Sometimes we get so caught up in campaigns or what’s going on in politics at the moment that we lose sight of what’s important and what to do next. In other words, conservatives need to stay focused in order to be politically successful.
With that in mind, here are some political resolutions for conservatives:
Pick Your Battles
Just as liberals won generations of votes by winning battles over Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, conservatives should focus on big picture battles that result in still more victories in the future because they tilt the playing field more in our favor.
It’s a big country out there, with a big government and a multitude of issues that we can all get sidetracked by. Conservatives need to focus on issues that unite us – whether social, fiscal, liberty or security related – and that have the possibility of strengthening our position in the future. But cooperation is the key. Pick your battles…don’t let them pick you.
Coordinate, Coordinate, Coordinate!
In recent years the conservative movement has grown tremendously. Many people have gained valuable experience, and new networks and connections between activists have been created. But what is needed is to leverage that muscle with greater emphasis on sharing information and coordinating activity.
Start a web page listing your endorsements and local candidates’ information and donation links. Start a listing of key dates and locations for Republican Party meetings in your area. Add any important details that people need to know about how the party works and what opportunities are available to get involved. Email it to every conservative you know. Start an online group (use Google, Yahoo, Ning or Facebook) and coordinate with others to decide who wants (or is willing) to do what.
The bottom line is to leverage our muscle by coordinating and focusing on places where that muscle can be overwhelming and have a long term impact, (especially at the local level).
Don’t Be a Cannibal
No matter who you are for in any given race, don’t “go cannibal” on fellow conservatives over who they support. You might win for the moment, but you’ll lose productive relationships in the long run. Every few years campaigns come along like tornadoes and divide so many conservatives against one another and then they’re gone, but many times the personal divisions remain. We need to make it a mission to avoid that – and call out the campaigns that encourage it for their own interests.
Whoever the Republican nominee is in any election, they will never be perfect and will probably take a lot of “maintenance” from a policy standpoint. But as a movement, conservatives are much better prepared to deal with such politicians than in years past, so long as we avoid division, coordinate and present a united front – at every level.
Focus on the Republican Party
Ronald Reagan used to say that “personnel is policy”, and it’s no different when it comes to the people who comprise the GOP’s party structure, or those who run and get elected to public office under the Republican banner.
It’s great to have conservatives start their own local groups, protest and be heard, but it’s even better when those same folks also make an effort to influence the Republican Party by joining local precinct organizations, run for precinct office, run for delegate to county (or district) conventions, county office, state delegate spots and so on. Get involved and volunteer to serve on committees. Local party organizations are usually borderline desperate for volunteers. If you’re willing, and you’ve got a pulse, then you’re usually welcome.
The more conservatives who show up, get involved and network with one-another, the fewer problems we will have with the “establishment” when it comes to pushing a conservative agenda.
Get Local
Remember, the presidency isn’t everything, and neither is Congress. Who do you think ends up running for Congress anyway? It’s usually the guy (or gal) who has already served on a school board, city or county council. If you want to have a long-term impact on the upper levels of politics, then you need to have a long-term approach to influencing who’s playing at that level to begin with. And that means you need to get local.
The local levels are important in their own right, (you pay property taxes, right?), but they also serve as the farm team for the big leagues. Don’t ignore them. Plus, races at that level have the benefit of being easier to influence. A little money and organization in these races goes a long way.
A coordinated effort by conservative activists to let other conservatives know who they have endorsed and where to send money can have a bigger impact on Joe Smith for school board than it ever could on Suzzie Smith for Congress.
Hold them Accountable
Conservatives now have a better understanding of how to take political matters into their own hands. They have better access to the tools that can connect them with one another, to organize and become more effective – which is exactly why the elites are so concerned.
We need to use those strengths to hold those in elected office accountable for what they do (or don’t do). Watch them. Attend meetings. Meet with them. Offer to work with them when you can. Let them know about your concerns (and the concerns of others like yourself). Let people know what you find out, or what’s going on – and how they can contact them and have an impact. “Adopt” an elected official and make a project out of them.
