I find this to be a decent idea for a certain group of tarians.

And, like many others, I’m also here just so I can say I commented on Instapundit. I never imagined this day would come…

You also said “Kathleen Parker, Peggy Noonen, David Brooks, et al., would have us compromise core beliefs just to win elections”. What beliefs do you think they would have us compromise? If I recall correctly (please correct any deficiencies in my memory– it’s not what it used to be) their core objections were specifically aimed at McCain and/or Palin, not any conservative ideology. Indeed, it seemed that for some of them, McCain/Palin was so much of a compromise that Obama became attractive. I don’t agree with their reasoning (I found some of it completely vacuous), but it is understandable.

Again, all of this is said with the greatest of respect. Not only do I not want to burn any conservative bridges, but anyone who can use and spell “Pyrrhic” correctly deserves kudos. I simply think it’s a bad idea to disregard the voices of people we respected four months ago because of one disagreement.

But lets not model it after Kos. Kos more or less admitted once, with pride, that he was mainly just interested in getting the left to win elections. His take was that the left was basically correct in its ideas, and just needed to be tougher or whatever. Although I didn’t read it, my impression was that his “Crashing the Gate” book was more or less a celebration of the fact that a bunch of young angry leftists were on the threshold of seizing power from a bunch of older, slightly less angry leftists, of more or less the same political stripe.

Power for power’s sake is not a conservatove idea. The right does not need to become more rabidly partisan, even if the partisanship is directed at the democrats. What the right needs is to be a bit more thoughtful about how to succesfully promote and implement their ideas, and also how to mend some fences between the different branches of the conservative movement.

If we are the opposite of them, then we will promote our ideas, not our people. We will share the rights and principles of the scrappy individual. And we will slowly, subtly, quietly win. Is the 2nd amendment weaker in the years since Micheal Moore made “Bowling for Colombine”?

They are defacto progressives who would have us emulate recent winning strategies of promising everything to all constituents.

Kathleen Parker, Peggy Noonen, David Brooks, et al., would have us compromise core beliefs just to win elections. Pyhrric victories just to justify their choice of conservative suave.

Let them speak. Let them earn respect within the ranks of the biased leftist legacy media. Let them make fools of themselves – they speak not of real conservative values, only of promised invites to the coastal elite cocktail parties.

I’m seeing a lot of comments lamenting reference to the Kossacks, that their tactics and methods are deplorable and shouldn’t be emulated in any way. The problem is, you don’t have much choice anymore, because they are at war with you and they’ve just won a Marathon-level victory. The folk who drove the Dems’ big wins are not nice people, they hate you for who you are–which is to say you’re “The Other” and are their only real obstacle to power. It may not be a hot war but it is war that’s upon you whether you like it or not.

Organizing at the local level is a good start, and it should aim at local and state elections as much as social networking. Get together and exchange mobile numbers/email/IMs/Facebook accounts/blog sites, start collaborative projects or just network your individual projects together. Bounce ideas off each other, especially with regard to how to move from defense to offense when confronted by a Nutrooter, or just how to better assert and defend your ideas in polite conversation.

On that point, don’t worry so much about ideological purity. You’re getting gamed big-time by the Left because of this, it’s the classic divide-and-conquer strategem and it’s killing you. Accept and embrace the diversity of opinion on your side–you do not have a monopoly on Truth, so recognize that the “traditionalists” or the “libertarians” aren’t “religious nutters” or “godless heathens” and they might just have something to contribute to the cause of Liberty.

One more thing: there’s too much complaining about the MSM going on too. Of course they’re in the tank, stop whining about it and set up your own hard news/investigative reporting media. Too many conservatives have gone the commentary-mag or commentary-blog route, when what you need to develop is a serious, independent press alternative to the jokers from the networks/newspapers. You have the resources at your disposal now with your presence in the New Media, so use it for getting the facts out there.

Best of luck, I hope you folks get this worked out soon.

Personally I think the GOP, so as to bridge the gap between our free market instincts and the current economic crisis that many lay (whether fairly or not) at the free markets feet, we should focus on sensible government regulations.These can be enforced with a fairly small number of regulators and wouldn’t be prohibitively expensive for firms to comply with. This is just one example of ways the conservatives should counter the left in new ways.

