23/12: Changes Coming
Major changes coming. This site may be done a bit and then come back as a new Weblog provider. This site has irreparable hacking damage.
Merry CHRISTmas.
Just google Deo Vindice if you can't find this in the future.
The new site is here - http://jatticus.wordpress.com/
Merry CHRISTmas.
Just google Deo Vindice if you can't find this in the future.
The new site is here - http://jatticus.wordpress.com/
The federal government is supposed to regulate commerce – set standards – for commerce across state lines. It isn’t the federal government’s job to provide “a helping hand to businesses in need.” States can do as they please. But, it isn’t in the Constitution for the U.S. Congress “to create solutions that will both help industry stay afloat and protect taxpayer investment.”
See James Madison’s notes on the Constitution convention and the Federalist papers for original intent. See 20th Century SCOTUS decisions for contempt of intent and writing legislation from the bench.
Furthermore, it’s just bad business. Legislators will make presumptions like this one for the Automobile industry; “the most important piece of any recovery package to be considered by Congress is that the company in question be required to provide a viable restructuring plan. This plan must clearly demonstrate how a business would return to profitability in the long term.”
As if members of Congress will recognize which plans are viable. How can the Congress, which is incapable of running its own budgets in the black, know which plan demonstrates long term profitability? Who are these automotive industry experts serving as Congressional representatives and senators? What justifies any presumption of competence about what is best for business among politicians of every stripe?
Congress should stay out of the business of picking winners and losers in business – and dumping money on them. Even if Congress requires ‘a plan’ before they start throwing money.
Yet, elected politicians think “Another option that should be considered, either prior to or in conjunction with federal loans, is a program of private financing with federal guarantees. There is no doubt that shaky credit markets have adversely impacted the availability of credit, particularly for firms that are struggling for survival. However, Congress can create a program whereby the federal government provides insurance on private investment for businesses in need. This insurance would be funded by the participants with a modest FDIC-like fee and would cover up to 50 percent of the losses of new investment in the case of a default. Such a program would help to unlock large amounts of private financing, while simultaneously protecting taxpayers.”
Huh? How does paying 50 per cent of losses help taxpayers? That is the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac model of putting full faith and guarantee of the U.S. treasury behind bad loans. This is precisely what started the financial bubble. It’s bursting created a financial crisis. So, let’s do it all over again for another industry. Sheer genius.
Finally, another way to throw money is through tax policy. Like, “Legislation allowing a $10,000 tax deduction on the purchase of a new car would certainly benefit the auto industry. So too would a bill that allows the deduction of the state and local sales taxes on new car purchases from federal income tax. Initiatives like these can easily be extended beyond the auto industry to help any number of ailing businesses, with little or no taxpayer exposure.” This is way to get bigger campaign contributions from car dealerships and automotive suppliers. And it is a crock for tax policy. Only people who pay $10k in taxes could benefit. Ah, these are the same people who can give significant tax contributions.
If over half of Virginia’s families earn under $52k a year ( 2004: median family of four), they don’t pay $10k in federal taxes. So, the lower financial half of Virginia gets nothing. Thanks, Congress.
And, can the taxpayer use the $10k deduction to buy a Toyota? Consider that Toyota and one of the Big 3 U.S. manufacturers both sold about 9 million cars last year. Toyota made billions in profits and the Big 3 firm made billions in losses. Increased sales may not go to the companies with the structural problems in their business model, nor may they help. It’s feel good politics for telling voters you gave them a $10k knock off the price of a new car.
The better tax policy is to just cut corporate taxes. To the bone. How much could that help a GM with over $60 billion in liabilities?
Cut income taxes. That capital will create jobs for people who will buy cars. Cut spending so the Fed borrows less – and there is more money to loan in the economy.
What are these “any number of other ailing businesses who will get tax breaks from the Feds?” This is how the tax code grew to thousands of pages. Special deals for special interests. How political –politics as usual. How un-Constitutional. What an open door to more corruption in government.
The good news is that the legislation introduced for these ideas will die under other party chairmanship of committees – unless there are the right Liberal co-sponsors.
Sound economic policy isn’t so complicated. Spend less than you take in. Cut the sham corporate taxes. Cut individual taxes.
Good governance isn’t so difficult to understand. Don’t use the Federal treasury as an un-Constitutional piggy bank. Don’t give pork to special interests.
If one believes that “without a doubt, the federal government has a duty to assist in the country’s economic recovery,” then the answer is to not be such a big part of the problem. No bail outs. No buying votes and support for behavior modification. No backing up bad loans. No selective tax reductions for special interests.
See James Madison’s notes on the Constitution convention and the Federalist papers for original intent. See 20th Century SCOTUS decisions for contempt of intent and writing legislation from the bench.
Furthermore, it’s just bad business. Legislators will make presumptions like this one for the Automobile industry; “the most important piece of any recovery package to be considered by Congress is that the company in question be required to provide a viable restructuring plan. This plan must clearly demonstrate how a business would return to profitability in the long term.”
As if members of Congress will recognize which plans are viable. How can the Congress, which is incapable of running its own budgets in the black, know which plan demonstrates long term profitability? Who are these automotive industry experts serving as Congressional representatives and senators? What justifies any presumption of competence about what is best for business among politicians of every stripe?
Congress should stay out of the business of picking winners and losers in business – and dumping money on them. Even if Congress requires ‘a plan’ before they start throwing money.
Yet, elected politicians think “Another option that should be considered, either prior to or in conjunction with federal loans, is a program of private financing with federal guarantees. There is no doubt that shaky credit markets have adversely impacted the availability of credit, particularly for firms that are struggling for survival. However, Congress can create a program whereby the federal government provides insurance on private investment for businesses in need. This insurance would be funded by the participants with a modest FDIC-like fee and would cover up to 50 percent of the losses of new investment in the case of a default. Such a program would help to unlock large amounts of private financing, while simultaneously protecting taxpayers.”
Huh? How does paying 50 per cent of losses help taxpayers? That is the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac model of putting full faith and guarantee of the U.S. treasury behind bad loans. This is precisely what started the financial bubble. It’s bursting created a financial crisis. So, let’s do it all over again for another industry. Sheer genius.
Finally, another way to throw money is through tax policy. Like, “Legislation allowing a $10,000 tax deduction on the purchase of a new car would certainly benefit the auto industry. So too would a bill that allows the deduction of the state and local sales taxes on new car purchases from federal income tax. Initiatives like these can easily be extended beyond the auto industry to help any number of ailing businesses, with little or no taxpayer exposure.” This is way to get bigger campaign contributions from car dealerships and automotive suppliers. And it is a crock for tax policy. Only people who pay $10k in taxes could benefit. Ah, these are the same people who can give significant tax contributions.
If over half of Virginia’s families earn under $52k a year ( 2004: median family of four), they don’t pay $10k in federal taxes. So, the lower financial half of Virginia gets nothing. Thanks, Congress.
And, can the taxpayer use the $10k deduction to buy a Toyota? Consider that Toyota and one of the Big 3 U.S. manufacturers both sold about 9 million cars last year. Toyota made billions in profits and the Big 3 firm made billions in losses. Increased sales may not go to the companies with the structural problems in their business model, nor may they help. It’s feel good politics for telling voters you gave them a $10k knock off the price of a new car.
The better tax policy is to just cut corporate taxes. To the bone. How much could that help a GM with over $60 billion in liabilities?
Cut income taxes. That capital will create jobs for people who will buy cars. Cut spending so the Fed borrows less – and there is more money to loan in the economy.
What are these “any number of other ailing businesses who will get tax breaks from the Feds?” This is how the tax code grew to thousands of pages. Special deals for special interests. How political –politics as usual. How un-Constitutional. What an open door to more corruption in government.
The good news is that the legislation introduced for these ideas will die under other party chairmanship of committees – unless there are the right Liberal co-sponsors.
Sound economic policy isn’t so complicated. Spend less than you take in. Cut the sham corporate taxes. Cut individual taxes.
Good governance isn’t so difficult to understand. Don’t use the Federal treasury as an un-Constitutional piggy bank. Don’t give pork to special interests.
If one believes that “without a doubt, the federal government has a duty to assist in the country’s economic recovery,” then the answer is to not be such a big part of the problem. No bail outs. No buying votes and support for behavior modification. No backing up bad loans. No selective tax reductions for special interests.
From the Patriot Post (Dec 15th, 2009) “Today, 15 December, is the 217th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the first Ten Amendments to our Constitution, as ratified in 1791.
The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke's 1689 thesis, Two Treatises of Government, regarding the protection of "property" (in the Latin context, proprius, or one's own "life, liberty and estate"); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state's Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.”
These are a few key enumerated individual rights that limit the power of government. These rights are God-given and inalienable. They were written and are understandable in English.
These rights were intended to stand as they are written. They were never meant to be what Judges on Courts made up and wrote down.
The future of these Rights isn’t in the hands of the Courts. Their future is in the hands of America’s We The People – who must elect legislators and executives who return the rights to their truth and preserve them for the future. Or, our Rights as free Americans perish.
The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke's 1689 thesis, Two Treatises of Government, regarding the protection of "property" (in the Latin context, proprius, or one's own "life, liberty and estate"); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state's Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.”
These are a few key enumerated individual rights that limit the power of government. These rights are God-given and inalienable. They were written and are understandable in English.
These rights were intended to stand as they are written. They were never meant to be what Judges on Courts made up and wrote down.
