Posted on 01/21/2007 4:36:07 AM PST by Semper
It is becoming painfully obvious and disturbing that our government is not functioning as it was intended. It is taking too much of our money and not doing nearly what it should be doing to keep us safe and free. It is time for another revolution to put us back on track – not a conventionally waged revolution – no one should be killed, at least not in a literal sense. Nothing should be destroyed except wrong ideas and wrongful practices. It should be a political revolution – with a new political party and a new kind of candidate.
We could officially declare the establishment of the FREE REPUBLIC Party – the first internet conceived and based political party. We could start at the top , the presidency. Let the two antiquated parties fight over congress – for now. We can have an internet primary and an internet compaign complete with debates, that is what we do after all. Our candidate would become well known when the media figures out the entertainment value in something like this. And, at the least, Jim would be recognized for the valuable contribution he has made to this country by the establishment of Free Republic.
There is much more to this idea but I am not going to get into those details at this time. I want to see what fellow freepers think about this idea. I am writing this on a plane coming back from a tour in a remote area of Afghanistan. I have been somewhat out of touch for several months so I will need more input before more specific details of this idea are offered. And, I might be a little out of the loop until established back in the states. I will be debriefing in the Washington DC area for the first part of the week and then traveling back home to California; but whatever, I hope this idea holds some value to Freepers.
And of course I would like to be a candidate for the Freeper primary for the Presidency of this great country. I know what a long shot this is but I would love the battle involved – I am a warrior after all. And please do not jump to conclusions regarding my positions on the relevant issues – war, abortion, taxes, imigration, etc. - I am still open to influence on these matters. But I know from first hand experience that we are not winning the war on terror. We need a Commander-in-Chief who knows more about war than the current president and those who appear to be possible candidates for his job. I will be happy to confront this and all other issues in freeper style if that turns out to be what is desired. For an election the ideas are not as important as the qualifications - for doing the job well, ideas are what counts. We need to consider both.
Semper
Very well said.
They won big because the GOP failed to give voters a reason to keep them in power. When you say we are at war but load up war appropriation bills with earmarks, voters have a hard time taking you seriously.
That's what people were telling Washington, Jefferson, Adams, etc..etc..etc...
"It would have to be someone who is moderate and open to any view no matter what side of the political environment"
Why bother, we already have McCain, Rudy,Romney,Gingrich, I'd say there are too many moderates already.
Like I said before, most voters don't pay attention to much of anything but what the MSM tells them. They also don't pay attention to the candidates until the last two weeks before the election.
This third party pipe dream will only guarantee another Democrat victory in '08. It is nothing new. It's been tried and failed repeatedly throughout our history.
Each new generation seems to think that they are the exception to the rule. They think it failed in the past because it simply just wasn't handled with the right approach or it was the wrong people doing it. The results are always the same.
Ah, so that's why Reagan could never get his message across. /sarcasm
Sorry, but the GOP gave the MSM and the Dems the hammer to hit them with. You can pretend otherwise, but that is clear.
Reagan left office 19 years and was last elected 23 years ago. Much has changed since then. There is a whole new generation of voter who has been indoctrinated by the Public Schools system. They number in the millions and they are considered the most politically active group of their age in recent history.
The only way to appeal to them is with a moderate approach
There is already a so called "moderate party" the Rats. Please join them.
Many already have and you're still encouraging division?
"Remember boys there's only two things the white man cares about in this country.
What time the game comes on on Sunday.
Is there enough propane to barbecue."
What about the beer supply? Come to think of it, I'm at the re-order point right now. Better get ready for this afternoon's playoff games.
Sounds like you've been brainwashed by a liberal.
If you can obtain a government that stays to it's constitution and doesn't meddle in other matters, you won't need lobbyists.
You have placed your finger right on the Democrats entire playbook. And you have placed your finger as well on the Balkanization of the GOP. The Democrats have learned that people in America today are highly preoccupied with lives that don't allow for them to even find the time for basic needs (like raising their own children, cleaning their own house or preparing their own food). What down time is left in people's lives from highly demanding jobs and a highly complicated society (with highly complicated family lives) is not liable to be reserved for educating yourself and applying yourself to policy or civics.
The Democrats are better grasping the truly tuned-out, turned-off society: Their politics are based on creating ogres and then hating them with great passion...publicly. Hate can be understood quickly, with minimum effort or time expended in understanding it. It's easy to demonize and foment hate -- it's been a classic political tactic of demogogues for millenia. For the Democrats they foment the hatred of easy marks like religious conservatives ("wanting to tell everyone else how they should live"), of the white male taxpayer ("greedy bastard, put where he is by the old boys club, sitting around in his 50th floor office telling you how to make him more money"), and of course, George Bush ("killing your sons and daughters for his own profit and that of his buddies and friends" "he's a dunce, he's stupid and he's greedy").
