up. They must remain active and frequent.

Scope

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/the_battleground_poll_and_the.html

This is very encouraging for the Conservatives. The Tea Parties and the peaceful protests cannot let up. They must remain active and frequent.

trav

Rush harps on this idea constantly, imploring his listeners on an almost daily basis that alternate parties will never work, that the Grand Old Republican Party Machine is the only hope for conservatives to “take back the country.”

You get it from the DNC, too, who drill their liberal base with slogans like “A Vote for Nader is a Vote for Bush.”

I’m sorry, but this mantra of subservience to the two-party system is either disingenuous or insane.

The ONLY solution for Americans right now is to take the leap of courage and vote EXCLUSIVELY for alternate party candidates, EVEN IF THE REPUBLICAN (OR DEMOCRAT) IS A BETTER CANDIDATE, until the two party chokehold has been broken, no matter how much the RNC or the DNC try to scare you into compliance. There IS a place for the Republican Party in the future, but not until some sort of balance is restored.

Sure, in the meantime you might get a few Socialists in office, maybe a few Libertarians, a few Green, a few Tea Party, etc; and sure, some of them will no doubt be just as corrupt as the weasels we have in office today. But eventually the entrenched power duopoly will be broken, and it will be infinitely easier to vote those weasels out.

The fight to eradicate any self-perpetuating, self-serving majority is EXACTLY what the Founding Fathers were all about; they would be horrified to see what their great blueprint has devolved into.

We as CITIZENS need to take back the country, and I’m sorry to rain on anyone’s Republican Love Parade, but that will NEVER happen until Republicans and Democrats are BOTH minority parties.

P.S. Thank you, Erick, for all your extraordinary work.

Scope

Redstate does not support those that advocate for third parties. Your account will be banned if that is your goal here at Redstate. Go back up and read Neil Stevens posts above.

And, from myself personally, you are wrong.

trav

Dear Scope & Neil Stevens:

My apologies, this is my first time posting here (although I have enjoyed the newsletter for several months now).

I was unaware that Redstate was directly affiliated with the GOP, and I will respectfully refrain from posting any more 3rd party advocacy on your site.

You are a terrific center for conservative philosophy and information, even if we disagree on the likelihood of entrenched corruption reforming itself from within.

Best Regards
realskinny

of eliminating the Electoral College we will always have two major parties. The question becomes does one of them represent you—if not, choose the one that comes closest and get to work.
Scope

Redstate advocates for working within the Republican party to change it from the destructive path some in it have taken.

This is a Conservative/Republican website, not an activist website for the promotion of third parties. Like most other reputable websites, comments are monitored, and posters removed from membership, if they do not share the same goals.

You don’t have to appologize to me. I am simply a member who is trying to give you a fair warning as to the sites rules.
Scope

Redstate advocates for working within the Republican party to change it from the destructive path some in it have taken.

This is a Conservative/Republican website, not an activist website for the promotion of third parties. Like most other reputable websites, comments are monitored, and posters removed from membership, if they do not share the same goals.

You don’t have to appologize to me. I am simply a member who is trying to give you a fair warning as to the sites rules.
aesthete

for a refreshingly substance-filled message and post. It is common to see some of our “leaders” post “rah, rah” messages, or complete drivel, and it’s fantastic whenever we get a well thought out proposal or OP from a conservative in power. Thank you again for the informative post.

penguin2

Also excellent article by American Thinker. I was surprised to see how consistent the results, and this is from a respected bipartisan polling group. The country hasn’t changed, we are still a center right nation. I’m thinking, though the liberals/moderates are the smaller groups, they gained in strength by taking over key positions, and the far Left truly was able to take control of the media (thus controlling the message), as well as the cover-up in helping elect a Socialist/Communist.

Scope

otherwise this poll would show very different results. Who needs the MSM when we have Redstate, (smiley face). Thanks for looking into working within the party. I want to hear about your experiences.

Common_Cents

And for entitlements probably billions of pounds of cure. We just witnessed Barry Soeterro offer up hundreds of BILLIONS to the world for global warming reparations based on unfounded and deceptive science. We are not only creating more domestic dependents but now, global dependents with entitlements. If we don’t take back the Republican party soon it will take a few acts of God to turn things around.

The easiest way is to utitlize the infrastructure of the Republican party. Any good businessman will weigh the costs and time frame of a “make” or “buy” decision. “Make” or build it yourself, or “buy” utilize existing infrastructure and adapt it to your need.
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