The future of these Rights isn’t in the hands of the Courts. Their future is in the hands of America’s We The People – who must elect legislators and executives who return the rights to their truth and preserve them for the future. Or, our Rights as free Americans perish.
The CHRISTmas party was as humbling as it was Spirit-filled. Probably, because it was so Spirit-filled. A father whose soldier son, suffering from post-traumatic stress, had killed himself was there. He has a daughter-in-law with a two year old grandson. There were active duty and retired military chaplains. There were Campus Crusade workers with over 35 years of service in the ministry.
A world-wide ministry of about 350 full time employees is based in Newport News, Virginia. Good works coming out of God's Country.
The CHRISTmas carols were a wonderful shared time. It seemed like CHRISTmas started today.
Looks like I'll be travelling more overseas soon. I hope I can help this ministry as I go about my day job duties wherever I am.
A world-wide ministry of about 350 full time employees is based in Newport News, Virginia. Good works coming out of God's Country.
The CHRISTmas carols were a wonderful shared time. It seemed like CHRISTmas started today.
Looks like I'll be travelling more overseas soon. I hope I can help this ministry as I go about my day job duties wherever I am.
A moderate Republican view of Republicans is illuminating. CNN reports (December 11th, 2008) that GEN (RET)/SecState Colin Powell said "I think the party has to take a hard look at itself," Powell said in the interview, which was taped Wednesday. "There is nothing wrong with being conservative. There is nothing wrong with having socially conservative views — I don't object to that. But if the party wants to have a future in this country, it has to face some realities. In another 20 years, the majority in this country will be the minority."
Thank goodness he didn’t run for President. Because he would have won.
Let’s face the reality that Whites will be a minority by 2042 or sooner. The challenge isn’t about abandoning Conservative ideas, and as a Powell pointed out – Rush Limbaugh. The challenge is to get identity voters who cast the ballot on the basis of their skin color, language, religion or sexual behavior to either become idea voters who vote for ideas as individuals or to change their identity from reflexive Democrat to roboto-Republican. The former is a better option than the later.
Let’s consider that there is “nothing wrong with being conservative.” Ugh. What tepid tripe. He should have said, “Its wonderful to be a Conservative. It’s stupendous to have social Conservative views.” But, then, he would have to a Conservative, instead of a moderate to say so.
Save the Republicans from such moderation. Spare the Republicans such a moderate loyalist who sells his own Party short by endorsing a liberal, empty suit, with Chicago baggage like Barack Hussein Obama.
Thank goodness he didn’t run for President. Because he would have won.
Let’s face the reality that Whites will be a minority by 2042 or sooner. The challenge isn’t about abandoning Conservative ideas, and as a Powell pointed out – Rush Limbaugh. The challenge is to get identity voters who cast the ballot on the basis of their skin color, language, religion or sexual behavior to either become idea voters who vote for ideas as individuals or to change their identity from reflexive Democrat to roboto-Republican. The former is a better option than the later.
Let’s consider that there is “nothing wrong with being conservative.” Ugh. What tepid tripe. He should have said, “Its wonderful to be a Conservative. It’s stupendous to have social Conservative views.” But, then, he would have to a Conservative, instead of a moderate to say so.
Save the Republicans from such moderation. Spare the Republicans such a moderate loyalist who sells his own Party short by endorsing a liberal, empty suit, with Chicago baggage like Barack Hussein Obama.
10/12: Big Government Politics
Where in the Constitution does it indicate we, The People, should do these things?
"There is no doubt that Congress should play a role in assisting the auto industry."
"Have a program that would provide FDIC-like insurance to encourage investors to proffer the financing that these companies need, rather than using taxpayer dollars."
"Legislation that would directly incentivize the sale of new cars, including a bill to provide a $10,000 tax deduction for the purchase of new autos produced in the United States and one to allow taxpayers to deduct from their federal taxes their state and local sales taxes, including those paid with the purchase of a new car or truck."
Guess which party produced these words of such political genius.
"There is no doubt that Congress should play a role in assisting the auto industry."
"Have a program that would provide FDIC-like insurance to encourage investors to proffer the financing that these companies need, rather than using taxpayer dollars."
"Legislation that would directly incentivize the sale of new cars, including a bill to provide a $10,000 tax deduction for the purchase of new autos produced in the United States and one to allow taxpayers to deduct from their federal taxes their state and local sales taxes, including those paid with the purchase of a new car or truck."
Guess which party produced these words of such political genius.
10/12: Not Bullish On Bailouts
It is not the Government's job to bail out banks or car companies. The Constitution provides the guidance. The legislature and the executive are supposed to provide the judgment as situations arise. The legislature and executive should understand what is wrong with government trying to do what it isn't supposed to do. They should understand the economic futility, and harm, of intervening in the economy.
But too many members of both branches at the Federal level don't.
But too many members of both branches at the Federal level don't.
09/12: I Retreated From the Advance
Actually, I just wasn' there.
So, everyone loved the Bob McDonell and Bill Bolling speeches on lower taxes and limited government and smaller spending.
Were there any specifics on what taxes and spending would be cut - and what agencies would do less, or just stop doing some tasks?
So, everyone loved the Bob McDonell and Bill Bolling speeches on lower taxes and limited government and smaller spending.
Were there any specifics on what taxes and spending would be cut - and what agencies would do less, or just stop doing some tasks?
03/12: A Modest Proposal to the RPV
Shuan Kenney has some thoughtful and good suggestions for the RPV. I tried to copy the memo but it didn't come out well. I am technologically-challenged.
Here is the better link.
http://www.shaunkenney.com/2008/12/kenney-memo-modest-proposal-for.html
http://www.shaunkenney.com/PDF/KenneyOpenLettertoVirginiaGOP.pdf
Here is my poor paste of the memo.
MEMORANDUM
To: Jeff Frederick, Chairman
State Central Committee, Republican Party of Virginia
Activists and Members of the Republican Party of Virginia
RE: A Modest Proposal
______________________________________________________________________________
We know this, whether we are prepared to admit it publicly or not. The Republican Party of
Virginia is broken, but not on ideas or principle.
The Republican Party of Virginia logistically is a wreck. Talk of throwing any part of our
coalition overboard is both premature and unsound. Good candidates will no longer be able to
paper over the severe disadvantages we have placed ourselves under. Until Virginia Republicans
recognize and correct this problem, we will continue to slide further into a minority status.
Quick reforms are needed. This approach – even if taken in parts over time – will allow RPV’s
infrastructure to make immediate strikes into our 2009 races now, while allowing Virginia
Republicans the “long game” to re-ignite the entrepreneurial spirit we have arguably lost.
These reforms are:
1. Define where we are going.
2. RPV is the aggregated voice of our unit committees.
3. Unit committees are old. Shake them up; start over!
4. RPV HQ? Start over.
5. Restart the Joint Republican Caucus; headquarter it at RPV HQ.
6. RNC Voter Vault and the RPV Voter List should be vastly improved and made
freely available (with certain strings attached).
7. Winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms
These reforms (or if not reforms, then the ideas and positions on which solid reforms should be
made) are not the result of panic, nor is this memorandum written in haste or without deep
consideration as to the recommendations made. Some old hands will scoff at the practicality of
implementing such reforms, while others are just now realizing how the landscape has changed.
Many will insist that we copy the opposition – the Democrats tried this with talk radio and got
nowhere.
Instead, we have to focus on the advantages we have as a party and foster those values.
Entrepreneurship. Free markets. Free minds. A free society and the ideas of a meritocracy.
Those are the values that wake me up in the morning, that encourage me to volunteer, to knock
on doors, to get others thinking about what it means to be a Republican.
If Jeffersonian conservativism has a definition, those values come pretty darned close. And quite
honestly, the days when our party was best were the days we thought (and fought) along those
lines, isn’t it?
It’s about time we started acting on those principles as a party.
If you want to adapt to change, rebuild the Republican Party of Virginia, and capitalize on the
new landscape to the advantage of our principles and our candidates, then the following ideas are
for you to consider – and perhaps adopt.
(1) Define where we are going.
While there are plenty of observations to this effect, and plenty of blame being doled out or
denied, what is not clear – and what we are not hearing – is how we should go about fixing it.
After all, this is our party. The responsibility for fixing it lies with us.
So we should start with some first things. Which goals? Whose voice? The initial question we
have to ask ourselves is “Quo Vadis?” Where are we going? What are we about?
I’ll start with the basics.
For too long, RPV’s front office has been used as a tool, either by elected officials or those
seeking higher political office. That perception needs to reform immediately.
In addition, there needs to be a very frank and open discussion of the future of the party – in
terms of mission, in terms of organization, and in terms of its relationship with the Virginia
House and Virginia Senate Caucuses.
Few people understand the relationship between the Senate Republican Leadership Trust (SRLT)
or the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC). Many grassroots activists and
volunteers wrongfully blame RPV for problems regarding many of the caucuses traditional roles
– candidate recruitment, fundraising, strategy, and the allocation of resources.
In addition, internally RPV from the top down is a mess. Unit committees expect the state party
to provide items only to be let down, district committees find themselves somewhere in between,
and RPV leadership has an alarming tendency to be managed from the top, rather than providing
our elected officials with the perspective of our grassroots principles.
So what does RPV actually do? Perhaps a better question to ask is to whom RPV is held
accountable? The answer to this is simple: our unit committees. To our grassroots, our
volunteers, our activists, and no one else is RPV responsible for mobilizing, preparing,
activating, and energizing for any campaign at any level of government.
