As I have mentioned before, the best way to impact politics is to organize at the precinct level. And the best way to organize is to put someone in charge.
When it comes to organizing in precincts, that means “precinct captains”.
So what is a precinct captain? Put simply, a precinct captain is someone who serves as a point of contact between the people in their local neighborhood and outside conservative political groups and activities.
By distributing petitions, getting political information to conservative neighbors, making get-out-the-vote phone calls on or before an Election Day, a precinct captain can mobilize a large bloc of people to influence political and legislative activities.
It is also important to understand that many of the activities of a precinct captain are seasonal. Depending on what elections are approaching or what’s happening in Congress, your state legislature or local council, your focus and activity levels will vary, but there are some primary goals.
The primary goals of precinct captains
1: Identify Ten Conservative Activists
This is probably the most important job of any precinct captain, because in order to put the meat on the bones of any organization, you need people, and that means identifying others who are willing to help. Try to identify at least ten. These will be the people who are the most interested in what you are doing.
The goal is to be able to quickly line up volunteers when a major project comes up and help is needed. Keep in mind that different people enjoy doing different things. Make note of what they’re willing to do and use them accordingly. There will be many different things to do and plenty of work to go around.
2: Identify Other Conservative Voters
Now that a core group of activists has been identified, what should they do? Identify fellow conservatives. A good goal is to find enough conservative voters to equal 10% of the total number of registered voters in any given precinct. This is plain, old-fashioned voter identification.
There are any number of ways to go about it, from using issues surveys, petitions, church directories, etc., and cross-referencing that information with voter registration lists.
3: Educate and Mobilize Identified Voters
Once a list of identified conservatives has been put together, the next step is to educate them and get them involved. This can include distributing voter education materials to them on candidates or ballot issues, making sure that they actually vote on Election Day, or encouraging them to lobby the local school board, council or state legislature on some key issue.
It’s also important to encourage them to get involved in their local Republican Party. The more solid conservatives we have in GOP grassroots and leadership positions, the better for the conservative movement as a whole.
4: Stay Informed
Finally, a precinct captain’s job is to keep up to date on current and future projects, activities and opportunities for activism – and pass the information on to others.
When you’ve got this kind of organization on a precinct by precinct basis, then you’ve got an infrastructure that can be activated and have an impact on the things you care about when it counts!
(Find out more about precinct captains and local organization in general in my Grassroots Training Series!)
The Bizzaro World of Political Correctness
Why? The AP claims that it is just “ridding the Stylebook of labels”. And that “…the English language is constantly evolving, enriched by new words, phrases and uses. Our goal is always to use the most precise and accurate words so that the meaning is clear to any reader anywhere”.
Except in this case, that is, given the fact that the term “illegal alien” is the actual legal definition of the people they are trying to describe.
Over the years the politically correct terminology has evolved from “illegal aliens” to “illegal immigrants” to “undocumented immigrants” to “undocumented workers”. What’s next, “uninvited guests”?
Just how are we supposed to accurately describe people who have entered into our country in violation of our laws, forged official documents and committed perjury? But that’s the point. We’re not supposed to accurately describe them, because that would make achieving goals like amnesty and newly registered voters difficult for the folks on the left.
Solution? Change the terminology.
Does anyone seriously believe that it is just a coincidence that such a change comes about right as Congress is again set to debate major immigration reform legislation? It’s a well known fact that, if you control the language and terminology that is used in any given debate, you stand a much better chance of winning that debate, if for no other reason than by confusing or misinforming those who don’t already have an opinion.
As a famous talk radio host is fond of saying, “words mean things”.
Couple this with another recent development that showcases an overt exercise in the labeling that the left purports to hate.
A recent US Army Reserve training program was found to contain materials portraying evangelical Christians and Catholics as “extremists”. And in this case, the rest of the “extremists” category was populated with the likes of the KKK, Hamas and Al Qaeda.
Yes, really.
After receiving numerous complaints from clergy and other concerned Americans with a modicum of common sense, that portion of the tax-dollar supported material was removed and the Army proceeded to find underlings to pass the buck to, (so much for the chain of command).
And who was the source for this slanderous labeling? The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization which ironically claims to defend black Americans against racism, but seems OK with labeling fellow blacks as “extremists” if they happen to be evangelicals.
One assumes that it came as somewhat of a surprise to Catholics to find themselves thrown under the same politically correct bus along with evangelicals, but it could have something to do with their high profile opposition to mandatory abortion related coverage in Obamacare, or maybe their opposition to gay marriage.
Of course conservatives are accustomed to such labeling from radical liberal groups, even from some of America’s leading politicians and various elements of our bloated bureaucracy. But now the liberal culture that encourages such characterizations is beginning to infect even our nation’s military.
It is just another step in the marginalization of conservative people of faith in America.
To review: we can’t use terminology straight out of any legal dictionary to describe the status of millions of people while covering a major political debate, but the US government can equate over fifty percent of the population with known terrorists because some bureaucrat labels their views are “extreme”.
We’re approaching the point in our country where, if you accurately describe someone’s immigration status, you’re potentially a racist, and if you also happen to be an evangelical Christian or Catholic, you’re an extremist (double point score!). It also means that there is a good chance that you are white, most likely did not vote for Obama, are not a contributor to Planned Parenthood, oppose gay marriage, and could even be from the South (gasp!).
This is what things will look like when you have a media that long ago set aside everything but its pretense of objectivity, and an administration that is not only tone deaf, but openly antagonistic to the views of the majority of the country.
So, there you have it. Illegals aren’t illegal, but evangelicals and Catholics are “extremists”. Up is down. Black is white. So long as it advances the objectives of our liberal betters.
A Bizzaro World indeed.