Well, I've been busy. 27,000 words, 55 pages and counting.
A couple of months ago I hooked up online with a very sharp lady named Wendy Calloway. We had both mentioned in blog comments what a dismal failure the right-wing blogs turned out to be after the '06 (historic Democratic sweep) and '08 (Obama) elections, so I contacted her and asked her if she'd like to dissect the entire mess, piece by piece, and reevaluate everything; what worked, what didn't, and what to do about the latter. Therein followed about a thousand emails, a bunch of phone calls, and a big 'master file' of the future web site that we passed back and forth.
As for the '06 and '08 elections:
We immediately came to a few conclusions:
— That the pundits are correct. From Ace of Spades to James Taranto, everyone agrees that it's the independents who win or lose elections. Occasionally, as in 2008, national fervor will sweep someone into office, but for normal, average elections it's the independents, centrists and moderate Democrats who make the real difference in the voting booth.
— That the blogs on both sides of the fence weren't very effective. Just ask Ned Lamont. It was simply more 'preaching to the choir' and obviously didn't make any difference with the aforementioned independents, centrists and moderate Dems. For every few we picked off, DailyKos and MyDD got theirs.
— Most money used in campaigns is ill-spent. Bluntly put, lawn signs haven't won an election yet. There, in the privacy of the voting booth, it's almost always something deeper than that. While we heartily endorse getting our candidates' names into the public eye, we leave that to the large organizations.
So we decided to focus on that "something deeper", which usually translates to matters of the heart (patriotism), the mind (common sense), and matters of the wallet, such as "Will I be able to pay the rent next month?"
The reference to Ned Lamont is quite apt. He was the Connecticut senatorial candidate that DailyKos, MyDD, et al, got behind. His election was supposed to be their 'crowning moment' as they showed the world what blogpower was all about.
The point the above quote makes is that he got crushed in the election. Fat lot of good all that blogpower did.
To continue:
If we’re going to be brutally honest, just sitting around chatting about the issues didn’t do much good in 2006 and 2008.
The results speak for themselves:
— A supermajority of Congressional Democrats
— A socialist in the White House
— The most morally-corrupt and inexperienced Cabinet in the past 50 years
Are you sure you want to try that again?
This time around, we’re taking proactive measures. The Proactive Conservatives movement is about one thing, and one thing alone: reaching out to Independents and moderate Democrats and swaying them to our side, once and for all. That’s how you win elections.
And without once mentioning ideology, party affiliations, causes or issues, and never once using the words "Democrat", "Republican", "Liberal" or "Conservative". You are, in fact, specifically instructed not to use these terms in your personal campaign.
In other words, this ProCon plan is just plain nasty. We've thrown the whole playbook out the window and are focusing exclusively on hearts, minds and — especially — wallets. This is Wendy on a great rant:
Again, we don't want to drag any of the standard ideological tropes into it. Screw abortion and civil rights and immigration. Focus on the things that make people mad. Find something that really burns the average citizen's ass and harp on it.
Exhibit A:
Several House Democrats have actively lobbied to boycott Arizona and crush its economy – most notably, southern Arizona's own Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva, who urged civic, religious and political groups to take their convention dollars elsewhere.
"Do not do business with this state," Grijalva said, to "send a message."
And what do we take from this?
"DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS STATE" — REP RAUL GRIJALVA (D)
...screams your placard from behind the TV interviewee. Like this guy:
And yes, we mean little ol' you. ProCon does the heavy lifting:
— We set you up with a rousing patriotic blog site and tons of 'motivational' posts to put on it if you don't want to write anything yourself. Then all you have to do is prowl the vast expanses of the Internet, dropping links to the appropriate page on your site (money, governmental overregulation, Cap & Trade, money, etc), then run for cover when you're exposed for the dirty little infiltrator that you are. But not before leaving that link — and maybe corralling a handful of Moderates and Independents along the way. As we and the pundits maintain, that's how you win elections. To hell with the actual Lefties. We're only after the fence-sitters.
— The site provides you with ideas and tips for getting out there and actually getting your hands dirty, from hosting your own Tea Party, to getting up a carpool to one in the big city, to effectively using local newspapers, TV and radio stations, to handing out flyers at the grocery store.
Remember, proactivism is a by-the-numbers game; a snowball effect. Every person you recruit to be proactive until the election might make the difference of a hundred votes, and each person they recruit and so on, until you're talking about that 1% that decides so many elections.
Although it's never actually defined on the site, that's what the word proactive means. A regular political site is an 'active' site. Proactive means you get out there and rustle up even more people to fire up neighborhood Tea Parties and hand out flyers at the grocery store; things that tell the average slob out there that Yes, now is the time, we're finally throwing the bums out.
As the pundits are finally starting to grasp, the Tea Party movement has provided us with a momentum of historic measure and we'd be fools to let it slip through our fingers. You sit back now, history will move on without you. This November is probably much more important than you realize. Not only will it provide a huge impetus for 2012 (telling Americans that yes, this really is the time), but a big ousting of congressional Dems is the only thing that will prevent something nasty like Cap & Trade being passed during the impending lame duck session.
Furthermore, this election might whet your appetite for the real deal in 2012, and this'll give you a real head start on the horde of wannabe bloggers that will unquestionably appear. The same holds true for domain names. There can only be one "DenverConservative.com", so better to grab it now.
As a quick example of how one event can lead to another, Wendy said in the latest email newsletter that some couple in Vermont had thrown a neighborhood Tea Party fundraiser and had raised the cash necessary to grab the town square the Sunday before the 2012 election for a real full-town Tea Party. They had to buy some bond that covered insurance and security and a bunch of things and wasn't cheap, so this was a pretty big deal.
Score one for the good guys.
Tracked: Sep 17, 11:31
Tracked: Sep 17, 15:28
Tracked: Sep 17, 17:01
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 10:18
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 10:37
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 10:38
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 11:13
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 11:16
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 11:43
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 11:44
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 20, 11:53
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 23, 13:03
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 23, 13:07
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 23, 13:21
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 23, 13:49
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the elect
Tracked: Sep 23, 13:50
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change. These ProCon posts will be a small series until the election.
Tracked: Sep 29, 11:03