To that end, and with that in mind, it’s easy to identify whose voice we really are…
(2) Define our Voice: The Republican Party of Virginia is the aggregated voice of our
unit committees.
That is it.
There is no science.
It is no small secret that many Republican activists are fed up with the Republican label, both in
terms of the party apparatus and mostly identifying (and taking out this frustration upon) our
elected officials, either by running candidates in the primaries or simply not showing up to the
polls – or worse leaving the ballot blank.
One could argue endlessly with a “chicken or the egg?” philosophical question as to whether or
not strong unit committees or dynamic leadership will resolve our problems. I firmly side on the
former: strong unit committees will produce dynamic leadership. Strong unit committees are far
more insulated against swings in the electorate produced by the national climate or
marketing/communications strategies.
Moreover, strong unit committees will produce stronger district committees, and a stronger RPV
to boot. This sort of decentralization puts the power of RPV’s bully pulpit squarely back into the
hands of the grassroots, and away from the strongly centralized (and disappointingly ineffective)
RPV we have today.
Current elected officials will more than likely not warm up to this prospect of strong unit
committees, fearing primary challenges or a more demanding home front.
The alternative for our elected officials is something far more grim – our current predicament of
unit committees too weak to effect change plus Republican candidates losing to well mobilized,
well funded, and strong Democratic challengers.
As it stands, the Republican grassroots (conservatives, moderates, and lowercase l-libertarians
alike) have no voice in the party structure, hence the outcropping of several organizations
attempting to duplicate what our party structure should be accomplishing.
Therefore, not only should RPV assume the mantle of being the aggregated voice of the unit
committees, the state party should recognize the rot has reached all the way down to the roots.
(3) Unit committees are old. Shake them up; start over!
Unit committees are currently organized off of some variation of Roberts Rules of Order.
Perfect for the time they were created (the 1920s) but wholly unsuited for a modern method of
outreach.
In this light, RPV should reapproach its entire Party Plan and start from scratch. Instead of
fighting the “last war” with 1980’s-era tactics, we should be preparing to fight the next war with
better tactics, a more flexible approach to unit organization structure, and complete willingness
to surrender message control to our grassroots.
Once our unit committees are liberated from the rules and regulations, the outmoded bylaws and
dry meetings, and start approaching grassroots mobilization as entrepreneurs in the cause of
advancing our shared values and principles, only then can we reignite the grassroots.
“New Media” has captured the imagination of many, from the grassroots all the way to our GOP
leadership. New believers, who months ago were highly critical of the impact of the
blogosphere, are bringing on new talent as we speak to prepare for the 2009 Virginia House
races.
It is here where we have to find what works for Republicans, because what worked for the
Democrats simply will not work for us. Talk radio, columnists, and direct mail have never had
the same degree of success for the liberals as they have for conservatives. In a similar fashion,
we have to be brave enough to challenge ourselves to find out how new media can help
Republicans share the message and get out the vote.
Experimentally, unit committees should consider reorganizing along the following lines and
principles:
• All unit committees must radically commit themselves to new media. That means a
community blog focusing on issues pertinent to the locality in which they live, open to all
the members of the committee (Democrats tend to use SoapBlox as their platform of
choice; Drupal, Joomla, or even WordPress is suitable).
• Chairman is elected as the lead community organizer. As a first among equals, the
chairman co-ordinates as a garden-variety chairman would.
• All districts and precincts are given a chairman. These individuals form the Executive
Committee of any given unit committee, and targets the specific race (supervisor, city
council, school board) under their jurisdiction.
• The idea of “district and precinct chairman” should be expanded to advocacy
groups as well. This means anything from minority outreach1 to youth advocacy, from
Republican Womens’ units to Young Republicans, all the way down to Republican
Liberty Caucus organizations or Taxpayer Alliances within a locality. Every group with
a “tribe” should have a seat at the table.
• The Executive Committee subsumes the role of Finance, Communications, and all
grassroots activity. No vice chairs for finance, communications, membership, or any of
the nominal. The Napoleonic dictum “Every soldier carries a marshal's baton in his
pack” is the rule.
• A strong focus on driving a narrative both within the online community and in the
traditional media should be imperative. Perception is reality; MSM outlets are
1 Minority outreach is a term I have particular hatred for. There should be no such thing as “Catholics for McCain”,
but rather the campaign itself should be talking about Catholic issues. Same with any demographic group. Take
note of how the Democrats – who are much more fractured than Republicans are – approach coalition building.
Note that there are no groups titled women, African‐American, Hispanic, environmentalists, union workers, etc.
for Obama. While nominally such groups might exist, their candidates and party structure create an environment
where various minorities coalesce around a single idea. Republicans in general would be wise to imitate Reagan’s
example in this regard, much as the Democrats have done in the years after Reagan.
typically hesitant to challenge a strong new media culture. Moreover, strong alternative
outlets for information attached to the unit committee are essential.
• Surrender the message control. This is probably the most difficult thing for unit
committees to learn, but increasing participation means a decrease in message control.
Jefferson’s advice still rings true. “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may
lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it” is wonderfully
appropriate advice. After all, are we the party of free minds, free markets, and a free
society – or are we not? It is far better to be bold (fortuna audaces juvat?) than it is to
remain safe… and losing.
What is being advocated at the local level is a bold, spirited return to the principles of direct
action and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Republican Party, and a direction away from the top
heavy role imposed by an outmoded system of unit organization.
This form of direct action consists of four core ideas:
(1) A handful of individuals willing to invest in their principles
(2) These same individuals should be a self-reliant group
(3) Action must be demonstrated in exciting, participatory ways
(4) The atmosphere must provoke curiosity, build momentum, and maintain a high level of
morale.
Just to give an idea as to how a sample unit would appear (as distinct from a hierarchy), here is
an idea:
For something a bit more traditional to emphasize the egalitarian nature of a unit committee
reorganized along the principles of new media:
Unit Committee
Independent
Bloggers
Precinct
Chairs and
Activist
Groups
Executive
Committee
Now as a former unit chairman, I know what the immediate question is. What’s this going to
cost? Surprisingly… you’d be surprised at how little a move to new media really costs.
Let’s take a sample committee of seven districts and three advocacy groups (a YR unit, a
Republican Women’s unit, and a Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia organization for all
those new Ron Paul supporters). Let’s also say you have two hotshot bloggers in your locality.
The costs are as follows:
Staff Member Salary/mo. # of Staff Subtotal__________
Chairman $0/mo 1 $0/mo
District Chairs $0/mo 7 $0/mo
Unit Committee Website (Blog) $10/mo 0 $10/mo
Advocacy Groups $0/mo 3 $0/mo
Independent Bloggers $0/mo 2 $0/mo____________
TOTAL PER MONTH: 13 $10/mo
TOTAL PER ANNUM: 13 $120/yr
The most demanding investment – frankly – is time. Someone has to be committed to the idea,
and committed to writing. Like any garden, they take time for things to get started, and blogging
is no different. Reputation matters in the blogosphere (no pseudonyms, please). And quality
content will attract quality readers.
Want to get fancy? Buy your own domain? Let’s say that your advocacy groups want to “break
off” and start their own blog with three or four active members? Excellent! Let slip the blogs of
Executive Committee
(Chairman and Subgroup
Heads)
District Chairs (Blog)
Precinct Chairs
Advocacy Groups
(Taxpayers, Gunnies,
Reform, Educators,
Home Schoolers)
Independent Bloggers
war! Let’s say every district chairman has three or four people blogging about issues specific to
their locality? Go for it. Let’s say you don’t want a blog at all and want to go with a forum? Let
‘er rip!
The bottom line is that blogging is an incredibly cheap exercise. The real difference will be the
quality of your blog and the community that reads the blog. Obviously, a unit committee who
wants to go down this route will need to clearly identify an audience (unit members? community
leaders? the liberal rag downtown?) and write intelligently, with an audience willing to giveand-
take in a comments section, then you’re ready to go.
Need a platform from which to blog?
• Blogger has long been the gold standard for most novitiates. It’s easy to use, works with
everything Google, and has the Google brand to keep it constantly updated and afloat
• WordPress is the 201 class for bloggers. Not only is it more customizable, it allows for
different layouts and much more versatility through plug-ins. The downside is that it
relies on a much more complicated programming language (PHP) that is less forward
than the HTML-based Blogger layout. WordPress also has the advantage of either being
hosted on WordPress servers, being upgraded over time for a small fee, or if you are
ready to take the plunge to simply move the entire system over to a hosted server of your
own.
• TypePad is another reliable platform that finds favor in some quarters. I am not a
particular fan, but others have spoken well.
• Movable Type is an oldie but a goodie for content management system (CMS)
platforms. I have never been a fan, but some folks are.
• Drupal is the 301 class for blogging… Drupal carries over all of the benefits of
WordPress (and its downsides) while consisting of a much more robust platform for
multiple users. Drupal also has several plug-ins for small to medium sized organizations
and has a very strong open source community built around it for these purposes.
• Joomla is the granddaddy of all platforms. The Washington Post uses a version of
Joomla for its website. Some developers prefer Joomla, but tread here only if you are
absolutely certain you can take advantage of its features.
Other outlets such as FaceBook, Twitter, and Ning all help emphasize the connectivity of the
group, and help turn direct action into real results. Utilizing other resources for online
fundraising (RedStormPAC2, which is a free service for Virginia Republicans similar to
ActBlue) means that all of the tools the left has used to make social networking and Web 2.0
work are available right now for our local committees.
