A Conservative Battle Plan

Okay, here goes. It’s my first attempt at a battle plan, so forgive the amateurisms and any glaring mistakes you find.



A CONSERVATIVE BATTLE PLAN


Yes, it is a war.

A war of ideas, and whichever side wins, your life and your lifestyle, as well as those of your family and friends, will be profoundly and intimately affected.

What is victory? The implementation of Conservative political ideals into law and practice in the United States of America in tandem with the decline and ultimate elimination of Big Government Liberalism.

How are the battles won? First at the ballot box. Second, with the consistent application of Conservative ideals in the governance of this country, be it the passage and implementation of Conservative legislation or the guidance of the government by the Executive Branch or the appointment of conservative judges to the Supreme Court.

Let’s define some terms here.

A “win” in an election is when our candidate gets 51% of the vote and the opposition gets 49%.

A “victory” is when our candidate gets 60% or more of the vote. It’s overwhelming and the will of the people cannot be questioned or thrown into doubt by the opposition.

To achieve victory at the ballot box, we need massive victories in every election cycle at all levels of government.

How do we achieve these massive electoral victories?

Simple. We need to accomplish three things:
1. We need to increase the numbers of conservatives and get them to vote
2. We need to win over increasing numbers of independents
3. We need to marginalize the number of liberals voting

How can this be done?

Let’s consider two levels of engagement.


At the Individual Level

1. Right now, while you are reading this, go to

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml

to find your Representative’s contact information. Then go to

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

to find your Senator’s contact information.

Put their office phone numbers and email addresses on your refrigerator. Put another copy by your phone. Make copies to give to your like-minded neighbors. Do it now.


2. Contact your Representative and/or Senator every time a controversial piece of legislation comes up to a vote and well before every election. Call them frequently. Be polite, clear, concise, and uncompromising. If your Representative and/or Senator is Conservative, offer them support and encouragement to stand firm. If your Representative and/or Senator is a Liberal, tell them you do not want them to vote in favor of more Big Government, and if they do, you will work tirelessly to see them lose their next election. (Print out all electronic correspondence with your elected officials and save in a safe place. Take detailed notes when calling.)


3. Donate $20 to the Conservative candidate in every House, Senate, and Presidential election. $20 is not too much of a sacrifice. There are 300 million American citizens. If half vote, and a third of that are Conservatives, and only 1 percent of those donate $20 to their local candidate, we’ve raised $10 million. Think of how many television commercials, billboards, flyers, newspapers ads, banners, etc, that would buy. Be part of the 1 percent! Better yet, help it to grow to 10 and 20 percent!


4. If you have a friend or a relative overseas in the military, make sure his ballot is counted! Most of the armed forces personnel tend towards the Conservative cause. Encourage them to get their ballots in early.


5. If you have teenagers consider getting a subscription to a Conservative magazine such as National Review, and conveniently leave it around the house for them to leaf through. Watch television with them and challenge with them all the Liberal ideology they will be exposed to. Do not take the indoctrination passively. Fight back intelligently.


6. And speaking of indoctrination, if you have children in college, send that magazine subscription to their dorm! Do your research before selecting a college; you want your children educated, not indoctrinated. Colleges are islands of near-complete Liberalism. Some are worse than others. Talk to people; do research on the Internet. Make sure the son or daughter you send still has your values and ideals when they come home four years later.


7. Don’t forget to educate yourself! Frequent conservative websites. Get yourself subscriptions to National Review or Weekly Standard. Read biographies of great conservative leaders, such as Ronald Reagan. Reading Hannity and O’Reilly and Beck is okay, but feast on the most nutritional food out there: familiarize yourself with the Constitution (have you ever read it?). Learn what’s in the Bill of Rights. Read the Federalist Papers, or at least some reputable summary version. If you’re adventurous, read some books authored by the founders of conservatism: Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk and Friedrich von Hayek. William Buckley is always a profitable read.


8. Argue with your opponents logically, rationally, and calmly. A key component to Liberalism is emotion. Take emotion out of the equation (especially your own!) Keep asking a liberal to defend his propositions, logically, rationally. Eventually, you’ll wind up at some indefensible point, and you’ve won.


