What did you say you were doing?
Consider all the marches and demonstrations that were held during the Clinton scandals, were to no avail. People, including a lot of Freepers, marched to get Clinton removed.
Yet the Senate voted 100 to 0 to NOT hear any evidence against Bill Clinton. Amazingly the Senate voted 100 to zip not to hear any evidence against Clinton before they voted on his guilt or innocence. Why did they do that?
Simple. Every poll showed that at least 58 percent of the voters did not want Clinton removed from office. And if they heard the evidence against him they would have to convict him. That 100 to zip vote in the senate is absolute proof that when 58 percent of the people don't want something to happen, 100 percent of the Senators will vote for it NOT to happen.
By the same token we know that when 62 percent of the voters wanted Nixon removed, he quit before he was impeached and convicted. Nixon knew he was a dead duck and quit. Both the Clinton and Nixon situations show the power of public opinion.
Marching on Washington did not get Clinton removed from office. The Senate would not convict him because 58 percent did not want him removed. And the only way they could not convict him was to refuse to look at the evidence. I'll say it again. ... It shows the tremendous power of public opinion.
It surely must be clear that to win a cause one must first convince a majority of the voters. Marches tend to preach to the choir. They don't change public opinion unless they get lots of favorable media attention. It will be a cold day in a hot place when that happens.
How many times does Karl Rove have to prove it before we believe? Things get changed and battles are won at the grass roots level.
If campaigning for support in Washington really worked, then George Bush and John Kerry would have campaigned for election in Washington D.C. It was about the only place they didn't campaign.
You will remember the last guy that tried a Washington based campaign was the "brilliant" Jimmy Carter... who claimed he could not campaign outside of Washington because of the Iranian hostage crisis. As I recall Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy so badly that Jimmy conceded 10 minutes after the east coast polls closed.
I am not questioning anyones efforts. I am suggesting a different approach to achieve results.
There is one common thread among successful people.It is not that successful people don't make mistakes or don't do things that fail. The strange thing is they fail a lot. The defining characteristic of successful people is when they try and fail, they try another tactic. And if that one is less than successful they try another way. Sooner or later they find a way that produces winning results.
Let me explain it in terms of the last election. When LisaMalia and I went door to door for the President we were looking for votes. And on a Saturday morning we might pick up 10 or 15 votes. But if we picked up 2 new volunteers we were in tall Cotton. The next Saturday we would pick 10 or 15 votes and the 2 additional volunteers would pick up 10 or 15 votes each. Our efforts the first week produced 15 votes. The second week our efforts produced 35 votes. And if we were good at getting our new volunteers to get more volunteers the third week could produce a hundred votes. By week 6 of the 13 week program we were producing real results.
All together these efforts in Ross County Ohio produced about 5,000 new votes. It is an effort that over the state of Ohio produced 400 thousand votes. We needed them, because Bush only won Ohio by 120 thousand votes.
The Bush campaign in 2004 found ways to multiply efforts. We need to think in the same terms.
On issues rather than elections, poll results are very important. That is, public support is all important. Poll Results kept Clinton in office. Poll results can get conservative judges confirmed. WE have to find a way to reach the people and change their minds.
Marches can work if they produce a lot of positive media attention. But marching to get conservative federal judges is not going to get media coverage. A half million anti-abortion marchers gets only a few media mentions. It doesn't get much coverage.
One other point. How people voted in the last election is not important to a politician. How voters will react to the next election is what counts.
There were many times in the early Reagan administration when numerous Democratic Senators and Congressmen would go to their leaders to tell them they could not vote the party line. They had heard from lots of folks back home and they were going to desert the party line. That was the secret to Reagan getting his agenda passed. Reagan could talk to them and they would just tell him NO. But when Reagan talked to the people back home, and the people back home talked to the members of congress, votes got changed. Doing it the Reagan way is never a bad idea.
Consider the open border situation. Does anyone remember that both Clinton and Bush had cabinet appointments that had to be withdrawn because the nominee had hired illegal emigrants and had not paid social security or income tax for them? The constituency for illegal emigration is larger than the constituency against illegal emigration. One can argue the merits of closing our borders until hades freezes over. But until a clear majority wants the border closed it will remain half open.
Let me give you a 'tator idea to consider. I would set up a way for Freepers to sign petitions for conservative judges. If possible get 10, 20, 30 or even a hundred thousand Freepers and Lurkers to Internet sign the petitions. Then print up a copy of the petition for each congressman and senator.
Then have Jim Rob and the Freepers who showed up at DC. deliver them to all 535 members of the House and Senate with a copy for the White House.
At the same time every radio, TV station and newspaper in every congressman's district would be emailed a Press release and a voice clip about the Free Republic petitions for a pro life court.
That is a ton of work.. but it also would produce measurable results... it might even change a few minds. It would cause a lot of Congress members to have to answer local media questions about his position on the courts and human life. It would also get Free Republic and Jim Rob a lot of local media coverage all over the nation. If it made it on 3,000 radio stations, 400 TV's and 2,000 newspapers it would have an effect of voters.
If you want what you do in D.C. to have an effect, it has to get coverage on the local news back home. I am sure there are lots of other more effective ideas then mine.
Interesting post. I'm not going to continue to make my point, because I don't think you're ever going to acknowledge it, or maybe your point really is to knock other people's efforts, so let me just say this...
You said, "Let me give you a 'tator idea to consider. I would set up a way for Freepers to sign petitions for conservative judges. If possible get 10, 20, 30 or even a hundred thousand Freepers and Lurkers to Internet sign the petitions. Then print up a copy of the petition for each congressman and senator."
Two questions...
1. Then why don't you?
Answer: Because it's easier to knock other people's efforts.
2. You think INTERNET PETITIONS work???
Answer: No comment.
Regards,