2 RedStormPAC is a Virginia political action committee started by myself and my brother, Jason Kenney, for the
exclusive purpose of giving elected officials, candidates, and center‐right organizations the ability to fundraise
online. Most notably, there are no fees. $100 contributed through RSPAC means $100 to your candidate or cause
– which is a drastic change from other orgs like ActBlue (2.5% fee), SlateCard (4% fee), PayPal (3% fee), or what
many private vendors will charge for their clients. This means RSPAC operates at a loss, but is kept afloat by good
people willing to donate to keep this resource available. If interested, learn more at http://www.redstormpac.org.
What is the direct impact? Advocacy groups now get a seat at the table within unit committees,
freely allowing members to create groups of interest where unmet needs within the locality
become present.
Such an organization would have to allow these advocacy groups to carry the same weight as any
precinct would. The specific “heat barrier” for which an advocacy group would meet the litmus
test for relevance would obviously be dependent upon the temperament of the committee, but the
intent would be to stretch the invitation to create new sub-groups under the umbrella of the unit
committee to be as wide and as broad as possible.
Let’s be honest. For the “party of entrepreneurship” we sure do a lot of whining about what
RPV is going to do for our candidates, our committees, our local races, our party call, our
speaker for the next big event, our mail, our TV ads, taking on the mainstream media, handling
the blogs, producing better lists, paying for postage… ad nauseam, the list continues.
Worse still, most unit committees simply have the life stomped out of them, partially because of
the constant, ongoing nature of Virginia elections. Having said this, unit committees need to
realize that there will be no cavalry charge to save the day, RPV will not be coming to the
rescue, nor should they. Local Republican units should rely on each other for assistance or funds
– a principle of self-reliance that Republicans used to demand of others! After all, it’s far easier
to dig deep and make a one-time $200 contribution than to pay that amount yearly in higher
taxes.
Unit committees are old school. If you’re in my age bracket, they are piloted by “old people”
(anyone over 40, sadly) who don’t understand new media, don’t interact on social media sites,
have no idea how to text message3, don’t speak to their issues (property taxes? social security?
medicare? who cares when most 18-35 year olds rent, and we all know these programs are
failing and won’t be there for our generation -- though we will most certainly have to pay for
it…), and frankly treat these young new recruits as backbenchers – though they probably have
more experience mobilizing people for a Friday night on the town than most committee members
could organize on Election Day.
Ron Paul’s presidential campaign is a perfect example of what we’ve lost in the GOP. They are
young, energetic, want to donate, want to participate, and want to help change the world.
What young Republican voters don’t want is to be pandered to, patted on the head, or used (or
worse – abused). When leaders are willing to loosen up and give new Republicans a shot at
influencing the debate, this will be the moment when we’ve figured out how to turn the ocean of
angst against the GOP into the coalition-building efforts we need to win.
(4) RPV HQ? Start over.
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of the front office. It too is stuck in the past, and what I offer
here are not criticisms of those in current roles (in fact, they might fit in splendidly), but rather
ideas that hopefully spur conversation about how to tackle over a hundred independent unit
3 For instance: f U cnt rED DIS o dun undRstNd a bit of DIS, datz a pritE clr sgn dat teknoloG hz muvD beyond U.
committees and 11 independent district committees – all with the new found freedom of
entrepreneurship they’ve been bestowed.
It won’t be an easy task… but with the right mindset and approach, it could be a lot of fun!
So let’s get down to the basics of what I’ll call a “New Media RPV”:
First, a New Media Executive Director understands the difference between tactics and logistics;
amateurs talk about the former while professionals discuss the latter. A good New Media
Executive Director will know how to raise money; a good New Media Chairman will know how
to stand out of his/her way, and knows that the Chairman’s role is to stay quiet and use the bully
pulpit as sparingly as possible (think Atom Bomb) – and mostly for fundraising and not photo
ops.
Second, a New Media Finance Director should be acquired and compensated well for their work.
This should include mostly running the direct mail program and organizing fundraising events.
New Media Communications and New Media Political positions should be conflated into one
role, that of a Political Director savvy enough in new media and social networking principles to
operate as effectively online as they do in their districts.
NOTE: Under no circumstances am I advocating moving away from in-the-trenches groundpounding
grassroots activity into a nice clean air-conditioned office, sitting behind the desk with
an Apple laptop astroturf (i.e. fake grassroots) mentality.
Personal contact remains the best way to change the world – any so-called “new media
consultant” who tells you otherwise if a fraud. New Media Political Directors should feel just as
comfortable online as they do in our neighborhoods.
Our District Chairmen should be offered one position each as a Political Director for the
congressional district. That individual should organize the District Committee along the lines of
the unit committees:
• Build a district blog that focuses exclusively on promoting unit committee content.
• Serve as the Chief of Staff for the district chairs.
• Be a reliable, internal activist known to the people within the district and the
congressional member (or lacking a Representative, known to the state delegates and
state senators).
• Serve as the liaison for unit committees and RPV HQ.
• Maintain a reliable network of activists, local elected officials, unit chairs, and State
Central leadership as a database.
Our New Media IT Director at RPV HQ should perform much of the backend support for all IT
efforts. While unit committees should rely upon what works for them (and not expect support
from RPV), the district offices should expect that help.
Furthermore, there is no reason why RPV should be paying $85,000 for its current website, when
one experienced New Media specialist could have been hired to not only maintain the site, but
serve as a “New Media Director” (or preferably given the title of Senior Political Director) to
maintain constant contact with independent bloggers.
Organizationally, this is how a New Media RPV would appear:
Total cost breakdowns for all of RPV staff should run as follows:
Staff Member Salary/mo. # of Staff Subtotal_____
Executive Director $10,000/mo. 1 $10,000/mo
IT Director $8,000/mo 1 $8,000/mo
Senior Political Director $4,000/mo 1 $4,000/mo
Political Director $3,000/mo 11 $33,000/mo
Finance Director $5,000/mo 1 $5,000/mo
Comptroller $6,000/mo 1 $6,000/mo
Human Resources $3,000/mo 1 $3,000/mo
Executive Assistant $4,000/mo 1 $4,000/mo
TOTAL PER MONTH: 18 $73,000/mo
TOTAL PER ANNUM: 18 $876,000
That might seem like a terrifying number, but there are corners to cut. If the district committees
commit to raising half of the salary ($18,000) for each district Political Director, that slices
$216,000 right off the top of the budget. That becomes a staff budget of $660,000. Likewise, if
there remains a commitment to online fundraising and direct mail fundraising, this number is not
insurmountable. In addition, if the chairman remains committed to doing what professionals do
best – logistics and not tactics – then mobilizing the additional funds for such an ambitious
reorganization is not as terrifying as first glance.
In addition, we shouldn’t be afraid to expect good things in fundraising.
Chairman
Finance Director District Political Directors (11)
RPV HQ Staff
(Accounting, HR, Internships)
IT Director
Senior Political Director
Executive Director
Need examples? Frederick raised $1.3 million in his House of Delegates district alone. Hager
had excellent contacts in the Richmond business community. Gillespie was able to bring a
legion of Washington names to Virginia to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in a
remarkably brief period of time. Kate Obenshain pulled RPV out of a near million-dollar hole
all while keeping the ship afloat.
Raising the money for capable staff is not an impossible task. In fact, it is a requirement if we
are to start winning again. Virginia Republicans shouldn’t ignore these challenges or try to
mitigate their costs; we should do as our character dictates and meet this challenge head on.
One gaping hole the reader might have noticed. No communications staff?
That is absolutely right.
This resolves two problems. First, “new media” blurs those lines between activism and outreach,
much in the same way that an inclusion of new media in a Political Director’s position
recognizes that the Internet – in and of itself – is utterly worthless unless it translates into action
and results.
Second, RPV should not react to policy decisions it does not affect, participate in, or in all
practical terms set. Keep in mind that it is the Virginia House and Virginia Senate caucuses that
set the tone for policy, candidate recruitment, and strategy… RPV doesn’t do this – so why
explain it?
More importantly, a strong communications department at RPV reinforces the idea that
grassroots and unit committees should march to the RPV drum, when the reverse is the case –
RPV HQ acts on behalf and speaks for the grassroots.
(5) Restart the Joint Republican Caucus; Headquarter it at RPV.
Here’s a shocker for most political activists: RPV doesn’t choose which races at the state level
to focus on. That role and responsibility falls squarely on the Senate Republican Leadership
Trust (SRLT) and the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC).
Unfortunately, when the tough decisions get made on which races get funded and which ones
don’t, many challenger races still end up contacting RPV HQ…
Worse still, many activists don’t understand the role of these organizations. First and foremost,
they are incumbent protection machines – and nothing more. That’s not a slam against either…
the Democrats do it the same way. But that really is what they are designed to do, even at the
national level.
Aggregating a majority is a secondary concern, while helping challenger races is a distant,
tertiary idea.
Whatever bad blood exists or had existed before, in the 2009 cycle we have to be able to put it
aside. The Senate and House should not only restart the Joint Republican Caucus in good faith,
and those offices should be run out of the RPV HQ for maximum co-ordination with the
grassroots. Information should be shared to the greatest extent possible, and strategy (ideally)
planned in tandem with RPV.
This resolves three problems.
• One, it increases the comfort level with RPV staff and Executive Committee members as
to the grand strategy for the year.
• Two, it enables the Caucus to get the on-the-ground intelligence from unit committees as
to what is really occurring on the ground.
• Three, if RPV can serve as the mortar that keeps the House and Senate together, so be it.
Communication tends to solve things so nicely.