We want the government to be so limited that periodic elections are enough to keep the trains on time and the army fed.

Beyond that, we’d rather our fellow citizens, themselves and especially through the awesome power of the government, simply leave us the hell alone. Treat the people with benign neglect.

Involve the government in the markets where it can smooth the edges of capitalism, to wit, by enforcing hyper transparency so the price finding process can work. (Had the CDO and MBS stuff and all formulas been published and traded on an exchange, they would have been abandoned before inflating the bubble as people priced the stuff in the basement by analyzing the risk and problems with the models).

And The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini just to give us a roadmap.

Scary words.

Besides, Christopher Buckley is freakin’ hilarious.

Will Conway
RegardingLiberty.blogspot.com

If not now, when?

I’d sure like to sweep some of this chicken little crap under the carpet and move on to free market/limited government ideals. It was abandoning those principles that sunk the Republicans, not religious social conservatives. There’s more overlap than not in the logical Republican constituencies, and getting a bunch of us together would make that plainly clear.

None. Zero. Nada.

2) I think the rightroots needs to look more broadly. Kos gets a lot of attention because a lot of people go there and say ridiculous things and I don’t want the right associated with that (who does?).

Instead we need to look at successful left wing organizations of all types and see what works and what doesn’t in terms of organizational structure. Ideally (I think) we would have a central “hub” of right roots with both a large popular input.

Branching off from this would be the various right wing think tanks, fund raising organizations for both candidates (at all levels of government) as well as various issues.

The right roots would be centered around individual participation, but it would have regular postings about current event issues, conservative philosophy as well as long running intellectual debates written by conservative intellectuals and politicians.

3) In related to my last point, while I think we should absolutely look at their organization, I think we also need to look at our own philosophies, policy prescriptions and issues. I go to a large, public university and while there are plenty of people who have conservative ideas, few of them feel like the Republicans offer realistic policy alternatives to the Democrats. I think if we are to found a “right roots” this discussion-what policy alternatives to use-should be its first project, with the major intellectuals posting public essays with open comments to the community.

This we can do without hyperbole or hysteria. It’s preaching to the heathen rather than each other. Most people simply don’t know. Such a site would need to be vetted, of course, and questions (not comments) could be submitted with responses incorporated as clarifications or in targeted faq’s.

Good luck. Something like this is disparately needed. I know many issues would need to be resolved but it’s better than losing another election to ignorance and better promotion than our calm, plodding, restrained, gun-shy (irony alert) approach thus far.

Fair enough?

2. Inject the flaccid GOP with solid, rational Libertarian ideas: free markets, free minds.

3. Press the case against Dodd and Frank by advertising in their states and calling for their impeachment or defeat. Show the public what they did: use the videos that show them saying “there is nothing wrong here.” Hang them out to dry.

4. Build a case against both Obama and the press, much as a prosecutor does when trying to put a felon away. Record and document simply everything starting NOW. Press bias, Obama’s background and appointments and deeds — facts, not conspiracist fantasies. Pelosi, Reid and Schumer will know they are being closely watched and their every word recorded and archived for later use; that will help now. In a year or two, this information could be devastating. Put it before the public in an internet-plus-old-media blitz.

5. Give the religious right a choice: either stop burdening the GOP, or be consigned to permanent sideline status. The abortion war was lost years ago — women will never tolerate a return to the bad old days. The core issues are the freedoms of speech and press, and the operation of the free market. All else is cultural custom, to be decided by the individual for himself alone, and not imposed on others. The Liberty to speak, read, write and transact mutually voluntary business will be restored, government will be returned to servant status, and the collectivist authoritarianism of outfits like ACORN will be exposed as the deceptive fascism it is. All Republicans either agree to the basic principles we inherted from the Enlightenment, or we slam the door on their fingers. No more RINOS. Meanwhile, while the housecleaning proceeds, those who mix religion with politics will simply have to get out of the way.

6. Stop calling it “the war on terrorism.” It is yet another struggle against expansionist Islam, and terrorism is just one of the enemy’s tactics. Call it what it is: “the defense of the West.” Policy: each dangerous Islamic group must never be allowed to succeed. Muslims who are not dangerous are not our enemies.