Hate is something that doesn't take time or energy - so for the voter with very little time and very little energy, very little interest or with a chip on their shoulder about their place in life, hate is just speaking to them in their own language.
The Republican Party still holds some semblence of an organization which shares our conservative values. The Party Platform demonstrates this. The make up of the grassroots members of the Party show this also.
So, why is the GOP not working towards the more conservative goals contained in its platform and shared by its low level members? That is because the leadership of the party ignore the Platform and the wishes of its members and are working for on a completely different set of goals and ideals. They have a different agenda entirely.
The GOP is still the best vehicle for meeting our conservative goals. The party is already established, the fund raising and campaigning appratus is in place, and the a great deal of its grassroots members are conservative. So, how do we fix the problem with the leadership?
We still need to work within the system but we need to do a better job of it and use the Internet (as you suggested) to become better organized.
First, each and every person who shares our conservative ideas here should become a Republican Precinct Committeman. Right now is the time to find out how to do that in your district or precinct so that you're ready in 2008 (the next election) to get elected to PC. If you're lucky, a PC slot in your precinct is vacant and you may be able to just get appointed to it. However, depending upon the Republican Party bylaws in your area, you won't be a voting PC until you actually get elected. But, even so, you can still attend the party meetings, make your voice heard (carefully until you get elected) and start to learn how things work in your county and state parties.
You also need to be recruiting like-minded PCs. A good place to do this is in some of the more conservative-minded churches. Many churches encourage their members to get involved in civics in order to fight the evil that pervades our society (abortion, promiscuity, gay marriage, Hollywood obscenity, attacks on Christianity in the public square, etc). But the members really don't know where to start. If you can get a Pastor, Priest or whomever is in charge to let you come in and do some voter registration and PC recruitment, that's where you start. Now, when you're doing this you have to also, by law, sign up Democrats and such. But that's not as big of a problem as you may first think.
If you've selected the church carefully, you already know that most of the members who register to vote are going to be somewhat conservative and want to register Republican and will make good Republican PCs. Those who register Democrat and to whom you give info and they end up as Democrat PCs will likely, after a short time, become disgusted with what they see the Democrats doing. The Dems radical pro-abort, pro-gay agenda, etc. stuff the Dems will be talking about and doing will cause the faithful church-goers to turn away and possibly switch parties. At the very least, the church-goer will be a moderating voice in local Dem politics and that's not such a bad thing either. But these will be a minority of what you get if you learn how to do this right.
To properly recruit the PCs from those you're talking to and registering is to have a map of all the precincts in your county. You also need a list of the precincts showing the PCs in each and the vacancies highlighted. It also should help to have the liberal RINO PCs you want out of their position highlighted so that you can target them. If you become a PC or just start attending all of the Republican meetings in your area, you'll soon learn who the liberal RINOs are and who you need to target to eliminate the liberals and pack the party with conservatives.
This is not a quick process and will likely take years of work. In my county, we've pushed out most of the liberal RINO PCs but we're a rural county which gets pushed around by the larger, metropolitan area counties. Most of the rural counties in my state have conservative majorities in party positions but the metro counties have a bunch of liberal RINOs. It makes for some interesting state GOP conventions but the conservatives have lately been getting some of their people elected at state level in the party despite the efforts of the better financed RINOs.
Which leads me to the next step. You will need to organize your recruited PCs. You need to keep them informed along with all of the other conservative PCs that you've found that are already in place. Keep them informed about county politics and what is going on and when to show up to vote for what. Vote as a block. Use the Internet to get the word out about upcoming meetings and what the conservatives are planning. Sponsor resolutions that the conservatives are ready to vote as a block to pass. When you get enough conservatives, and you find a worthy conservative candidate for county party chairman, then you get him voted into office.
Remember, there are two types of PCs. Those who get involved and those who just vote at mandatory meetings. You can save the vote-only PCs a lot of trouble by offering to carry their proxy so they don't even have to show up. Get your other conservative PCs to gather proxies too.
Be ready, however, for the liberal RINOs to pull out all the stops, spend a bunch of money, and fling all kinds of dung at your guy. That's what they do when they're challenged. They'll start whisper campaigns, spread rumors, etc. Be ready for that. Counter it by keeping in constant touch with your conservative PCs, keeping good relations with the PCs that fall in the middle, and being the best at getting info out to everyone. A website, a good mailing list (email and snail mail) and some money are how to do this.
Money. Yes, that's a problem. You'll have to figure out some ways to get that. But a website and email and other Internet means of communication are free or dirt cheap. Snail mail is a different issue and printing costs for professional looking literature can become prohibitive. You'll have to be creative in legally obtaining funds. You could start a conservative club and hold fundraisers. You could find a wealthy conservative who would be willing to pay some of the costs. If something gets organized nationally or at a state level, this could become easier.