The tough part is this – it will require a strong chairman with a good reputation in the General
Assembly to accomplish this. This more than anything else is a goal which RPV should commit
itself towards resolving.
Unfortunately, as high as the hurdle is to clear for 2009’s House races and our statewide seats,
some degree of co-ordination will be absolutely critical to ensuring that our State Senators are as
invested in preserving our House majority as can possibly be expected.
Can it be expected? It should…
(6) RNC Voter Vault and the RPV Voter List should be vastly improved and made
freely available (with certain strings attached).
The lists are terrible. They’ve been terrible for awhile. Worse still, people actually use them (!)
and then never give those lists back to RPV to update.
Here’s another problem: there is no clean way of educating activists on (most of whom have day
jobs) the ins and outs of creating a good voter contact program while surfing through our
antediluvian RNC Voter Vault process. It simply can’t be done well in an afternoon, and most
folks simply don’t have the time (or the talent of a gymnast) to go through all the hoops.
Political Directors should be training our unit chairmen directly on this process as a requirement
of their office. Political Directors should also coach campaign managers (local and state) on how
the process is done. It should take no more than 15 minutes to actually break down a good list
for a specific campaign based on certain requirements or needs (e.g. GOTV, door knocking, or
direct mail).
If the Political Director has no idea how this is done, they should be sacked immediately and
replaced with someone who cares to learn.
Better than RNC Voter Vault in terms of quality, there is the additional problem of the RPV
Voter List which is just slightly better than the RNC Voter Vault… but not by much.
The politics of the RPV Voter List are a bit difficult to understand. Obviously, it would be great
if RPV could offer – free of charge – quality lists to any Republican who needs them. That’s
good news for everyone… except elected officials greatly concerned about the prospect of
primary challenges. As elected officials have and commit the resources, manpower (through
campaigns), and finances to build excellent voter contact lists, there is zero incentive to turn
these lists over.
The resolution is simple. The RPV Voter List belongs to the unit committees. Elected officials
have no responsibility to turn over their lists… so let’s quit whining about reality and move on!
Unit committees through State Central Committee should demand and expect good, quality lists
from RPV HQ, and there are many resources available that will not only offer updated lists
(through the State Board of Elections and a simple National Change of Address bump), but will
also give us access to microtargeted data in key areas (Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads,
Richmond, et al.) where Republican drift has been experienced.
In as such, those lists should be made available to unit committees and elected officials free of
charge. Post-primary, Political Directors should make every effort available to using these lists.
Pre-primary, campaigns on either side (challenger or incumbent) should be made available the
list for common and accepted rates of charge.
Beyond this, our lists are our life. RNC Voter Vault for instance has scantron capacity available,
and RPV should do the same for their lists. Political Directors and unit chairs when making their
calls should demand receipt of completed call lists before new lists are issued to campaigns, thus
ensuring a history of voter intent and information.
(7) Winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms.
It’s worth repeating: Winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms.
There is no reason for us to surrender either. And frankly, what we have lost is our fighting
spirit, those “Jeffersonian conservative” principles that won us our majority so long ago.
We seem perfectly willing to surrender to public opinion, the media, special interests, lobbyists,
or monetary gain – anything but our own judgment.
And while these groups and interests are all augmenting factors, it is to our unit committees and
our grassroots that we owe our voices.
Beyond this, Republicans understand that we are a coalition of conservatives, moderates,
libertarians, pro-lifers, home schoolers, entrepreneurs, Second Amendment activists, pro-family
organizations, liberty-minded individualists, and countless other members of the “Leave Me
Alone” coalition that seeks limited government, lower taxes, and maximized liberty.
Again, winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms.
The Republican Party alone stands as the party of free minds, free markets, and a free society.
Reagan knew this, ran on it without compromise, and won – building a legacy that 28 years later,
we still rely upon.
Yet we don’t need more Reagans or Goldwaters today. We need the next generation of
leadership to rise up.
But so long as our organizational structure snuffs out innovation for the sake of titles, new media
for the sake of message control, challengers for the sake of the status quo, and individual
entrepreneurship for the sake of internal bureaucracy, we will never right the ship.
If we cannot right our own ship, the voters of the Commonwealth of Virginia have no
business entrusting Virginia Republicans with public office.
Unfortunately, we have months – not years – to sort this out for 2009’s contests. If there is any
time to act, that time is immediately.
(8) Final Thoughts
We desperately need to start thinking of fresh ideas, reinventing our outreach, looking for new
ways to inspire change. Whatever we have been doing simply isn’t working.
Hopefully this memo inspires some new thinking and conversation to the better. Most
importantly, I hope our leaders and our volunteers begin to see the value of the untapped
resources around them – youth, new media, entrepreneurial values, and a basic assessment of
first things – and that RPV is wise enough to capitalize on these quickly for 2009 and beyond
-------------------------------------------------
Good job, Shaun.
I especially like the idea of marketing the message. And have paid staff in the district.
Here is the better link.
http://www.shaunkenney.com/2008/12/kenney-memo-modest-proposal-for.html
http://www.shaunkenney.com/PDF/KenneyOpenLettertoVirginiaGOP.pdf
Here is my poor paste of the memo.
MEMORANDUM
To: Jeff Frederick, Chairman
State Central Committee, Republican Party of Virginia
Activists and Members of the Republican Party of Virginia
RE: A Modest Proposal
______________________________________________________________________________
We know this, whether we are prepared to admit it publicly or not. The Republican Party of
Virginia is broken, but not on ideas or principle.
The Republican Party of Virginia logistically is a wreck. Talk of throwing any part of our
coalition overboard is both premature and unsound. Good candidates will no longer be able to
paper over the severe disadvantages we have placed ourselves under. Until Virginia Republicans
recognize and correct this problem, we will continue to slide further into a minority status.
Quick reforms are needed. This approach – even if taken in parts over time – will allow RPV’s
infrastructure to make immediate strikes into our 2009 races now, while allowing Virginia
Republicans the “long game” to re-ignite the entrepreneurial spirit we have arguably lost.
These reforms are:
1. Define where we are going.
2. RPV is the aggregated voice of our unit committees.
3. Unit committees are old. Shake them up; start over!
4. RPV HQ? Start over.
5. Restart the Joint Republican Caucus; headquarter it at RPV HQ.
6. RNC Voter Vault and the RPV Voter List should be vastly improved and made
freely available (with certain strings attached).
7. Winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms
These reforms (or if not reforms, then the ideas and positions on which solid reforms should be
made) are not the result of panic, nor is this memorandum written in haste or without deep
consideration as to the recommendations made. Some old hands will scoff at the practicality of
implementing such reforms, while others are just now realizing how the landscape has changed.
Many will insist that we copy the opposition – the Democrats tried this with talk radio and got
nowhere.
Instead, we have to focus on the advantages we have as a party and foster those values.
Entrepreneurship. Free markets. Free minds. A free society and the ideas of a meritocracy.
Those are the values that wake me up in the morning, that encourage me to volunteer, to knock
on doors, to get others thinking about what it means to be a Republican.
If Jeffersonian conservativism has a definition, those values come pretty darned close. And quite
honestly, the days when our party was best were the days we thought (and fought) along those
lines, isn’t it?
It’s about time we started acting on those principles as a party.
If you want to adapt to change, rebuild the Republican Party of Virginia, and capitalize on the
new landscape to the advantage of our principles and our candidates, then the following ideas are
for you to consider – and perhaps adopt.
(1) Define where we are going.
While there are plenty of observations to this effect, and plenty of blame being doled out or
denied, what is not clear – and what we are not hearing – is how we should go about fixing it.
After all, this is our party. The responsibility for fixing it lies with us.
So we should start with some first things. Which goals? Whose voice? The initial question we
have to ask ourselves is “Quo Vadis?” Where are we going? What are we about?
I’ll start with the basics.
For too long, RPV’s front office has been used as a tool, either by elected officials or those
seeking higher political office. That perception needs to reform immediately.
In addition, there needs to be a very frank and open discussion of the future of the party – in
terms of mission, in terms of organization, and in terms of its relationship with the Virginia
House and Virginia Senate Caucuses.
Few people understand the relationship between the Senate Republican Leadership Trust (SRLT)
or the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC). Many grassroots activists and
volunteers wrongfully blame RPV for problems regarding many of the caucuses traditional roles
– candidate recruitment, fundraising, strategy, and the allocation of resources.
In addition, internally RPV from the top down is a mess. Unit committees expect the state party
to provide items only to be let down, district committees find themselves somewhere in between,
and RPV leadership has an alarming tendency to be managed from the top, rather than providing
our elected officials with the perspective of our grassroots principles.
So what does RPV actually do? Perhaps a better question to ask is to whom RPV is held
accountable? The answer to this is simple: our unit committees. To our grassroots, our
volunteers, our activists, and no one else is RPV responsible for mobilizing, preparing,
activating, and energizing for any campaign at any level of government.
To that end, and with that in mind, it’s easy to identify whose voice we really are…
(2) Define our Voice: The Republican Party of Virginia is the aggregated voice of our
unit committees.
That is it.
There is no science.
It is no small secret that many Republican activists are fed up with the Republican label, both in
terms of the party apparatus and mostly identifying (and taking out this frustration upon) our
elected officials, either by running candidates in the primaries or simply not showing up to the
polls – or worse leaving the ballot blank.