7. End the absurdities that make domestic airline travel unsafe and inconvenient. Use some common sense for a change! Impose policies that make another Waco or Ruby Ridge impossible. Legislate the legal status of Al Qaeda and similar detainees, removing them from the US jurisprudential system’s oversight. Draft and enforce a rational immigration policy.

The Republicans should become the party of the “leave us alone” coalition and organize itself on those principles. Norguist argues that that it’s low maintenance, that people don’t have to agree on every issue, that what unifies the group is the desire to be left alone in the important areas of their lives.

A few weeks before the election, C-Span replayed Norquist speaking about his book from this spring. If you google “book tv grover norquist”, you’ll find the C-Span page and can view the video. It sounds to me like a good unifying principle for reorganizing the Republican party. For historical reasons, the Republicans have always had a big govt element in the party, from Federalists to Whigs and the American Plan to the McKinley Tariff, the Smoot-Hawley tariff, up to the bridges and RRs to nowhere of today. Reagan gave “small government democrats (whose last previous political leader was Grover Cleveland) a place to go and a party to join. That’s what we need to focus on, not promising potential voters more slices of pie baked with someone else’s tax money, but promising to keep meddlesome government off their backs so they can live their lives in peace, free from government interference and taxmen.

1. Quiz winning state party leaders on what they did right (OK, TN…)
2. Icon for the Meet: Honest Abe Lincoln. He’s an antidote for many of our current errors.
3. Its not the socons fault (socons are more popular than Republicans right now, and we’ve been out of power), or Sarah Palin (the one good thing in the campaign), or the tarians fault either. Its Rinos, Country Clubbers, Inside the Beltwayism….
4. Time for full-bore across the board conservatism. Time for a vision of the better future this entails.
5. Fifty state conventions, yes, please.

Secondly the Blue states are economic basket cases. New York State where I live is in perpetual decline and the only major industry left (the financial sector) is probably done for also. Upstate New York is so bad its cheaper to buy a house then rent because there are no jobs and property is so worthless that the profit margin asked for by a landlord is pricier than the property. There may just be a few inroads against the Democrats to be made in such areas. Unfortunately the Republicans are so corrupt they would rather line their pockets also and let things go straight to hell.

Fortunately, conservatives are not like Kos Kidz. We don’t jump up and down and pretend we’re tough and then go docile when the party elders and elite come to take the prize. Conservatives know that the strength of the country is in the talents of its citizenry and we demand our due. There is an economic incentive for turning this around and not just hatred for the other side. Lets do it.

I could get the ball rolling now for an early year Blogger Weekend.

Jim

In place of the Kos model, we are overdue for the kind of participatory clearinghouse MoveOn provides: we need a thousand conferences, hubbed into the big one, because it’s the street-by-street local engagement that is starved, and ultimately are “the roots”.

Count me in, where do I login? Where do I comment? When can I start?

Yes, but a get-together doesn’t in and of itself accomplish anything. Prior to such a confab, there should be some effort exerted by the organizers to set some goals, err “desired outcomes”. Also needed will be a meeting plan that can plausibly be claimed to have a reasonable chance of achieving those goals.

I read as far as Liberty Girl’s comment and she hit exactly what I’ve been thinking. The Republican’s have lost their way and those currently running the show haven’t clue or the desire to change course. I for one, am tired of seeing this party turn from it’s roots or at the very least what those roots should have been. I’m too young (well, 40) to remember what it was like before Bush the older but we’ve been co-opted by Democrat ‘lite’ and we need those of us out of Washington to reset the path. I could care less of the Kos kids did it first, in warfare you adopt the tactics of your enemy if they are more successful.

I’m up for this, but as a somewhat social conservative I’ll be the first to admit we must adopt key platforms that stay away from those issues. The country has moved left or libertarian if you like, on gov’t legislating morality…we need to be focused on liberty, both personal and economic.

-washingtonsarmy

THEN – after Obama has been impeched – we can look at strengthening the Republican party. Invite Sarah Palin. Do not invite John McCain.

Grass roots, shared core philosophies you know. PJTV is national and impersonal, how about local and personal.

1. The GOP nominating better, more conservative candidates for national office.
2. A broader, more amplified platform for Republican/conservative principles.

Let’s leave references to Kos out of it though. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and he’s the last guy on earth I’d want to flatter by imitating.