A post by Pat
It is all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.
—-George Bernard Shaw
I remember a Conservative Book Club ad from many years ago. The computer age was visible on the horizon but desktop computers were not yet commonplace. The Conservative Book Club proudly proclaimed in their ad they don’t use computers to handle their orders. Perhaps they thought it was quaint to know your order would be touched by human hands every step in the process. It struck me as a backward Luddite position bad enough in and of itself, made worse by bragging about their ignorance. To a young person orienting myself politically, it struck me as an attitude recommending against Conservatism as a smart choice.
There have been innumerable post-mortems of the election with a variety of opinions as to why McCain lost. A factor in the Democrats favor is that they were savvy about using the Internet for organizing and fundraising. In response to the Republican defeat, a group of Conservatives have established a website, Rebuild the Party offering a plan which is heavy on technology.
They present “A 10-point action plan to strengthen and modernize the Republican Partyâ€. In a three minute interview, Mindy Finn, co-founder of the website explains that the purpose of the website, beyond influencing the choice of the next RNC chairman, is to modernize the Republican Party and attract younger voters. (She points out that “younger†means anyone under 50. Very generous.)
The 10-point plan emphasizes changes in the infrastructure, creating an Internet community, grassroots organizing, a new fundraising model, and recruiting candidates—especially young candidates.
A “40 Under 40” initiative. Undoing the damage to our party’s brand among America’s youth will take more than new slogans and hip spokespeople. It will mean making young voters the face of the Republican Party, and not just another target group with its own bulleted list of “outreach” talking points. To that end, the next Chairman should commit to a simple goal: working towards a Republican Party where at least 40% of our challenger and open seat candidates for Congress are under 40. Such a party will send a signal to all Americans that the GOP is once again the party of the future.
I agree the Republican Party needs renewing and rejuvenating. I—who doesn’t qualify as young even under the website’s generous rules—am always encouraged to see young conservatives upholding the founding principles of individual liberty, small government and free enterprise.
The Republican Party became stodgy and a few things worse than that. The world has changed in many ways from the Cold War Era framework. The Conservative message has to be voiced through the clamor of a global economy, the confusion of generations bombarded with collectivist propaganda, and the circus of corporations lining up at the Treasury Department for billion dollar bailouts.
Conservatism is about maintaining enduring values in all times. In order to accomplish that we have to understand the times or the message makes no sense. People respond to practicality not philosophy.
Isn’t it funny that it was a 70-year-old President that generated excitement among young Republicans some 28 or so years ago (myself included), not some smiling 40 year old.
Republicans aren’t about candidates that look good on MTV the way the Democrats are (Ooh! He’s so youthful and handsome!) – we want a cohesive message and platform that is based in sensible fiscal conservatism. Why can’t the people that run the damn party figure that out?
“People respond to practicality not philosophy.” That’s it in a few words.
Take a lesson from “Tom Sawyer”. How did he get the job done? He attracted his pals into the effort for it’s own sake; not the aethetics of the whitewashed fence, not the rudiments of philosophy, but the practicality of sooner or later it will be a tougher job.
By the way, without any elitism, each brushing at the same pace, they became jealous of the task and each did a damn good job.
It is interesting to find this post on the heels of another discovery I made this morning. Fred Thompson has a PAC at fredpac.com. I went there after hearing a clip of a new video message he has released, this time regarding the economy. It is dripping with sarcastic humor while at the same time he delivers a good summary of our economic mess in his usual southern story-telling style. I recommend your checking it out.
While there, I also found an essay called, “Time to Look Ahead.” I opened it with some trepidation that it might be yet another example of the can’t-we-all-just-get-along mindset. Far from it. Much of the article echoes what Tammy and we have been saying about girding our loins for a fight. He minces no words.
Pat’s post is a hopeful sign for conservatism with a younger class. What I found at the Thompson website signaled to me some hope remaining in the more established class. Our greatest chance of success is for the new and the old to join together and return true conservative ideals to the front of the line. Whether that is wrought within or without the Republican Party “vessel” makes no difference to me.
One statement in Thompson’s article is that “responsible change is the essence of conservatism.” Or as a good friend said to me, “Conservatism transcends the moment, but the message has to be constantly renewed to show relevance to the times.” Amen. J
While advancing with technology is Vital to continuing to spread our message. The message as jeweytunes pointed out, may need renewal for people to understand the relevance to our times, but the message should still be Conservativism. Not some watered down version.
Thank you Shawmut, for the encouraging post; With the governor in CA whining about this state’s budget as I get ready to pay my CA property tax bill (the damn thing always come right after Thanksgiving and before Christmas), and no one wants to unburden some of the biggest expenses to the State of CA’s budget: hospitals and law enforcement exacerbated by the terrible border problem nothing being handled by the closet liberal actor Schwarzenegger (thank god the movement to change the Constitution of the US to embrace foreign born naturalized immigrants to run for POTUS never materialized….wave goodbye to Scwarzenegger)…perhaps Romney now having a property in La Jolla, will start writing and running for the State House, and follow the path that Ronald Reagan did, into the White House by taking hold of the terrible budget plight that the State of CA faces, as well as the United States; with all this uncontrolled spending it’s a recipe for stagflation all over again.
Tammy had that article (by ???) about riots and unrest in the next decade ahead; because people who have played on the side of paying as they went, are getting squeeezed by the expenses and overhead of running the expense of State government, and solutions imposed by government. I’m not wealthy at all and wonder just how the hell I’ll be able to take these yearly increases in property taxes, e.g., despite proposition 13 limitations…the damn things keep going up despite the absence of buyers who were responsible for the housing prices going up in the 2004-2007 spending era of government.
The little old lady across the street, can hardly afford her tax bill that she just got; I’ll have to give her a ride to the protests once they start in 2009.