Patriot Update - A Free Press for the Conservative Revolution

It felt so odd when I first started voting for Republicans toward the end of President Reagan’s second term. I’d once been a public relations and campaign consultant for Democrats, a civil rights activist who helped elect the first black mayor of Atlanta, a campaign designer and manager who launched the career of the first woman to lead the fourth largest city in America. Although it had never been my plan to do so, I’d even served in public office myself after winning a campaign for mayor of a town in which I’d live for just a year. I won a majority of votes, defeating six candidates without a run-off, something almost unheard of.

By the time I won my election, I had been a Christian for nine years. Because I campaigned on conservative fiscal and developmental management, I came to the attention of the Republican Party in my county and was invited to serve on the county Republican Executive Committee. Once there I was shocked to discover rampant political ineptness and a suspicion of Bible- believing conservatives! Still, I remained a Republican, though I chafed at the lack of understanding these active, high level, entrenched Republicans had about their political opposition.

They did not know how to message Republican beliefs to undermine the opposition, add to the Republican base and neutralize those who can’t be persuaded. Frankly, these were foreign concepts to Republicans. I encouraged them to go into Democrat strongholds like the black community (I would show them how), but they would not or could not understand anything I told them about this need to invade new intellectual and physical territory and translate their messages to the groups that Democrats targeted for conquest. I will say categorically that the Republican Party will not prevail in the long term without winning another piece of the black vote (it currently gets about 10%), and winning it honestly – not as the Democrats do with fear and loathing on the campaign trail.

I’ve lived in six states and discovered, much to my dismay, that Republicans are pretty much the same everywhere. It seems Republicans are clueless about everything but their own social strata, concerned only with their personal finances, always striving to rediscover the basics every campaign cycle, while the Democrats, who year after year add to their strengths, come up with multiple means of transporting their tweeked ideas, beliefs and symbolisms into the heart of the American People.

Republicans are merely a collection of individuals, not really interwoven into an effective team. They aren’t so much anti-other people, just consumed with their own lives. Republican Women’s Clubs, the backbone of Republican “organization,” are incapable of doing politics as it needs to be done. They wait upon the County Party or a candidate to tell them when to jump and where, but never how high. They never debate issues at meetings. And why in the world does the Republican Party mandate the segregation of women like that (or by age, as with the Young Republicans)? It’s absurd.

I am not a feminist as a Democrat would define one, and I’m not making any kind of statement about sexism or ageism here. What I am saying is the Republican Party is a top-down vehicle in structure that keeps its adherents’ hands in park and brains in neutral, while the powers that be tightly hold the steering wheel. The mixing of sexes, ages or those from different socio-economic groups is definitely not encouraged. Thinking, strategizing, debating, formulating and deploying without permission at the grass roots level is almost non-existent. Republican Women’s Clubs’ meetings are genteel “lunching ladies” affairs where there is always a palpable striving to cause no one offense, as if politics is High Tea with The Queen. And God forbid they should have a thought different from the elected political leadership or propose endorsing a candidate in the Republican Primary.

These things, which are the essence of healthy political behavior, are actually forbidden. I left the last Republican Women’s Club I belonged to because they spent big bucks and energy having a grand fashion show the week before Election Day! Talk about being in high gear! The Pachyderm Clubs, which are largely male but also have some women, are not much better. Go to one of their meetings and you will get a download from an invited “expert,” usually on an esoteric topic. Still, no debate, no call for timely action of any kind. It’s all for individual consumption. At least the Tea Party invites people to go places, do things, and to speak their minds to a larger public on issues that are of profound concern.

All this explains why in most jurisdictions where I’ve lived I found most Republican precinct judge positions VACANT. Typically there is a ridiculous multi-layered screening process one must successfully navigate before even a hard core conservative can be appointed Precinct Judge, appointment being the method Republicans prefer. And of course, seldom is anyone openly encouraged to file and run for Precinct Judge. That might offend the do-nothing currently occupying the position in the unlikely event it is filled. In my own precinct where I’ve lived since 2001, I have never once been called, had my door knocked on, or received a flyer or been invited to a meeting or party by my precinct judge (this is de rigueur in Democrat precincts).

I called my PJ once and discovered that he’s just not politically active. This has been the case in every state I’ve lived in. No wonder the Republican Party is chronically ineffective and wins races mostly by default (Dems doing bad things). Republicans build on sand with good building materials (free enterprise, strong national defense, limited government, strong families, etc.) but they forget about the importance of having a solid foundation of people self-organized at the precinct level who really believe and can articulate specific applications of conservative concepts to others, especially those currently voting for the opposition.

I am not one of those who believes the Tea Party Movement, in and of itself, is the answer to all Republican deficits and conservative questions. It greatly concerns me that Tea Party people are politically inexperienced and naive about precinct organization. Some aspects of what they need to be doing require registration as political action committees. But, by and large, their hearts are in the right place. They actually believe in the values Republicans give lip service to. They believe all people are equal before the law. They see the grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independence aggrieving the people again and they believe they have an obligation to govern by speaking out and acting.

They believe in the Constitution of the United States and that it includes the Preamble (the Democrats do not) and the Bill of Rights (the Democrats aim to dismantle it in part and reinterpret it in part). Contrary to the folks at MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and NPR, the Tea Party people aren’t racist and aren’t trying to kill off this or that group through stupid policy initiatives (unwittingly, like Democrats and Republicans) or through welfare traps, social engineering and abortion, and power and entitlement grabs (deliberately, like Democrats).

I have had my share of conversations with numerous Tea Partiers and have discovered that their aversion to the Democratic Party and their mistrust of the Republican Party do not allow them to be taught much about politics by anyone. The Republican Party needs the Tea Party and the Tea Party needs an existing political vehicle through which to do real politics. Doing politics will mean learning politics for both.

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