Posts Tagged ‘rebuild the party’

2
Jan

What Are We Missing?

   Posted by: lightfinger    in #dontgo, Rebuilding the Party

I know of four pieces of the puzzle conservatives have been working upon in order to take back this country from the socialists.

  1. Internal infrastructures and planning – #rebuild
  2. Communication between conservatives internally and externally – #tcot
  3. News and information gathering on a local and state level – #dontgo via News Platoon and #diggcons
  4. Grassroots organization and infrastructure assistance – #dontgo

(Please note I am not including what the Republican party itself as built with Republican For A Reason, as it is not clearly defined in my eyes as to its purpose beyond making us on the local level ‘feel good’ about ourselves)

So, what else are we missing in order to get moving forward towards taking back the country? I’d like to actually get some comments on this at some point as to your opinions as to what is missing, but here are a couple of things I am seeing.

First, we need a site dedicated to policy debates amongst ourselves in order to define what conservatism really means. Right now, we’re working on the ‘I know it when I see it’ philosophy, but that does not cut it when you are attempting to recruit people into at least voting for you, let alone get them into the party. This site should be were we go tooth and nail at each other behind closed doors instead of taking it out on each other in the open on mediums such as Twitter. I know a few of you may be irritated by the grumpiness of @CharlieProfit over #tcot, but I believe this is what he is trying to get at in the end. He wants a place where we can do things away from being disrupted by those who do not have our best interests in heart. I have to agree this site is needed, so the policy debates can be pushed away from #rebuild and #tcot where they are currently tainting those efforts.

Second, and this is solely my idea but inspired by a comment over Twitter by Michael Leahy, is I feel we need a ‘Shadow government’ site dedicated to monitoring the Obama administration. This isn’t a news site like #dontgo is doing on a state and local level, but a site dedicated to the policy decisions coming out of Obama’s cabinet posts, and criticism thereof. This site would be organized in ‘Shadow’ fashion, which would mean there would be dedicated pages to each Cabinet/department of the Federal Government, White House, and Congress. This could be a number of sites easily – White House/Cabinet, Senate, House, and Supreme Court.  A site, or sites, like this similar to how Newsbusters monitors the news media would help focus our attention better on Obama’s policy decisions.

Third, we need a way to better engage not only non-traditional avenues of communication, but traditional ones as well. As much as we may be enamored by the Internet, we cannot forget those who are not Internet savvy in our zeal to reform. Most Americans get their news now from the television than from the newspapers, and though the Internet is growing, it still is not to television’s level. This is, unfortunately,  the most expensive of all the propositions listed, as it means commercials. It means radio ads, and it means newspaper ads. But we have got to let people know our organizations exist once we are up and going, otherwise all we will be doing is preaching to the choir which will garner us no new votes.

What other things can you think of to help? Please, nothing like ‘Recruit Ron Paul followers’ – that, to me, is a policy decision and falls under the site mentioned first above. Other things I was thinking of include engaging major media figures like what #tcot has with Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin, secured meetups (Meetup.com is riddled with MoveOn-types there to disrupt our organizations I have found), monitoring like I proposed for the Obama administration for other aspects such as the UN, etc.

 

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2
Jan

Fostering Real Communication

   Posted by: lightfinger    in #dontgo, Rebuilding the Party

As many of you know, I’m a member of a few organizations/groups that have ties to the Twitter program. I’ve already written about my involvement with the #dontgo Movement and News Platoon. I am also on the Top Conservatives on Twitter (#tcot) list, and one of the more active voices of the group it seems.

I applaud Michael Leahy’s energy and motivation for getting that list started, and I am liking a lot of the direction that he wants to push those on the list towards. But, I feel a number of members are being blinded by the tool a bit too much and are not addressing the core problems we need to solve if we are going to take back the Republican Party from its trend towards Socialism-Lite.

 The number 1 problem is communication between the Republican party and those of us in the grassroots. Right now, the situation is the fact the Republican National Committee, as well as many Senators, Representatives, and state parties do not communicate at all. They dictate. Even when these individuals come onto social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, all they are really offering are glorified RSS feeds with their pronouncements from on high.

That is not communication. Communication requires a two-way street. To summize, instead of saying ‘Do this’, communication requires it to be ‘Should I do this’. Twitter is a great medium to allow two-way communication, but it is only one way to do so. Forums that are responded to, chat rooms via irc or Facebook chat, call-in shows like that are sponsored by Blog Talk Radio are all ways to also communicate. Even email, phone calls, and in person visits are ways that communication can be fostered.

The problem is it is not happening with the national party. When we try, we are dismissed as irrelevant because the tool is focused upon, and not the underlying issue. Our opponents have drug their party leaders kicking and screaming into this communication, and we are going to be forced to do the same. 

There are ways for us to start down this path. First and foremost is #tcot hashtag on Twitter at the moment. It is the most friendly two way communications method I know of (though I’m sure I’ll be pointed towards others) to talk with one another. Leahy’s #tcot’s outreach projects are going to help in this immensely, as is the http://tcotreport.com site.

Another facet of communication is knowledge: knowing what is happening out there allows us all to communicate better and focus our efforts. This is where #dontgo is beginning to shine as the prime motivator. With News Platoon, and now the Diggcons project to Digg conservative blogs and news items, getting the truth out to those who are missing out on the issues is critical not only to communication within the party, but also to drawing in those people who are being misinformed about conservatism.

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2
Dec

A Solution to the Primary Mess

   Posted by: lightfinger    in Politics

Let’s all be honest. The way we have the primaries in this country suck. By the time it got around to my state, I had two choices – McCain and Paul. I didn’t have a chance to support Romney, Huckabee, Thompson, or Hunter, or any of the others. It was all decided a month before I received my chance to choose, and honestly…that’s not right.

 Here is what I propose:

  • Primary Season lasts 12 weeks, starting the first week of February and lasting until the end of April, approximately.
  • Each week, five states vote, with an extra number for the territories/Puerto Rico in one of the two ‘gap’ weeks in the schedule.
  • States vote in Reverse Population Order. 
  • Gap weeks occur before each of the two last set of states (the most populous ten), in order to allow more campaigning before the primaries involved.
  • Voting will be restricted to registered members of the party only. No independents or crossovers. If you want a voice, you have to commit to it.

So, what would this mean?

First, we would not get situations where those running for office feel compelled to dive out of the race. 

Second, we have time for opponents to research each other, since the news media will only research to destroy a candidate they do not like.

Third, the smaller states feel like they can make a difference, though the big states are still the deciding factor.

Lastly, it shortens primary season by almost a full three months. The first primary happening in the beginning of January, and ending in June is ridiculous.

Under this plan, theoretically you could move the conventions up an entire month, and thus giving us another month to evaluate not only the general election candidates, but their vice presidential selections. 

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