Next comes the state conventions. This is where the state party leadership is elected. You need to make sure that all of your conservative PCs are signed up as or elected as delegates to the state convention. You all show up to vote as a block and carry as many proxies as you can get for those who are elected but don't want to attend.
Now, you've got a little power. If you've got the county chairman, he's likely got a seat on the state party's executive committee. Get him working with the other conservative county leaders to make changes at that level. If you can get enough counties to emulate what you've been doing in your county, you'll have enough votes at state convention time to make a difference.
At the state convention you can vote for the conservative resolution and get conservatives elected as state chairman. It is critical that you elect a conservative national committeeman. He is your state representative to the Republican National Committee. It is the national committeeman who get together and vote on the chairman of the RNC.
A "Revolution" is for the impatient and it will fail. A third party is not a good idea, not practical, etc. We have to get organized within the Republican Party and boot out the liberals who have taken over the leadership of the party. We need to organize this on a national level (tracking our progress in each individual county and state and coordinating and fundraising) on a mission-oriented forum and website.
I'd flesh this idea out some more, but I've got to get ready and go to church. There is an organization in my state that is essentially doing what I stated here and had some success. Randy Pullen is the result of this. He was elected as national committeeman 2 years ago, has been making waves at the national level, and is about to be elected state chairman. The biggest county party in my state now is dominated by conservatives and recently made news by voting John McCain as the most undesirable Republican presidential candidate and Duncan Hunter as the favorite. Last year, they voted to censure John McCain.
We need to emulate what they're doing and do it nationally. Let's get started. If Jim Robinson is willing, we could do it here. But we have to be able to keep the liberals and RINO disruptors away from what we're doing. They've done enough damage to the party and the nation, we don't need them sabotaging our efforts.
What I would suggest is to state some goals that you (we) would like to accomplish. Then come up with some strategies to accomplish those goals. And finally access each strategy's cost and pick the one that you want to accomplish. IMHO.
Based on historical perspectives, third parties don't do too well in the US.
We might as well try to start a third party. The Republicans may never get their power back.
It would take a few national voting cycles to properly develop and sell a 3rd party that is capable of competing on the national stage. It could take hold by 2016 but it would split the current Republican party adn insure Democratic dominance for perhaps the first half of this century. IMHO this nation - in fact, the world - cannot endure that.
I tend to agree with those who believe it is best to prepare a candidate to rally REAL conservatives principles back to the Republican party.
It simply will not happen in 2008. It is too late. We are headed for a shift to Democratic rule until at least 2012, and probably 2016. Yes, the media is partly to blame, but a lot of us need to look in the mirror to find the guilt.
Unfortunately this country is going to pay a major price for the decisions it recently made.
This FR movement should track the path of absolute chaos that WILL emerge from the Democrat rule over the next 4-8 years. It is going to be horrendous, particularly in the critical areas of national security, defense, and taxes. Trust me, after a cycle of two of Democrats controlling things there will be a national cry for SERIOUS CHANGE.
Basically, we will see a repeat of 1976-1980. Reagan made a big push in 1976 and then was THE MAN in 1980. The late 70's were primarily painful for economic reasons, communist aggression, and the Iran uprising in 1979 that made America look weak.
History tends to repeat itself. The political pendulum swings from liberal to conservative about evey 30 years.
These next 6-10 years will see the pain of increasing terrorist attacks inside our borders while Democrats fiddle with diplomacy and make nice gestures, gutting the military and national security measures, huge tax increases, and a frightening internal moral decay.
The goal should be find a candidate NOW that espouses those real conservative values and can launch his/her name into the mainstream in 2012 with the goal of actually winning it all in 2016. So that person is in the age range of 40-55 today and could hopefully seize the White House in 9 years.
Then of course have an 8 year run, and have a VP that continues the effort in 2024.
My view is that you don't understand our system.
We tolerate all views and to accomodate the diversity and allow any one that can come up with support and money to participate. This is done within the loose organization of two parties. Each attracts coalitions of common agendas. The coalition with the greatest support gets nominated in the primary.
What you propose is rather backward and is practiced by the small and third world democracies where there are multiple parlimentary coalitions that must find a majority post election to rule. They continuously screw up and don't succeed very well.
In America there have been lots of efforts such as you suggest but they are mostly hot air and no substance. They always fail and they always will fail.
My view is that you don't understand our system.
We tolerate all views and to accomodate the diversity and allow any one that can come up with support and money to participate. This is done within the loose organization of two parties. Each attracts coalitions of common agendas. The coalition with the greatest support gets nominated in the primary.
What you propose is rather backward and is practiced by the small and third world democracies where there are multiple parlimentary coalitions that must find a majority post election to rule. They continuously screw up and don't succeed very well.
In America there have been lots of efforts such as you suggest but they are mostly hot air and no substance. They always fail and they always will fail.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.