What’s Your WHY?
By Drew McKissick
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…
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Don’t Quit
By Drew McKissick
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…
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How to Manage Political Volunteers
By Drew McKissick
American politics and public policy is moved by its citizens; specifically, ACTIVE citizens. It’s all about people. People work for candidates in their campaigns, cast ballots on Election Day, and then lobby those elected officials to help shape public policy once they get into office. But given that so few people actually do participate in…
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Tips for Running Meetings
By Drew McKissick
You can’t really have much of a political organization without meetings, which means that you need to make sure that the kind of meetings that you have serve the needs and purposes of your group or campaign. But when it comes to typical “meetings”, (whether official group meetings, or project meetings), take time to do…
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Those Who Can, Do
By Drew McKissick
It’s a shame how politics seems to cultivate more people who care about opining, trading rumors and being recognized as a political/social media celebrity, than it does people who are actually experienced and competent at political organization, running campaigns or even serving in public office. We desperately need less of the former and more of…
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Basic Political Negotiation Techniques
By Drew McKissick
Grassroots politics or lobbying isn’t always just about conflict. Sometimes it’s about negotiating and compromise. As Sun Tzu put it, “Better to take all under Heaven intact than to fight”. If you can “win” without having to fight, expend resources, or potentially make enemies that you might need as friends in the next fight, it’s…
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Are You Building the Political Farm Team?
By Drew McKissick
Most every professional baseball player that you see has spent time in the minor leagues before they got a chance to play in the big leagues. Nobody lasts forever, and eventually somebody has to move up and take someone else’s place. It’s why teams spend so much time and money recruiting and developing new talent.…
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Key Attributes of Good Conservative Activists and Leaders
By Drew McKissick
As you’ve surely noticed there are a lot of people involved in politics with many different strengths and weaknesses. But what kind do we need MORE of? What kind of people should you seek out and try to work with? What kind of people should you actively try to recruit and get involved in politics…
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The Four Types of People in Politics
By Drew McKissick
So often we can get frustrated by people in politics who do the wrong things (or even stupid things) unexpectedly. But usually that is because we let ourselves expect too much of people without giving much thought to “why” they may do the things that they do. The key is to know the types of…
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How to Get Elected to a Local Political Party Office
By Drew McKissick
If you want to have an even greater impact on the things that you care about, serving in a local political party office is another great opportunity to do exactly that. But you need to keep a few things in mind… You need to go to the meetings Begin by showing up for local party…
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