So you’re all excited or worked up about some issue, campaign or candidate and you decide it’s time to volunteer and try to make a difference. That’s great. But there’s always a risk that you’ll be overzealous, jump in to anything and everything with both feet and soon get burned out. When that happens, you won’t have much of an impact on anything.
Here are some political activism tips that will help you stick with it and make a difference for the things you care about.
Know why you’re involved
Knowing “why” you’re involved in something goes a long way towards keeping you involved. It’s that thing that will keep you motivated over the long haul. What’s motivating you? What impact do you want to have? How involved do you want to get? Just be a volunteer or become a leader? What skills do you want to learn or what issue do you want to learn more about? Who do you want to get to know?
If the “why” isn’t enough to make you want to “do”, then “don’t. If you don’t know “why”, you either need to figure it out or do something else.
Make reasonable commitments
It’s much better for you and any cause that you’re volunteering for that you be realistic about what you can do. Think about how you can achieve a happy medium between the time you’re really able to contribute and the needs of the cause or campaign that you’re getting involved with.
Don’t over-commit. In the end, it’s your dependability that’s most important.
Get to know everyone involved
Since politics is about people, personal relationships are the glue that holds everything together. So be sure to attend regular meetings and events as often as possible and get to know everyone involved.
Knowing and networking with other likeminded activists will help you be more effective both now and in the future.
Keep a good attitude
Sometimes “somebody” has to do the tedious, menial, “un-fun” work…like delivering literature all over creation, or calling voters you don’t know. But since it has to be done, attitude is everything. This is why you should be careful about “what” you volunteer to do. Make sure it’s the kind of thing that you can do and still keep a good attitude. As a result you’ll be more productive for the things you care about.
If you don’t stay positive about what you’re doing, you won’t last long.
Go the extra mile
People who are willing to give an extra effort and “fill in the gaps” when necessary are essential to making any cause or campaign a success, not to mention sustaining it. If you know why you’re involved and aren’t over-committed, it’s easier to do more when necessary.
People who go the extra mile stand out…and they go farther.
Recruit others
Any group or cause can never have too many volunteers, (and they never do). Share the vision with your friends, family, and others. Invite them to meetings. Send them updates. The more manpower, the better your group or cause will do.
The more conservatives that get involved in our political system, the better off the conservative movement will be as a whole. The more who get involved at the grassroots level, the more who will eventually be in positions of leadership at higher levels.
Be patient and persistent
If you’re not patient, you’ll probably get a bad attitude, won’t last long and won’t be able to keep at it long enough to make a difference. Remember, things don’t always run on your schedule, especially in politics. Also, persistence is the key to long-term political success. Other people quit. Don’t be one of them.
If you’re patient and persistent you’re more likely to make a difference.
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The purpose of this is not to discourage you from getting involved, but to get you to make sure that you volunteer in a way that you’re more likely to enjoy – and that will keep you involved in the long run.
The Conservative Persecution Complex
Most of the “second guessing” and criticism of traditional American values comes courtesy of the modern progressive (read “liberal”) movement, its politicians and its cheerleaders in the mainstream media. But does this give conservatives the right to wallow in negativity and act defeated? And just what exactly does it accomplish when they do?
Whether it’s talk radio, Fox News or online, you don’t have to pay attention for very long to come across conservatives blaming our problems on someone else. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that you come across far more of that than you do anything that would help advance informed action and make a difference.
It’s a conservative persecution complex.
We’re far too focused on what our opponents are doing, rather than on what we’re doing, not doing, or need to do. And we’re not getting mad enough at ourselves for not doing more.
As Solomon put it, “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute.” So, are we bearing rule or under tribute? We don’t have to look any further than the news to figure it out. Trillions in debt, millions of abortions, tax-payer funded abortion, Obamacare mandates, gay marriage, people losing businesses because they refuse to violate their right of religious conscience, etc. The list goes on and on.
These things didn’t come about because conservatives were being diligent.
There are three institutions in our lives – the family, government and the church, and the extent to which we ignore either of them we have problems. As so many conservatives have ignored politics (the management of government), it’s now intruding on the other institutions; trying to replace and redefine the family, and now attacking the free exercise of religion and conscience.
Personnel as they say is policy. But if policy is about personnel, then personnel is about elections – and elections are about who shows up. You can’t elect good people if you don’t show up. You can’t hold those in power accountable if you don’t show up. You can’t influence policy if you don’t show up. And the simple fact is that too many conservatives just don’t show up.
There are far more of “us” than there are of “them”. Every poll bears that out. The Gallup poll continues to show that Americans who self-identify as “conservative” are the largest ideological group in the country, and about twice as large as those claiming to be “liberal”. But those numbers only represent potential, not action or results.
So many conservatives just don’t get involved at all, and many of those who do get involved get mad and upset when they lose and just quit and go home. The result is that losing the next battle becomes a fait accompli, which leads to more of what made us mad to begin with. It’s a vicious cycle.
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
It’s a lot easier to find conservatives with opinions than it is to find those who actually get involved. We’re full of opinions, (again, just listen to talk radio). But opinions without actions are like clouds without rain; they eventually just blow over and nothing happens.
None of this is to say that everyone needs to become a full-time political activist. But everyone does need to do something. In a county with so much freedom and so many opportunities to get involved, half of our people don’t even do the minimum that they can do in order to keep what we have, let alone reclaim what we’ve lost, (read: vote).
As Jefferson put it, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. But that’s only half right. We also have to do something. Our Founding Fathers were people with deep convictions and opinions, and they did something about what they believed. They got involved.
Conservatives have to get out of the persecution mentality and into a winning mentality that begins to feed on itself. And that starts with taking action.