Self preservation is an instinct that runs deep – especially for politicians – and conservatives need to take full advantage of it.
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The experience that conservatives have gained, the connections that have been made and the techniques that have been learned can pay big dividends.
Adopt one of these resolutions and get busy!
So often many Americans tend to chalk up “the way things are” to someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. Of course we are usually naturally suspicious of power and probably watch too many movies with conspiracy theories for our own good.
The Thrill is Gone in the Cult of Obama
All the polls are singing in harmony.
According to the latest AP poll, Obama has reached his lowest approval rating ever of 40% and his highest disapproval ever of 59%. More important, 57% now say that he can’t manage the government effectively.
It’s hard to keep a cult going if people think that you are a lousy leader.
On immigration, over 2/3’s of Americans disapprove of how he is handling the issue. In fact, for the first time in a long time more Americans have a favorable view of Republicans on immigration than Democrats, by 29-25% respectively, (a net flip of ten points since May).
Obamacare continues to eat at his political fortunes like a cancer. The latest poll from the Kaiser Foundation showed not only the highest level of disapproval for Obamacare, but the highest jump in disapproval in the history of that poll, with 53% now opposing the law, (an increase of eight points since June). It’s a good bet that personal experience and “word of mouth” advertising are killing it. Add this to the businesses that are now getting estimates on next year’s insurance costs, (and about to take action accordingly), and you get nothing but political headwinds for Obamacare (and its authors) as far as the eye can see.
Regarding foreign policy, (which has been Obama’s best measure with the public), the AP poll now shows outright majorities of between 57% and 60% disapproving of his handling of the major issues of the day; from Israel’s conflict with Hamas, to Afghanistan, to Russia and the Ukraine and Iraq.
Then there is Obama’s latest achievement of presiding over the addition of over seven trillion dollars to the national debt – more than all of our debt from George Washington to Bill Clinton combined, (for a total of over $153,000 per household). Little wonder that the latest NBC News poll shows 76% of Americans believing that their children’s generation will not have things better than they do, up from 60% just prior to the onset of “Hope and Change”.
When people are pessimistic about the future, they tend to lose interest in what you have to say.
The “Too little, too late” award goes to the respondents of the recent CNN/Gallup poll with 53% saying that they would now vote for Mitt Romney, and only 44% expressing support for Obama. This should leave Democrats a little sweaty over whether voters want to send them to DC to support a guy that most of them now wish that they hadn’t elected in the first place.
Most interesting is the flip in support among women, with 52% to 45% now supporting Romney over Obama – almost the inverse of how they voted in 2012, (44% vs. 55% for Obama). Now you know why Democrats keep spending so much time talking about an imaginary Republican “war on women”.
Obama has become so politically toxic that even the Obama-endorsed incumbent Democrat Governor of Hawaii (an Obama “home” state) lost his primary 67% to 31% to a challenger that he outspent by more than ten to one.
Of course all second term presidencies fall prey to diminished enthusiasm. They get mired in either events, politics, scandal or all of the above, and none ever really make much of a comeback once they take a nosedive. People tend to move on. As George Burns once put it, “you can re-light a cigar, but it’s never the same”.
But it’s even worse when your popularity was built on emotion regarding a man rather than ration or reason. When the man ultimately fails (and they always do), what’s left to keep people drinking the Kool-Aid? It’s like an over-inflated market bubble that finally pops.
The politics of emotion are always more prone to manipulation, and can climb quicker and easier than anything built on reason, simply because we are emotional creatures – which is exactly why so many politicians resort to it. It’s the political version of the “Dark Side” which, as Yoda pointed out, is “quicker, easier and more seductive”. But it ends in a bad place.
The Cult of Hope and Change was all about Obama when it waxed and it’s about him now as it wanes. It’s waning because Americans are now well beyond their “emperor has no clothes” moment. And that’s exactly how a cult collapses; people see the leader for what he really is.
“The thrill is gone; the thrill is gone away… You know you done me wrong, and you’ll be sorry someday.”
Someday is fast approaching.