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What’s Your WHY?

December 19, 2025 by Drew McKissick in Grassroots Tips | Leave a comment

Why are you involved? What do you care about and why?

When you’re involved in politics, one of the most important things that you can do in order to be more successful and have a greater impact on the things that you care about is to know “why”.

What’s important? What are you trying to change? Why are you running for office? Why are you volunteering to help a candidate or an organization? Why are you donating money?

Knowing your “why” keeps you centered, especially through all of the unpleasant things (and people) that you have to deal with by virtue of being involved in politics. It’s the North Star that can guide your next steps, and it’s the fuel that can drive you forward and help get you up in the morning.

You Need To Know “Why?”

For political activists, you need to know why for yourself, but also so you can communicate it to others.

For candidates, it’s what can give you that “fire in the belly” to keep going, to do the organizing, the events, the media, and raising the money that it takes to run a successful campaign. It helps you answer the “Why are you running” question.  (See this 1979 example of Ted Kennedy not being able to answer “why?”) 

Remember, sooner or later “stupid” is going to catch up with you. Maybe in the form of events, a process, or rules. Maybe a person that you have to deal with, or people saying things about you on social media that they wouldn’t say in church, and who make being involved seem like a visit to the dentist.

When that happens, (and it will), the odds that you could burnout or quit go up. And if that happens, then you won’t have any impact at all.

In order to push through, keep going and make a difference, you need to know “why”.

So, what’s YOUR why?

Don’t Quit

November 5, 2025 by Drew McKissick in Grassroots Tips, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What happens when you quit?  Nothing.  Or at least not anything that you’d want to happen.

It’s one of the few guarantees that we have in politics: if you quit, you’re usually guaranteed not to like the results.

When you’re not involved, it’s more likely that things will not go your way.  You’re giving up your seat at the table to someone who probably doesn’t think like you do, or who doesn’t have the same priorities as you.

The Law of the Jungle says that, if you sit still long enough, something’s going to eat you.  Others will take advantage and gain ground against what you believe, or possibly even undo something that you’ve been able to accomplish.

We quit too easy

The problem is that too many conservatives have a lot of “quit” in them.  We get upset, get involved, ramp up, make a difference, then quit and go home and leave things up to someone else.  Or maybe we lose, get mad, then quit and go home.  Neither is a recipe for long-term political success.

Quitting leads to the additional problem of having to spend too much time ramping-up, rather than staying engaged and being ready for the next battle.  It wastes time, resources, opportunities and potentially any previously hard-won gains.

Ramping-up is expensive.  Staying engaged is cheaper and more productive in the long-run.

The question is, do we want to make a difference and have an impact, or just complain?

Proverbs 12:24

Years ago I adopted Proverbs 12:24 as a political motto.  It tells us that “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule; but the slothful shall be under tribute”.  If we feel like we’re “under tribute” politically – and there are a LOT of reasons to feel that way – it tells us why.  Someone, at some point, got lazy and quit.  Maybe that was us or someone else, but that’s spilled milk at this point.

One of the great things about scripture is that it not only diagnoses our problems, but it also tells us how to fix them.  To make a difference, we have to be diligent.

So don’t quit!

You Can’t Beat Somebody With Nobody

September 25, 2025 by Drew McKissick in Grassroots Tips | Leave a comment

It’s one thing to get engaged in public policy and shed light on what liberals are up to, but it’s another thing to beat them at the ballot box and take away their power to do what they do.

Elections have consequences. And if nobody runs against them, the consequences are more years of them doing the things that make conservatives complain in the first place.

As the saying goes, you can’t be somebody with nobody. You have to have a candidate. Someone – preferably a good, well qualified and equipped someone – has to be willing to put themselves out there and run.

Someone who has a “fire in the belly”, the talent and the potential resources to do what’s necessary to run a good campaign, not to mention do the job if they get elected. Someone with the ability to unite everyone in the Party to work in the same direction and to turn out the votes necessary to WIN.

Preferably NOT the perennial candidate who wants to run for anything and everything, but demonstrates none of those necessary qualities.

The fact that so few (good) people are willing to run is a big part of the reason why our government is in the shape that it’s in today on so many levels. But, we have to remember that politics hates a vacuum, and it will continue whether you (or someone else) steps up to run or not.

What are you doing to help recruit someone? Are you letting them know that you’re willing to help if they’re willing to run? Or, are YOU the “somebody” who needs to run?

Talk to like-minded people at work or in your church. Who do they think would make a great candidate? Someone in the business community? Someone who has already been elected to a lower level office?

Good campaigns – and good elected officials – start with good candidate recruiting.

So recruit good candidates!

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