One could argue endlessly with a “chicken or the egg?” philosophical question as to whether or
not strong unit committees or dynamic leadership will resolve our problems. I firmly side on the
former: strong unit committees will produce dynamic leadership. Strong unit committees are far
more insulated against swings in the electorate produced by the national climate or
marketing/communications strategies.
Moreover, strong unit committees will produce stronger district committees, and a stronger RPV
to boot. This sort of decentralization puts the power of RPV’s bully pulpit squarely back into the
hands of the grassroots, and away from the strongly centralized (and disappointingly ineffective)
RPV we have today.
Current elected officials will more than likely not warm up to this prospect of strong unit
committees, fearing primary challenges or a more demanding home front.
The alternative for our elected officials is something far more grim – our current predicament of
unit committees too weak to effect change plus Republican candidates losing to well mobilized,
well funded, and strong Democratic challengers.
As it stands, the Republican grassroots (conservatives, moderates, and lowercase l-libertarians
alike) have no voice in the party structure, hence the outcropping of several organizations
attempting to duplicate what our party structure should be accomplishing.
Therefore, not only should RPV assume the mantle of being the aggregated voice of the unit
committees, the state party should recognize the rot has reached all the way down to the roots.
(3) Unit committees are old. Shake them up; start over!
Unit committees are currently organized off of some variation of Roberts Rules of Order.
Perfect for the time they were created (the 1920s) but wholly unsuited for a modern method of
outreach.
In this light, RPV should reapproach its entire Party Plan and start from scratch. Instead of
fighting the “last war” with 1980’s-era tactics, we should be preparing to fight the next war with
better tactics, a more flexible approach to unit organization structure, and complete willingness
to surrender message control to our grassroots.
Once our unit committees are liberated from the rules and regulations, the outmoded bylaws and
dry meetings, and start approaching grassroots mobilization as entrepreneurs in the cause of
advancing our shared values and principles, only then can we reignite the grassroots.
“New Media” has captured the imagination of many, from the grassroots all the way to our GOP
leadership. New believers, who months ago were highly critical of the impact of the
blogosphere, are bringing on new talent as we speak to prepare for the 2009 Virginia House
races.
It is here where we have to find what works for Republicans, because what worked for the
Democrats simply will not work for us. Talk radio, columnists, and direct mail have never had
the same degree of success for the liberals as they have for conservatives. In a similar fashion,
we have to be brave enough to challenge ourselves to find out how new media can help
Republicans share the message and get out the vote.
Experimentally, unit committees should consider reorganizing along the following lines and
principles:
• All unit committees must radically commit themselves to new media. That means a
community blog focusing on issues pertinent to the locality in which they live, open to all
the members of the committee (Democrats tend to use SoapBlox as their platform of
choice; Drupal, Joomla, or even WordPress is suitable).
• Chairman is elected as the lead community organizer. As a first among equals, the
chairman co-ordinates as a garden-variety chairman would.
• All districts and precincts are given a chairman. These individuals form the Executive
Committee of any given unit committee, and targets the specific race (supervisor, city
council, school board) under their jurisdiction.
• The idea of “district and precinct chairman” should be expanded to advocacy
groups as well. This means anything from minority outreach1 to youth advocacy, from
Republican Womens’ units to Young Republicans, all the way down to Republican
Liberty Caucus organizations or Taxpayer Alliances within a locality. Every group with
a “tribe” should have a seat at the table.
• The Executive Committee subsumes the role of Finance, Communications, and all
grassroots activity. No vice chairs for finance, communications, membership, or any of
the nominal. The Napoleonic dictum “Every soldier carries a marshal's baton in his
pack” is the rule.
• A strong focus on driving a narrative both within the online community and in the
traditional media should be imperative. Perception is reality; MSM outlets are
1 Minority outreach is a term I have particular hatred for. There should be no such thing as “Catholics for McCain”,
but rather the campaign itself should be talking about Catholic issues. Same with any demographic group. Take
note of how the Democrats – who are much more fractured than Republicans are – approach coalition building.
Note that there are no groups titled women, African‐American, Hispanic, environmentalists, union workers, etc.
for Obama. While nominally such groups might exist, their candidates and party structure create an environment
where various minorities coalesce around a single idea. Republicans in general would be wise to imitate Reagan’s
example in this regard, much as the Democrats have done in the years after Reagan.
typically hesitant to challenge a strong new media culture. Moreover, strong alternative
outlets for information attached to the unit committee are essential.
• Surrender the message control. This is probably the most difficult thing for unit
committees to learn, but increasing participation means a decrease in message control.
Jefferson’s advice still rings true. “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may
lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it” is wonderfully
appropriate advice. After all, are we the party of free minds, free markets, and a free
society – or are we not? It is far better to be bold (fortuna audaces juvat?) than it is to
remain safe… and losing.
What is being advocated at the local level is a bold, spirited return to the principles of direct
action and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Republican Party, and a direction away from the top
heavy role imposed by an outmoded system of unit organization.
This form of direct action consists of four core ideas:
(1) A handful of individuals willing to invest in their principles
(2) These same individuals should be a self-reliant group
(3) Action must be demonstrated in exciting, participatory ways
(4) The atmosphere must provoke curiosity, build momentum, and maintain a high level of
morale.
Just to give an idea as to how a sample unit would appear (as distinct from a hierarchy), here is
an idea:
For something a bit more traditional to emphasize the egalitarian nature of a unit committee
reorganized along the principles of new media:
Unit Committee
Independent
Bloggers
Precinct
Chairs and
Activist
Groups
Executive
Committee
Now as a former unit chairman, I know what the immediate question is. What’s this going to
cost? Surprisingly… you’d be surprised at how little a move to new media really costs.
Let’s take a sample committee of seven districts and three advocacy groups (a YR unit, a
Republican Women’s unit, and a Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia organization for all
those new Ron Paul supporters). Let’s also say you have two hotshot bloggers in your locality.
The costs are as follows:
Staff Member Salary/mo. # of Staff Subtotal__________
Chairman $0/mo 1 $0/mo
District Chairs $0/mo 7 $0/mo
Unit Committee Website (Blog) $10/mo 0 $10/mo
Advocacy Groups $0/mo 3 $0/mo
Independent Bloggers $0/mo 2 $0/mo____________
TOTAL PER MONTH: 13 $10/mo
TOTAL PER ANNUM: 13 $120/yr
The most demanding investment – frankly – is time. Someone has to be committed to the idea,
and committed to writing. Like any garden, they take time for things to get started, and blogging
is no different. Reputation matters in the blogosphere (no pseudonyms, please). And quality
content will attract quality readers.
Want to get fancy? Buy your own domain? Let’s say that your advocacy groups want to “break
off” and start their own blog with three or four active members? Excellent! Let slip the blogs of
Executive Committee
(Chairman and Subgroup
Heads)
District Chairs (Blog)
Precinct Chairs
Advocacy Groups
(Taxpayers, Gunnies,
Reform, Educators,
Home Schoolers)
Independent Bloggers
war! Let’s say every district chairman has three or four people blogging about issues specific to
their locality? Go for it. Let’s say you don’t want a blog at all and want to go with a forum? Let
‘er rip!
The bottom line is that blogging is an incredibly cheap exercise. The real difference will be the
quality of your blog and the community that reads the blog. Obviously, a unit committee who
wants to go down this route will need to clearly identify an audience (unit members? community
leaders? the liberal rag downtown?) and write intelligently, with an audience willing to giveand-
take in a comments section, then you’re ready to go.
Need a platform from which to blog?
• Blogger has long been the gold standard for most novitiates. It’s easy to use, works with
everything Google, and has the Google brand to keep it constantly updated and afloat
• WordPress is the 201 class for bloggers. Not only is it more customizable, it allows for
different layouts and much more versatility through plug-ins. The downside is that it
relies on a much more complicated programming language (PHP) that is less forward
than the HTML-based Blogger layout. WordPress also has the advantage of either being
hosted on WordPress servers, being upgraded over time for a small fee, or if you are
ready to take the plunge to simply move the entire system over to a hosted server of your
own.
• TypePad is another reliable platform that finds favor in some quarters. I am not a
particular fan, but others have spoken well.
• Movable Type is an oldie but a goodie for content management system (CMS)
platforms. I have never been a fan, but some folks are.
• Drupal is the 301 class for blogging… Drupal carries over all of the benefits of
WordPress (and its downsides) while consisting of a much more robust platform for
multiple users. Drupal also has several plug-ins for small to medium sized organizations
and has a very strong open source community built around it for these purposes.
• Joomla is the granddaddy of all platforms. The Washington Post uses a version of
Joomla for its website. Some developers prefer Joomla, but tread here only if you are
absolutely certain you can take advantage of its features.
Other outlets such as FaceBook, Twitter, and Ning all help emphasize the connectivity of the
group, and help turn direct action into real results. Utilizing other resources for online
fundraising (RedStormPAC2, which is a free service for Virginia Republicans similar to
ActBlue) means that all of the tools the left has used to make social networking and Web 2.0
work are available right now for our local committees.
2 RedStormPAC is a Virginia political action committee started by myself and my brother, Jason Kenney, for the
exclusive purpose of giving elected officials, candidates, and center‐right organizations the ability to fundraise
online. Most notably, there are no fees. $100 contributed through RSPAC means $100 to your candidate or cause
– which is a drastic change from other orgs like ActBlue (2.5% fee), SlateCard (4% fee), PayPal (3% fee), or what
many private vendors will charge for their clients. This means RSPAC operates at a loss, but is kept afloat by good
people willing to donate to keep this resource available. If interested, learn more at http://www.redstormpac.org.