9. Hit your opponents in the pocket book. What are the more-or-less accepted bastions of Liberalism today? The major network news, the major newspapers, Hollywood, television. Refuse to patronize them. That’s it. Don’t watch ABC, NBC, or CBS news. It’s all slanted to the left. Don’t subscribe to the New York Times. Don’t buy tickets to anti-American or anti-Conservative movies. And watch TV, and if you see anything offensive to you as a Conservative, let them hear about it! (Just Google “Contact XYZ” and you should reach a contact page for the applicable network. Again, keep all documentation.)


At the National Level

To achieve massive electoral victories, we need to tackle three areas.
- A large-scale effort at public education and awareness
- More effective candidates for public office
- Active engagement with the opposition


Step 1: Create a non-profit group in full cooperation with conservative political leadership.

This group will do all the leg work. It will have a board of directors, a team of constitutional lawyers, and grass-root level workers and managers. It should have an inspirational name, like “Freedom Forever Foundation” or something; not anything inflammatory like “Take Back America” or any such thing.

Make it a point to accept donations no larger than, say, $100. This will fight against the inevitable slur of being in the pocket of Big Business, Big Oil, Big Whatever. The organization must be as transparent as the Obama Administration is not.


Step 2: We must make a public Declaration of Principles.

It should be 10 clear, specific, bullet-point objective-principles of 21st century Conservatism. The basic ideas will be less government intrusion, fiscal responsibility in government, phasing out entitlements, non-violence, etc. We will follow it up with a 5,000 word explanation and expansion of the 10 principles, and will reference the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, as well as the ideas of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, Friedrich von Hayek, William F. Buckley, and any applicable Founding Fathers. It must be easily understandable and user-friendly, as it is meant for wide-scale public consideration and consumption.

Ultimately, it must define us, and define us well, so we do not let our opponents define us.

The group will post it on their website and in a coordinated effort with TV, talk radio, dead tree, and online outlets, it work tirelessly to get the message out to the public.

All Conservative candidates must know this and publicly sign it (or else explain why they do not – I’m thinking of the acronym RINO here …).


Step 3: Educate the public on what Conservatism and Liberalism really are.

We should coordinate with FOX News (and any other news stations willing), conservative periodicals such as National Review, Weekly Standard, etc, daily newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, and major conservative websites to get the message out to the public.

We need to establish and maintain a proud and prominent presence on college campus. Conservatism is the cutting-edge, honest, intellectually rigorous political philosophy; don’t allow it to be labeled otherwise. That should be the appeal to college students.

We must fight the indoctrination taking place in our grade schools and high schools. That’s what those staff lawyers will primarily be for. Publicize and stop any incidents of one-sided brainwashing of young children.

We should work with conservative and independent filmmakers to get out short videos to flood the Internet with: both anti-Obama and anti-Big Government Liberal, as well as pro-Conservative.


Step 4: Quality candidates and quality campaigns

All our candidates must be charismatic. They must be intelligent, optimistic, upbeat, happy, have a great sense of humor and be willing to use it. They must know how to speak clearly and debate effectively. They must physically appeal to voters. None of us are pure and stainless, but our candidates must be vetted properly – there must be no last-minute October surprise skeletons in the closet. And if any candidate is lacking in these skills or traits, he or she must be willing to put in the effort to cultivate charisma and appeal.

We must surpass the opposition’s Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns, but we must never sacrifice principles or do anything illegal.

Every Conservative voter must be encouraged to share the Declaration and to convince friends and family who might not normally vote to get to the polls. This is ultimately a “managed” grass-roots campaign.

We must hold more, more, and even more Town Hall meetings. Big Government Liberals hate them.


Step 5: We must always be forward-thinking and anticipatory.

We must anticipate the attacks of our opponents. The first thing that will happen is that our message will be distorted. The second thing will be that our character will be disparaged. We must address the higher standard / double standard applied to conservatives. We must prepare for tangential slurs such as being labeled racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. We must accept our motives will be falsely represented (“They want to turn the US into a theocracy!”). We must have clear and concise rebuttals immediately at hand whenever such false accusations arise. We must accept, welcome, and recruit men and women of all ethnicity and orientations. This is political freedom movement; not a movement espousing any morality.