What is the direct impact? Advocacy groups now get a seat at the table within unit committees,
freely allowing members to create groups of interest where unmet needs within the locality
become present.
Such an organization would have to allow these advocacy groups to carry the same weight as any
precinct would. The specific “heat barrier” for which an advocacy group would meet the litmus
test for relevance would obviously be dependent upon the temperament of the committee, but the
intent would be to stretch the invitation to create new sub-groups under the umbrella of the unit
committee to be as wide and as broad as possible.
Let’s be honest. For the “party of entrepreneurship” we sure do a lot of whining about what
RPV is going to do for our candidates, our committees, our local races, our party call, our
speaker for the next big event, our mail, our TV ads, taking on the mainstream media, handling
the blogs, producing better lists, paying for postage… ad nauseam, the list continues.
Worse still, most unit committees simply have the life stomped out of them, partially because of
the constant, ongoing nature of Virginia elections. Having said this, unit committees need to
realize that there will be no cavalry charge to save the day, RPV will not be coming to the
rescue, nor should they. Local Republican units should rely on each other for assistance or funds
– a principle of self-reliance that Republicans used to demand of others! After all, it’s far easier
to dig deep and make a one-time $200 contribution than to pay that amount yearly in higher
taxes.
Unit committees are old school. If you’re in my age bracket, they are piloted by “old people”
(anyone over 40, sadly) who don’t understand new media, don’t interact on social media sites,
have no idea how to text message3, don’t speak to their issues (property taxes? social security?
medicare? who cares when most 18-35 year olds rent, and we all know these programs are
failing and won’t be there for our generation -- though we will most certainly have to pay for
it…), and frankly treat these young new recruits as backbenchers – though they probably have
more experience mobilizing people for a Friday night on the town than most committee members
could organize on Election Day.
Ron Paul’s presidential campaign is a perfect example of what we’ve lost in the GOP. They are
young, energetic, want to donate, want to participate, and want to help change the world.
What young Republican voters don’t want is to be pandered to, patted on the head, or used (or
worse – abused). When leaders are willing to loosen up and give new Republicans a shot at
influencing the debate, this will be the moment when we’ve figured out how to turn the ocean of
angst against the GOP into the coalition-building efforts we need to win.
(4) RPV HQ? Start over.
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of the front office. It too is stuck in the past, and what I offer
here are not criticisms of those in current roles (in fact, they might fit in splendidly), but rather
ideas that hopefully spur conversation about how to tackle over a hundred independent unit
3 For instance: f U cnt rED DIS o dun undRstNd a bit of DIS, datz a pritE clr sgn dat teknoloG hz muvD beyond U.
committees and 11 independent district committees – all with the new found freedom of
entrepreneurship they’ve been bestowed.
It won’t be an easy task… but with the right mindset and approach, it could be a lot of fun!
So let’s get down to the basics of what I’ll call a “New Media RPV”:
First, a New Media Executive Director understands the difference between tactics and logistics;
amateurs talk about the former while professionals discuss the latter. A good New Media
Executive Director will know how to raise money; a good New Media Chairman will know how
to stand out of his/her way, and knows that the Chairman’s role is to stay quiet and use the bully
pulpit as sparingly as possible (think Atom Bomb) – and mostly for fundraising and not photo
ops.
Second, a New Media Finance Director should be acquired and compensated well for their work.
This should include mostly running the direct mail program and organizing fundraising events.
New Media Communications and New Media Political positions should be conflated into one
role, that of a Political Director savvy enough in new media and social networking principles to
operate as effectively online as they do in their districts.
NOTE: Under no circumstances am I advocating moving away from in-the-trenches groundpounding
grassroots activity into a nice clean air-conditioned office, sitting behind the desk with
an Apple laptop astroturf (i.e. fake grassroots) mentality.
Personal contact remains the best way to change the world – any so-called “new media
consultant” who tells you otherwise if a fraud. New Media Political Directors should feel just as
comfortable online as they do in our neighborhoods.
Our District Chairmen should be offered one position each as a Political Director for the
congressional district. That individual should organize the District Committee along the lines of
the unit committees:
• Build a district blog that focuses exclusively on promoting unit committee content.
• Serve as the Chief of Staff for the district chairs.
• Be a reliable, internal activist known to the people within the district and the
congressional member (or lacking a Representative, known to the state delegates and
state senators).
• Serve as the liaison for unit committees and RPV HQ.
• Maintain a reliable network of activists, local elected officials, unit chairs, and State
Central leadership as a database.
Our New Media IT Director at RPV HQ should perform much of the backend support for all IT
efforts. While unit committees should rely upon what works for them (and not expect support
from RPV), the district offices should expect that help.
Furthermore, there is no reason why RPV should be paying $85,000 for its current website, when
one experienced New Media specialist could have been hired to not only maintain the site, but
serve as a “New Media Director” (or preferably given the title of Senior Political Director) to
maintain constant contact with independent bloggers.
Organizationally, this is how a New Media RPV would appear:
Total cost breakdowns for all of RPV staff should run as follows:
Staff Member Salary/mo. # of Staff Subtotal_____
Executive Director $10,000/mo. 1 $10,000/mo
IT Director $8,000/mo 1 $8,000/mo
Senior Political Director $4,000/mo 1 $4,000/mo
Political Director $3,000/mo 11 $33,000/mo
Finance Director $5,000/mo 1 $5,000/mo
Comptroller $6,000/mo 1 $6,000/mo
Human Resources $3,000/mo 1 $3,000/mo
Executive Assistant $4,000/mo 1 $4,000/mo
TOTAL PER MONTH: 18 $73,000/mo
TOTAL PER ANNUM: 18 $876,000
That might seem like a terrifying number, but there are corners to cut. If the district committees
commit to raising half of the salary ($18,000) for each district Political Director, that slices
$216,000 right off the top of the budget. That becomes a staff budget of $660,000. Likewise, if
there remains a commitment to online fundraising and direct mail fundraising, this number is not
insurmountable. In addition, if the chairman remains committed to doing what professionals do
best – logistics and not tactics – then mobilizing the additional funds for such an ambitious
reorganization is not as terrifying as first glance.
In addition, we shouldn’t be afraid to expect good things in fundraising.
Chairman
Finance Director District Political Directors (11)
RPV HQ Staff
(Accounting, HR, Internships)
IT Director
Senior Political Director
Executive Director
Need examples? Frederick raised $1.3 million in his House of Delegates district alone. Hager
had excellent contacts in the Richmond business community. Gillespie was able to bring a
legion of Washington names to Virginia to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in a
remarkably brief period of time. Kate Obenshain pulled RPV out of a near million-dollar hole
all while keeping the ship afloat.
Raising the money for capable staff is not an impossible task. In fact, it is a requirement if we
are to start winning again. Virginia Republicans shouldn’t ignore these challenges or try to
mitigate their costs; we should do as our character dictates and meet this challenge head on.
One gaping hole the reader might have noticed. No communications staff?
That is absolutely right.
This resolves two problems. First, “new media” blurs those lines between activism and outreach,
much in the same way that an inclusion of new media in a Political Director’s position
recognizes that the Internet – in and of itself – is utterly worthless unless it translates into action
and results.
Second, RPV should not react to policy decisions it does not affect, participate in, or in all
practical terms set. Keep in mind that it is the Virginia House and Virginia Senate caucuses that
set the tone for policy, candidate recruitment, and strategy… RPV doesn’t do this – so why
explain it?
More importantly, a strong communications department at RPV reinforces the idea that
grassroots and unit committees should march to the RPV drum, when the reverse is the case –
RPV HQ acts on behalf and speaks for the grassroots.
(5) Restart the Joint Republican Caucus; Headquarter it at RPV.
Here’s a shocker for most political activists: RPV doesn’t choose which races at the state level
to focus on. That role and responsibility falls squarely on the Senate Republican Leadership
Trust (SRLT) and the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC).
Unfortunately, when the tough decisions get made on which races get funded and which ones
don’t, many challenger races still end up contacting RPV HQ…
Worse still, many activists don’t understand the role of these organizations. First and foremost,
they are incumbent protection machines – and nothing more. That’s not a slam against either…
the Democrats do it the same way. But that really is what they are designed to do, even at the
national level.
Aggregating a majority is a secondary concern, while helping challenger races is a distant,
tertiary idea.
Whatever bad blood exists or had existed before, in the 2009 cycle we have to be able to put it
aside. The Senate and House should not only restart the Joint Republican Caucus in good faith,
and those offices should be run out of the RPV HQ for maximum co-ordination with the
grassroots. Information should be shared to the greatest extent possible, and strategy (ideally)
planned in tandem with RPV.
This resolves three problems.
• One, it increases the comfort level with RPV staff and Executive Committee members as
to the grand strategy for the year.
• Two, it enables the Caucus to get the on-the-ground intelligence from unit committees as
to what is really occurring on the ground.
• Three, if RPV can serve as the mortar that keeps the House and Senate together, so be it.
Communication tends to solve things so nicely.
The tough part is this – it will require a strong chairman with a good reputation in the General
Assembly to accomplish this. This more than anything else is a goal which RPV should commit
itself towards resolving.
Unfortunately, as high as the hurdle is to clear for 2009’s House races and our statewide seats,
some degree of co-ordination will be absolutely critical to ensuring that our State Senators are as
invested in preserving our House majority as can possibly be expected.
Can it be expected? It should…
(6) RNC Voter Vault and the RPV Voter List should be vastly improved and made
freely available (with certain strings attached).
The lists are terrible. They’ve been terrible for awhile. Worse still, people actually use them (!)
and then never give those lists back to RPV to update.
Here’s another problem: there is no clean way of educating activists on (most of whom have day
jobs) the ins and outs of creating a good voter contact program while surfing through our
antediluvian RNC Voter Vault process. It simply can’t be done well in an afternoon, and most
folks simply don’t have the time (or the talent of a gymnast) to go through all the hoops.
Political Directors should be training our unit chairmen directly on this process as a requirement
of their office. Political Directors should also coach campaign managers (local and state) on how
the process is done. It should take no more than 15 minutes to actually break down a good list
for a specific campaign based on certain requirements or needs (e.g. GOTV, door knocking, or
direct mail).
If the Political Director has no idea how this is done, they should be sacked immediately and
replaced with someone who cares to learn.
Better than RNC Voter Vault in terms of quality, there is the additional problem of the RPV
Voter List which is just slightly better than the RNC Voter Vault… but not by much.
The politics of the RPV Voter List are a bit difficult to understand. Obviously, it would be great
if RPV could offer – free of charge – quality lists to any Republican who needs them. That’s
good news for everyone… except elected officials greatly concerned about the prospect of
primary challenges. As elected officials have and commit the resources, manpower (through
campaigns), and finances to build excellent voter contact lists, there is zero incentive to turn
these lists over.
The resolution is simple. The RPV Voter List belongs to the unit committees. Elected officials
have no responsibility to turn over their lists… so let’s quit whining about reality and move on!
Unit committees through State Central Committee should demand and expect good, quality lists
from RPV HQ, and there are many resources available that will not only offer updated lists
(through the State Board of Elections and a simple National Change of Address bump), but will
also give us access to microtargeted data in key areas (Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads,
Richmond, et al.) where Republican drift has been experienced.
In as such, those lists should be made available to unit committees and elected officials free of
charge. Post-primary, Political Directors should make every effort available to using these lists.
Pre-primary, campaigns on either side (challenger or incumbent) should be made available the
list for common and accepted rates of charge.
Beyond this, our lists are our life. RNC Voter Vault for instance has scantron capacity available,
and RPV should do the same for their lists. Political Directors and unit chairs when making their
calls should demand receipt of completed call lists before new lists are issued to campaigns, thus
ensuring a history of voter intent and information.
(7) Winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms.
It’s worth repeating: Winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms.
There is no reason for us to surrender either. And frankly, what we have lost is our fighting
spirit, those “Jeffersonian conservative” principles that won us our majority so long ago.
We seem perfectly willing to surrender to public opinion, the media, special interests, lobbyists,
or monetary gain – anything but our own judgment.
And while these groups and interests are all augmenting factors, it is to our unit committees and
our grassroots that we owe our voices.
Beyond this, Republicans understand that we are a coalition of conservatives, moderates,
libertarians, pro-lifers, home schoolers, entrepreneurs, Second Amendment activists, pro-family
organizations, liberty-minded individualists, and countless other members of the “Leave Me
Alone” coalition that seeks limited government, lower taxes, and maximized liberty.
Again, winning and being right are not mutually exclusive terms.
The Republican Party alone stands as the party of free minds, free markets, and a free society.
Reagan knew this, ran on it without compromise, and won – building a legacy that 28 years later,
we still rely upon.
Yet we don’t need more Reagans or Goldwaters today. We need the next generation of
leadership to rise up.
But so long as our organizational structure snuffs out innovation for the sake of titles, new media
for the sake of message control, challengers for the sake of the status quo, and individual
entrepreneurship for the sake of internal bureaucracy, we will never right the ship.
If we cannot right our own ship, the voters of the Commonwealth of Virginia have no
business entrusting Virginia Republicans with public office.
Unfortunately, we have months – not years – to sort this out for 2009’s contests. If there is any
time to act, that time is immediately.
(8) Final Thoughts
We desperately need to start thinking of fresh ideas, reinventing our outreach, looking for new
ways to inspire change. Whatever we have been doing simply isn’t working.
Hopefully this memo inspires some new thinking and conversation to the better. Most
importantly, I hope our leaders and our volunteers begin to see the value of the untapped
resources around them – youth, new media, entrepreneurial values, and a basic assessment of
first things – and that RPV is wise enough to capitalize on these quickly for 2009 and beyond
-------------------------------------------------
Good job, Shaun.
I especially like the idea of marketing the message. And have paid staff in the district.
I read Morton Kondracke and Kathleen Parkers spleen in print today. I know both pundits are considered Republicans and Conservatives by most readers. Yet, I found such a paucity of principles in their understanding of the political alliances, the famed big tent, that cover Republicans and Conservatives with much of the same canvas that I choke on sharing the my political labels with them. Not that they care. Nor should they. Let them sing at the MSM table and sup with great salaries while moving no one to do anything that matters. And, there is always serious good work to be done to protect, preserve and promote this Commonwealth and Country for another century or more.
Morton Kondracke was a stand up guy at the end of McCain farce. When others had left the room to join the Obama bandwagon passing by, Kondracke stood clapping in the emptying theater until the last, vain curtain call.
Then, he writes that the intellectual leadership of the Conservatives needs to be taken from Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter. And given to whom? Morton Kondracke perhaps?
Kondracke's screed cited fighting illegal immigration, the judicial murder of Terry Schiavo, and other alternative media fanned cause celebre as the problem. No, actually they are the answer to the echo chamber of the Liberal MSM. They are all too often the few and proud respondents to callous, contempuous and condenscending wrong postions, wrong policies, wrong principles - if you can find them.
Furthermore, its the absence of any other intellectual leadership worthy of the name "Conservative" that made these talking heads the leaders. If Kondracke can compete in the market place of ideas, then let him bring his wares.
Kathleen Parker thinks Christians are the problem with the Republican Party. She writes that as America grows less white and less Christian, the Republican Party needs to dump the Christians who speak of their faith openly. Ah, another math-challenged writer. Republicans can't win elections without the Christians. Unless, of course, the Republicans would like to rebrand as Rockefeller Republicans to win a few odd elections in the North. Southerners, Mid-Westerners, and the West would find themselves another political party altogether.
Kathleen Parker's problem isn't G-O-D in politics as she wrote. Her issue is with the one, only, living, true God of the Jews and Christians. She writes for a number of Christians who either take the Bible as modest suggestions, unless we feel we need to re-interpret the words, like a Judge writing laws from the bench. Take the Commandment to tell the good news to the ends of the world. It could mean tell people the good news if they come to your house and really are insistent on hearing why you call yourself Christion - which would be odd indeed because there isn't likely anything to distinguish you by speech or behavior as actually being a transformed person.
The real problem for Parker is that Christians who wear their religion, their heart, on their sleeve stand out for others to see their passion. She finds it so unsightly. When, the uglier sight is to see someone who is giving gold, silver and jewels on a platter hoard it to themselves. Like taking the Truth and trivializing it to be a cultural icon - maybe as significant as one's ethnic food, but kept only as a cultural curiousity.
The two pundits can be said, safely, to be to the Right of today's loony Left. But, they don't know the ideas, messages, that motivate humankind (and win elections) because they can't stand the messengers. Such tolerance.
Morton Kondracke was a stand up guy at the end of McCain farce. When others had left the room to join the Obama bandwagon passing by, Kondracke stood clapping in the emptying theater until the last, vain curtain call.
Then, he writes that the intellectual leadership of the Conservatives needs to be taken from Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter. And given to whom? Morton Kondracke perhaps?
Kondracke's screed cited fighting illegal immigration, the judicial murder of Terry Schiavo, and other alternative media fanned cause celebre as the problem. No, actually they are the answer to the echo chamber of the Liberal MSM. They are all too often the few and proud respondents to callous, contempuous and condenscending wrong postions, wrong policies, wrong principles - if you can find them.
Furthermore, its the absence of any other intellectual leadership worthy of the name "Conservative" that made these talking heads the leaders. If Kondracke can compete in the market place of ideas, then let him bring his wares.
Kathleen Parker thinks Christians are the problem with the Republican Party. She writes that as America grows less white and less Christian, the Republican Party needs to dump the Christians who speak of their faith openly. Ah, another math-challenged writer. Republicans can't win elections without the Christians. Unless, of course, the Republicans would like to rebrand as Rockefeller Republicans to win a few odd elections in the North. Southerners, Mid-Westerners, and the West would find themselves another political party altogether.
Kathleen Parker's problem isn't G-O-D in politics as she wrote. Her issue is with the one, only, living, true God of the Jews and Christians. She writes for a number of Christians who either take the Bible as modest suggestions, unless we feel we need to re-interpret the words, like a Judge writing laws from the bench. Take the Commandment to tell the good news to the ends of the world. It could mean tell people the good news if they come to your house and really are insistent on hearing why you call yourself Christion - which would be odd indeed because there isn't likely anything to distinguish you by speech or behavior as actually being a transformed person.
The real problem for Parker is that Christians who wear their religion, their heart, on their sleeve stand out for others to see their passion. She finds it so unsightly. When, the uglier sight is to see someone who is giving gold, silver and jewels on a platter hoard it to themselves. Like taking the Truth and trivializing it to be a cultural icon - maybe as significant as one's ethnic food, but kept only as a cultural curiousity.
The two pundits can be said, safely, to be to the Right of today's loony Left. But, they don't know the ideas, messages, that motivate humankind (and win elections) because they can't stand the messengers. Such tolerance.
